of a day, on the close of which the shades of thick darkness settle fearfully, but as the commencement of a path, which may ever grow brighter and rise higher, as the endless ages move on. Life has a distinct purpose, and is the school in which man is trained and disciplined for immortality. In addition to this, the preceptive morality of the Gospel is most clear, pure, and simple. Christianity has given perfect rules of duty, provided the foundation of definite and comprehensive principles of action, accompanied by motives the highest and most commanding, and guarded by sanctions most powerfully impressive. It has given virtue a staff to lean upon, without which she might faint by the way. Finally, the Gospel has removed the cumbrous load of Jewish rites and ceremonies, and given us in their place a pure and spiritual religion, the simple directory of the word of truth.

This glance at the great truths of Christianity will serve to intimate the change, which it has introduced into the religion of the world, and to justify the Apostle in calling it a new creation. When we consider, that it has set in motion the springs of spiritual action and energy, that it has diffused new principles of moral life among mankind; that it has proclaimed and established truths of everlasting importance, and of incalculable influence, which before had either been unknown, or known but feebly and uncertainly; which mankind had either lost or disfigured; which had either never found an abode on earth, or had long been vanishing away under forms, and rites, and contrivances to please God without virtue; when we bring into view these considerations, are we not compelled to confess, that there is nothing exaggerated in the language of St. Paul, when he says, if any man be in Christ, there is a new creation: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.' Yes, Christianity was in truth a new moral creation; and as at the first creation all was darkness, confusion, and chaos, till the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, and this fair fabric of earth was framed; so in the moral world all was doubt, ignorance, and fear, till Jesus Christ came and spread light, and beauty, and joy, over the whole scene.

Such are the meaning and force of that class of Scriptural expressions now under consideration, and of other kindred expressions so common in the New Testament; and who does not acknowledge that they happily depict the great moral revolution, produced by the Gospel in the highest and most lasting interests of man?

But it may be said, that this is not the whole of the meaning of these passages; that they admit and require a more direct application to the spiritual condition of every one under the

Gospel dispensation. And though this was undoubtedly the original import and bearing of these expressions, yet it is true, they are applicable in an important sense, to individuals at the present day. Christianity still effects a great and striking change on the hearts and lives of many. It is still true, that if any man be in Christ,' that is, under the influence of the true spirit of the Gospel, he is altogether a different being from what he would be, were he estranged from Christ. Who has not seen instances of the powerful and happy effects of Christianity, in the transformation of those, who were once stained with every sort of vice? It is true, our religion does not often work in a sudden and violent manner. Much the greater number of those, who manifest its spirit in their lives, have received its influences gradually and silently. It was instilled into their hearts in their earliest days by parents and instructers, and has constantly dwelt there. It has been continually operating upon motives, forming principles, controlling desires, bending the will, and giving a cast and character to actions and conduct; and all this it has done, and is doing, so babitually and regularly, that it is almost unperceived, while busy at its secret work. The seed is first sown: from this the plant gradually developes itself, which from day to day, and from year to year, strikes its roots deeper, and gains strength, and spreads its branches, till it can bear the buffetings of the storm. This is the most happy and useful operation which religion can have, without noise or passion, giving no ecstacy, but calm and constant joy. In persons, whom religion bas thus influenced, no manifest change can be observed, and indeed there could be no striking change but for the worse.

But there are cases, in which the effects of Christianity on individuals, produce a very wide and marked difference between their past and present characters; they are made over again,. as it were, and receive a new heart and a new spirit.' Suppose the case of one, who from early youth has been the slave of vice, and whose heart and mind have been formed and opened under the worst influences; who has grown up, surrounded by profligate and abandoned companions; from whom the fear of God and the sense of His presence are gone; who finds pleasure in the dark and downward path of vice, and has silenced conscience so often, that she at last scarcely speaks; and who has devoted himself to a diseased and raging appetite, for what is sensual and polluting. Now let this unhappy man, in some favourable moment, and by some powerful means, be awakened to a sense of his own character, and of the dreadful consequences, to which such a character will inevitably lead.

Suppose an arrow from the quiver of divine truth to have reached his heart, and he becomes sensible that he is a wanderer from God and heaven. Christianity comes in and sets before him the high and holy requisitions of God's law, and tells him of the justice of the law-giver. She brings to his view the penalty which God has annexed to sin, and from which there is no dispensation. She touches the springs, which direct the energy of conscience, and this monitor within rises in her strength, and sets before him the record of his past life, stained and darkened with guilt of thought, word, and deed. But he is not left without help or hope. The same religion, which roused him to a sense of his situation. presents him with the remedy for sin. There is balm in Gilead for the wounded spirit, embittered with the consciousness of transgression, and anxious to know if pardon may be obtained. Christianity bids the penitent look up with blissful hope; for she tells him, that when the sorrowing prodigal returned, his father went out to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him. If his mind returns to these views, dwells, and meditates upon them, he will probably be subdued to a penitent learner at the feet of Jesus, with the humble question, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The happy influences of Christianity begin to descend on his soul; he abandons his profligate companions, renounces his darling sins, and places himself under the high and holy discipline of the spirit of the Gospel. Now compare this man, in his present state, with what he was, and you may truly say, he is a new creature; he has new motives, new hopes, new views, new feelings, and his thoughts, wishes, and inclinations are in a new world. He has passed through a moral change from an impure heart to a pure one, from a bad to a good life. Of him it may truly be said, that old things are passed away, and all things are become new.'

Observe the man, whose days are spent in the pursuit of those airy trifles, which amuse and employ the sons of pleasure, who passes life without an object, or with one that deserves not the name, who though he is not given to depravity, is absorbed in folly, and who suffers the faculties and the strength of the immortal mind to be dissipated in vain, or worse than vain, Occupations. If one, who has thus sunk days and years, of which he can give no account, and weakened and degraded his soul, be arrested by the thought of better and purer things, if considerations of religion dwell long enough in his mind. to arouse him to the remembrance of what he has been, and the conviction of what he ought to be, if in short by whatever means he is excited to look at himself in that mirror, which the

Gospel presents, and can retain the view long enough to make it efficacious, how marked will be the change produced by the spirit of Christianity! The religion of Jesus will teach him to lay aside all his follies and trifles, his vain or vicious pursuits, and live like a being destined for immortality. Life then acquires a serious and weighty purpose, even the purpose of preparation for an endless existence. He, who bad been a child of pleasure, becomes a child of God; he employs himself with strenuous diligence in every exertion of moral duty, and goes forth to the events and trials of life, with a heart prepared and willing to be disciplined by the providence of God, and braced by the resources of faith and hope. His days are no longer wasted on airy, unsubstantial pursuits, but in imitation of our great model, are spent in doing good. He becomes sensible, that he has a great task to perform, and therefore he works while the day lasts, knowing that the night cometh, when no man can work. Now, when you consider, what a different being this man has become, how thoroughly the state of his affections, his hopes, his pursuits, the objects of his earnest interest, are altered, you must acknowledge that here is another instance of great moral change, in short of the new creation' effected by the Gospel.

But it is unnecessary to enumerate instances. Wherever are to be found the monuments of the reforming and purifying power of Christianity, wherever our religion has converted the sinner from the error of his ways, wherever it has sealed the lips of profaneness, called the intemperate to virtuous sobriety, turned the scoffer into the humble and devout worshipper, wherever it has brought men away from the follies and vanities of earth, and taught them to feel that they are made for eternity, and must act for eternity; wherever it has led sinners away from the false refuges of the world, and taught them to seek the building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ;' in all such cases, the strong and emphatic expressions of St. Paul, which have been already quoted, may be applied without the fear of presenting an overcharged picture to the mind.

6

The preceding remarks are intended briefly to illustrate what is meant by the new creation,' effected by the Gospel of Christ. By many they will doubtless be considered as defective, because they do not suit the dimensions of their system. It is not wonderful, that those, who think themselves authorized to assume as a position, that man comes into the world totally depraved, and that before he can hope for heaven, his nature must be displaced and a new one induced, should apply the class of expressions, upon which we have dwelt, to the support of their peculiar views. In order to become a new creature,' in the New Series-vol. IV.

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Gospel sense, they deem it necessary for one to become in some very peculiar and striking manner, and perhaps by a special interposition, the receptacle of the influences of the Holy Spirit, a phrase, which is interpreted of course in conformity with the doctrinal views of those who use it. The reality of these influences, when properly explained, no Christian will be disposed to deny. But the features of the true Christian regeneration have, it is conceived, been described in the foregoing observations on the moral revolution produced by the spirit and principles of the Gospel. Unitarians have too easily suffered those, who are called orthodox, to appropriate to themselves the good words in religion, and have thus perhaps relinquished to the cause of error something at least of that attachment and reverence, which in many minds are connected with these words. The term regeneration is doubtless understood by the greater part of those, who use it currently, to signify in fact nothing else, than we should allow that it expresses truly and forcibly. Theological systems are too often built upon words, more than upon ideas; and those, who use certain phrases, are therefore supposed to belong to the sect with which those phrases have become technical. Regeneration does not mean, nor is it probably after all generally imagined to mean, the destruction of man's nature, but the destruction of his vices, not the taking away something with which he was born, and substituting something else in its place, but the removal of his sinful habits, and superinducing upon his moral powers and affections the true Christian spirit and character. It is not to be supposed, that the laws which regulate the operations of the human mind in other departments, are changed the moment it becomes the subject of religious influences. With regard to religion, as well as other objects, permanent taste, and feelings, and character are not to be suddenly acquired. There must be a patient and industrious use of means. Principles, and sentiments, and motives must be presented often and strongly, must be familiarised and brought home to the soul by frequent meditation and undistracted reflexion, before they can wind their way into the heart, so as to dwell there efficaciously, and send out their influences on the life and conduct. The achievement of the Christian character is not the result of a single effort. Heaven is not to be won by the agonies of a day, nor the happiness of eternity purchased by the emotions of an hour. Religion most surely is not a thing, which comes upon us at once, like a storm, and then passes off, leaving the mind that had been subject to it, in a state of weakness or passion. It must be seen in the whole course and aspect of life; and in just the same degree as it prepares us for