The soul draws devotional strength from the devotional acts and language which are prompted by itself; like the rain that descends from the sky, but cannot continually be poured down to refresh the earth, unless new supplies are drawn up from earth to heaven. But "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." They must approach him, not as they would a gilded monument, or the tawdry trappings of earthly splendour-not as they would the greatest of created beings- but with a more just sense of his divine attributes. They must humble themselves under his almighty hand. They must submit themselves to his supreme will. They must love his perfect goodness. They must adore him with all the fervour and devotion of the soul. They must serve him with purity, steadfastness and sincerity of heart. Could their conceptions comprehend his properties- could they assimilate him to any thing-could he be divested of the mysterious and awful,

that confounds and transcends their faculties, he were no longer the Lord.

They are indeed obliged sometimes to speak of him and his actions, as they do of the properties and motions of men's bodies, because they have no other means of expressing, what ought to be made. known concerning him. The Scriptures themselves speak of his eyes, ears, face, hands and feet, as if he were like one of us. They say that he is angry, and has regard, and pleasure, and in this very commandment, that he is jealous, as if he were moved with the same passions and affections, as the creatures of his hand. But, alas! my brethren, all this only serves to prove the immeasurable distance between him and us-how incomprehensible he is to our intelligencehow far out of the reach of all we can imagine, or describe, or talk about. God has no hands, or feet, or parts, or passions, such as we have. But our thoughts and speech cannot elevate themselves above our own nature. It is our infirmity, that

we must speak of the Almighty in terms applicable to his material creatures. And that very infirmity, that inability to raise our thoughts higher, and that proneness to fix our affections on sensible objects, is the very foundation of our danger in making a graven image to represent God.

"For the Lord thy God is a jealous God:" jealous, not for himself, but for his spouse the Church: lest our conceptions of his attributes should be debased: lest our conceptions of the duties we owe him, should be depraved: lest our minds should be clouded with superstitious horrors; and we should fall into the wretchedness and despair of those who know not the Lord. Except in his love to the creatures of his hand, it is of little import to him, how we serve him, or whom we serve. Of what avail to the Most High is the worship of this worm of earth? What matters it to the Almighty, whether we spread out our impotent arms to the Eternal Spirit, or to a clod of his lumpish matter! What honour can the

everlasting God derive from the existences. that hang upon his breath-what gratification, except the gratification of his mercy and goodness, in seeing them saved! Our follies can little injure him; but our devotions will not elevate the soul, unless they are offered to higher beings than ourselves: our prayers will not purify an affection, or soften the hard heart, unless they are addressed to purity and love the spirit of man will not obtain communion with the spirit of God by bending his knee to the work of men's hands. And debased notions of the divine being and attributes will degrade us, and our children, and our children's children. The superstitions and prejudices of the father descend to the third and fourth generation of them that hate God. They are handed on from parent to child. They are imbibed in the very cradle, and with the first nourishment of infancy cherished in a mother's bosom. And ages pass away, before one has penetration to discover, and courage to shake off the delusions and depravity of his sires.

Thus God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children. But he will shew mercy unto thousands in them that love him, and keep his commandments. To have, or to prompt base conceptions of the Almighty, is here compared to hatred of him to conceive, or to propose worthy notions of his attributes, is to love him. Man made after the image of God, pursues the pleasures of the world, and sighs for mortal loveliness: what is perishable gains full possession of his heart: what will disappoint his hopes, or elude his grasp, or pall upon his sated appetite, or disgust him wearied with enjoyment, or wither, and decay, and die in his very hand, yet absorbs all his regards, and engages every energy of his life. And this too often is, because he does not really know any thing better, or more worthy to be loved. He has not a conception of the beauty of holiness. He has never formed an idea of the divine goodness. He has no object of pursuit or imitation in heaven. He has never turned a thought to the nature of God. If he