created them, it is his Spirit alone that can restore them; that the fame Breath of Life, with which they were first animated, must be rekindled, the fame power that created muft renew their degenerate natures. "Thou hideft thy

66

face, they are troubled: thou takest

away their breath, they die, and re"turn to their duft: thou fendeft forth

thy Spirit, they are created; and thou "reneweft the face of the earth!"

Though these words may appear to be more immediately applicable to the prefent ftate of the natural world; yet, if we attend to the scope and design of the illuminated author, we fhall find them, as I have already obferved of the whole Pfalm, beautifully expreffive of the Divine Agency in the fpiritual world. I fhall, therefore, confider them as a lively reprefentation of the death and revival of our fpiritual nature, manifested in our fall in Adam, and our Redemption

1

in JESUS CHRIST. And as this truth will be beft illuftrated by an exemplification of the two oppofite ftates of nature and grace, I fhall attempt to draw the character of man, firft, in his unregenerate, and fecondly, in his regenerate ftate. In order to this, I beg leave to premife, that, by the unregenerate, I mean all thofe, who live and act under the influence of that evil nature, which they inherit from Adam; and by the regenerate, thofe of every age and nation, of every religion, fect or opinion, who have fought and found a better nature, derived to them from the "Second "Adam, the LORD from Heaven," by virtue of which, they are enabled to relinquish and fubdue all the attractions, temptations, and powerful fuggeftions of their fallen life. From the first of these, as my text expreffes it, GOD may be faid to "hide his face," in confequence of which, they are troubled, they "die, and return to their duft." To

the

the last, "he fendeth forth his Spirit,

by which they are created anew;" and through them the "face of the earth " is renewed."

I. A very little acquaintance with mankind is fufficient to inform us of the false happiness and real mifery of thofe, who live "without hope, and "without GOD in the world;" that is to fay, without the fweet hope of an higher and better life than this, and without that Participation of the Divine Nature, which alone can exalt them to fuch a life. Fading and delusive joys, permanent and fubftantial woes, are the fad but fure ingredients of the finner's life. He dwells in the depth of darkness, and can have no true light, because GOD "hideth his Face from him." "The Light of God's countenance,' is the only true light in the universe; the light in which the finner lives, is a false glare, that injures rather than affists

his fight, and clothes the objects around him with deceitful colours.

"He is troubled" too. too. Object after object, pleasure after pleasure, folicit his fond purfuit: fatiety and disgust, vexation and disappointment are sure to fucceed. Every earthly joy, of profpect never so fair, withers in the bud; and the cup of pleasure, in the very draught, is changed into a cup of bitterness.

But he is not only "troubled" in this life, but "he muft die, and turn "again to his duft." Thefe expreffions may be confidered in a two-fold fenfe, viz. as relating not only to the temporal, but to the fpiritual, death of the unregenerate. With refpect to the former, the diffolution of his animal nature puts an end to thofe earthly joys, in which alone his defires and delight were placed. The lifeless mafs is committed to its kindred duft, and the grave VOL. II. clofes

I

closes the scene of worldly vanity. But the immortal spirit, which no death will ever be able to extinguish, now removed from its temporary manfion of earth, and separated from the tranfient influences of the fun and air of this world, falls into the first forms of its nature, and being unacquainted with the Light and Love of God, mingles with its congenial element of darkness and fiery wrath. Thus he dies to a bad nature, and lives again to a worse: he exchanges the life of a beaft, for that of a devil; and a mixed ftate of good and evil, for a state of unmingled wretchedness and woe.

The word, death, however, is of a far more extensive fignification. It does not merely denote the feparation of the foul from this outward body; neither can it be the total extinction of being, but only a change of the mode or state of being. Thus the finner, as I have already obferved, dies to one ftate, and lives to another.