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 rich store of moral and spiritual excellences; these are the free gifts of God, they were formed and created by Him, for the purpose of blessing and promoting the eternal happiness of all men. Before the work of regeneration is commenced, all the affections of the will are bent downwards towards the earth, and by selfish and worldly loves the ends and desires of man are defiled, and this defilement shuts in, and, as it were, absorbs the purer love of God, and of his kingdom; and thus, instead of being a likeness of God, he is a likeness of all that is spiritually unclean and filthy. When the will is thus debased, the understanding is dark and treacherous, favouring all the evil suggestions of the impure will, and finding out new schemes of folly, by which such impure affections and desires may be gratified. The understanding, when in a state of darkness respecting divine things, is exceedingly treacherous, for it views all subjects from an impure state of the will, giving those things only a favourable reception which accord with the unclean state of his love and desire. Everything is seen, not with the eyes lifted up, but in an inverted order—darkness is called light, and light darkness; thus the eyes, instead of being lifted up to look upon the things of heaven and eternal life, are bent downwards to view the things of time and sense.

Not so with the true disciple of Jesus Christ, who is perpetually going forward in the Divine life. In him the work of regeneration is always going on—he is constantly, by the Divine operation or spirit, being created anew—his ends, purposes, and desires, regard eternal things in the first place; and the supreme love of the Lord above all things, is his sole guide and