is made level before him, and he enters it | somuch that the state of the believer, in rewith the inspiration of a new and invigora- spect of motive and of practical influence, ting principle; and that love to God, which is the very reverse of what we have now the consciousness of guilt will ever keep at adverted to. In the act of becoming a bea distance from the heart, now takes up the liever, he awakens from the deep and uniroom of this terrifying, and paralysing, and versal lethargy of nature. With his new alienating sentiment; and the reception of hope commences his new life. He ceases this doctrine of atonement is just as much to be stationary, and what is more, he the turning point of a new character, as it never ceases to be progressive. He does is the turning point of a new hope; and it not satisfy himself with barely moving onis the very point, in the history of every wards to a higher point in the scale of huhuman soul, at which the alacrity of gospel man attainment, and then sitting down obedience takes its commencement, as well with the sentiment that it is enough. He as the cheerfulness of gospel anticipations. never counts it enough. The practical attiTill this doctrine be believed, there is no tude of the believer is that of one who is attempt at obedience at all; or else, it is ever looking forwards. The practical movesuch an obedience as is totally unanimated ment of the believer is that of one who is by the life and the love of real godliness. ever pressing forwards. He could not, withAnd it is not till this doctrine has taken out a surrender of those essential principles possession of the mind, that any man can which make him what he is, tarry at any take up the language of the Psalmist, and one point in the gradation of moral excelsay, "Lord, I am thy servant, I am thy ser-lence. It is not more inseparable from him vant, thou hast loosed my bonds."

to be ever doing well, than it is inseparable from him to be ever aspiring to do better. So that the paltry question about the degrees and the comparisons of virtue, he en

aids and expedients of the gospel for helping his advancement, does he strenuously prosecute the work of conforming to the precept of the gospel,-to be growing in grace, to be perfecting himself in holiness.

It has been a much controverted question, how far this process of continual advancement will carry a believer in this world. Some affirm it will carry him to the point of absolute perfection. Others more cautiously satisfy themselves by the remark, that whether perfection be ever our attainment or not, it ought always to be our aim. And one thing seems to be certain, that there is no such perfection in this world, as might bring along with it the repose of victory.

Conceive, then, a believer with the career of obedience thus opened up and made hopeful to him,-conceive him with the necessity of obedience made just as authen-tertains not for a moment; and, with all the tically known to him as are the tidings of his deliverance from guilt,-conceive a man who, by the act of rendering homage to the truth of God, rests a confidence in the death of Christ for pardon, and who also, by the very same act, subscribes to the sayings of Christ about repentance, and the new walk of the new creature, and then let me ask you to think of the securities which encompass his mind, and protect it from the delusion that we have already alluded to. We have said that the peace which is felt in a vague apprehension of God's mercy, and which makes no account of his truth, or of his justice, has the effect of making him who entertains it altogether stationary, in point of acquirement. With the semblance of good that he has about him, he will meet the sterner attributes of the Deity. For his defect of real good, he will draw on the indulgent attributes of the Deity. He will make the character of God, suit itself to his own character, so that any stimulus to advance or to perfect it, shall be practically done away. And thus it is, that along the whole range of human accomplishment, you may observe an unvaried state of repose, the repose, in fact, of death,-for the repose of man who brought to the estimate of a spiritual law, will be found, to use the significant language of the Bible, dead in trespasses and sins,-sinning at one time without remorse, trusting at another time without foundation.

Paul counted all that was behind as nothing, and he pressed onwards. And it is the experience of every Christian, who makes a real business of his sanctification, that there is a struggle between nature and grace, even unto the end. There is no discharge from this warfare, while we are in the body. To the last hour of life there will be the presence of a carnal nature to humble him, and to make him vigilant; and, with every true Christian, there will be the ascendency of grace, so as that this nature shall not have the dominion over him. The corruption of the old man will be effectually resisted; but not, we fear, till the materialism of our actual frames be resolved into dust, will this corruption be Now the gospel scheme of mercy is clear destroyed. The flesh lusting against the of this abuse altogether. It comes forth spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, is the upon the sinner with an antidote against short but compendious description of the this security, just as strong and as promi- state of every believer in the world ;—and nent as is its antidote against despair. In-could the evil and adverse principle be

eradicated, as well as overborne,-could a of Christ, is, through his means, to obtain living man bid the sinful propensity, with an erasure of the sentence of their conall its workings and all its inclinations, demnation. Now, though this, undoubt- · conclusively away from him,-could the edly, be one great design of the gospel, it authority of the new creature obtain such is not the design in which it terminates. unrivalled sway over the whole machinery It may, in fact, be only considered as a of the affections and the doings, that re- preparation for an ulterior accomplishsistance was no longer felt, and the battle was ment altogether. Christ came to redeem brought to its termination,-if it were pos- us from all iniquity, and to purify us unto sible, we say, for a disciple, on this side of himself a peculiar people, zealous of good the grave, to attain the eminency of a con- works. It were selfishness under the guise dition so glorious, then we know not of of sacredness, to sit down, in placid conwhat use to him would be either a death tentment, with the single privilege of jusor a resurrection, or why he might not tification. It is only the introduction to bear his earthly tabernacle to heaven, and higher privileges. set him down by direct translation amongst But not till we submit to the righteousthe company of the celestial. But no! ness of Christ, as the alone meritorious There hangs about the person of the most plea of our acceptance, shall we become pure and perfect Christian upon earth, personally righteous ourselves,-not till we some mysterious necessity of dying. That see the blended love and holiness of the body, styled with such emphasis a vile Godhead, in our propitiation, shall we body, by the Apostle, must be pulverized know how to combine a confidence in his and made over again. And not till that mercy, with a reverence for his character, which is sown in corruption shall be raised-not till we look to that great transacin incorruption,-not till that which is tion, by which the purity of the divine nasown in weakness shall be raised in power, ture is vindicated, and yet the sinner is -not till that which is sown a natural delivered from the coming vengeance, shall body shall be raised a spiritual body,-not we be freed from the dominion of sin, or till the soul of man occupy another tene-be led to admire and to imitate the great ment, and the body which now holds him Pattern of excellence. The renewing Spirit, be made to undergo some unknown but indeed, is withheld from all those who glorious transformation, will he know what withhold their consent from the doctrine it is to walk at perfect liberty, and, with the full play of his then emancipated powers, to expatiate without frailty, and without a flaw, in the service of his God.

We know that the impression which many have of the disciples of the gospel is, that their great and perpetual aim is, that they may be justified,-that the change of state which they are ever aspiring after, is a change in their forensic state, and not in their personal, that if they can only attain delivery from wrath, they will be satisfied, and that the only use they make

of Christ, and of him crucified. Paul was determined to know nothing else; and it is in this knowledge, and in this alone, that we are renewed after the image of him who created us.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

DISCOURSES

ON THE

APPLICATION OF CHRISTIANITY

TO THE

COMMERCIAL AND ORDINARY AFFAIRS OF LIFE.

PREFACE.

THE following Discourses can be regarded in no other light, than as the fragment of a subject far too extensive to be overtaken within a compass so narrow. There has only a partial survey been taken of the morality of the actions that are current among people engaged in merchandise and with regard to the morality of the affections which stir in their hearts, and give a feverish and diseased activity to the pursuits of worldly ambition, this has scarcely been touched upon, save in a very general way in the concluding discourse.

And yet, in the estimation of every cultivated Christian, this second branch of the subject should be by far the most interesting,-as it relates to that spiritual discipline by which the love of the world is overcome; and by which all that oppressive anxiety is kept in check, which the reverses and uncertainties of business are so apt to inject into the bosom; and by which the appetite that urges him who hasteth to be rich is effectually restrained-so as to make it possible for a man to give his hand to the duties of his secular occupation, and, at the same time, to maintain that sacredness of heart which becomes every fleeting traveller through a scene, all whose pleasures and whose prospects are so soon to pass away. Should this part of the subject be resumed at some future opportunity, there are two questions of casuistry connected with it, which will demand no small degree of consideration. The first relates to the degree in which an affection for present things, and present interests ought to be indulged. And the second is, whether, on the supposition that a desire after the good things of the present life were reduced down to the standard of the gospel, there would remain a sufficient impulse in the world for upholding its commerce, at the rate which would secure the greatest amount of comfort and subsistence to its families,

Without offering any demonstration, at present, upon this matter, we simply state it as our opinion, that, though the whole business of the world were in the hands of men thoroughly Christianised, and who, rating wealth according to its real dimensions on the high scale of eternity, were chastened out of all their idolatrous regards to it-yet would trade, in these circumstances, be carried to the extreme limit of its being really productive or desirable. An affection for riches, beyond what Christianity prescribes, is not essential to any extension of commeree that is at all valuable or legitimate; and in opposition to the maxim, that the spirit of enterprise is the soul of commercial prosperity, do we hold, that it is the excess of this spirit beyond the moderation of the New Testament, which, pressing on the natural boundaries of trade, is sure, at length, to visit every country where it operates, with the recoil of all those calamities, which in the shape of beggared capitalists, and unemployed operatives, and dreary intervals of bankruptcy and alarm, are observed to follow a season of overdone speculation.

DISCOURSE I.

On the mercantile Virtues which may exist without the Influence of Christianity.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things."-Philippians ĭv. 8.

able of character. He appeals to a tribunal in their own breasts, and evidently supposes, that, antecedently to the light of the Christian revelation, there lay scattered among the species certain principles of feeling and of action, in virtue of which, they both occasionally exhibited what was just and true, and of good report, and also could render to such an exhibition, the homage of their regard and of their reverence. At present we shall postpone the direct enforcement of these virtues upon the observation of Christians, and shall confine our thoughts of them to the object of estimating their precise importance and character, when they are realised by those who are not Christians.

THE Apostle, in these verses, makes use of | men to estimate the lovely and the honourcertain terms, without ever once proposing to advance any definition of their meaning. He presumes on a common understanding of this, between himself and the people whom he is addressing. He presumes that they know what is signified by Truth, and Justice, and Loveliness, and the other moral qualities which are included in the enumeration of our text. They, in fact, had words to express them, for many ages antecedent to the coming of Christianity into the world. Now, the very existence of the words proves, that, before the gospel was taught, the realities which they express must have existed also. These good and respectable attributes of character must have been occasionally exemplified by men, prior to the religion of the New Tes While we assert with zeal every doctrine tament. The virtuous and the praisewor- of Christianity, let us not forget that there thy must, ere the commencement of the new is a zeal without discrimination; and that, dispensation, have been met with in society to bring such a spirit to the defence of our -for the Apostle does not take them up in faith, or of any one of its peculiarities, is this passage, as if they were unknown and not to vindicate the cause, but to discredit unheard of novelties-but such objects of it. Now, there is a way of maintaining the general recognition, as could be under-utter depravity of our nature, and of doing stood on the bare mention of them, without warning and without explanation.

it in such a style of sweeping and of vehement asseveration, as to render it not But more than this. These virtues must merely obnoxious to the taste, but obnoxious not only have been exemplified by men, to the understanding. On this subject there previous to the entrance of the gospel is often a roundness and a temerity of anamongst them-seeing that the terms, ex-nouncement, which any intelligent man, pressive of the virtues, were perfectly un- looking at the phenomena of human chaderstood-but men must have known how racter with his own eyes, cannot go along to love and to admire them. How is it that with; and thus it is, that there are injudiwe apply the epithet lovely to any moral cious defenders of orthodoxy, who have qualification, but only in as far as that mustered against it not merely a positive qualification does in fact draw towards it a dislike, but a positive strength of observasentiment of love? How is it that another tion and argument. Let the nature of man qualification is said to be of good report, be a ruin, as it certainly is, it is obvious to but in as far as it has received from men the most common discernment, that it does an applauding or an honourable testimony? not offer one unvaried and unalleviated The Apostle does not bid his readers have mass of deformity. There are certain respect to such things as are lovely, and phases, and certain exhibitions of this nathen, for the purpose of saving them from ture, which are more lovely than otherserror, enumerate what the things are which certain traits of character, not due to the he conceives to possess this qualification. operation of Christianity at all, and yet He commits the matter, with perfect con- calling forth our admiration and our tenfidence, to their own sense and their own derness-certain varieties of moral comapprehension. He bids them bear a re- plexion, far more fair and more engaging spect to whatsoever things are lovely- than certain other varieties; and to prove nor does he seem at all suspicious that, by that the gospel may have had no share in so doing, he leaves them in any darkness the formation of them, they in fact, stood or uncertainty about the precise import of out to the notice and respect of the world the advice which he is delivering. He before the gospel was ever heard of. The therefore recognizes the competency of classic page of antiquity sparkles with re

peated exemplifications of what is bright | his God, as if the principles of his constiand beautiful in the character of man; nor tution had been mixed up in such a differdo all its descriptions of external nature ent proportion, as to make him an odious waken up such an enthusiasm of pleasure, and a revolting spectacle? In a word, as when it bears testimony to some grace- might not Sensibility shed forth its tears, ful or elevated doing out of the history of and Friendship perform its services, and the species. And whether it be the kindli- Liberality impart of its treasure, and Paness of maternal affection, or the unwearied-triotism earn the gratitude of its country, ness of filial piety, or the constancy of tried and Honour maintain itself entire and unand unalterable friendship, or the earnest- tainted, and all the softenings of what is ness of devoted patriotism, or the rigour of amiable, and all the glories of what is unbending fidelity, or any other of the re- chivalrous and manly gather into one corded virtues which shed a glory over the bright effulgency of moral accomplishment remembrance of Greece and of Rome-we on the person of him who never, for a sinfully concede it to the admiring scholar, gle day of his life, subordinates one habit, that they one and all of them were some or one affection, to the will of the Altimes exemplified in those days of Heathen- mighty; who is just as careless and as unism; and that, out of the materials of a pe- concerned about God, as if the native tenriod, crowded as it was with moral abomi-dencies of his constitution had compounded nations, there may also be gathered things him into a monster of deformity; and who which are pure, and lovely, and true, and just as effectually realizes this attribute of just, and honest, and of good report. rebellion against his Maker, as the most What do we mean, then, it may be ask-loathsome and profligate of the species, ed, by the universal depravity of man? How shall we reconcile the admission now made, with the unqualified and authoritative language of the Bible, when it tells us of the totality and the magnitude of human corruption? Wherein lies that desperate wickedness, which is every where ascribed to all the men of all the families that be on the face of the earth? And how can such a tribute of acknowledgment be awarded to the sages and the patriots of antiquity, who yet, as the partakers of our fallen nature, must be outcasts from the favour of God, and have the character of evil stamped upon the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts continually?

that he walks in the counsel of his own heart, and after the sight of his own eyes?

The same constitutional variety may be seen on the lower fields of creation. You there witness the gentleness of one animal, the affectionate fidelity of another, the cruel and unrelenting ferocity of a third; and you never question the propriety of the language, when some of these instinctive tendencies are better reported of than others; or when it is said of the former of them, that they are the more fine, and amiable, and endearing. But it does not once occur to you, that, even in the very best of these exhibitions, there is any sense of God, or that the great master-principle of his auIn reply to these questions, let us speak thority is at all concerned in it. Transfer to your own experimental recollections on a this contemplation back again to our spesubject in which you are aided, both by cies; and under the same complexional difthe consciousness of what passes within ference of the more and the less lovely, or you, and by your observation of the cha- the more and the less hateful, you will perracters of others. Might not a sense of ceive the same utter insensibility to the honour elevate that heart which is totally consideration of a God, or the same utter unfurnished with a sense of God? Might inefficiency on the part of his law to subnot an impulse of compassionate feeling be due human habits and human inclinations. sent into that bosom which is never once It is true, that there is one distinction bevisited by a movement of duteous loyalty tween the two cases; but it all goes to agtowards the Lawgiver in heaven? Might gravate the guilt and the ingratitude of not occasions of intercourse with the be- man. He has an understanding which the ings around us, develope whatever there is inferior animals have not-and yet, with in our nature of generosity, and friendship, this understanding, does he refuse practiand integrity, and patriotism; and yet the cally to acknowledge God. He has a conunseen Being, who placed us in this thea- science, which they have not-and yet, tre, be neither loved, nor obeyed, nor listen-though it whisper in the ear of his inner ed to? Amid the manifold varieties of human character, and the number of constitutional principles which enter into its composition, might there not be an individual in whom the constitutional virtues so blaze forth and have the ascendency, as to give a general effect of gracefulness to the whole of this moral exhibition; and yet, may not that individual be as unmindful of

man the claims of an unseen legislator, does he lull away his time in the slumbers of indifference, and live without him in the world.

Or go to the people of another planet, over whom the hold of allegiance to their maker is unbroken-in whose hearts the Supreme sits enthroned, and throughout the whole of whose history there runs the