crowneth! hypocrites regard nothing but show, God nothing but truth.

The matter of so goodly a frame strives with the proportion, which of them shall most excel: here was nothing but white marble without, nothing but cedar and gold within. No base thing goes to the making up of God's house. If Satan may have a dwelling, he cares not though he patch it up of the rubbish of stone, or rotten sticks, or dross of metals: God will admit of nothing but what is pure and of real value: his church consists of none but the faithful, his habitation is in no heart but the gracious.

The fashion was no other than that of the tabernacle ; only this was more costly, more large, more fixed: God was the same that dwelt in both; he varied not: the same mystery was in both. But wherefore do we bend our eyes on stone, wood, and metals? God would never have taken pleasure in these dead materials for their own sakes, if they had not had a farther intent. Methinks I see four temples in this one. It is but one in matter, as the God that dwells in it is but one; three yet more in resemblance, according to the division of those in whom it pleases God to inhabit: for wherever God dwells, there is his temple. O God, thou vouchsafest to dwell in the believing heart. This of stone, though most rich and costly, yet what is it to the living temple of the Holy Ghost, which is our body? But what is the temple of this body of ours, to the temple of Christ's body, which is his church? and what is the temple of God's church on earth, to that which triumphs gloriously in heaven?

How easily do we see all these in this one visible temple! and as it had three distinctions of rooms, the porch, the holy place, the holy of holies, so each of them has a spiritual reference in the porch we find the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the church; in the holy place, the communion of the true visible church on earth, selected from the world; in the holy of holies, whereinto the high priest entered once a year, the glorious heaven, into which our true High Priest, Christ Jesus, entered once for all, to make an atonement betwixt God and man. In matter, all was here of the best: the wood was precious, sweet, lasting; the stone beautiful, costly, insensible of age; the gold pure and glittering: so are the graces of God's children,

excellent in their nature, dear in their acceptation, eternal in their use so are the ordinances of God in his church, holy, comfortable, irrefragable: so is the perfection of his glorified saints, incomparable, inconceivable.

In situation; the outer parts were here more common, the inner more holy, and peculiarly reserved. It is thus in every renewed man, the individual temple of God: the outward bodily parts are allowed to be common to God and the world; the most inward and secret, which is the heart, is reserved only for the God that made it. It is thus in the visible church: the false and foul-hearted hypocrite hath access to the holy ordinances of God, and treads in his courts; only the true Christian hath entire and private conversation with the Holy One of Israel; he only is admitted into the holy of holies, and enters within the glorious vail of heaven.

If from the walls we look to the furniture; what is the altar whereon our sacrifices of prayer and praises are offered to the Almighty, but a contrite heart? What the golden candlesticks, but the illumined understanding, wherein the light of the knowledge of God and his Divine will, shines for ever? What the tables of show-bread, but the sanctified memory, which keeps the bread of life continually? Yea, if we shall presume so far as to enter into the very closet of God's oracle; even there, O God, do we find our unworthy hearts so honoured by thee, that they are made thy very ark, wherein thy royal law and the pot of thy heavenly manna are kept for ever; and from whose mercy-seat, shaded with the wings of thy glorious angels, thou givest the gracious testimonies of thy good Spirit, witnessing with ours, that we are the children of the living God.

Behold, if Solomon built a temple unto thee, thou hast built a temple unto thyself in us: we are not only, through thy grace, living stones in thy temple, but living temples in thy Sion. O, do Thou ever dwell in this thine house, and in this thine house let us ever serve thee! Wheresoever thou art, O God, thou art worthy of adoration: since thou ever wilt dwell in us, be thou ever worshipped in us. Let the altars of our clean hearts send up ever to thee the sweetest perfumed smokes of our holy meditations, and faithful prayers, and cheerful thanksgivings. Let the pure lights

of our faith and godly conversation shine ever before thee and men, and never be put out. Let the bread of life stand ever ready on the pure and precious tables of our hearts. Lock up thy law and thy manna within us, and speak comfortably to us from thy mercy-seat. Suffer nothing to enter in hither that is unclean: sanctify us unto thyself, and be thou sanctified in us. From Bp. Hall.

"I HAVE NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT RELIGION."

SUCH is the apology which is often made for neglecting the care of the soul, and it is possible that such is the language of the reader of this paper; and yet, probably while you thus speak, you can find time for almost every thing else; for you never sit down with folded hands, nor eat the bread of idleness. To procure a supply for your temporal wants, you rise early and sit up late; and when affliction rests upon your person, and you are prevented from attending on the ordinary pursuits of business, you allow yourself time for employing suitable means for the recovery of your health, you find time to see your friends occasionally when they are well, and you do not fail to visit them when they are sick. On what account, therefore, is it you imagine you have no time to think about religion? It is not improbable you have taken up this opinion for the want of being better informed respecting the nature of true religion. Religion, you have taken for granted, consists in an attendance upon a variety of external duties and observances. But the fact is, that while it is strengthened and increased by a diligent attention on the means of grace, religion is itself a principle of life in the soul; the Scriptures represent it as the hidden man of the heart," and as "the kingdom of God within us." It includes the knowledge of God, and reconciliation to him, our offended Maker, through faith in the atonement of his Son. True religion also includes an earnest desire and endeavour to become acquainted with the will of God, and to be conformed to his image; for it is one great excellence of the gospel, that while it reveals a perfect righteousness whereby our persons may be justified, it also discovers to us, an all-sufficient supply of grace to help in time of need. Through the power of this grace we shall find that men of high rank and station,

whose public engagements require a great part of their time; as well as those who have moved in the humbler walks of life, have yet been enabled to give the most decided proofs of an exalted piety. This was the case with David, the king of Israel, and with Daniel, the prime minister of a prince who was at the head of an hundred and twenty provinces. We read also in 2 Kings v. of a little Jewish maid, that had been taken a captive into Syria, and waited on the wife of Naaman, a principal officer in the army, who not only maintained her profession of religion, in an idolatrous family, but who, by directing the attention of her master to the prophet Elisha, became instrumental in the cure of his leprosy, and his turning from idols to serve the living and true God. Besides, the reader ought to be apprised that the plea, "I have no time to think about religion," is not one which will justify his neglect of the care of the soul; for the Scriptures do not allow such an unremitted attention to the concerns of this world, as will render it impossible for us to pay a supreme regard to the infinitely superior concerns of the world to come; nor is much time indispensably necessary for the right understanding, and cordial reception of the great truths of the gospel. As the Bible is intended for persons of every capacity, and in various occupations of life, its important discoveries are revealed with great plainness, and wayfaring men, though fools, will not err therein.

Even if your time on the six days of the week is, for the most part, necessarily employed in providing a maintenance for yourself and your family, still God has given you the sabbath, for the express purpose of your attending to the care of the soul. That holy day furnishes you with repeated opportunities of reading the Scriptures, and praying to God in your own houses; and likewise of frequenting the public worship of the sanctuary. In our highly favoured country, there is much on the sabbath to remind you of religion. Usually the noise of business is hushed; the shops are closed, and the doors of the Lord's house are opened to receive and welcome you. This is the day graciously vouchsafed by God, for seeking and obtaining that instruction in the doctrines and precepts of the gospel, which may be useful to you in the successive days of the week. This day many religious advantages are afforded to you

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which have not been bestowed on many thousands of your fellow men in distant countries, yet numbers of the heathen find time to think upon religion, though it is a false one. Nay, they act and labour, as well as think about religion; for, in the hope of appeasing the wrath of their offended gods, and of pacifying the accusations of a guilty conscience, they undertake wearisome and painful journeys, and offer the most costly and expensive sacrifices. And it will be found, my reader, on examination, that the excuse of having no time to think about religion, is an objection of the heart to the great concerns of religion, rather than of the peculiar circumstances in which you are placed, and that it is in effect saying, "I have no inclination to love and serve the God who made me, nor to seek an interest in the Saviour who bled and died for me." This futile and vain apology ought to be renounced without hesitation and delay; for so long as it is retained, it will have a very injurious influence upon the mind. Labouring under such a bias, if at any time you were at all suitably affected, by the reading of the Scriptures, or the preaching of the gospel; or if you became impressed with the importance of Divine things by the great alteration which had taken place in the opinion and conduct of some beloved friend, or the admonition and warning of a dying relation, still the long-cherished sentiment," I have no time to think about religion," would hush every rising fear, and suppress every holy desire.

It is also of the utmost consequence, that you should pay attention to religion in early life; for in many instances in which it has been long neglected, a want of desire for spiritual blessings has ended in aversion to the Almighty, and contempt of his ways. When such persons have retired from the cares and anxieties of business, and leisure has been afforded to them for reflection, that leisure has been spent only in vain diversions and amusements.

Reader, you must find time to sicken and to die, and while you are invited to partake freely of all the blessings of the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, you ought to consider that heaven will not be forced upon you; but that at the awful hour of death you will go to the place for which you are prepared. At that solemn period, there will be a requital of the manner in which you have treated God and the messages of his grace. If in this life you have