ledge of his duty, as he has gradually acquired it. He has tried to avoid every thing which he knew to be offensive in the sight of God, and to do whatever he thought might be pleasing to him. He has been striving to resist temptations to evil, and to discharge every personal and relative obligation. He has in short attempted, what the comprehensive expression to do the will of God implies, the fulfilment of the whole law, as it consists in the perfect love both of God and of man. But in the progress of these arduous and persevering efforts, the conviction has been forced on him by painful experience, that he can do nothing aright; that his heart is altogether sinful, his will perverted, his affections disordered, and, in a word, all the powers of his nature enfeebled and depraved.

Thus, by his entrance on a course of personal piety, the obscurity which would otherwise have continued to hang over the passages of Scripture which I have just read to you is dispelled, and every obstacle to the apprehension of their obvious meaning completely removed. He now views them as a simple statement of an undeniable matter of fact. He deeply feels and laments in his own particular case, what is described in these Scriptures to be the universal condition of man. He knows this, not in theory only, as a person who has

traced a country on a map, but as one who has travelled over it, and explored all its parts. Nothing therefore seems to him harsh or overstated, or irreconcilable with his actual observation. On the contrary, this observation shows him the complete fallacy of every other view of the subject. Those, who would lower the scriptural declarations in question, appear to him wholly ignorant of his case and the real depravity of his nature. And while the remarkable coincidence of this doctrine with his own state, and the manifest condition of mankind, confirms his belief of it, he perceives that it lies at the very foundation of all the truths of the Scripture; that the entire scheme of redemption supposes it, and is built upon it; that an unreserved conviction of it is indispensable to a cordial reception of every other Christian principle; and that a denial or modification of it has in fact given birth to all those pernicious systems, which, in different degrees, but with an uniformly fatal effect, have departed from the unerring standard of divine revelation.

The difficulties which occur to him on the origin of evil will be the same as those which present themselves to every reflecting mind: but these will not deter him from that ingenuous humiliation before God, to which he is powerfully led by the evil that he observes in his own heart, and the description of it in

His word who knew what was in man2. Convinced of the existence of the evil, he will feel more disposed to seek after its remedy than to bewilder himself in unprofitable disputes about its origin with regard to this inexplicable point, he will say with Abraham, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right3?

But in what light will these propositions of Scripture appear to one who comes to them with an unprepared mind? As he has no previous knowledge of himself, he will either wholly pass them over as mysterious and unin

2 John, ii. 25.

3 The observations of the admirable Pascal on this subject are so striking and appropriate, that I cannot but subjoin a part of them.

"Chose étonnante cependant, que le mystere le plus éloigné de notre connoissance, qui est celui de la transmission du péché originel, soit une chose sans laquelle nous ne pouvons avoir aucune connoissance de nous-mêmes! Car il est sans doute qu'il n'y a rien qui choque plus notre raison, que de dire que le péché du premier homme ait rendu coupables ceux qui, étant si éloignés du cette source, semblent incapables d'y participer. Et cependant sans ce mystere, le plus incompréhensible de tous, nous sommes incompréhensibles à nous-mêmes. Le nœud de notre condition prend ses retours et ses plis dans cet abîme. Car sans cela que dira-t-on qu'est l'homme? Tout son état dépend de ce point imperceptible. Et comment s'en fût-il apperçu par sa raison, puisque c'est une chose au-dessus de sa raison, et que sa raison, bien loin de l'inventer par ses voies, s'en éloigne quand on le lui présente?" Pensées de Blaise Pascal, t. ii. pp. 54, 55. Paris, 1808.

teresting; or, if he admit the doctrine, he will dislike and resist the novel and humiliating views which it presents to him of his state and character; and, in the event, he will imper-. ceptibly qualify and weaken and misunderstand. it in all its important bearings. It will lie. nearly dormant in his system. The expressions, in which the Scripture and our truly apostolical Church convey it, will appear to him, whatever he may occasionally profess, strong, harsh, and unnatural. They are not the terms which he would himself adopt, nor are they those which he does adopt in his confidential intercourse with others. And why? He wants the clue which would extricate him from the difficulty, a broken and contrite spirit, a heart sincerely resolved to do the will of God. He stumbles therefore at the very threshold of real Christianity. In human studies, where talents and application are sufficient, he may perhaps be at home: but in divine, where these are subordinate only, and humility and penitence are of primary moment, he is, he must be, a total stranger; and all he says upon the subject will be marked with that awkwardness, into which his ignorance perpetually betrays him.

To pass to a second main doctrine of revelation, let us suppose that both the practical and the theoretical student read in the Scriptures such statements as these: By the deeds of the

law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. The righteousness of God without the law is unto all, and upon all them that believe. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory: but what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness: unto him God imputeth righteousness without works. If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Let us suppose further, that the attention of the two characters in question is attracted by the following expressions: Faith if it hath not works is dead, being alone. Abraham was justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar; and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also".

4 Rom. iii. 20, 21, 24, 28.

5 Rom. iv. 2, 3, 5, 6.

6 Gal. ii. 21.

7 James ii. 17, 21, 23, 24, 26.