hibitions, and which therefore made him liable to be tempted by external objects to forbidden indulgence. And this is, in effect, the account which the word of God has given of the fall of Adam. But if this danger existed in the case of those, who were still in their original uprightness, and if in this manner our first parents fell; it is easy to see how much greater must be our danger, involved, as we are, in all the difficulties which are occasioned by the depravation of our nature, by our habits of evil, and by the example and contagion of the world in which we are compelled to live. It is evident, that, if any of us could have come into the world untainted by the corruption which defiles our nature, still we should have had need of vigilance and anxiety, to guard against the ill consequences which might arise from the nature and tendency of our particular affections and propensities; increased, as our danger must be, by the ill conduct of our fellow-creatures, and the system of wickedness and falsehood, by which the whole framework of society is

we were to please God, the more truly sensible of the pollution and demerit of sin, the more ardently desirous to secure a place in a world of endless happiness and perfect goodness, the more keenly sensible should we be of the constancy and imminency of our danger: and, consequently, the more profound must be our anxiety and fear, lest, by any oversight or imprudence, we should fail of attaining our glorious and eternal reward'. There was but one man, born of woman, that ever felt as much fear and anxiety as the condition of human nature demands; because there was but one who was born perfectly

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holy, harmless, and undefiled." Tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, our blessed Redeemer, in the truth of his human nature, made actual experiment of the difficulty and danger of a state of trial. He was, indeed, perfectly free from every taint of evil. But it was this very transcendancy of his purity, which made Him feel as no other man ever felt or can feel,

1 Bp. Butler, Analogy, part i. ch. v. § iv.

such an exquisite sensibility to the first tendencies towards evil, and the most distant approaches of temptation; such an estimate of the consequences of sin, and the value of an immortal soul; such constant apprehension of invisible and eternal realities, of the malignity of Satan, and the all-seeing purity of God, as caused him to fear and tremble with an anxiety, of whose intensity our corruption and unbelief can form no conception. That this anxiety was one ingredient in the sufferings of our Redeemer, is plain from several passages of Scripture, which would otherwise be wholly unintelligible; and certainly the more we partake of His purity and holiness, the more shall we sympathize with His fears.

3. Such has ever been the experience of the Church. The better a man is, and the stronger his faith, the greater value will he attach to the prize for which he is contending. In direct proportion, therefore, will be his fear and his anxiety, lest after all he should be disappointed of his hope, and lose his crown. The man who has but lately begun to think seriously of religion, has no just idea either of his own nature

or of the character of God. He has but inadequate notions of the infinite demerit and loathsomeness of sin; but little experience of his own frailty, and of his liability, after any length of continuance in the path of duty, to turn aside and to depart from God. He knows but little of the arts and untried devices of Satan. He appears to have conquered all his enemies with the first blow. Nor has he any just notions of the holiness of the Gospel. He feels as if he had already attained the end of his journey. Like one newly restored to sight, he has no measure of distance; the most remote object seems to touch his eye. But find me that man who has grown old in the mortification of sin, and the exercise of Christian virtue; one, who has learned this warfare, not from books or sermons but from real fightings against sin and long practised discipline of his spirit; and I will show you one, who knows what it means, to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling; one, who, from deep conviction of his own frailty, and profound meditations on the holiness and justice of God, and the value of his immortal soul, has learned to

serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trembling. Like the ancient tree which sends its roots as far into the earth as its branches ascend into the heaven, the elevation of his piety is the measure of the depth of his humility and contrition. We know, indeed, that God is our Father, and that the blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin: but is our assurance of these glorious truths to render us confident and careless? The Apostle St. Peter shall answer. "If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish, and without spot'." We know that we are not under the rigor and severity of the law. We are not to use the figure of St. Paul-we are not come to that mountain at whose terrors the holiest

+ 1 Pet. i. 17-19.