Let him not be conformed to this world. Let him deny himself; and through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body. Let him walk in love, as a dear child, in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless. Let him exhibit in the whole of his conversation and conduct, the salutary and sanctifying influence of Christian principles; and cause his "light so to shine before men, that they may see his good works, and glorify his Father which is in heaven." Thus let him keep his garments. And for what reason? Lest "he walk naked, and they see his shame." The consequences of not complying with this injunction will be, that he will lose his defence and his ornament, his evidences and his peace. He will expose himself and his religion to reproach and shame. He will bring dishonour on the principles which he professes to hold; will give occasion to the enemies of Christianity to rejoice and blaspheme; and by convicting himself of hypocrisy, unbelief, and apostacy, will incur the Divine wrath, and may expect condign and exemplary punishment. For this reason, let the Christian keep his garments; and to this end, let him "watch." The force and propriety of this direction shall be next considered.

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CHAP. IV.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

THE very circumstance of Christ's giving a special admonition at this season to his servants, and of watchfulness, being a prominent part of it, indicates, of itself, that there will be more than ordinary difficulty in discharging the duty to which the admonition refers. It has been already observed, that the admonition is introduced immediately after the mention of the three Unclean Spirits having come out of the mouth of the Dragon, of the Beast, and of the False Prophet; a circumstance which seems to intimate, that the obstacles which these emissaries of evil will oppose to the progress and profession of pure Christianity, will greatly enhance the importance of the admonition, and will make it peculiarly seasonable. It must, indeed, be obvious, that the principles industriously disseminated by such enemies to true religion, and the conduct resulting from them, cannot but prove highly injurious to the real Christian, and must clog his path with peculiar difficulties. If we cast our eyes at this moment over the Papal nations of Europe,

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though, we trust, that there are among them names which have not defiled their garments ;" nor "have bowed the knee to Baal;" yet we must be convinced of the singular difficulty attendant on such a situation, and of the variety of impediments and temptations thrown in the way of a pure Christian profession, by the infidel principles, the despotic measures, the intolerant spirit, the gross superstitions, and the anti-christian practices, which, more or less, prevail universally in those countries. Even in our own favoured land, which, through the mercy and providence of God, has been so many years emancipated from Papal tyranny, the effects of this inundation of blasphemy, impiety, and every false principle, have been severely felt, and have tried the faith of many. If from the very commencement of this important era, "the Time of the End," there have been throughout this kingdom a great revival and increase of pure religion; yet no one can look back on this interesting period, without feeling that in a variety of ways it has been a period peculiarly trying to the real Christian. Such is still the case; and such it will probably be, even with augmented force, until all shall be accomplished. From the circumstance of our being freed from Papal dominion, we may, indeed, be less exposed to the direct operations of those Unclean

Spirits, which go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole (Papal) world; yet still we are not altogether exempted from their influence. Here, in this land of light, the attacks of our spiritual adversary, against the professors of pure Christianity, cannot have been so overt and visible, as they may have been throughout those kingdoms of darkness; but his assaults may not have been less dangerous because they have been more measured and concealed. Pure Christianity is the object of his deadliest hatred d; and since in this country, during the time in question, it has been advancing with steps such as it has never before made, we might have reasonably presumed, that here the enemy would have been most active and persevering in his efforts to oppose its progress; though, for the reasons already assigned, he would have been less open in his proceedings, and would with subtlety have conducted his operations in a way more adapted to the exigencies of the case. Such, we might reasonably have anticipated, would have been the mode of his hostility; and such experience proves that it has been. By means, indeed, of his agents, he has deluged this land with torrents of infidel writings, and has too often succeeded, by the diffusion of lies and calumnies, in poisoning the public mind, and in suring up feelings most adverse to true Chris

tianity; and by such efforts he may, in some instances, have retarded the progress, and injured the cause, of pure religion.

But it is not, principally, by these arms that he has assaulted the real servants of God; nor is it by these arts that he has hoped to overcome their faith, and to induce them to lay aside or defile their garments. His weapons in this warfare have mainly been of a different kind. False views and statements of religion counterfeiting the truth;-plausible heresies ingeniously devised and urged; — antinomian doctrines artfully concealing their real tendency; — temptations addressed to the pride and vanity of the human heart; - undue attachment to human teachers; - divisions; - separations; inducements to worldly conformity; - speculative errors destructive of Christian simplicity; controversies on points of inferior moment, and involving matters of doubtful disputation:—these are some of the snares * which have been spread in these days for the professors of pure Chris

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It is not improbable but that our Saviour in his admonition may allude also, and perhaps specially, to other snares, possibly not yet fully set, which are particularly to mark the times of which he speaks, through the agency of the three Unclean Spirits, and "the things that are coming on the world," (Luke, xxi. 36.) and which will render the admonition still more peculiarly seasonable.