versary with whom the Christian has to contend: an arti cle of our faith, by the way, which is growing into general disrepute among the politer classes of society. Nay, there is a kind of ridicule attached to the very suggestion of the subject, as if it were exploded on full proof of its being an absolute absurdity, utterly repugnant to the liberal spirit of an enlightened age. And it requires no small neatness of expression and periphrastic ingenuity to get the very mention tolerated.-I mean the scripture doc trine of the existence and power of our great spiritual enemy. It is considered by the fashionable skeptic as a vulgar invention, which ought to be banished with the belief in dreams, and ghosts, and witchcraft-by the fash Konable Christian, as an ingenious allegory, but not as a literal truth; and by almost all, as a doctrine which, when it happens to be introduced at Church, has at least nothing to do with the pews, but is by common consent made over to the aisles, if indeed it must be retained at all.

May I, with great humility and respect, presume to suggest to our divines, that they would do well not to lend their countenance to these modish curtailments of the Christian faith; nor to shun the introduction of this doctrine when it consists with their subject to bring it forward. A truth which is seldom brought before the eye, imperceptibly grows less and less important; and if it be an unpleasing truth, we grow more and more reconciled to its absence, till at length its intrusion becomes offensive, and we learn in the end to renounce what we at first only neglected. Because some coarse and ranting enthusiasts have been fond of using tremendous terms with a violence * and frequency, which might make it seem to be a gratification to them to denounce judgments and anticipate torments, can their coarseness or vulgarity make a true doctrine false, or an important one trifling? If such preachers have given offence by their uncouth manner of managing an awful doctrine, that indeed furnishes a caution to treat the subject more discreetly, but it is no just reason for avoiding the doctrine. For to keep a truth out of sight because it has been absurdly handled or ill-defended, might in time be assigned as a reason for keeping back, one by one, every doctrine of our holy church; for which of them has not had imprudent advocates or weak cham pions ?

Be it remembered that the doctrine in question is not

only interwoven by allusion, implication, or direct assertion throughout the whole Scripture, but that it stands prominently personified at the opening of the New as well as the Old Testament. The devil's temptation of our Lord, in which he is not represented figuratively, but visibly and palpably, stands on the same ground of authority with other events which are received without repugnance. And it may not be an unuseful observation to remark, that the very refusing to believe in an evil spirit, may be considered as one of his own suggestions; for there is not a more dangerous illusion than to believe ourselves out of the reach of illusions, nor a more alarming temptation, than to fancy that we are not liable to be tempted.

But the dark cloud raised by this doctrine will be dispelled by the cheering certainty that our blessed Saviour having himself" been tempted like as we are, is able to deliver those who are tempted."

But to return.-From this imperfect sketch we may see how suitable the religion of Christ is to fallen man! How exactly it meets every want! No one needs now perish because he is a sinner, provided he be willing to forsake his sins; for "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners:" and "He is now exalted to be a Prince. and a Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sin." Which passage, be it observed, may be considered as pointing out to us the order in which he bestows his blessings; he gives first repentance, and then forgiveness.

We may likewise see how much the character of a true Christian rises above every other: that there is a wholeness, an integrity, a completeness in the Christian character that a few natural, pleasing qualities, not cast in the mould of the Gospel, are but as beautiful fragments, or well turned single limbs, which for want of that beauty which arises from the proportion of parts, for want of that connexion of the members with the living head, are of little comparative excellence. There may be amiable qualities which are not Christian graces: and the apostle, after enumerating every separate article of attack or de fence with which a Christian warrior is to be accoutred, sums up the matter by directing that we put on "the whole armour of God.” And this completeness is insisted on by all the apostles. One prays that his converts may "stand perfect and complete in the whole will of God :" another enjoins that they be "perfect and entire wanting nothing."

Now we are not to suppose that they expected any convert to be without faults; they knew too well the constitution of the human heart; but Christians must have no fault in their principle; their views must be direct, their proposed scheme must be faultless; their intention must be single; their standard must be lofty; their object must be right; their "mark must be the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."-There must be no allowed evil, no warranted defection, no tolerated impurity. Though they do not rise as high as they ought, nor as they wish, in the scale of perfection, yet the scale itself must be correct, and the desire of ascending perpetual: they must count the degrees they have already attained as nothing. Every grace must be kept in exercise, conquests once made over an evil propensity must not only be maintained but extended. And in truth, Christianity so comprises contrary, and as it may be thought irreconcilable excellencies, that those which seem so incompatible as to be incapable by nature of being inmates of the same breast, are almost necessarily involved in the Christian character.

For instance; Christianity requires that our faith be at once fervent and sober; that our love be both ardent and lasting; that our patience be not only heroic but gentle : she demands dauntless zeal and genuine humility; active services and complete self-renunciation; high attainments in goodness, with deep consciousness of defect; courage in reproving, and meekness in bearing reproof; a quick perception of what is sinful; with a willingness to forgive the offender; active virtue ready to do all, and passive virtue ready to bear all-We must stretch every faculty in the service of our Lord, and yet bring every thought into obedience to Him: while we aim to live in the exercise of every Christian grace, we must account ourselves unprofitable servants: we must strive for the crown, yet receive it as a gift, and then lay it at our Master's feet: while we are busily trading in the world with our Lord's talents, we must "commune with our heart, and be still :" while we strive to practise the purest disinterestedness, we must be contented, though we meet with selfishness in return; and while laying out our lives for the good of mankind, we must submit to reproach without murmuring, and to ingratitude without resentment. And to render us equal to all these services, Christianity bestows not only the precept, but the power; she does what the great poet

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of Ethics lamented that Reason could not do, "she lends us arms as well as rules."

For here, if not the worldly and the timid, but the humble and the well disposed should demand with fear and trembling, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Revelation makes its own reviving answer: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

It will be well here to distinguish that there are two sorts of Christian professors, one of which affect to speak of Christianity as if it were a mere system of doctrines, with little reference to their influence on life and manners ; while the other consider it as exhibiting a scheme of hu man duties independent on its doctrines. For though the latter sort may admit the doctrines, yet they contemplate them as a separate and disconnected set of opinions, rather than as an influential principle of action. In violation of that beautiful harmony which subsists in every part of Scripture between practice and belief, the religious world furnishes two sorts of people, who seem to enlist them selves, as if in opposition, under the banners of Saint Paul and Saint James, as if those two great champions of the Christian cause had fought for two masters. Those who affect respectively to be the disciples of each, treat faith and works as if they were opposite interests, instead of inseparable points. Nay, they go farther, and set Saint Paul at variance with himself.

Now instead of reasoning on the point, let us refer to the apostle in question, who definitively settles the dispute. The apostolical order and method in this respect deserve notice and imitation; for it is observable, that the earlier parts of most of the Epistles abound in the doctrines of Christianity, while those latter chapters, which wind up the subject, exhibit all the duties which grew out of them, as the natural and necessary productions of such a living. root. But this alternate mention of doctrine and practice, which seemed likely to unite, has on the contrary formed a sort of line of separation between these two orders of be-lievers, and introduced a broken and mutilated system. Those who would make Christianity consist of doctrines only, dwell, for instance, on the first eleven chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, as containing exclusively the sum and substance of the Gospel. While the mere moralists, who wish to strip Christianity of her lofty and appropriate attributes, delight to dwell on the twelfth chapter, which

is a table of duties, as exclusively as if the preceding chapters made no part of the sacred Canon. But Paul himself, who was at least as sound a theologian as any of his commentators, settles the matter another way, by making the duties of the twelfth grow out of the doctrines of the antecedent eleven, just as any other consequence grows out of its cause. And as if he suspected that the indivisible union between them might possibly be overlooked, he links the two distinct divisions together by a logical" therefore," with which the twelfth begins :" I beseech you therefore," (that is, as the effect of all I have been inculcating,) "that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God," &c. and then goes on to enforce on them, as a consequence of what he had been preaching, the practice of every Christian virtue. This combined view of the subject seems, on the one hand, to be the only means of preventing the substitution of Pagan morality for Christian holiness; and on the other, of securing the leading doctrine of justification by faith, from the dreadful danger of Antinomian licentiousness; every human obligation being thus grafted on the living stock of a divine principle.

CHAPTER XX.

On the duty and efficacy of prayer.

It is not proposed to enter largely on a topic which has been exhausted by the ablest pens. But as a work of this nature seems to require that so important a subject should not be overlooked, it is intended to notice in a slight manner a few of those many difficulties and popular objections which are brought forward against the use and efficacy of prayer, even by those who would be unwilling to be suspected of impiety and unbelief.

There is a class of objectors who strangely profess to withhold homage from the Most High, not out of contempt, but reverence. They affect to consider the use of prayer as derogatory to the omniscience of God, asserting that it looks as if we thought he stood in need of being informed of our wants; and as derogatory to his goodness, as implying that he needs to be put in mind of them.

But is it not enough for such poor frail beings as we are to know, that God himself does not consider prayer as derogatory either to his wisdom or goodness? And shall we erect ourselves into judges of what is consistent with