their own pitch is unnecessary. If they allow that it is sublime, they insist that it is impracticable. If they allow that the love, peace and joy of the apostle, are desirable, they do not desire them as fruits of the spirit, as signs of acceptance: The interior principle, those views which take in the very depths of the heart, as well as the surface of life, -any practical use of these penetrating truths, they consider as something which the enthusiastic reader does not find, but make.

The mere social and political virtues are made for this world. Here they have their origin, their use, and their reward. All the motives to various practice, not derived from the hope of future blessedness, will be inefficient. There is a powerful obligation to " perfect holiness" to those who do not perfect it in the fear of God." Grace will not thrive abundantly in that heart which does not believe it to be the seed of glory.

The moralist of our apostle is not merely a man possessed of agreeable qualities, of some social and civil virtues, of generosity and good nature, qualities excellent as far as they go, and which, as a means to the good order of society, can scarcely be too much valued; but these qualities a man may possess, without having the love of God shed abroad in his heart, without desiring "to live for him who died for him." Such qualities will gain him credit, but that very credit may endanger his salvation, if worldly esteem make him rest satisfied, without the "honor which cometh from God." The purity, sublimity, and consistency of St. Paul's requirements, every where manifest that his moral man is not merely a disciple of Antoninus or Epictetus, but a liege subject of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom

Paul shows, that the humbling doctrines of the cross are so far from lowering the tone of moral obligation, that they raise the standard of practical virtue to an elevation totally unknown under any other mode of instruction. But there is a tendency in the heart of man, in his natural state, to rebel against these doctrines, even while he professes himself an advocate for virtue; to set up the virtue which he presumes that he possesses, against religion, to which he is chiefly hostile for the very elevation which it gives to virtue: this, more than the doctrines, and even than the mysteries of revelation, is the real cause of his hostility.

We have known persons, when pressed on the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, think to get rid of the argument, by declaring that they did not pretend to understand St. Paul; that, for their part, they were quite satisfied with

Micah's religion: "To do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God," was enough for them. In what they call this comfortable, and reasonable, and practicable scheme of religion, they are little aware what strictness is involved, what integrity, what charity, what holiness. They little think how nearly the prophet's religion approached that of the apostle. There is in fact no difference between them, but such as necessarily arises out of the two dispensations under which they lived. To walk humbly with God, we must believe in the revelation of his Son, and consequently adopt the principle he enjoins: we must adopt every doctrine, and believe every mystery. To walk humbly with God, is a principle which stretches to the bounds of the whole universe of revelation.

More men are indebted to Christianity for their morality, than are willing to confess the obligation. It communicates a secret and unacknowledged infection. Living under a public recognition of Christianity, under Christian laws, and in Christian society, causes many a proud heart to believe more than it cares to own, and to do more good than the man is willing to ascribe to the faith which, if it does not actually influence his mind, has made right actions so common, that not to do them is dishonorable. Others, who do not appear to live under the direct illumination of the Gospel, have yet the benefit of its refracted rays, which, if the conveyance is too imperfect to communicate religious warmth, yet diffuses sufficient light to point the way to many moral duties.

We are apt to call men good, because they are without certain bad qualities. But this is not only not knowing religion, it is not knowing human nature. All vices are not affinities; of course the very indulgence of one vice is not seldom an exclusion of another, as covetousness avoids profligacy, and ambition expels indolence; but though they are natural antipathies, they all spring from the same source; the same fountain of corrupt nature feeds both.

Nor does the goodness of St. Paul's moral man consist merely in abstaining from wicked actions; nor merely in filling the external duties of his profession. While he is active in business, he must be fervent in spirit. While transacting the ordinary affairs of life, he must be serving the Lord. In worldly moralists, the excessive pursuit of business, as well as of pleasure, leaves a clinging to it in the thoughts, and almost exclusive attachment to it in the heart, long after the actual engagement has ceased, the hankering mind continues to act over again the scenes of its interest, of its ambition, or of its amusement.

Again, the worldly moralist, while he practises some virtues, is indifferent to others. He is temperate, perhaps, but he is ambitious. He is diligent, but he is sordid. Whereas Christian morality as taught by St. Paul, hangs as it were in clusters; every virtue issuing from his principles touches on other virtues at so many points, that no man possesses one in perfection who does not possess many, who does not at least desire to possess all; while the divine spirit, pervading like the sap every fibre of the soul, strengthens the connection of its graces, and infuses holy aims into the whole character.

We have employed the term morality in compliance with common usage; but adopted in the worldly sense, it gives but an imperfect idea of the apostle's meaning. His preceptive passages are encircled with a kind of glory; they are illuminated with a beam from heaven; they proceed from the Spirit of God, are produced by faith in him. There is every where that beautiful intermixture of motive and action, that union of the cause and the effect, the faith and its fruits, that uniform balance of the principle and the produce, which render these epistles an exhaustless treasury of practical wisdom, as well as an imperishable record of divine grace.

St. Paul every where runs up the stream to the spring. The government he inculcates is spiritual. Not content to recommend the obedience of the life, he brings the very thoughts and desires under control. He traces up the act to the temper which produces it. He dwells more on the spirit of the world than on its actual offences. He knew that many would reprobate bad actions, who do not seek that spirit which would prevent their generating. He knew that men judge soundly enough on questions in which they have no bias from interest or appetite. For one who believes that to be "carnally-minded is death," twenty believe in the miraculous gift of tongues, and even in the doctrine of the trinity, because they fancy, that neither of these trenches on their purse, or their pleasure, or their vain projects.

What Paul calls "doing by nature the things contained in the law," and "a man being a law unto himself," we frequently see illustrated in some well bred and highly cultivated minds. They have a strong sense of honor and integrity; to this sense their credit and their comfort require they should live up. The natural make of their mind, perhaps, is liberal; from education they have imbibed noble sentiments: they have adopted a system of equity which

they would think it dishonorable to violate; they are generous and humane; but in matters of self-indulgence they are not scrupulous; in subduing their inclinations, in abstinence from some one governing desire or impetuous appetite,in all this they come short; to all this their rule does not extend. Their conduct, therefore, though amiable, and useful, and creditable, yet is not the "obedience of faith;" these good qualities might have been exercised, had Christianity never existed; this is not bringing the practice, much less the thoughts, into the captivity of Christ. The man is a law unto himself, and acts consistently enough with this self-imposed legislation.

Even if no religion had ever existed, if a deity did not exist,-for the reference is not to religion, not to the will of the deity, such morality would be acceptable to society, because to society it is profitable. But how can any action be pleasing to God, in which there is no purpose of blessing him? How can any conduct be acceptable to God, to whom it renders no homage, to whom it gives no glory?

Scripture abounds with every motive to obedience, both rational and spiritual. But it would achieve but half its work, had it stopped there. As peaceable creatures, we require not only inducements to obedience, but a heart, and a power, and a will to obey; assistance is as necessary as motives; power as indispensable as precept;-all which requisites are not only promised by the word, but conferred by the Spirit of God.

CHAP. VI.

The Disinterestedness of St. Paul.

THE perfection of the Christian character does not so much consist in this excellence, or that talent, or the other virtue; in the performance of some right action, or the abstinence from some wrong one, as in the determination of the whole soul for God. This generous surrender of self, whether of the sensual or of the intellectual self is the unequivocal test of a heart consecrated by man to his Maker. He has no by-ends, no secret reserves. His intention is single, his way is straight forward; he keeps his end in view without deflection, and he pursues it without weariness.

St. Paul and his associates were the first moral instructers who preached not themselves. Perhaps there is scarcely a more striking proof of the grandeur of his spirit, than his indifference to popularity. This is an elevation of character, which not only no Pagan sage has reached, but which not every Christian teacher has been found to attain. This successful apostle was so far from placing himself at the head of a sect, that he took pains to avoid it. In some subsequent instructers, this vanity was probably the first seed of heresy; the sound of Ebionites and Marcionites would as much gratify the ear of the founders, as bringing over proselytes to their opinions would delight their feelings. Paul would have rejected with horror any such distinction. He who earnestly sought to glorify his Master, would naturally abase himself. With a holy indignation he asks, "What then is Paul, and what is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed?" He points out to them the littleness of such exclusive fondness in men, who had such great objects in view-" overvalue not Paul or Apollos as yours, for all things are yours."

It is impossible not to stop a moment, in order to notice the fine structure of the period to which these words are an introduction. It would be difficult to find a more finished climax: "Let no man glory in men; for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas; or the world, or life, or death; or things present or things to come; all are yours, and you are Christ's and Christ is God's."*

Knowing the proneness of human nature to this party spirit, he takes pains to prevent excessive individual attachments. There is no instance of a man so distinguished, so little distinguishing himself. He chooses to merge himself in the general cause, to sink himself in the mass of faithful ministers.-This is particularly evident in the beginning of many of his Epistles, by his humility in attaching, to his own, some name of far inferior note, as his associate in the work;- "Paul and Sosthenes"-" Paul and Sylvanus," "Timotheus our brother;"—and in writing to the Thessalonians, he connects both the latter names with his own.

He labored to make the people bear in mind that the apostles were the disseminators, not the authors, of the faith which they preached. Miraculous as his conversion had been, superior as were his endowments, favored as he was by Divine inspiration, he not only did not assume, but he rejected, any distinction, and only included himself

*1 Corinth. iii. 22.