Godliness.

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Ess. IV.] convinced that God exists, and that he is "a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," but he lives in habitual dependence of soul upon the fidelity, the care, and the mercy, of his Heavenly Father. It is by faith that he draws near to God, and receives all the benefits of a divinely-authorized religion; and on the other hand, the more that religion operates upon him, the more is his faith in God enlarged and confirmed; the more entirely is he prepared to obey the exhortation of the prophet, "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength."

The man who is brought by the operation of vital religion to a just apprehension of the purity and justice of the Deity, as well as of his own sinfulness, is prepared to offer to the Lord the acceptable sacrifice of a humble and penitent spirit. While he is preserved in this condition of sensibility and humiliation, there is nothing which he so much dreads as to offend against the law, and to expose himself to the judgments of the God of holiness. Thus is he brought to walk with vigilance in the fear of the Lord, which is described by the sacred writers, as "clean," as “the beginning of wisdom," and as "a fountain of life."

Yet, this fear is accompanied by an ardent love towards the Supreme Being. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”

Such was the first and greatest commandment promulgated by the law, and confirmed by the Gospel -a commandment which, in itself, forms one of the most glorious and distinguishing features of the religion of the Bible-and to this commandment the true Christian is enabled to render a ready and effective obedience. When he becomes impressed, through the medium of revealed religion, with a sense of the intrinsic perfections and absolute loveliness of the divine

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Godliness.

[Ess. IV. character, the natural consequence is, that he loves God. But, how is our love for the Deity inflamed and strengthened, how is it invested with the holy ardour of gratitude, when Christianity has taught us the lesson, that "God hath first loved us"-that innumerable blessings are showered down upon us from the Author of all good, and that the Son of God himself condescended to assume our nature, and die on the cross, in order that we might live?

The faith, fear, and love, of which we have spoken, are the true preparation for the duties of worship. The Christian who is brought under the influence of these dispositions towards his Creator will ever be found to worship God in spirit and in truth. While he is careful not to neglect those outward duties of worship, which he may consider to be prescribed, he is no longer satisfied either with the bare performance of appointed ceremony, or with the services of the lip which have no corresponding feelings in the heart. He communes with God in spirit. He offers himself a living sacrifice to his Lord. He withholds not the heart-felt tribute of thanksgiving and praise, and, above all, he lives the life of prayer. Nor is the spiritual worship of the true Christian confined to those acts of devotion, in which he now experiences a delight, and exercises à diligence, foreign from all his former habits and dispositions. For such acts are but one connected part of that steady and practical allegiance towards God, which now distinguishes his whole life and conversation. Under a sense of the providential goodness of the Deity he is taught, even in the most painful circumstances, to submit with pious resignation to the will of God. And in the settled conviction that he is not his own, but "bought with a price," he devotes himself with simple and diligent obedience to the service of his divine Master,

Ess. IV.

Personal and Social Virtue.

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Finally, while he is fully aware that to himself belong shame and confusion of face, the true Christian heartily desires and earnestly promotes that good and great end, for which he was created--the glory of God.

II. Christianity is the instrument by which mankind are brought into a conformity with the moral attributes of God.

Whatsoever plausible theories may be formed among men, respecting the virtue and excellence of their own nature, the sober voice both of history and of experience declares, with a clearness which to the impartial mind can scarcely fail to be convincing, that man without divine grace is, to a very considerable degree, an immoral being. While he neglects those duties which are more immediately required towards God himself, he is lamentably prone to be unjust, untrue, impure, or unmerciful. In the fall of our first parents from that moral image of God, in which they were created, the Scriptures reveal to us the cause of this general depravation; but, without any further consideration, at present, of the source of the evil, let it be remembered that Christianity-unsullied and vital Christi anity-is the means by which that evil is remedied, and the moral image of God restored to mankind.

A full acknowledgment of the infinite disparity between God and man-of the perfection of the former, and of the innumerable infirmities of the lattermust indeed form a feature in every sound system of ethics and theology; but moral qualities will ever be found to maintain their own unvarying tendencies. Holiness, justice, truth, and benevolence, whether they are regarded as the essential attributes of the Creator, or as the borrowed excellences of the creature, are still the same in their nature. As, then, the face of a man is seen reflected in the mirror, so are the moral attributes of the Deity seen reflected in the conduct

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After the Pattern of Christ.

[Ess. IV. Unworthy

and deportment of the real Christian. and fallible as he is, and liable as he knows himself to be to fall into some of the many snares which are placed around him by his spiritual enemy, he has, nevertheless, submitted with sincerity to the operation of that Gospel, which is, "the power of God unto salvation." And now, nothwithstanding his remaining corruptions, the general effect produced in him by the work of religion is this-that, in the purity of his heart, in the holiness of his life and conversation, in the integrity of his words and actions, in the activity of his benevolence, in his gentleness, kindness, longsuffering and forbearance, in his love towards the whole family of man-he presents to our view a real and beautiful conformity with the moral characteristics of that omnipresent Deity, whom he fears, loves, and

serves.

It must indeed be acknowledged that a cloud is too often cast over the two propositions which I have now ventured to state, by the lamentable imperfections even of sincere Christians. So easily do we yield to the temptations with which we are surrounded, and so prone are we to be superficial in the pursuit of our religious duties, that the pure light of truth, which ought to shine in our works, to the glory of our heavenly Father, is very liable to become obscured and tarnished. Nevertheless, our argument will still be found to rest on a solid basis; for these imperfections, like those grosser defects and perversions already alluded to, are obviously to be traced, not to Christianity, but to the lingering corruptions of the human heart, which have not yet been subjected to its sanative influence. Christianity itself is always the same, and its tendency towards the production of those admirable consequences which I have endeavoured to describe, is perpetualinvariable. Here it will be seasonable to notice one of

Ess. IV.]

Happiness.

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the most glorious features of the Christian system, and one of the strongest internal evidences which it presents to us of a divine origin; namely, that, in the life and character of Jesus Christ himself, as recorded in the New Testament, we have a perfect pattern of those moral effects which Christianity is intended and calculated to produce. In Him there was no spot or blemish whatsoever; no sin either in intention or action; but a perfect piety, purity, and charity; a plenary exercise of those dispositions, and an absolutely faultless performance of those duties which are required in Christians towards God, towards themselves, and towards their fellow-men. Christ is denominated, by way of supereminence, the IMAGE OF GOD; and the more we are subjected to the influence of his holy religion, the more completely is that image transfused into ourselves-the greater is our ability to obey that wonderful precept of our divine lawgiver: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

III. Christianity is the instrument by which mankind are introduced to real happiness.

Men, in their natural condition, are not only ungodly and vicious, but, in various respects, unhappy. The moral disorders which abound in the heart, and which are perpetually displaying themselves in the transactions of men, seldom fail, even in this life, to be productive, in some form or other, of an equivalent measure of suffering and misery. It is probable, indeed, that whatever of pain, perplexity, and affliction, is endured by our species, may all be traced, either directly or indirectly to these moral disorders. Now, since Christianity is the means by which such disorders are remedied, so it is also the means of procuring for mankind a real and substantial happiness.

That this position is true of genuine Christianity,