laying open the fallacies and delusions which men practise on themselves, in regard to the state of their souls. He faithfully exposes the insidious nature of that deceitfulness of the human heart, which lulls men into a false security, while their Christianity is nothing more than a heartless and hollow profession, and they are standing exposed to the fearful condemnation denounced against those who have "a name to live, but are dead."

Nor is his clear and scriptural exhibition of the dispensation of grace less fitted to guide the humble inquirer into the way of salvation. As a faithful ambassador of Christ, he is free and unreserved in his offers of pardon and reconciliation, through the death and obedience of Christ, to the acceptance of sinners; but he is no less faithful in stating and asserting the claims of the gospel, to an unshrinking and universal obedience, and to an undisputed supremacy over the heart and affections. And to

aid the sincere Christian in the cultivation of the spiritual life, he urgently enjoins an implicit acquiescence in the guidance and intimations of the Holy Spirit, through whose operation it is that a cordial and affectionate faith in the whole of God's testimony can be wrought in the soul; by whose spiritual illumination it is that the truth becomes. the instrument of sanctifying and saving us; while by the inward experience of the Spirit's light, and comfort, and renewing power, combined with the outward and visible growth of the fruits of righteousness, in the character, we acquire the best and surest evidence that we have obtained a saving interest in Christ.

The intimate acquaintance which he manifests with the spiritual life, and his clear, affectionate, and earnest expositions of the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, render this Treatise a precious companion to the sincere Christian; while his powerful and urgent appeals to the conscience are peculiarly fitted to awaken men to a concern about those matters to which the Scriptures attach such an infinite importance; to lead them in earnest to avoid the possibility of continuing in deception; and to constrain them to seek after a full assurance on that subject on which, above all others, it becomes men to be well assured.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

TO THE

GRACE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED, DECLARED, AND PRACTICALLY IMPROVED.

BY JOHN OWEN, D.D.

WE formerly observed, in our Essay to "Guthrie's Christian's Great Interest," that such is the great difficulty of self-examination, that it were well, if, instead of attempting at first the more arduous, the Christian disciple should begin with the more elementary of its exercises. And for this purpose, at his entrance upon this most useful work, he might commence with a daily review, if not of the affections of his heart, at least of the actions of his visible history. These are far more palpable than the others, and have somewhat of that superior facility for the observation of them, which the properties of matter, have over those of the hidden and unseen spirit. The great thing wanted is, that he should be encouraged to make the attempt in any way and therefore do we repeat our admonition, that on each evening, ere sleep has closed his eyes, he should summon to his remembrance those deeds of the day that have passed over him, which else might have vanished from the mind for ever, or at least till that eventful occasion when the book

their imperishable record shall be opened. And it is good also that he should sit in judgment as well as in memory over them. Let him thus judge himself, and he shall not be judged. The daily remembrance of the one great Sacrifice will wash away the guilt of those daily aberrations that are faithfully recalled and truly repented of; and if there be a reality in that sanctifying influence which faith is said to bring along with it, then will the very act by which he confesses the remembered sins of the day, both bring peace to his conscience, and purity to his conduct.

And this mere cognizance, not of the heart, but of the handy-work, brings us to the faith and spirituality of the gospel by a shorter path than may be apprehended. It is true, that the mind is the proper seat of religion; and however right our actions may be in the matter of them, they are of no account in Christianity, unless they have proceeded from a central and spontaneous impulse which originates there. They may be moulded into a visible propriety by an influence from without, or have arisen from secondary motives, which are of no account whatever in the estimation of the upper sanctuary; and hence it is a possible thing that we may delude ourselves into a treacherous complacency, because of the many deeds of integrity, and courteousness, and beneficence in which we abound. Still, however, it will speedily be found, that in the midst of all our amiable and constitutional virtues, there are the outbreakings of evil upon our conduct, and such as nothing but a spiritual principle can effectually restrain. In taking

cognizance of these, then, which we do in the first stage of self-examination, we are brought to feel the need of something higher than any of those powers or properties wherewith nature has endowed us-we are taught the nakedness of our moral condition—we are convinced of sin, and thrown upon those resources out of which pardon is administered, and help is made to descend upon us. We are not therefore to underrate the examination of our doings, or think that when thus employed, we are only wasting our thoughts on the bare and barren literalities of that bodily exercise which profiteth little. Even on this lower walk we shall meet with many deficiencies and many deviations; and be often rebuked into a sense of our own worthlessness; and shall have to lament, in the many offences of the outer man, how dependent we are both on a sanctifying grace and an atoning sacrifice. Or, in other words, by a regular habit of self-examination, even in the rudest and most elementary branch of it, may we be schooled into the doctrines of sin and of the Saviour, and from what is most observable in the outer path, may gather such intimations of what we are, and of what we need, as will conduct us to the very essence of vital Christianity.

Now, after this, there is what we would call the second stage in the work of self-examination. Our reason for advising a Christian to begin first with a survey of the handy-work, ere he proceeds to a search and scrutiny of the heart, is, that the one is greatly more manifest than the other. Now it is said in Scripture, "that the works of the flesh are manifest ;" and what we would have him to remark