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to all men''; which exhorts the believer to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might", and to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus", and which prays that he may be 'strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power1, that he may be stablished in heart, unblamable in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints". It is this spirit, in fine, which tells the believer that he may live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world,' and that Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works'.'

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From the book of life then, if the book of life may be trusted, it would seem that beyond all question there is not only now no more condemnation for the believer, but that with all the sin and all the infirmity which must ever cleave to the most perfect of the sons of Adam, the gospel opens to him the certain prospect of holiness in thought and act. It undertakes to make him finally no unmeet partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, and to fit him for tasting the pure joys of that glorious state which shall be revealed to the children of God, and for contemplating with no unworthy spirit, the attributes and perfections of his creator. For there is, in the words of a great writer, a precept of perfection, consistent with the measures and infirmities of man. We must

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turn from our evil ways, leaving no sin unmortified; that is one measure of perfection, it is a perfect conversion. We must have charity; that is another perfection, it is a perfect grace. We must be ready to part with all and to die for Christ; that is perfect obedience, and the most perfect love. We must conform to the divine will in doing and suffering; that is perfect patience. We must live in all holy conversation and godliness; that is a perfect state. must ever be going forward and growing in godliness, that so we may become perfect men in Christ. And we must persevere to the end; that is perfection, and the crown of all the rest1. Now it is this precept of perfection which the Christian dispensation undertakes to enable us to observe; it is to such a measure of holiness that it undertakes to enable us to attain.

But if from this picture we turn to the scene that is passing within us, and around us; if we survey our own hearts, or consider the lives of other men, we cannot but be struck with sadness at the miserable contrast between what might be and what is, and feel a melancholy curiosity to ascertain the causes of this failure and abridgement of the efficacy of the gospel system.

This is not the curiosity of the sceptic who is inclined, nor of the unbeliever who is glad, to infer falshood from failure. It is the anxious enquiry of the believer who accepts the gospel and confesses its

1 Jeremy Taylor.

power, but who desires to know what is the peculiar fault and deficiency in himself and in others which prevent its efficacy. Nor need he disquiet himself by a long and difficult research; the answer to his difficulty may readily be found.

Christianity may be looked at in two different points of view, as it regards the world, and as it regards individuals. In the first case it is to be con

sidered as a better rule of life, and is more or less valuable as it is more or less efficacious. A comparison of Christian and Heathen Society will at once shew that Christianity, (even as it stands in its abridged efficacy) is the most blessed boon ever bestowed on man as a social being, and that the imperfect acceptance of the gospel scheme, and the imperfect comprehension of its principle are no bar to its usefulness towards society except in degree. Not so in the case of the individual. Here too, no doubt, any acceptance of the Christian law will make men better members of society. For they cannot be blind to the fact that many sins are strictly forbidden, and that heavy threats are uttered against those who commit them. Thus the hand may be often checked and stayed in its commission of crime, and society reaps the advantage. But how fares it with the heart? Here is the whole secret and the whole difficulty. If Christianity, as it is to affect the conduct and character of man, be considered only as a better and more pure and perfect rule of life, given by a higher authority, and enforced by fuller and more awful sanctions, its difference from the systems of the Porch and the Academy is a dif

ference only in degree. It may correct some great errors and supply some great deficiencies, it may set up a high and elevated standard of moral action, but there its merit would cease, and there its pretensions ought to cease also. Now the real superiority of Christianity considered as a guide of life, is that it not only supplies a rule, but supplies to mankind that which they want far more than a rule, the means of following one. Of what avail could it be indeed to offer the purest rule, if the being to whom it is offered, is frail and unable to act up to it? By such a law there might be a knowledge of sin, and thus the contrast between the state in which man is and that in which he ought to be, might be pressed upon his notice. But there it would leave him, guilty and miserable, oppressed with a consciousness of his own weakness and wickedness, but unable to escape from them. Or sin taking occasion by the commandment, holy, just and good as it might be, would work in him all manner of concupiscence, the evil of our nature being irritated and called forth by the opposition offered to it.

Now it is the characteristic and distinguishing feature of Christianity to present to man that which he requires, namely, the means of overcoming his frailty and corruption: and that means is the help of God's Holy Spirit given us for the sake and the merits of our blessed Saviour and Redeemer. It has been said with great ingenuity and beauty1, and in some degree with truth,

1 By Bishop Heber in his Bampton Lectures.

that the special promise of the Comforter who was to console and compensate to the Christians for the loss of their Lord, and to lead mankind through all ages into all truth, points more distinctly to the precious and inestimable gift of Scripture. But I do not now refer to any one, or any particular promise, but to the promises of the whole gospel, and I mean that the excellence of the Christian scheme as a scheme for improving and elevating the moral condition of man consists in its more distinct offer and more abundant imparting of the grace of God's Spirit. The Jew doubtless had this, the Heathen doubtless had it, and has it still, each in his own measure and degree, 'God being with them, when they know it not2,' but to none of them was it offered, to none was it promised, no such promise being found even in the Mosaic covenant; and so no one of them could be taught to seek it, or to rely on its blessed influence for his improvement. When we consider this, that the help of God's Holy Spirit, I mean, is the grand and distinctive mark of Christianity, as a scheme of moral improvement, it becomes obvious at once, that an imperfect acceptance of Christianity, as far as regards the raising and cleansing of the heart, is no acceptance at all; that it must be received wholly and entirely, or not at all. If we do not see, recognize, and accept the spiritual principle of Christianity, we may be washed in the waters of baptism and called by the name of our Master, we may imagine that we are endeavouring to guide our

2 Wordsworth.