him to contend with a passion. You will soon find this man, invincible before, subdued into slavery and shame. He, who was firm and fearless in sight of fire and flame, at the sound of warlike instruments, becomes feeble, mean and enervated by a seducing and enchanting object. Sampson defeats the Philistines: but Dalilah subdues Sampson. Sampson carries away the gates of Gaza: but Sampson sinks under the weight of his own sensuality. Hercules seeks highway robbers to combat, and monsters to subdue: but he cannot resist impurity. We find him on monuments of antiquity carrying an infant on his shoulders, an emblem of voluptuousness, stooping under that unworthy burden, and letting his club fall from his hand. There is therefore no declamation, no hyperbole in our proposition: the christian hero is capable of performing all the great actions performed by the hero of the world: but the hero of the world is incapable of performing such noble actions as the christian hero performs; and in this respect, he, that ruleth his spirit, is better than he, that taketh a city.

3. Compare him, that taketh a city, with him that ruleth his spirit, in regard to the enemies, whom they attack, and you will find in the latter a third title of superiority over the former. He, that taketh a city, attacks an exterior enemy, who is a stranger, and often odious to him. The ambition, that fills his soul, leaves no room for compassion and pity; and, provided he can but obtain his end, no matter to him though the way be strewed with the dying and the dead, to obtain that he travels over mountains of heads, and arms, and carcases. The tumultuous passions, which tyrannize over him, stifle the voice of nature, and

deafen him to the cries of a thousand miserable wretches sacrificed to his fame.

The enemy, whom the christian combats, is his own heart for he is required to turn his arms against himself. He must suspend all sentiments of self-love; he must become his own executioner, and, to use the ideas and expressions of Jesus Christ, he must actually deny himself.

Jesus Christ well knew mankind. He did not preach like some preaching novices, who, in order to incline their hearers to subdue their passions, propose the work to them as free from difficulty. Jesus Christ did not disguise the difficulties, which the man must undergo, who puts on the spirit of christianity and I do not know whether we meet with any expression in the writings of pagan poets or philosophers more natural, and at the same time more emphatical than this: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, Matt. xvi. 24.

Not that this is literally practicable, not that man can put off himself, not that religion requires us to sacrifice to it what makes the essence and happiness of our nature: on the contrary, strictly speaking, it is sin,' which makes us put off or deny what is great and noble in our essence; it is sin, which requires us to sacrifice our true happiness to it. If Jesus Christ expresses himself in this manner, it is because when man is possessed with a passion, it is incorporated, as it were, with himself; it seems to him essential to his felicity; every thing troubles, and every thing puts him on the rack, when he cannot gratify it; without gratifying his passion, his food hath no taste, flowers no smell, pleasures no point, the sun is dark, society disagreeable, life itself hath no charms. To attack a reigning passion is to deny self; and here is the patience of the saints; this is the enemy, whom

the christian attacks; this is the war, which he wageth. How tremulous and weak is the hand, when it toucheth a sword to be plunged into one's own bosom ! Love of order, truth and virtue support a christian hero in this almost desperate undertaking.

4. In fine, Compare him that ruleth his spirit with him that taketh a city, in regard to the acclamations with which they are accompanied, and the crowns prepared for them. Who are the authors of those acclamations, with which the air resounds the praise of worldly heroes? They are courtiers, poets, panegyrists. But what are people of this order the only persons, who entertain just notions of glory; and, if they be, are they generous enough to speak out? How can a soul wholly devoted to the will and caprice of a conqueror; how can a venal creature, who makes a market of eulogiums and praises, which he sells to the highest bidder; how can a brutal soldiery determine what is worthy of praise or blame? Is it for such people to distribute prizes of glory, and to assign heroes their rank? To be exalted by people of this sort is a shame; to be crowned by their hands an infamy.

Elevate, elevate thy meditation, christian soul, rise into the Majesty of the Great Supreme. Think of that sublime intelligence, who unites in his essence every thing noble and sublime. Contemplate God, surrounded with angels and archangels, cherubims and seraphims. Hear the concerts, which happy spirits perform to his glory. Hear them penetrated, ravished, charmed with the divine beauties, crying night and day, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and might be unto our God for ever

and ever. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? This being so perfect, this being so worthily praised, this being so worthy of everlasting praise, this is he, who will pronounce upon true glory; this is he who will compose the eulogium of all who aspire at it; this is he, who will one day praise in the face of heaven and earth all those, who shall have made the noblest conquests, which we have been describing.

Imagination sinks under the weight of this subject, and this object is too bright for eyes like ours: but the nature of things doth not depend on our faculty of seeing them. As God calls us to combats more than human, so he sees fit to support us by a prospect of more than human rewards. Yes, it is the supreme Being, it is he, who will one day distribute the praises which are due to such as have triumphed over themselves. What a spectacle! what a prospect! Yes, christian champion, after thou hast resisted flesh and blood, after thou hast been treated as a fool by mankind, after thou hast run the race of tribulation, after thou hast made thy life one perpetual martyrdom, thou shalt be called forth in the presence of men and angels, the master of the world shall separate thee from the crowd: there he will address to thee this language, Well done, good and faithful servant ; there he will accomplish the promise, which he this day makes to all who fight under his standard, he that overcometh shall sit down in my throne. throne. Ah! glory of worldly heroes; profane encomiums; fastidious inscriptions; proud trophies; brilliant but corruptible diadems; what are you in comparison with the acclamations which await the christian he

ro, and the crowns which God the rewarder prepares for him.

And you, mean and timid souls, who perhaps admire these triumphs, but who have not the ambition to strive to obtain them; you soft and indolent spirits, who without reluctance give up all pretensions to the immortal crown, which God prepares for heroism, provided he require no account of your indolence and effiminacy, and suffer you like brute beasts to follow the first instincts of your nature; undeceive yourselves. I said at the beginning, you are all called to heroism; there is no midway in religion; you must be covered with shame and infamy along with the base and timid, or crowned with glory in company with heroes. The duty of an intelligent soul is to adhere to truth, and to follow virtue: we bring into the world with us obstacles to both; our duty is to surmount them; without this we betray our trust; we do not answer the end of our creation; we are guilty, and we shall be punished for not endeavoring to obtain the great end for which we are created.

Let this be the great principle of our divinity and morality. Let us invariably retain it. Let us not lose ourselves in discussions and researches into the origin of evil, and into the permission of the entrance of sin into the world. Let us not bury ourselves alive in speculations and labyrinths; let us not plunge into abysses, from which no pains can disengage us. Let us fear an ocean full of rocks, and let an idea of the shipwrecks, which so many rash people have made, stop us on the shore. Let us consider these questions less with a view to consider the perfections of the Creator in the thick darkness, under which he hath thought proper to conceal them, than in that of learning the obligations of a creature. I do not mean to 20

VOL. IV.