only contrary to revelation, but no less contrary to reason. If truth sanctify, error must in some way or other pollute; for to suppose that two causes, not only so distinct but so opposite, can produce the same effect, is absurd; and the Scriptures every where insist upon the importance of the truth, not merely on its own account, but on account of its moral effect upon the soul. If this view of the subject be correct, Christian charity cannot mean indifference to religious sentiment; for if so, it would be a temper of mind in direct opposition to a large portion of Scripture: nor are we required, by this virtue, to give the least countenance to what we think is error. We may, indeed, be called bigots; for this term in the lips of many, means nothing more than a reproach for attaching importance to right sentiments. No word has been more misunderstood than this. If by bigotry is meant such an overweening attachment to our opinions, as makes us refuse to listen to argument; such a blind regard to our own views, as closes the avenues of conviction; such a selfish zeal for our creed, as actually destroys benevolence, and causes us to hate those who differ from us ;-it is an evil state of mind, manifestly at variance with love: but if, as is generally the case, it means, by those who use it, only zeal for truth, it is perfectly consistent with love, and actually a part of it; for "charity rejoiceth in the truth." It is quite compatible with good will to men, therefore, to attach high importance to doctrines, to condemn error, to deny the Christianity and safety of those who withhold their assent from fundamental truths, and to abstain from all such religious communion with them as would imply, in the least possible degree, any thing like indifference to opinion. It does appear to me, that the most perfect benevolence to men, is that which, instead of looking with complacency on their errors, warns them of their danger, and admonishes them to escape. It is no matter that they think they are in the right-this only makes their case the more alarming; and to act towards them as if we thought their mistaken views of no consequence, is only to confirm their delusion, and to aid their destruction. of justification by faith, by introducing the obsolete | duced in the soul as well by error as by truth, is not ceremonies of the Jewish law. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Now, certainly, this is any thing but indifference to religious opinion; for, be it observed, it was matter of opinion, and not the duties of morality, or of practical religion, that was here so strenuously opposed. The apostle commands Timothy "To hold fast the form of sound words; and to give himself to doctrine." The apostle John has this strong language:-"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine, of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." Jude commands us to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." From these, and many other passages which might be quoted, it is evident, not only that truth is important and necessary to salvation, but that error is guilty, and in many instances is connected with the loss of the soul. "If a man may disbelieve one truth, and yet be free from sin for so doing, he may disbelieve two; and if two, four; and if four, ten; and if ten, half the Bible; and if half the Bible, the whole and if he may be a Deist, and yet be in a safe state; he may be an Athiest and still go to heaven." To such awful lengths may the principle be pushed, that there is no guilt in mental error. "Let those," says Dr. Priestley," who maintain that the mere holding of opinions (without regard to the motives and state of the mind through which men may have been led to form them,) will necessarily exclude them from the favor of God, be particularly careful with respect to the premises from which they draw so alarming a conclusion." Nothing can be more sophistical than this passage; for we do not in maintaining the guiltiness of a false opinion, leave out the state of the heart; but contend that all errors in the judgment have their origin in the depravity of our nature, and, in so far as they prevail, discover a heart not brought into subjection to Christ. A perfectly holy mind could not err in the opinion it derived from the word of God: and it may be most fairly presumed that there are certain fundamental truths, which cannot be rejected, without such a degree of depravity of heart, as is utterly incom-ness. We are to bear, with unruffled meekness, all patible with true piety towards God. It is to be recollected, that the holiness required in the word of God, is a very superior thing to what is called morality. Holiness is a right state of mind towards God, and it is enforced by motives drawn from the view which the Scriptures give us of the Divine nature, and of the Divine conduct towards us. If our views of God, and of his scheme of mercy, be incorrect, the motives which influence us cannot be correct. Hence all right feeling and conduct are traced up by the sacred writers to the truth. Do they speak of regeneration? they tell us we are begotten by the incorruptible seed of the word." Do they speak of sanctification? they ascribe it, so far as instrumentality is concerned, to the truth; and the truth itself is characterized as a "doctrine according to godliness." It is evident, that without the truth, or in other words, without right opinions, we can neither be born again of the Spirit, nor partake of true holiness. The whole process of practical and experimental religion is carried on by the instrumentality of right sentiments; and to suppose that holiness could be pro It is true we are neither to despise them nor persecute them; we are neither to oppress nor ridicule them; we are neither to look upon them with haughty scorn, nor with callous indifference;-but while we set ourselves against their errors, we are to pity them with unaffected compassion, and to labor for their conversion with disinterested kind their provoking sarcasms; and to sustain, with deep humility, the consciousness of our clearer perceptions; and to convince them that, with the steadiest resistance of their principles, we unite the tenderest concern for their persons. And, if charity do not imply indifference to religious opinions, so neither does it mean connivance at sin. There are some persons whose views of the evil of sin are so dim and contracted, or their good nature is so accommodating and unscriptural, that they make all kinds of excuses for men's trans gressions, and allow of any latitude that is asked, for human frailty. The greatest sins, if they are not committed against the laws of society, are reduced to the mere infirmities of our fallen nature, which should not be visited with harsh censure; and as for the lesser ones, they are mere specks upon a bright and polished surface, which nothing but a most fastidious precision would ever notice. Such persons condemn, as sour and rigid ascetics, all who oppose and condemn iniquity; revile them as uniting in a kind of malignant opposition to the cheerfulness of society, the very dregs of puritan We are not allowed, it is true, to be scornful and proud towards the wicked, nor censorious towards any; we are not to make the most distant approach to the temper which says, "Stand by, I am holier than thou!" we are not to hunt for the failings of others, nor, when we see them without hunting for them, to condemn them in a tone of arrogance, or with a spirit of acerbity; but still we must maintain that temper which, while it reflects the beauty of a God of Love, no less brightly reflects his glory as a God of holiness, and a God of truth. ism and barbarism; and reproach them as being bold transgressor, and smiling with parasitical and destitute of all the charities and courtesies of life. imbecile complacency upon the errors and iniquities But if candor be a confounding of the distinctions of the human race;-but a vigorous and healthy between sin and holiness, a depreciating of the ex- virtue, with an eye keen to discern the boundaries cellence of the latter, and at the same time a dimi- between right and wrong, a hand strong and ready nishing of the evil of the former; if it necessarily to help the transgressor out of his miserable condilead us to connive with an easy and good natured | tion, a heart full of mercy for the sinner and the air at iniquity, and to smile with a kind and gentle sufferer; a disposition to forgive rather than to reaspect upon the transgressions which we witness; venge, to extenuate rather than to aggravate, to con-then it must be something openly at variance ceal rather than to expose, to be kind rather than with the letter and the spirit of revelation: and severe, to be hopeful of good rather than suspicious surely that candor which runs counter to the mind of evil,-but withal, the inflexible, immutable friend of God, cannot be the love on which St. Paul passes of holiness, and the equally inflexible and immutasuch an eulogium in this chapter. We are told by ble enemy of sin. the word of God, that sin is exceedingly sinful: that it is the abominable thing which God hates; that the wages of it are death; that by an unholy feeling we violate the law: we are commanded to abstain from its very appearance; we are warned against excusing it in ourselves, or in each other; we are admonished to reprove it, to resist it, and to oppose it, to the uttermost. Certainly, then, it cannot be required by the law of love, that we should look with a mild and tolerant eye on sin. Love to man arises out of Love to God; but can it be possible to love God, and not to hate sin? it is the fruit of faith, but faith purifies the heart; it is cherished by a sense of redeeming love; but the very end of the scheme of redemption is the destruction of sin. Indulgence of men in their sins, connivance at their iniquity, instead of being an act of benevolence, is the greatest cruelty: hence the emphatic language of God to the Israelites-"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Would it be benevolence to connive at that conduct by which any individual was bringing disease upon his body, or poverty into his circumstances? If not, how can it be benevolent to leave him, without a warning, to do that which will involve his soul in ruin. To think more lightly of the evil of sin than the word of God does; to call that good, or even indifferent, which by it is called evil; to make allowances which it does not make, for human frailty; to frame excuses for sin which it disallows; to lall the consciences of men, by considerations in extenuation of guilt which it forbids; or to do any thing to produce other views and feelings in reference to iniquity, than such as are warranted by the Scripture, is not charity, but a participation in other men's sins. It is the nature of charity, I admit, not to be hasty to impute evil motives to actions of a doubtful nature not to take pleasure in finding out the faults of others; not to magnify them beyond the reality, but to make all the allowance that a regard to truth will admit of; to hope the best in the absence of proof; and to be willing to forgive the offence when it has been committed against ourselves: but to carry it beyond this, and let it degenerate into a complaisance which is afraid to rebuke, or oppose, or condemn sin, lest we should offend the transgressor, or violate the law of courtesy, or subject ourselves to the reproach of being a censorious bigot; which courts the good-will and promotes the self-satisfaction of others, by conniving at their sins; which seeks to ingratiate itself in their affections, by being indulgent to their vices; is to violate at once the law both of the first and of the second Table; is to forget every obligation which we are laid under, both to love God and our neighbor. If this be candor, it is no less opposed to piety than to humanity, and can never be the love enjoined in so many places in the New Testament. No, Christian charity is not a poor old dotard, creeping about the world, too blind to perceive the distinction between good and evil; or a fawning sycophant, too timid to reprove the CHAPTER IV. THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. A DISTINCTION has been introduced into the subject "Though I speak with the tongues of men or of angels, and have not CHARITY, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."-Verse 1. By the tongues of men and of angels, we are not to understand the powers of the loftiest eloquence, but the miraculous gift of tongues, accompanied by an ability to convey ideas according to the method of celestial beings. Should a man be invested with these stupendous endowments, and employ them in the service of the gospel; still, if his heart were not a partaker of love, he would be no more acceptable to God, than was the clangor of the brazen instruments employed in the idolatrous worship of the Egyptian Isis, or the noise of the tinkling cymbals which accompanied the orgies of the Grecian Cybele. Such a man's profession of religion is not only worthless in the sight of God, but disagreeable and disgusting. The comparison is remarkably strong, inasmuch as it refers not to soft melodious sounds, as of the flute or of the harp-not to the harmonious chords of a concert-but to the harsh dissonance of instruments of the most in harmonious character: und if, as is probable, the allusion be to the noisy clank of idolatrous musicians, the idea is as strongly presented as it is possible for the force of language to express it. "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not CHARITY, I am nothing.". Verse 2. Paul still alludes to miraculous endowments. Prophecy, in the Scripture use of the term, is not limited to the foretelling of future events, but means, to speak by inspiration of God; and its exercise, in this instance, refers to the power of explaining, without premeditation or mistake, the typical and predictive parts of the Old Testament dispensation, together with the facts and doctrines of the Christian economy. "The faith that could remove mountains," is an allusion to an expression of our Lord's, which occurs in the gospel history. "Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove." This faith is of a distinct nature altogether from that by which men are justified, and become the children of God. It has been called the faith of miracles, and seems to have consisted in a firm persuasion of the power or ability of God to do any miraculous thing for the support of the gospel. It operated two ways: the first was a belief on the part of the person who wrought the miracle, that he was the subject of a divine impulse, and called at that time to perform such an act; and the other was a belief on the part of the person on whom a miracle was about to be performed, that such an effect would be really produced. Now the apostle declared, that although a man had been gifted with prophecy, so as to explain the deepest mysteries of the Jewish or the Christian systems, and in addition, possessed that miraculous faith by which the most difficult and astonishing changes would have been effected, he was nothing, and less than nothing, without love. "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not CHARITY, it profiteth me nothing."-Verse 3. nor the courage that endured them, nor the seeming zeal for religion which led to them, would be accepted in lieu of love to man. Such an instance of self-devotedness must have been the result either of that self-righteousness which substitutes its own sufferings for those of Christ, or of that love of fame which scruples not to seek it even in the fires of martyrdom;-in either case it partakes not of the nature, nor will it receive the reward, of true religion. It will help to convince us, not only of the necessity, but of the importance, of this temper of mind, if we bring into a narrow compass the many and various representations of it which are to be found in the New Testament. 66 1. It is the object of the divine decree in predestination. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."Ephes. i. 4. 2. It is the end and purpose of the moral law. "The end of the commandment is charity (love.") "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto itThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matt. xxii. 37-40. "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." 3. It is the evidence of regeneration. "Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God." -1 John iv. 7. 4. It is the necessary operation and effect of saving faith. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." 5. It is that grace by which both personal and mutual edification is promoted. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love) edifieth." 1 Cor. viii. 1.– "Maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love." Eph. iv. 16. 6. It is the proof of a mutual inhabitation between God and his people. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John iv. 12—16. 7. It is declared to be the greatest of all the Christion virtues. "The greatest of these is charity (love.") This representation of the indispensable necessity of love is most striking; it supposes it possible that a man may distribute all his substance in acts of apparent beneficence, and yet, after all, be without true religion. Actions derive their moral character from the motives under the influence of which they are performed; and many which are beneficial to man, may still be sinful in the sight of God, because 8. It is represented as the perfection of religion. they are not done from a right inducement. The "Above all these things, put on charity (love,) most diffusive liberality, if prompted by pride, vani- which is the bond of perfectness." Col. iii. 4. ty, or self-righteousness, is of no value in the eyes What encomiums are these! what striking proofs of the omniscient Jehovah: on the contrary, it is of the supreme importance of the disposition now very sinful. And is it not too evident to be ques-under consideration! Who has not been guilty of tioned, that many of the alins-deeds of which we some neglect of it? Who has not had his attention are the witnesses, are done from any motives but drawn too much from it? Who can read these the right ones? We can readily imagine that mul- passages of Holy Writ, and not feel convinced that titudes are lavish in their pecuniary contributions, not only mankind in general, but the professors of who are at the same time totally destitute of love to spiritual religion also, have too much mistaken the God and love to man; and if destitute of these sa- nature of true piety? What are clear and orthocred virtues, they are, as it respects real religion, dox views-what are strong feelings-what is our less than nothing, although they should spend every faith-what our enjoyment-what our freedom from farthing of their property in relieving the wants of gross immorality-without this spirit of pure and the poor. If our munificence, however great or self- universal benevolence? denying, be the operation of mere selfish regard to ourselves, to our own reputation, or to our own safety, and not of pure love, it may do good to others, but will do none to ourselves. "And though I give my body to be burned," i. e. as a martyr for religion, "and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Whether such a case as this ever existed, we know not; it is not impossible, nor improbable; but if it did, not the tortures of an agonizing death, Whether an instance, we again repeat, ever existed of an individual whose circumstances answered to the supposition of the apostle, we cannot determine; the statement certainly suggests to us a most alarming idea of our liability to self-deception in reference to our personal religion. Delusion on this subject prevails to an extent truly appalling, Millions are in error as to the real condition of their souls, and are travelling to perdition, while, 23 we are Christians, while we are destitute of those things which the word of God declares to be essential to genuine piety. We must have love, therefore, or all else is insufficient. according to their own idea, they are journeying to the celestial Canaan. Oh fearful mistake! Oh fatal imposture! What terrible disappointment awaits them! What horror, and anguish, and despair, will take eternal possession of their souls, 1. Some conclude, that because they are regular in that moment of revelation, when, instead of in their attendance upon the services of religion, awaking from the sleep of death amidst the glories they are true Christians: they go punctually to of the heavenly city, they shall lift up their eyes, church or to meeting-they receive the Lord's Sup"being in torment. No pen can describe the over-per-they frequent the meetings for social prayerwhelming anguish of such a disappointment, and they, perhaps, repeat prayers in secret, and read the imagination shrinks with amazement and tor- the Scriptures. All this is well, if it be done with ture from the contemplation of her own faint sketch right views, and in connection with right disposi of the insupportable scene. tions: but it is the whole of their religion; a mere abstraction of devotional exercise; a thing separate and apart from the heart, and temper, and conduct; a business of the closet, and of the sanctuary; a sort of composition paid to the Almighty, to be released from all the other demands of Scripture and obligations of piety; an expression of their willingness to be devout in the church, and on the Sabbath, provided they may be as earthly-minded, as selfish, as malicious, and as unkind, as they please, in all places and all times besides. This is not religion. 2. Others are depending upon the clearness of their views, and their attainments in evangelical knowledge. They pretend to a singular zeal for the truth, and are great sticklers for the doctrines of grace, of which they profess to have an acquaintance little short of inspiration. They look upon all, besides a few of their own class, as mere babes in knowledge, or as individuals who, like the man in the gospel, have their eyes only half opened, and who see To be led on by the power of delusion, so far as to commit an error of consequence to our temporal interests: to have impaired our health, our reputation, or our property; is sufficiently painful, especially where there is no prospect, or but a faint one, of repairing the mischief: yet, in this case, religion opens a balm for the wounded spirit, and eternity presents a prospect, where the sorrows of time will be forgotten. But, oh! to be in error on the nature of religion itself, and to build our hopes of immortality on the sand instead of the rock; to see the lamp of our deceitful profession which has served to amuse us in life, and even to guide us in false peace through the dark valley of the shadow of death, suddenly extinguished as we cross the threshold of eternity, and leaving us amidst the darkness of rayless, endless night, instead of quietly expiring amidst the blaze of everlasting day! Is such a delusion possible? Has it ever happened in one solitary instance? Do the annals of the unseen men as trees walking." They are the world record one such case, and the prison of lost eagles who soar to the sun, and bask in his beams; souls contain one miserable spirit that perished by while the rest of mankind are the moles that burdelusion? Then what deep solicitude ought the row, and the bats that flutter in the dark. Doctrine possibility of such an event to circulate through the is every thing; clear views of the gospel are the hearts of all, to avoid the error of a self-deceived great desideratum; and in their zeal for these mind? Is it possible to be mistaken in our judg- things they suppose they can never say things exment of our state?-then how deeply anxious ought travagant enough, nor absurd enough, nor angry we all to feel, not to be misled by false criteria in enough, against good works, practical religion, or forming our decision. But what if, instead of one Christian temper. Puffed up with pride, selfish, case, millions should have occurred, of souls irre- unkind, irritable, censoricus, malicious--they manicoverably lost by self-deception? What if delusion fest a total want of that humility and kindness should be the most crowded avenue to the bottom- which are the prominent features of true Chrisless pit? What if it should be the common infatu- tianity. Clear views, even where they have no reation, the epidemic blindness, which has fallen upon semblance to the monstrous caricatures and frightthe multitudes of the inhabitants of Christendom? ful deformities of modern antinomianism, are of What if this moral insanity should have infected themselves no evidence of religion, any more than and destroyed very many who have made even a right theoretical notions of the constitution are the stricter profession of religion than others? How proofs of loyalty; and as a man, with these notions shall we explain, much more justify, that want of in his mind, may be a traitor in his heart, so may a anxiety about their everlasting welfare-that desti- professor of religion be an enemy to God in his tution of care to examine into the nature and evi- soul, with an evangelical creed upon his tongue. dences of true piety-that willingness to be imposed Many profess to be very fond of the lamp of truth, upon, in reference to eternity--which many ex- grasp it firmly in their hands, admit its flame, pity hibit? Jesus Christ does tell us that MANY, in that or blame those who are following the delusive and day, shall say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy meteoric fires of error; but, after all, make no in thy name " to whom he will say, "Depart from other use of it, than to illuminate the path that me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity." leads them to perdition: their religion begins and He says, that MANY are called, but few chosen." ends in adopting a form of sound words for their He says, that of the four classes of those who hear creed, approving an evangelical ministry, admiring the word, only one hears it to advantage. He says, the popular champions of the truth, and joining in that of the ten virgins, to whom he likens the king- the reprobation of fundamental error. As to any dom of heaven, five only were wise, while the other spirituality of mind, any heavenliness of affection, five were deceiving themselves with the unfed lamp any Christian love-in short, as to any of the natuof a deceitful profession. He intimates most plainly, ral tendency, the appropriate energy, the vital elethat self-deception in religion is fearfully common-vating influence, of those very doctrines to which and common amongst those who make a more serious profession than others. It is he that has sounded the alarm to awaken slumbering professors of religion from their carnal security. It is he that hath said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him bear."-"I know thy works, how that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead." How careful, then, ought we to be, not to be imposed upon by false evidences of religion, and not to conclude that they profess to be attached-they are as destitute as the veriest worldling; and, like him, are perhaps selfish, revengeful, implacable, and unkind. This is a religion but too common in the present day, when evangelical sentiments are becoming increasingly popular; a religion but too common in our churches; a religion, cold, heartless, and uninfluential; a sort of lunar light which reflects the beams of the sun, but not his warmth. 3. On the other hand, some are satisfied with the us, should fill us with benevolence towards others. vividness and the violence of their feelings. Pos- In order to bring the heart to feel its obligations, he sessed of much excitability and want of tempera- gives a vivid description of God's love to man; and ment, they are, of course, susceptible of deep and then, while his hearers are affected with God's merpowerful impression from the ordinances of reli- cy he calls upon them, in imitation of Jehovah, to gion. They are not without their religious joy, for relieve those who are in want; to bear with those even the stony ground hearers rejoiced for a while; who are vexatious; to forgive those who have inand they are not without their religious sorrows. jured them; to lay aside their wrath, and abound Their tears are plentiful, and their smiles in pro- in all the expressions of genuine affection to their portion. See them in the house of God, and none fellow-christians. One of the individuals is deeply appear to feel more under the word than they. interested and affected by the first part of the disThe sermon exerts a plastic power over their affec- course, sheds many tears, and is wrought up to a tions, and the preacher seems to have their hearts high pitch of feeling, while the preacher paints in at command. They talk loudly of " happy frames," glowing colors the love of God: the other hears "precious seasons," "comfortable opportunities." with fixed attention, with genuine faith, the whole But follow them from the house of God to their sermon, but his emotions are not powerful; he feels own habitation, and, oh, how changed the scene! it is true, but it is tranquil feeling, unattended by the least offence, perhaps an unintentional one, either smiles or tears. They go home; the latter raises a storm of passion, and the man that looked perhaps in silence, the former exclaiming to his like a seraph in the sanctuary, seems more like a friends, "Oh, what a delightful sermon! what a fury at home: follow them from the Sabbath into precious season! did you ever hear the love of God the days of the week; and you will see the man so impressively, so beautifully described ?" With who appeared all for heaven on the Sunday, all for all his feeling, however, he does not go forth to reearth on the Monday: follow them from the assem-lieve one child of want, nor does he attempt to exbly of the saints to the chief places of concourse, tinguish one angry or implacable feeling towards an where they buy, and sell, and get gain; and you individual who had offended him. He is as paswill see the man who looked so devout, irritated sionate and unforgiving, as unkind and selfish, afand litigious, selfish and overreaching, rude and in-ter the sermon, as he was before he heard it. The sulting, envious and malicious, suspicious and de- other retires with more of calm reflection than of famatory. Yes; and perhaps in the evening of the strong emotion. Hearken to his soliloquy :-" The same day, you will see him at a prayer meeting, preacher has given us a most astonishing idea of enjoying, as he supposes, the holy season, Such is the love of God to us, and most clearly and affectthe delusion under which many are living. Their ingly deduced from it our obligations to love one religion is in great part, a mere susceptibility of im- another. Am I interested in this love? What! has pression from religious subjects; it is a selfish, reli- this ineffable grace lavished all its benefits on me, a gious voluptuousness. rebel against God, upon me a sinner? And shall I not feel this love constraining me to relieve the wants, to heal the sorrows, to forgive the offences, of my fellow-creatures? I will bear ill-will no longer; I will put out the kindling spark of revenge; I will go in a spirit of meekness and of love, and forgive the offender, and be reconciled to my brother." By that grace on which he depended, he is enabled to act up to his resolution. He becomes, upon principle, upon conviction, more merciful, more meek, more affectionate. Which has most feeling? The former. Which has most religion? The latter. Any emotion, however pleasurable or intense, that does not lead to action, is mere natural, not holy, feeling: while that, however feeble it may seem, which leads us to do the will of God, is unfeigned piety. In order to ascertain our degree of religion, we must not merely ask, how we feel under sermons, but how this feeling leads us to act afterwards. The operative strength of our principles, and not the contemplative strength of our feelings, is the test of godliness. All that imaginative emotion, produced by a sense of God's love to us, which does not lead to a cultivation of the virtue considered in this treatise, is one of the delusive fires, which, instead of guiding aright, misleads the souls of men. It is certain, that more importance is often times attached to "sensible enjoyment," as it is called-to lively frames and feelings-than belongs to them. There is a great variety in the constitution of the human mind, not only as it respects the power of thinking, but also of feeling: some feel far more acutely than others; this is observable separate and apart from godliness. The grace of God in conversion, operates a moral, not a physical change; it gives a new direction to the faculties, but leaves the faculties themselves as they were; consequently, with equal depth of conviction, and equal strength of principle, there will be various degrees of feeling, in different persons: the susceptibility of the mind to impression, and its liability to vivid feeling, were there before conversion, and they remain after it; and citen times the lively emotion produced by affecting scenes, or seasons, or sermons, is partly an operation of nature, and partly of grace. A man may feel but little, and yet, if that little lead him to do much, it is great piety notwithstanding. Of two persons who listen to an affecting tale, one is seen to weep profusely, and is overwhelmed by the story; the other is attentive and thoughtful, but neither weeps nor sobs. They retire: the former, perhaps, to wipe her tears, and to forget the misery, which caused them; the latter to seek out the sufferer and relieve him. Which had most feeling? 4. It is to be feared that many, in the present day, The former. Which most benevolence? The lat-satisfy themselves that they are Christians, because ter. The conduct of one was the result of nature, of their zeal in the cause of religion. Happily, for that of the other the effect of principle. Take ano- the church of God, happily for the world at large, ther illustration, still more in point. Conceive of there is now a great and general eagerness for the two real Christians listening to a sermon in which diffusion of knowledge and piety. Throwing off the preacher is discoursing from such a text as this the torpor of ages, the friends of Christ are laboring -"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to to extend his kingdom in every direction. Almost love one another;" or this-" Ye know the grace of every possible object of Christian philanthropy is our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, seized upon; societies are organized; means, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye, through adapted to every kind of instruments, are employed; his poverty might become rich." His object, as the whole levy en masse of the religious world is that of every man should be, who preaches from called out; and Christendom presents an interesting such a text, is to show that a sense of divine love to scene of benevolent energy. Such a state of things, |