owners, would have tore them limb from limb. Some such resentment against sin will a sense of our adored Redeemer's sufferings excite, especially when set home by his blessed Spirit, and considered in connexion with those detestable iniquities which caused them, and with those invaluable blessings which were procured by them. Nothing, nothing is so effectual to beget the most irreconcilable abhorrence of all ungodliness; to make the remembrance of it bitter as wormwood, the temptations to it horrible as hell.

Let me remind you of an incident, related by your favourite historian Xenophon. Cyrus had taken captive the young prince of Armenia, together with his beautiful and blooming princess, whom he had lately married, and of whom he was passionately fond. When both were brought to the tribunal, Cyrus asked the prince what he would give to be reinstated in his kingdom? He answered, with an air of indifference, that as for his crown, and his own liberty, he valued them at a very low rate; but, if Cyrus would restore his beloved princess to her native dignity and hereditary possessions, he should infinitely rejoice, and would pay (this he uttered with tenderness and ardour), would willingly pay his life for the purchase.' Could such a declaration, so highly endearing, alienate the affections of the princess, or induce her to violate her fidelity? Let her own conduct answer the query. When all the pri soners were dismissed with freedom, it is impossible to express how they were charmed with their royal benefactor; some celebrated his martial accomplishments, some applauded his social virtues; all were prodigal of their praises, and lavish in gratefui acknowledgments; and you, said the prince (addressing himself to his bride), what think you of Cyrus? I did not observe him, re. plied the princess. Not observe him! upon what then was your attention fixed? Upon that dear and generous man, who declared, he would purchase my liberty at the expense of his very life.' Was her heart impressed, were all her thoughts engrossed, by that benevolent offer? and shall ours be less affected with the incom

* Εγω μεν καν της ψυχης πριαίμην ώστε μηποτε λατρευ σaι TaνTηV. Xenoph. de Cyril. Instit. lib. iii.

parably more tender and endearing love of Christ? He was not only willing, but actually laid down his life for us; a life immensely precious, and of higher dignity than all heavens. He laid down his life, not for amiable persons, or worthy creatures, but for vile earth, and miserable sinners; purchasing thereby for us and our children, privileges of inestimable worth, and of everlasting duration.

Will not such beneficence, so unmerited, so unequalled, win the most reluctant, and melt the most obdurate heart? The heart which is not wrought upon by this miracle of divine compassion, must be steel, must be adamant; quite impenetrable, and absolutely incorrigible. O thou ever blessed, thou all-gracious Redeemer, thy love to us is wonderful; passing, I will not say, the love of women, but the power of language and the reach of thought! Who can hold out against such charming attractives? Who can resist such hea venly goodness? Only let a sense of thy love be always warm, always operative on our minds. This shall be instead of a thousand arguments to engage, instead of ten thousand motives to quicken our obedience.' Other motives may produce some external services, or hypocritical performances; terrors may extort the drudg ery of the hand; bribes may purchase the adulation of the tongue; but this conciliates the will, this proselytes the affections, this captivates the very soul, and

Beneficia,' says one of the ancients, qui invenit, compedes invenit.' Which fine sentiment may almost serve as a comment on the beautiful and tender declaration of God by his prophet Hosea; I drew them' to obedience with cords of a man, with bands of love.' Chap. xi. 4. He who made, and intimately knows our frame, knew that these motives would be most powerful in operation; most powerful on creatures, capable of love, and susceptible of gratitude; therefore he calls them the cords of a man. And if a deliverance from temporal bondage, if the settlement of Israel in all the plenty of Canaan, constituted so sweet an incitement to duty, doubtless the everlasting benefits mentioned by Aspasio, together with all the endearing circumstances of their procurement, must be abundantly more engaging. May the Spirit from high rend the veil of ignorance and insensibility! let into our hearts the knowledge and faith of these great evangelical truths! We shall then want no farther demonstration, either of the propriety of the remark, or the efficacy of the principles,

† 2 Sam, i. 26.

makes all its powers like the chariots of Ammi-nadib, ready, expedite, and active in duty.

Hear the holy apostle giving an account of himself and his spiritual state; he speaks in language somewhat similar, though greatly superior, to the profession of the Armenian princess. So great is the glory, so rich is the grace, so superabundant are the merits of my Redeemer, that I am determined to know nothing but Christ Jesus, and him crucified.'t Ask the same zealous apostle, what prompted him to such indefatigable diligence, and animated him with such invincible fortitude? why did he decline no toil, and dread no danger; rejoice in tribulation, and glory in reproach; welcome persecution, and defy death? This is his reply; The love of Christ constrainethý me; beareth me on with much the same strong, steady, prevailing influence, which winds and tide exert, when they waft the vessel to its destined harbour."

Shall we hear what another disciple, one of the most advanced proficients in divine love, says upon the subject? one who learned his knowledge, not in the school of philosophy, but on his Saviour's bosom: This is the love of God, that we walk after his command

That supreme affection to the blessed Jesus, which reigned in the hearts of his primitive disciples, could never have been so emphatically displayed by any strokes of eloquence, as by their own cheerful and heroic manner of expressing themselves with relation to their sufferings. Far from regretting, I take pleasure,' says the apostle, in afflictions,' and embrace them, when occurring in my divine Master's service, with a real complacency, evdoku. 2 Cor. xii. 10. To you,' adds the same apostle, and speaks in a congratulatory strain, it is given' (exapian) as a desirable privilege, to suffer for the adorable Jesus, Philip. i. 29. St. Luke, recording the abusive and cruel outrages committed on two disciples for preaching boldly in the name of Christ, uses a phrase remarkably gallant and spirited; they departed from the Council rejoicing, ότι κατηξιώθησαν ατιμασθήναι, * that they were counted worthy to suffer shame; had the honour of being vilified and reproached, in so venerable and glorious a cause. This passage is a fine exemplification of the figure which rhetoricians style oxymorum: and Horace's Dulce periculumSplendidè mendax-Quo beatus vulnere-seem flat and jejune upon the comparison. Acts v. 41.

Could you station a coward in the midst of a numerous army advancing to the battle, or rather, could you place a boat on the impetuous cataracts of the Nile, you would see what is meant by the significant word, ouvexec. 2 Cor. v. 14.

ments. This is the natural fruit, this the certain evidence, of love to that glorious, transcendent, and adorable Being. What? not that we supinely neglect, much less that we profanely violate, his sacred precepts, but that with assiduity and delight, we make them the rule of our conduct. Charity edifieth:'t this divine love, far from razing the foundations, far from demolishing the structure, 'buildeth ap't the fair fabric of universal godliness.

Let me borrow an illustration from your own letter. When a pebble is cast into the smooth canal, it moves the centre, and forms a circle: the first creates a second; the second breaks into a third; they continue to multiply and expand themselves, till the whole sur face is covered with circular undulations. Thus the love of an all-gracious Redeemer, when 'shed abroad in the soul by the Holy Ghost, will diffuse itself through every intellectual faculty, and extend to every species of duty, till the whole heart is filled with the image, and the whole behaviour regulated by the law

2 John ver. 6, +1 Cor. viii. 1.

Η Οικοδομέν.

I cannot but think the reasoning is much more just, and the principle much more efficacious, in Aspasio's manner of stating the affair, than in the following famous lines:

Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,

As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake:

The centre mov'd, a circle strait succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads.

Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace,
His country next, and next all human race:

Wide and more wide the o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in of every kind.

Self-love too often acts on the affections, as a blast on the leaves shrivels and contracts them; but the love of Christ, like a vernal sun on the tender buds, opens and expands them, till they become wide as the extent of his gracious redemption, wide as the compass of his rational creation. By self-love, I am almost necessarily determined to malign the persons who cross my inclinations, and obstruct my interests. From the love of Christ, I have a cogent reason, and a most prevailing inducement to love my very enemies. How does St. Peter analyze this subject? not in Mr. Pope's, not in Lord Bolingbroke's method. Godliness, or a supreme love to the gracious God, he represents as the root or trunk; then brotherly kindness, or an affectionate regard to relations, friends, neighbours, as some of the grand and master branches: after this charity, or a diffusive good-will to all mankind, as the spread of boughs, which complete and adorn the tree. 2 Pet. i. 7.

Rom. v. 5.

of the blessed God; so that I am persuaded there is a great deal of truth and solidity, as every one must acknowledge there is a peculiar spirit and beauty, in the apostrophe of the poet:

Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding love!

Thou maker of new morals to mankind,
The grand morality is love of Thee.

You mentioned the loadstone, as most signally and most extensively serviceable in the sea-faring business; such is faith, so efficacious, in practical Christianity.. This, perhaps, you think a scanty and defective principle. The property of shewing the northern part of the world may seem equally mean and inconsiderable; but as the one is the very soul of navigation, the other is the very life of holiness. It is somewhat like the stone which the Babylonian monarch saw in his dream, cut from the rock without hands ;'t which, though despicable to human appearance, was mighty in operation; destroyed the superb statue, became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Thus will faith exert and diffuse its kindly, yet triumphant energy, to every corruption, that it may be subdued, to every virtue, that it may be cherished.

Faith is a real persuasion that the blessed Jesus has shed his blood for me, and fulfilled all righteousness in my stead: that through this great atonement and meritorious obedience, he has purchased, even for my sinful soul, reconciliation with God, sanctifying grace, and every spiritual blessing.‡

When the Almighty sunk the cavities of the ocean, and replenished them with the liquid element, he provided an inexhaustible source of moisture for the refreshment of every animal, and the nutriment of every vegetable. In like manner, wherever he works this true faith, he plants the seed of universal holiness, and + Dan. ii. 34.

Night Thoughts, N. IV. This définition of faith may possibly, at the first view, dissatisfy and alarm even some pious people, including, as they apprehend, too great a degree of assurance; but if they please to take it in connexion with the explanation and adjustment delivered in the Sixteenth Dialogue, I hope all cause of disapprobation or surprise will vanish. I flatter myself that the sentiment will be found, not only comfortable for the sinner, but agreeable to Scripture, and truly unexceptionable, as well as highly desirable.