brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."" God enlightens the understanding by his word and Spirit, and produces a new creation, bringing order out of confusion, and beauty out of deformity, and raising those to life who had been spiritually dead. "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts," saith the Apostle Paul, "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."" Again he saith to the Ephesians, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

Thus we perceive that this spiritual renovation of the soul is a divine work, and requires the exertion of an almighty power. Yet in effecting this great work, God is pleased to make use of various instruments, and we are encouraged to seek it of him by diligent prayer, and fervent supplication. Then he says,

And renew a right spirit within me. While we go astray from the commands of God, we are under the influence of a wrong spirit, a spirit of apostacy and rebellion, a spirit of perverseness and selfishness, a spirit of pride and daring presumption, a spirit of ungodliness and Ephes. ii. 1.

m 1 Pet. i. 22. n 2 Cor. iv. 6.

profane levity. David here prays for a right spirit, or rather for a constant spirit, a spirit of integrity and uprightness, in choosing that which is pleasing unto God, and in firmly adhering to his worship and service. In this sense, it is here opposed to a vain and trifling spirit, to that fickleness and wavering uncertainty which cause a man to be unstable in all his ways." This right, constant spirit, is necessarily attendant on a clean heart, though it is, in some measure, an enlargement of that new principle which God creates in the breasts of his people. A right spirit is sincere in its aims, and constant in its endeavours; it is properly directed by the word of God, and is fitly disposed to pursue the path of righteousness and peace. It is firm in the midst of dangers, and resolute when opposed by enemies, and pure in its desires and purposes, and elevated in its views and principles.

This right spirit also comes from the renovating hand of the Almighty Creator. If our hearts and spirits are rightly disposed to seek eternal life, we must acknowledge it as a gift; if we are sincerely desirous to "walk in all his ordinances and commandments blameless;" if we pray that "our heart may be sound in his

P Luke i. 6.

statutes, ," and that we may "be stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord;"---we owe this to his renewing grace. And we may derive comfort from his promise that he will renew this right, this constant spirit in all those who carefully seek it of him by earnest prayer.

Then he says, in the Eleventh Verse, Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. The real penitent dreads nothing so much as being cast away from the presence of God, together with the loss of that divine Spirit who is the comforter and guide of all God's faithful servants. If he has once "tasted that the Lord is gracious;" if he has ever walked in the light of his reconciled countenance; if he has known that "peace of God which passeth all understanding;" then he bitterly mourns under the loss of these privileges, when he knows that he has fallen by his transgressions, and finds by sorrowful experience that God has banished him from his presence, and has taken from him the light and joy of his Holy Spirit. He knows that his presence causes heaven, and that the withdrawing of his favor produces a kind of hell. When he departs from God by sinning, he quickly r 1 Cor. xv. 58. s Phil. iv. 7.

9 Psal. cxix. 80.

finds himself deserted and forsaken; he walks as under the darkness of a stormy cloud; he wanders out of the way, and knows of no place of refuge and comfort. His soul becomes alarmed, and he is anxious to return in humble penitence to his heavenly Father; he cries in deep distress of soul, Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Nothing can satisfy and comfort his soul but a sense of God's favor and loving kindness. The Spirit of holiness is the Spirit of comfort. The new creation of the soul in righteousness and purity, is represented in the Scriptures as the peculiar office of the Spirit of God, the third person in the glorious Trinity; as the work of atonement is the great undertaking of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, in human nature, the only "Mediator between God and men." As the divine Spirit, at the beginning of the world, moved upon the face of the waters," and reduced the chaotic mass to order and beauty; so he again moves over the moral world, and renews the souls of men in truth and holiness; he raises them from their fallen condition; he communicates a heavenly light; he implants in them a principle of life and godliness; he restores the image of the ever blessed God; and confirms them with the hope of eternal glory.

t

t1 Tim. ii. 5. u Gen. i. 2.

The Psalmist proceeds to say, in the Twelfth Verse, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. By a short enjoyment of the pleasures of sin, he had deeply involved himself in guilt and wretchedness; he had lost the joy of that salvation which he once received in the worship of God. Instead of that sweet sense of divine things which he had so frequently tasted in caves and deserts, when he was driven by Saul from his native land; he now tasted of the bitter fruits of his great transgressions, and was compelled to drink deeply out of the cup of sorrow. He is made sensible of his utter weakness and insufficiency, and he desires the joy of that saving health, which is altogether necessary to support his soul. "The joy of the Lord is," indeed, "the strength of his people ;" and if he withdraws his saving hand, his consoling Spirit, they soon become week and feeble like other men.

Then he prays; Uphold me with thy free Spirit. It appears from other parts of the sacred volume, that is the prerogative of the Spirit of God to give liberty to the soul: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is," saith Saint Paul, there is liberty."" The Spirit of God is free in his communications, and is the author

* Neh. viii, 10. y 2 Cor. iii. 17.