pursuits and the interests, the low desires and the high possibilities, the unspeakable offers and the incorrigible blindness?

Our Saviour and his Apostle, in their classification of sins, frequently bring together such as appear to us to have a wide dispariBut in our lapsed humanity, sense, in op- ty. Emulation' is classed with strife,' position to faith, is too frequently the dicta-variances' with idolatry,' revelling' with tor. If we see through a glass, and that murder.' Those who mind earthly things' darkly, it is because the medium is clouded are coupled with those whose end is desby the breath of sensuality. Appetite is the truction' In enumerating the offences arbitrary power which renders every appeal which shall make his second coming so treto reason and religion fruitless. The pleas-mendously awful, Christ ranks the being ures of the present life have matter and sub- overcharged with the cares of this life' stance, and we act as if those of heaven were cares which we are apt to call prudence and dreams and visions. Self-love errs only in industry-with sins, of which Christian inmistaking its objects, in putting the brief dis-dustry and prudence would think with abcipline which we are called to exercise here horrence.

on a level with eternal suffering; it mistakes If the apology we make is, that we are in fastening itself on the lower part of our governed by example, if we plead the necesnature, and forgetting that our souls are our-sity of acting as others, especially as our selves.

acquaintance act, we intrench ourselves in But surely God did not give his creatures excuses which have no analogy with our such improvable powers, such strong noti- conduct on other occasions. We are never ces of himself, without some farther end and so disinterested as to think of being sick, or design than can be perfected in this brief poor, or miserable for company. We never state of being! He never would have given generously plead the necessity of involving us a nature capable of knowing and loving ourselves in debt, because our friends are so him here, if it were not part of his scheme involved-of being ruined, because those that our knowledge and love of him should whom we love are ruined. Shall sympathy, be perfected in eternity. We are not the civility, imitation, and a social spirit, then, creatures of casualty. We did not come be pleaded only on occasion of mischiefs that into this world by chance, or by mistake, for any uncertain end, or any undetermined purpose, but for a purpose of which we should never lose sight, for an end to which we should have a constant reference; that we might bring glory to God now, and be received by his grace to glory everlasting.

are irrevocable, reserved for errors that are irretrievable, for practices, the consequences of which will be irremediable?

It is a low degree in the scale of goodness with which they are contented, who congratulate themselves that they are not worse than others, and a death-blow to the noble For though all the contributions of all the ambition of piety when they are contented creatures in existence can add nothing to not to be better. If, indeed, they think they his inherent glory, yet he has condescended are perfectly happy now, they need look no to declare that he will be glorified by us.- farther. But before they answer this imInstead of which, what mishappen ideas do portant question, are you happy? let them not many form of God! How do they de-interrogate their own heart. If they ask it face the plan of Providence! Were that fairly, it will answer honestly, I am not hapcommodious creed true, that mercy is his py. Happiness is incompatible with the exclusive attribute, how safely might we sin on; the profligate would be as secure of pardon and acceptance as the penitent, the profane as the pious, the voluptuous as the self denying, the sceptic as the believer, the lovers of pleasure as the lovers of God.

state of their minds, with the nature of their pursuits. The very fondness for variety proceeds from an internal sense of indigence. They are satiated without being satisfied.— The ever-renewed and ever-frustrated attempts of the fabled daughters of Danaus, Instead of endeavouring to be conformed whose labour, a pagan poet tells us, was into the image of God,' according to his ex-finite, and their punishment eternal, is the press command, do not too many thus form disappointing life and lot of these mistaken a God after their own image, by thinking votaries of worldly enjoyment. The prophet him such a one as themselves? Do they annexes to somewhat of the same discournot almost slide into the practice of the Epi-aging pursuit, an awful explanatory reason, cureans, who, having made a scheme of ease, when he represents the error of those who indolence, and indulgence, for their conduct, hew out broken cisterns which hold no waprudently invented gods accommodated to ter,' to have originated in their forsaking their own taste and habits? In them there the fountain of living waters.' was consistency. It was making their faith But even the most careless livers have of a piece with their practice, when they not lost the natural sense of the moral qualimade their deities as careless, as sensual, ty of actions. They can reason upon them; and as pleasure-loving as themselves. But surely under a pure dispensation, to form a false and unworthy estimate of the character of the Supreme Governor of the universe, is scarcely less criminal than to deny his existence. Where is the difference between divesting him of his being, and of his perfections?

they understand the rules they violate; they retain the perception of excellence; they preserve the feeling of kindness; they had rather be the objects of regard than dislike, if it could be acquired at a cheaper rate, than that of forming their conduct by the principles they approve. They wish they were better, while they make no effort to

your prospects. Deliberation is valuable, were it only on this ground, that while you are deliberating, there is an intermission of passion, there is an interval of appetite: as these intermit, better feelings have time to rally, better thoughts to come forward, better principles to struggle for operation.

wards being other than they are. Their ve- an evil by trying to become insensible to it. ry wish for amendment is so cold, so care- To divert the attention in order to stupify the less, and so slight, that it wants all the char-conscience, is almost imitating the malefacacters of repentance, all the energies of tor about to be executed, who swallows corresolution, all the sincerity of reformation. dials. which, if they allay his terrors, do so While we sometimes hear from these per-only by deadening his sensibility. Take, sons, in addition to this wish, a general de- then, a distinct view of your state, and of claration, that they hope they shall mend, we seldom see any step taken in consequence of this profession; on the contrary, they are quieted for the time; they take a sort of heartless comfort in this better taste; they flatter themselves it is a proof they love virtue, though they neglect it. But they do not act thus in what truly interests them. If there is a scheme of amusement in view, the time is accurately settled, the party nicely adjusted, their punctuality is exact, there is neither delay nor excuse. It is only on matters of everlasting interest that they beg leave to postpone, what they would not be thought to reject. Among all the countless generations of frail and fallen humanity, incomparably the most numerous community, is the sect of Postponers. If, as some old divine quaintly observes, hell is paved with good intentions,' may we not say, that the postponers, of which multitudes are found in all ages, and in all churches, are the class that has contributed the greatest number of squares to the tesselated pavement. It is not an inconsistency common to every member of this sect, to wish that the portion of his life which is gone by had been spent in virtue, while this wish is too feeble to stimulate his future days to those pursuits in which he laments the past were not spent?

You do not act thus inconsistently by any necessity of nature; depraved as the will is, in common with our other faculties, it does not necessarily rob you of the power of determining; it does not take from you the ability of imploring the strength you want. To chuse the good, and to refuse the evil, is yet left to your option. Why do the Scriptures makes such repeated and solemn appeals to the will. if its agency were so utterly involuntary? On this will there is no irresistible compulsion. On the supposition that this were not the case, all human laws would be unreasonable. all courts of judicature not only unjust but preposterous: all legal executions absurd as well as inhuman; for would it not be barbarous to punish crimes which the perpetrator was not left at liberty to avoid? In this case Ravaillac would have been guiltless, and Bellingham excusable.

Nor is it your reason which dissuades you from religion. If you would consult its sound and sober dictates, it would point to religion as naturally as the eve points to the object it would investigate, as the needle to its attracting point. It is not your reason but your corruptions which turn away your heart from religion, because it tells you that something is to be done in opposition to their sway, something to be opposed contrary to their nature, something to be renounced congenial with their gratification.

If with hearts naturally inclined to evil (as what heart is not?) and in a world abounding with temptation, you have strayed widely from the strait path, you are not compelled to pursue it. We need continue in sin no longer than we love it Close not then your heart against that grace which is offered to all; it will perfect the work it has once begun, if we do not wilfully oppose its operations. Let us not theref re lay all the blame on our natural conceptions, as if we were compelled to sink under them. They will, indeed, continue to impede our progress, but unless aided by our inclination, they will not finally obstruct it. But wilfully to sin on, and yet expect pardon through the merits of our Redeemer, looks like an impious plot to blind the eyes of Omniscience, and to tie the hands of Omnipotence. We shall always have this infallible criterion by which to judge of our state; we may be assured that our sins are not forgiven, if they are not mortified. We need not pry into our destination in the inscrutable decrees of the Almighty, but in our own rectified affections, our own subdued will. Let us never remit our diligence by any persuasion of our security, nor slacken our obedience by any fond conceit that our names are written in heaven

But alas! the soul is full of the body, the intellect is steeped in sense. The spiritual life is immersed in the animal. Reason and appetite, instead of keeping their distinct natures, are in many instances so mixed and incorporated, that it is not always easy to decompose and reduce them to their separate principles. It is in want of cordial sincerity which prevents truth from being sought, and where she is not sought, she will not be found. Internal purity of heart. and sanctity of spirit, afford a fairer exhibition of religion, than the most subtle dogmas, and the most zealous debates.

If we seek peace in God, we shall never fail of finding it; if we look for it in the world, it is to look for a clear stream from a polluted source. We have a spirit within us that will occasionally, though unbidden, remind us of our high original, from what height fallen.' How widely have we wandered in search of the good we have lost! We have sought for it in the tumults of ambition, in the pleasures of voluptuousness, in the misleadings of flattery, in our own high imaginations, in the self-gratulations of pridė, It is a fatal mistake to expect to get rid of in the secret indulgence of that vanity,

which, probably, it has been one part of our pride not to cure but to conceal. Let us begin to seek for it where alone it is to be found, where alone God has promised it-in the way' which he has opened, in the 'truth' which he has revealed, and in the 'life' which he has quickened.

Do not, then, any longer make religion an incidental item in your scheme of life. Do not turn over the consideration of it to chance; make it a part of your daily plan; take it up as a set business; give it an allotted portion in the distribution of your daily concerns, while you admit it as the pervading principle of them all. You carry on no other transaction casually; you do not conduct your profession or manage your estate by fits and starts. You do not expect your secular business will go on well without minding it. You set about it intently; you transact it with a fixed design; you consider it as a definite object. You would not be satisfied with it, if it brought you no return, still less would you be satisfied not to know whether it brought any return or not. Yet you are contented as to this great business of life, though you perceive no evidence of its progress. You see no absurdity in a religious profession which leaves you as indigent as it found you. Does it not look as if your sincerity, in one case, did not keep pace with your earnestness in the other; as if your religion was a shadow, and your secular concerns were the only reality?

It is not a new scheme which is promised to you; it is not an imaginary project, an untried device. There is nothing unreasonable in the hope held out; no elevation in piety but what with the offered aid is attainable; nothing but what multitudes have attained; not merely prophets and saints and holy men, but persons whose cases were as unpromising as yours; men labouring under the same corruptions; disturbed by the same passions, assailed by the same trials, drawn aside by the same temptations, exposed to the same dangerous world; long led astray by its customs, long enslaved by its maxims. The same grace which rescued them is offered to you. The same spirit which struggled with their hearts is, perhaps, while you are reading these feeble lines, striving with yours. Resist not the impulse. Complete the assimilation. Let not the resemblance be more imperfect in its fairer features than in its more deformed. Imitate their noble resolution. Recollect the glorious promise made, to him that overcometh.' The same power which delivered them waits to deliver you. The ten thousand times ten thousand who now stand before the throne, were not innocent, but penitent— not guiltless men, but redeemed sinners. The same God waits to be gracious. The same Saviour intercedes. The same spirit invites. The same heaven is open Plead that gracious nature, implore that divine intercessor, invoke that blessed spirit. Say not it is too late. Early and late are relative, not positive terms. While the door is yet open there is no hour of marked exclusion. So may an inheritance among the saints in light still be yours.

CHAP. XXII.

Reflections of an inconsistent Christian after a serious perusal of the Bible.

Begin then to be distinct in your purposes, explicit in your designs, sincere in your pursuits. You profess to read the Scriptures occasionally; if the perusal has hitherto produced no sensible effect, this is only an additional motive for making the incidental practice habitual. Do not intermit it under pretence that it has produced no benefit. It is a great thing to keep within the use of God's appointed means. If you had not some pleasure in even a casual perusal, you would avoid it altogether. The blessing which has been so long delayed perhaps has not been I PROFESS to believe that Christianity is cordially requested; when earnestly desired, true Its promises are high; but what have it will not be finally withheld. Light pre. been its profits? It is time to inquire into its cedes warmth in the daily course of nature. truth and its advantages. It never, indeed, Begin then to consider that knowledge not pledged itself to confer honours or emoluturned to profit will be a grand article at the ments; but it engaged to bestow benefits of final reckoning. How many thousands have another kind. If the Christian is deceived not even made the progress which you have in these, he has nothing to console him. made; have not attained that literal ac- Now what am I the better for Christianity ? quaintance with the Bible which you have It speaks of changing the heart from darkattained. They are utterly, perhaps irre-ness to light. What illumination has my claimably, ignorant. You have laid in, at mind experienced from it?-But here a least in your understanding, a certain though doubt begins to arise. Am I indeed a perhaps slender stock of materials, on which Christian? What claims have I to the charthe divine light only waits to shine till you acter? petition for it; that light which, if you will open your eyes to receive it, will shine more and more unto the perfect day. God has assured you in his word that he waits to be gracious.' The compassionate father in the parable moved more eagerly to embrace his son, than the returning prodigal to meet the parent. He scarcely waited for his protestations; the pardon prevented the confession; he condescended to rejoice even in his acceptance of forgiveness.

Is there any material difference, whether I depend on heaven as a thing of course, to those who have been baptized, though they possess no corresponding temper and conduct; or whether I never reflect that there is a heaven, or whether I absolutely disbe lieve that there is any such place? Is the distinction so decisive between speculative unbelief, practical infidelity, and total negli gence, as that either of them can afford an assurance of eternal happiness in preference

to the other? Yet while the thought of heav- torily proved by other arguments, as the en never enters my mind, should I not hotly things we know are proved by our senses. resent it as an injury, if any one disputed my But the highest evidence of things not seen is title to it? Should I not treat him who advi- faith. Even this principle we admit in worldsed me to a more serious life, as an enemy, ly things, but reject in spiritual. We should and him who suspected 1 required it, as a know very little of this earth, if we knew oncalumniator? Is it not, however, worth the ly what we have seen. Now we believe that inquiry, whether my confidence of obtain a multitude of things exists which we never ing it is well founded: and whether any dan-saw, and which few, comparatively, have ger arises from my ignorance or my unfit-seen. This is the evidence of faith in the testimony of the relater.

ness?

If the scriptures be authentic-if, as I have always professed to believe, they indicate a state of eternal happiness, together with the means of attaining to it-then surely not to direct my thoughts to that state, not to apply my attention to those means, is to neglect the state and the things, for which I was sent into the world. Providence, doubtless, intended that every species of being should reach the perfection for which it was created. Shall his only rational creature be the only one that falls short of the end for which he was made? the only one who refuses to reach the top of his nature, who refuses to comply with his original destination?

I see persons in the ordinary affairs of life act upon the mere report of authentic information; conduct concerns analogous to those whose success is made known to them by impartial evidence, and act confidently on the relation of credible witnesses; and they would be thought perverse and unreasonable, were not their conduct influenced by such competent testimony. Is it, then, only in the momentous concern of religion, where these appropriate evidences are allowed to be incontestable, where a revelation from heaven, where the attestation of undeniable witnesses, has established the truth in the minds of inquiring men beyond a doubt?-Is it only If I were quite certain that I was not crea-where the testimony is more unquestionable, ted for such a great and noble end as Chris-and the object the most transcendently imtianity has revealed, I should then be justi-portant, that neglect is pardonable, that defied in acting as a being would naturally act, lay is prudent, that indifference is safe? who has no higher guide than sense, no no- It is time to arrive at some decision on a bler incentive than appetite, no larger scope question which, if it be any thing, is every than time, no ampler range than this world. thing; which, if it be indeed founded in inAnd though I might then regret that my fallible truth, involves consequences so vast, powers and faculties, my capacities and de-effects so lasting, that all the other concerns sires, were formed for so low a purpose, and of the whole world shrink into nothing, when their exercise limited to so brief a space, yet weighed against my individual concern in it would not, in that case, be acting inconsis-this single business. tently, to turn my fugitive possessions, and may contracted span, to the best account of present enjoyment.

That thinking mind which enables me to frame these reflections, that sentient spirit which suggests these apprehensions, those irBut if I have indeed, as I profess to have, repressible feelings which drive out my any faith however low, any hope however thoughts, and force my speculations beyond feeble, any prospect however faint, is it ra- the present scene, prove, that I have some tional to act in such open opposition to my thing within me which was made for immorprofession? Is it right or reasonable, to be- tality. If, then, I am once convinced of these lieve and to neglect, to avow and to disre- truths, can I any longer hesitate to devote. gard, to profess and to oppose, the same my best thoughts to my highest good, my thing? Do I raise my character for that un-chiefest care to my nearest concern, my most derstanding on which I value myself, if, while intense solicitude to my everlasting intera confession of a faith which has been adopt-ests? ed by the wisest men in different ages, my Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief! temper is not, like theirs, subdued to it, my life is not, like theirs, governed by it.

Convert my dead faith into an operative principle! Let my sluggish will be quickened, let my reluctant desires give some signs of life. Let it be an evidence of the real existence of my faith, that it is not inert.

I think this world more certain than the next, because I have the evidence of my senses to its reality; and because its enjoyments are present, visible, tangible. But the same We talk of the glory of heaven as coolly, being who gave my senses, gives also reason and hear of it with as much indifference, as and faith; and do not these afford to the sin-if it were the unalienable birth-right of every cere inquirer other evidence of no less pow-nominal Christian, and that our security left er? Even in many natural things, we re- no room for our solicitude. But I now find, ceive the evidence of reason as confidently on examining it more closely, that the Bible as the testimony of sense. Our reason in- speaks of a thing which Christians of my forms us, that the things we see could not class neglect to take into the account; a have been produced without a cause which fitness for that glory, a spirit prepared for we do not see: we might as well say they that state, which God has prepared for them have no being, as that they had no cause that love him. It not only promises them. and yet the cause lies as completely out of our reach as the things of another world. The unseen things, then, may be as satisfac

heaven, but quickens their desires after it, qualifies them for the enjoyment of it. Now, can I conscientiously declare that I possess,

that I have endeavoured to possess, those de- ments, how he had ransacked its treasures, sires, without which heaven is unattainable; exhausted its enjoyments, and even to satiethose dispositions, without which, if it could ty, revelled in its honours, riches, and debe attained, it would not be a place of happi- lights. He had been an intellectual as well ness? Is it, then, probable, arguing upon as sensual voluptuary, and had emptied the merely rational grounds, that God will re- resources of knowledge as well as of pleasceive me to his presence there, if I continue ure. Then reverting in the close of his disto live without him in the world? Will he course to the point from which he had set accept me when I come to die, alienated out, he again pronounces, that all is vanity. from him in heart and thought as I have lived? The conclusion of the whole matter' After all, uncertainty is no comfortable which he draws from this melancholy argustate. It is safer to seek a satisfactory solu- ment, as finely exhibited as pensively contion to my doubts by serious inquiry; to seek ceived, is a solemn injunction to others to tranquility to my heart by earnest prayer. remember, what it is to be feared the preachIt is better to implore the promised aid to er himself had sometimes forgotten, that the strengthen my vacillating mind, even though whole duty of man is to fear God, and keep I renounce a little present ease, a little tem his commandments: winding up his fine peporary pleasure. If, indeed, avoiding to roration with a motive in which every child think of the evil would remove it, if averting of Adam is equally, is awfully concerned, my eyes from the danger would annihilate it, because God shall bring every work into all would be well. But if, on the contrary, judgment.' fearing it now, may avert it for ever, com- May not every real Christian, while his mon sense, reasonable self-love, mere human heart is touched with the affecting truth of prudence, compel me to make the computa- the text, be admonished by this solemn valetion of the relative value of time and eternity dictory declaration? May he not learn the 1 may, indeed, as I have frequently done, lesson inculcated at less expense than it was postpone my purpose to some future time. acquired by this great practical master of the But then I am not so skilled in the doctrine science of wisdom? If another sovereign of chances as to be quite certain that time was told there was no royal way to geometry, may ever arrive. He that intends to reform the King of Israel has opened a royal way to-morrow does not repent to-day When to a more divine philosophy. By the benefit delay is danger, is it not foolish to delay ? to be derived from contemplating this illusWhere it may be destruction. is it not some-trious instance of how little are the great,' thing worse than folly? I will arise, and go the Christian may set out where Solomon to my Father, &c. &c. &c.

mon.

CHAP. XXIII.

The Christian in the world.

ended. He may be convinced of the vanity of the world at a price far cheaper than Solomon paid for it, by a way far safer than his own experience. He may convert the experiment made by the royal Preacher to his own personal account. He may find in the doctrines of the Gospel a confirmation of its truth, in its precepts a counteraction to its perils, in its promises a consolation for its disappointments.

THE only doctrinal truth,' says bishop Sanderson, which Solomon insisted on, when he took the whole world for his large but barren text, was, that all is vanity.'- In this world, such as Solomon has vividly This was not the verdict of a hermit railing painted it, the Christian is to live-is to live, from his cell at pleasures untasted, or at through divine assistance, untainted by its grandeur unenjoyed. Among the sons of maxims, uncontaminated by its practices. men, not one had sought with more unremit- Man being obviously designed by his Creator ted diligence, or had wider avenues to the for social life, and society being evidently search, for whatever good either skill or pow- his proper place and condition, it seems to be er could extract out of the world, than Solo- his duty, not so much to consider what degree No one could judge of the sweets of possible perfection he might have attained which can be drawn from this grand Alem- in that state of seclusion to which he was bic, with higher natural abilities, or with never destined, as how he may usefully fill deeper experimental wisdom. He did not his allotted sphere in the world for which he descant on the vanity of the world so elo- was made; how he may conscientionsly disquently till he had considered it accurately, charge the duties to which he is plainly called and examined it practically. He was not by providential ordination. To think how contented, like a learned theorist to collect he may acquit himself well in his actual state his notions from philosophy, or history, or and condition, is clearly more profitable than hearsay; he well knew what he said, and to waste his time and spirits, in devising the whereof he affirmed.' All upon which he so best speculative scheme of life, to the adoppathetically preached he had seen with his tion of which there is little probability of his eyes, heard with his ears, and, in his widely-ever being appointed.

roving search, had experienced in his own We were not sent into this world with ordisappointed mind, aad felt in his own ach-ders to make ourselves miserable, but with ing heart. He goes on to prove, by an induction of particulars, the grand truth propounded in his thesis, the vanity of the world. He shows, in a regular series of experi

abilities, and directions, and helps, to search out the best possibilities of happiness which remain to beings, fallen from that state of moral and mental rectitude in which man