versal experience. In every renewed person there are two moral qualities, of different origin, constitution, and tendency. Thus testifies our Lord: "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.' In allusion to the contrariety between them, the apostle observes: "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." And in another place: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not." So also in the well-known passage in the following chapter: "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."§ Seeing, then, we cannot perform the service required by both, observe, Secondly. The propriety of giving to God the preference. There are many considerations in favour of this. Remember which has the first claim upon your service. Who made you? Who has preserved you? Who redeemed you? Hath not your Creator, Benefactor, and Redeemer, the most absolute demand on your devotedness and praise? Is it not fit that He in whom we live, and by whom we have been delivered from eternal destruction, should have our gratitude? And does not the Scripture require us "to love him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our * John iii. 6. + Gal. v. 17. Rom. vii. 18. § viii. 5-8. mind?"* Moreover, consider the relative character of the service. What is that which "mammon" asks? The merest drudgery, and basest servitude, which can ever disgrace and degrade a rational creature? What is its wages? Death, "eternal death!" And yet this is the master men will serve, and the reward they covet! But what is the service of God? It is freedom and peace; it is honourable and beneficial. And what is its issue? "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour."+ This, then, is the conclusion : -You cannot comply with the opposite demands of both; you cannot reconcile their conflicting interests; you cannot drink of pure felicity in the pursuits of mammon, or in the vain attempt to blend them with the homage you owe your God; you cannot serve either if you endeavour to serve both; you cannot obey mammon, but with pain, sorrow, and final perdition: or the Sovereign Potentate of the universe, but you will receive peace, safety, and salvation; away then, let mammon go, "and consecrate your service this day unto the Lord." IV. IMPROVEMENT. From the review of the subject now considered, let us observe, in First. The infinite importance of having singleness of heart in matters of religion. As the natural eye regulates the movements of the body, so the heart is the main-spring every thing relative to the soul. Do you, therefore, ask, in what this disposition of mind consists? I reply, in prime attention to the concerns of eternity. You will see it in David: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple." In Mary: of whom it is said by the highest authority, "she hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her." In Paul: "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This includes decision of judgment; light shining into the mind; honesty of intention and aim, as opposed to all doubledealing and selfishness; unwearied pursuit of the right object, however reproached by the world, and discouraged by the want of success. If these are our principles and designs, all will be right. "The whole body will be full of light." We shall look with the eye of faith beyond this transitory scene; we shall contemplate the glories of the eternal world; we shall see the land that is very far off rising to our delighted view; we shall shrink from every thing contrary to the will of God, and unworthy our high professions; we shall feel ourselves to be the spiritual offspring of the Most High; our bosoms will glow with love to man for his sake; and we shall labour to be the means of removing the moral and temporal maladies of the human family, from a sense of his love, who is love itself. On the other hand, if our motives are sinister, and our hearts carnal, both the present and the future will be continued and unmingled darkness. We shall, in that case, be useless, perhaps worse than useless, to others; miserable within ourselves, and offensive to Him, by whom "actions are weighed." Secondly. How necessary to examine our hearts, that we might know whom we serve. Numerous reasons might be adduced to demonstrate this observation. I can only mention a few. These are the danger of deceiving ourselves the impossibility of dividing our service between God and the world-the self-partiality which we are so apt to cherish-and the necessity of coming to a decision on the great interests of the soul. Whom, then, do you serve? There are other gods besides mammon, whose service is equally incompatible with that of Jehovah. Some worship at the shrine of Bacchus-such are the devotees to intemperance. Others bow down before the goddess, Venus-such are the slaves of lust. And others are self-idolators-applause is their god, and the smile of the world their reward! "Where fore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Finally. What an awful idea the subject gives us of worldly-minded possessors! If the doctrine of the text be true, what will become of all those persons who "put their hand to the plough" from secular motives; or who, while they are wearing the mask of piety, are nevertheless longing for the riches and pleasures of the world; or like the Israelites, "looking back," with strong desire for the sensual pleasures of Egypt. This was the dreadful charge which was brought by Ezekiel against some of old: "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness." Come away, my brethren, from such a course; renounce every species of dissimulation; let it be your's to seek the image, the favour, and the love of God, through the redemption which is by Christ; to pursue and esteem the blessings of Providence as they conduce to your * 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. + Ezek. xxxiii. 31. |