ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

LXVI.

THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER DELINEATED UPON EVANGELICAL PRINCIPLES.

SEVENTH ESSAY.

THERE is nothing unreasonable in the principles of eternal truth, although the natural man cannot discern the truth of the things revealed. It is not necessary for any man to resign his reason when he becomes a christian; but when he is vitally sanctified, there is no theme which is so suited to his reasoning powers as the christian dispensation. The more we know of its nature and tendency, the greater will be our admiration of it as a system of heavenly truth, for which we shall be ever indebted to Almighty God. It is beyond all question, certain that the deeper we drink into the spirit of the gospel, we shall more strikingly resemble the Son of God, and we shall grow wise and happy. If it is necessary to prove this fact, take the case of the apostle Paul. He was a very wise and learned man before he was made a recipient of heavenly life through Jesus Christ, but he displayed the greatness of his mind, and the vast grasp of his intellectual powers, when he stood at the tribunal of the Roman governor in chains, as a witness for the truth; and the truth which was with such impassioned eloquence delivered by him, extorted from Festus the unjust charge of madness. But the noble-minded apostle turning to king Agrippa, appealed to him to confirm the things which he had declared, “That he knew these things; before him also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner." It may be said that this was a rare and singular case. I admit it was; and I would therefore take another case. We will suppose that the most ignorant man existing under the canopy of the skies is called by grace to the fellowship of Christ, and what will be the result of it in a moral sense? He was before "like the beasts that perish," but he is now greatly elevated in an evangelical way, even to possess the spirit of that heavenly relationship to which God had adopted him in the person of his Son. And, although he is not competent to reason upon, and to defend the truth that he believes, yet he can give a reason of the hope that is within him with meekness and fear. Who were more brutish in their conduct than the wise Romans, and the ancient Corinthians? But when the gospel entered their hearts in a powerful manner, the philosophers and the lawyers at Rome could then plead with unequalled eloquence the cause of the once crucified Redeemer; and the inhabitants of Corinth were saved from their former wicked conduct. The apostle Paul was not ashamed to go to

Rome to preach the gospel of Christ, although he knew that it was the seat of the sciences, and the fountain of polite literature.

Man is the noblest creature which God has formed in this province of his vast empire. It is his intellectual nature that distinguishes him from the brute creation; and the course of his conduct proves that he is superior to every animal on the face of the earth, for they are moved by instinct to act according to the laws by which they are governed, but he exercises his reasoning powers, and he therefore distinguishes the difference of things which fall under his observation, and they are chosen by him according as he perceives there is a fitness in them to promote his happiness. When any thing sensibly impresses the mind, and permanently abides there, leaving behind it the image of the thing which at first impressed it, we may compare, examine, and look at it another day; we may separate and divide one thing from another, and we use that which appears the best suited to our purpose. The intelligent part of the creation is capacitated by God in the use of their reasoning powers to act rationally, and it is inconsistent for us to say that God can supernaturally capacitate the creatures of his power to perceive, approve, and love the things pertaining to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. By a spiritual creation, effected by the Holy Ghost, we receive a new spring of life and consciousness, even as Elihu said, "There is a spirit in men, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." The reasoning powers of men are then used under the influence of the Spirit to the honour of God, and the benefit of the church. The creature man, when made the partaker of a divine nature, has the most holy intercourse with God, in an evangelical way, that any part of the creation can enjoy. The angels are confirmed in the heavenly world, and they have that communion with God which is suited to their spiritual nature, and the relation in which they stand to him as their Creator and King. But the man who is renewed by grace to bear the image of Christ, who is the first-born amongst many brethren, and who has received by faith the forgiveness of all sin through the blood of the cross, he has communion with God upon another foundation. As a child of God, he is brought by the Spirit home to his Father's house, but it is as a pardoned son redeemed from a lapsed and ruined condition into an estate of endless purity and perfection. There is nothing unreasonable in this; for as we have observed above, the relationship subsisting between God and his children is developed by it. The soul of man is sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and every faculty of it is filled with heavenly life and light. If we take a little pains, we shall find in our investigation of this matter, that there is internal as well as external evidence that the renewed man is brought into the nearest possible union to God. In the complex person of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, he being personally Jehovah by nature, having the nature of man, standing by hypostatical union in his eternal and unbegotten person, is in the junction of these natures ImVOL. VII. No. 80. 2 E

manuel. In this person God has made known himself according to his wise counsel in the most precious, wise, just and powerful manner, that he could do consistently with his absolute dominion and independency over his creatures. Immanuel then being most nearly united to God, he has the most intimate fellowship with him; and as we have the nearest union to the person of Christ that grace has constituted, the eternal Spirit is given to us as the witness of it: we are in consequence of it evangelized to have fellowship with the great Redeemer, and in him, by faith, with the undivided and eternal Trinity. The vital sanctification of the church by the Holy Ghost, is the sacred means by which Christ is formed in the heart the hope of glory. Whoever is thus formed for the service of God, by reading of the scriptures, he has real fellowship with God. By the holy doctrines of the gospel divine light is shed upon the understanding, and we discern the truth as it is in Jesus; for the bible is a mirror in which we behold the glory of God shining in the person of his Son, and the Spirit who secretly but efficiently works by it, does by his transforming influence change into the glory of the Lord. If it were not so, the mere reading of the scriptures can never produce such effects, and the word of God is to prosper in the thing to which he has sent it. Well then, we find in the order of things adopted by God, that there is a fitness of wisdom displayed, and of power exerted, to bring about the most honourable end. Where Christ dwells in the heart by faith, he enlarges and ennobles the faculties of the mind; and we collect from the word of God stores of spiritual wisdom that we use in an evangelical manner, There is no deportment of life in which we can move, but we shall be necessitated to exercise our spiritual understanding in it, and to draw upon the stores of grace and mercy in the person of Christ for supplies of strength to do his will. Hence that all important and indispensably necessary duty of prayer. No man can consistently pray, but, as he is in possession of spiritual knowledge to employ the graces of the Spirit under his holy influences. Apart from this holy connection, we may pursue the same conduct as the heathens anciently followed when they carried their offerings to their dunghill deities, between whom and their worshippers, there was no association. It is not true that ignorance is the mother of devotion. True devotion is the offspring of a mind enlightened from above, and in the practice of it every grace of the Spirit is employed. With gratitude to God for mercy revealed to us, by faith we present our daily sacrifices to him in the name of his dear Son. It is quite evident that the holy religion of the gospel is perfectly consistent with right reason, and God is glorified by it in the salvation of his people.

If it had pleased Almighty God to have endowed man with reason alone, that would have been a distinguishing favour; but when in addition to that noble principle he has added the faculty of speech, so that in the use of it he can converse with his fellow creatures, he has conferred upon him a blessing, the benefit of which is incalculably

great. A very sensible medical writer has said of speech-That the mind being formed for society, and intercourse with beings of her own kind, requires to be endowed with powers of expressing and communicating her thoughts by some sensible marks or signs which shall be both easy to herself, and admit of great variety; and that she is therefore provided with organs and faculty of speech, by which she can throw out signs with amazing facility and vary them without ;' and perhaps the mind cannot picture to herself a more delightful scene on earth, than that of a company of sensible and judicious christians, met together in the name of the Lord, who are alive to the worth of time, and who are determined not to waste it in prattling about the trifles of a day, but who consecrate it to the honour of God. The common conversation of the day amongst the fashionable professors of christianity is very trifling; most frequently a little empty prattle about their favourite preacher; and it will be well if their friends escape with but a small portion of scandal: this is about the sum total of what is by them called religious conversation. But if what has been observed above is true, viz.-that Christ and his people are one, and that nothing can divide them, I am induced to think that "they will speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of his power." Who can calculate the advantage attending of such practices? It is very observable that when christians assemble together, that there is so much etiquette observed by them, that the spirit of the world has the ascendancy before they are aware of it. It would be well if every christian before he makes those friendly visits, that he would retire into his closet, and spend a few moments in prayer to God, that the friends with whom he is to spend an evening might be brought together in the spirit of the gospel. I was led from the worldly and unprofitable conversation, so common in a circle of friends in which I once moved, to adopt this plan; and whenever I received an invitation to meet a party of christian friends, from the time I received it until the day of fulfilling of my engagement came, I accustomed myself to make it a matter of prayer to God, and I found my own account in it; for I lived long enough in that neighbourhood to discover a considerable increase of spirituality in the conversation of my friends. If by using the faculty of speech we may be serviceable to the interests of Christ in any way, it is a great honour to be so employed for the benefit of his people.

It is not absolutely necessary that all the children of God should be able to converse copiously upon religious subjects. There are some of them who are like Moses, slow of speech; but every one of them may in the circle in which they move practically commend the holy religion of the Son of God. By the preaching of the gospel the saints are nourished to eternal life. And there is good reason to believe that those persons who endeavour to know what God has done in and for them, and are contented to use the gifts which they have received from him, that they may be extensively useful to those who listen to their artless tale. The little Israelitish maid who was carried

away captive into an enemy's land, when she saw her master's sore disease, she said to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy." The issue of this simple but pointed saying is so well known that it is not necessary to mention it. There are many guerrulous old ladies who are desirous of engrossing the whole attention of the company with their wonderful exploits and marvellous doings. I should not think it a breach of the laws of well-regulated society, if a judicious christian were in a courteous manner to ask them what they know of the person, grace, and salvation of Jesus? For if they are accustomed to reflection, it would be a means of putting an end to their unprofitable conversation, and of turning of it into a spiritual channel.

Many persons say that the government of the tongue is so difficult that they cannot attain to it. When there is no disposition to lay a restraint upon the tongue, there will be loud complaints made against its practicability. Such persons will take advantage of the language of the apostle James, and they will attempt to repel your argument by the force of his statement. There was a period, we are told, when Luther wished the epistle of James had not been in the canon of holy writ; but that good man lived long enough to learn the value of that epistle, as much as he did Paul's epistles to the Galatians and the Romans. And many of those people who have been first in condemning the government of the tongue, they have afterwards withdrawn their opposition to that art, and they have commended it as forcibly as they had before opposed it. To say that the tongue cannot be restrained, is to utter a falsehood; for if the sins of the tongue are atoned by the blood of Christ, I am quite certain that there is energy enough in the grace of God to " keep the tongue from evil, and the lips that they speak no guile." It is directly opposed to the spirit of the gospel to indulge ourselves in ridicule, or to rail against any one, particularly against the disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. If one man is in possession of a more extensive knowledge of the gospel than his brother, it is highly ridiculous in such an one to pour contempt upon his weaker brother, because he does not apprehend the will of God in the same degree as he does; the truth is, that neither of them would have known any thing about the kingdom of Christ, if God had not been merciful unto them, and revealed it to them by the Holy Spirit. Those preachers who employ the greatest part of the time allotted to them to deliver a sermon in railing against other men, they have not drank deeply into the spirit of the great Head of the church. The pulpit is a spot too sacred to be prostituted to banter and ridicule; and the work of the ministry is so holy and so important, that we should conclude from the nature of the ministerial office, that the christian minister has no time to appropriate to such unhallowed purposes. When I assert that the tongue can be controlled, I do not suppose that any man can do it of himself, nor that we shall be entirely faultless in our practice, until