possibility of salvation out of the pale of Judaism, and to settle in mutual amity, and by mutual accommodation, his yet unformed, and unconsolidated churches, was the great object of the apostle Paul.. With what fidelity he maintains the generous spirit of the christian dispensation, his epistles every where discover. It was his continual purpose to fix it in the minds of his spiritual church, that now, under the gospel, men are, every where, justified by faith, without the deeds of the law. The condition of human salvation was not the observance of any external rites, like the Mosaick, not the belonging to any national church, like the Jewish, not the submission to circumcision and the burthensome obligations it entailed, and not even a course of unsinning obedience, which was at all times impossible, but faith, and faith alone, or a principle of sincere, though imperfect obcdience, a principle, beginning in belief, discovering itself in love, and proved and fortified by persevering obedience. It was his perpetual object to show the Jews, that Christ had redeemed them and the whole world from the curse of the law-which no man could perfectly fulfil, and which denounced death on those who broke it-and had placed them in the liberty of the sons of God. It was his glorious resistance to these Jewish impositions, which brought upon him the hostility of his nation, and involved him in perpetual controversy, and exposed him to perpetual suffering. In supporting the great doctrine of justifi

cation by faith, he continually reasons with them from their own history, their own prejudices, and their national principles, when uncorrupted. He shows, that Abraham himself, the father of their nation, on their descent from whom they so much valued themselves, obtained the favour of God in the same way, in which the Gentiles were to obtain it; and that a sincere principle of holiness, and not the terms of any written law, faith, and not legal perfection, were the conditions of salvation, from the beginning of the world. It is only by keeping in mind this controversy, and the state of the churches to which Paul wrote, made up of Jews and Gentiles, that we can understand the reasonings of the apostle,

4. The fourth and last source of mistakes and obscurities in the epistles, is to be found in a maxim of interpretation, which has too much prevailed, without authority, and without reason: "that we must expect to find, in the present circumstances of christianity, a meaning for, or something answering to, every appellation and expression, which occurs in scripture; or, in other words, the applying to the personal condition of christians, at this day, those titles, phrases, propositions and arguments, which belong solely to the situation of christianity, at its first institution." The instances, which might be brought in illustration of this, are numerous, but I shall confine myself chiefly to two; and in the remarks, which I shall make, I shall avail myself of the language and au

thority of Paley, a popular and unanswerable advocate for the truth of the gospel.*

If, my christian friends, by what I have said in this discourse, I have excited a stronger desire in you to read and study these oracles, which alone reveal the method of salvation by Jesus Christ; if I have given you any new conceptions of the worth of that religion, which such a man as Paul was labouring to support; if I have been able to remove any prejudices against any portion of his writings, my purpose has been answered. May God open your hearts to understand his scriptures! The more you read, the more you will love them. Compared with the knowledge, which they contain, every other subject of human inquiry is vanity and emptiness. Politicks, philosophy, poetry, and all the pursuits of the human mind, are, to this, the chattering and plays of children. Here search for the doctrine of salvation, Sanctify us, O God, by thy truth: thy word is truth.

* Here followed, in the original, several extracts from Paley's "Caution recommended in the use and application of scripture language," a sermon, which has been republished at Cambridge, and may also be found in Paley's Works, vol. IV: p. 29. Boston edition.

SERMON XII.

JER. xiii. 23.

CAN THE ETHIOPIAN CHANGE HIS SKIN, OR THE LEOPARD HIS SPOTS? THEN MAY YE ALSO DO GOOD, THAT ARE ACCUSTOMED

TO DO EVIL.

THERE is no proverb more common, or better understood than this, that habit is a second nature. It is an observation, which the slightest knowledge of the human mind enables us to make, and which the shortest life is long enough to verify. Habit is a law of our condition, of vast and indispensable advantage; but, like all other general laws, operates sometimes favourably, and sometimes unfavourably, to the happiness of men. Without it, there would be nothing established and permanent in the human character; and with it, much is rendered permanent, which we should rejoice to remove. Without it, all our virtue would consist of casual, and unconnected acts, on whose repetition we could never calculate; with it,

our vices become firmly associated, mutually dependent, and hard to be subdued. Without it, our best dispositions would be nothing more than transitory feelings, our friendships and our loves fickle and momentary passions; with it, our lusts become inveterate, and the nascent propensities of a sensual and selfish heart become, at length, its undisputed tyrants. Without it, first aversions would be unconquerable, grief would continue violent and excessive, and man could never be reconciled to any unwelcome change of circumstances, however unavoidable; but with it, the sharpness of remorse, too, is easily blunted, the horrour, which attends the first perpetration of a crime, is soon dissipated, and the effectual reformation of a vicious character often proves a desperate expectation. Without it, in fine, the characters of men would be indescribable, unstable and incapable of improvement; education would be vain; example, fruitless; and discipline, ineffectual cruelty; but with it, also, prejudices are rooted, and vice becomes inveterate, before the mind is sufficiently strong to examine the one or reject the others and early impressions, together with painful and perpetual vigilance, are necessary to the security of virtue. Indeed, on this universal law, that habit renders stable, what was before fluctuating; pleasant, what was before painful; strong, what was before weak; easy, what was before difficult; and morally certain, what was before doubtful, depends the character of man here, and, consequently, his condition hereafter.