one purse. Among us all things are common, except our wives." If the testimony here produced should be disregarded, because drawn from the writings of a professed advocate for christianity, we will readily come to another test. Pliny bears witness to the pure conversation of the persecuted christians of his time. And the Emperor Julian himself, one of the most enlightened, as well as implacable enemies of christianity, exhorted his heathen subjects to practice among themselves the duties of charity, after the example of christians, "Who abound, said he, in acts of benevolence." And as to the joy, with which they sacrificed their lives, when occasion so required: They go, continues he, to death, as bees swarm to the hive." Such influence have the doctrines of our holy religion upon the conduct of its sincere professors, even by the confession of their inveterate enemies. It appears then, that St. Paul was employed like an experienced moralist, while he was engaged in erecting the sacred edifice of morality, upon the solid foundation of evangelical truths. And the doctrines he made choice of, as peculiarly suited to this purpose, were those which respect the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Upon these he laid the greatest stress, and from these he drew his most persuasive arguments to virtue and piety. Witness that memorable exhortation delivered to his Roman converts...." I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." To withhold from the degenerate this cheering truth, that "they are bought with a price," is to deny them one of the most powerful motives to love and "glorify God in their bodies and in their souls," which appertain to him by the endearing right of redemption, as well as by that original right of creation, to which they are generally rendered insensible by the afflictions and disappointments of life. Instruct them-con cerning the sanctity of the divine Law; set before them the guilt of their innumerable offences; and the just fears, to which such discoveries must naturally give rise, will make existence itself an intolerable burden. But when the Gospel of our redemption begins to dissipate their doubts, and allay the anguish of their remorse, they will be enabled to go rejoicing on their way, through the strictest paths of obedience and morality. CHAP. X. AN OBJECTION ANSWERED, WHICH MAY BE DRAWN THE DOCTRINES THEY, who exalt philosophy against revelation, imagine, that to invalidate the preceding reflections, they need only make the following reply: "All christians receive the apostles' Creed; but their faith is, in general, unattended with the happy effects you have been recounting. Crimes of every kind are committed by the disciples of Jesus: and their doctrines, instead of producing charity, engender little else but dispute and persecution." The serious nature of this objection demands a suitable reply. A true christian was never known to be a persecutor. The cruel disputes which have arisen among faithless christians, have not necessarily sprung from the nature of scriptural doctrines, but rather from the pride of those tyrannical doctors, who have contended for their particular explications of such doctrines. To insinuate, then, that the doctrines of the Gospel should be utterly rejected,because some churchmen have taken Kk. occasion from them to stir up vehement contests, would scarcely be less absurd, than to contend that anarchy is to be preferred before an excellent code of laws, because unprincipled lawyers are accustomed to foment strife, and have it always in their power to protract a cause. As to the extravagant explications, which the subtilty or power of men has substituted in the place of evangelical doctrines, they can no more be said to prove the falsity or unprofitableness of such doctrines, than the detested policy of tyrants can weaken the force of that apostolic precept, " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.' But let us come to the main knot of the difficulty. They, who have unfeignedly embraced the doctrines of Christ, far from committing a variety of crimes, have carried every virtue to a degree of perfection, surpassing almost the conception of other men. Rousseau and Montesquieu acknowledge, that even in those countries, where the Gospel has but imperfectly taken root, rebellions have been less frequent than in other places. The same acknowledgment must be made, by every unprejudiced observer, with regard to vice of every kind. Many offences, it must be owned, are every where common among the professors of christianity; but they would have been abundantly more frequent, if antichristian philosophers had been able to take from them the little respect they still retain for a revealed Gospel. Moreover, there are many rare virtues, which chiefly flourish in secret : and they, who deserve the name of christians, might astonish incredulity itself, had not Christ commanded them to perform their best services in so private a imanner, that the left hand might not know how the right was engaged. Nothing can be more unjust, than to impute those evils to the christian religion, which evidently flow from incredulity and superstition, fanaticism and hypocrisy. Jesus Christ requires of his followers an ardent love both to GoD and man; such a love as was exemplified in the whole of his own conduct through life. The incredulous deny, either wholly or in part, the debt of grateful love, which the innumerable mercies of God impose upon them: since while the atheist refuses to acknowledge him as the Creator and Preserver of man, the deist rejects him as the author of our redemption and sanctification. The superstitious, indeed, acknowledge these immense debts; but they pretend to pay them with idle ceremonies, and vain repetitions of tedious forms. The fanatic attempts to discharge them with unfruitful fervors, and the hypocrite with stupid grimace. But these errors cannot reasonably be considered in common with our holy religion which exposes and condemns them all. The life of a christian, so called, must necessarily become pure, when he is actually possessed of christian faith, i. e. when he is strongly persuaded, that he walks in the presence of the Almighty, who being his Father by Creation, becomes so in a still more affectionate and effectual manner, by the mysterious exertions of his redeeming and sanctifying grace. These three astonishing operations of the Supreme Being, are undoubtedly three grand evidences of his love to mar, and must be considered, as so many abundant sources of christian charity, among the members of his church. Hence, the man, who acknowleges but one of these proofs, cannot possibly be united either to his brethren, or to his God, with so ardent an affection, as he who admits and experiences all the three. The divine charity, here spoken of, is produced in the heart by means of faith, and from it proceeds every social virtue, with every praise worthy-action. All this is conformable both to reason and experience. A weak subject will fear to disobey a powerful king, whose eye is actually upon him: at least, so long as the subject is penetrated with this thought, "The King observes me." A son will never exalt himself against a good father, while he believes that his father, in every possible sense, is good with respect to him. Brethren, who cordially acknowledge each other as such, will not dare to abuse one another in the presence of a father who is infinitely powerful = and while he leads them to take possession of a kingdom, which his generosity has divided among them ; they will not threaten to murder each other under the eyes of their parent, for the possession of any little enjoyment that presents itself upon the road. The sons of Jacob had never sold their brother Joseph, if they had been firmly persuaded, that Israel would one day discover their crime: and they would have conceived the greatest horror, had they really believed, that their Heavenly Father was present at the impious transaction, resolving to call them at some future season, to a severe account, in the face of the world. A faith, which has no influence upon the conduct, is no other than the faith of hypocrites, upon whom our Lord denounces the most terrible judgments, threatening them with everlasting banishment from his presence, into that outer darkness, where shall be "weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. I will shew thee my faith," saith St. James, "by my works. If any man say," continues St. John, "I believe in God, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." The same principles, which in the present moment gain the ascendancy in man, give rise to the words and actions of the moment: and hence that saying of the Apostle, "Whosoever abideth in him, [Christ] sinneth not: whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him," through the medium of a true and lively faith. If there are found professors of christianity, in whom the truths of the Gospel have failed to produce a holy conversation, we may take it for granted, that such persons are infidels in disguise, and totally unac quainted with the Gospel; except it be in theory. The faith which is common to these nominal christians, is purely speculative, not differing less from the solid faith of a true believer, than a sun upon canvas differs from that, which spreads light and heat among sur |