the necessity of a Divine Revelation. The existence of certain great qualities in the instances of individuals is admitted; but it is very justly contended, that the wisest of the heathens had no standard of a complete character. The following passage will shew the truth and the tendency of this observation :→→

"The lives of their great men abound in splendid sayings, as well as heroic virtues, to such a degree, as to exalt our idea of the human intellect, and, in single instances, of the human character. We say, in single instances, for their idea of a perfect character wanted consistency, wanted completeness. It had many constituent parts, but there was no whole which comprized them. The moral fractions made up no integral. The virtuous man thought it no derogation from his virtue to be selfish, the conqueror to be revengeful, the philosopher to be arrogant, the injured to be unforgiving: forbearance was cowardice, humility was baseness, meekness was pusillanimity. Not only their justice was stained with cruelty, but the most cruel acts of injustice were the road to a popu larity which immortalized the perpetrator. The good man was his own centre. Their virtues wanted to be drawn out of themselves, and this could not be the case. their goodness did not arise from any knowledge, so it could not spring from any imitation of the Divine perfections. That inspiring principle, the love of God, the vital spark of all religion, was a motive of which they had not so much as heard; and if they had, it was a feeling which it would have been impossible for them to cherish, since some of the best, of their deities were as bad as the worst of themselves.

As

"When the history of their own religion contained little more than the quarrels and the intrigues of these deities, could we expect that the practice of the people would be much better, or more consistent than their belief? If the divinities were at once holy and profligate, sball we wonder if the adoration was at once devout and impure? The worshipper could not com. mit a crime but he might vindicate it by the example of some deity; he could not

ments of virtue could neve body of morals. They wan ing tie. The doctrines of or at variance with those of a if they could have clubbed and picked out the best from as to have patched up a cod ciples of one sect would no

ted to the leader of anothe would have wanted a head would have wanted authority would have wanted sanction

"And as there was no g tem, so there was no univers. als, for morality was differer places. In some countries [ it no more a crime to expo children than in others to a their neighbour. The Pers looked upon as the worse marrying their mothers, nor ans for not marrying at all, n ans for murdering their par Scythians for eating their dea

"The best writers seldom arguments drawn from futur to enforce their moral instruc lently as they discoursed on virtue, their disquisitions gen to want a motive and an e such a state of comfortless spiritual degredation, of mo should bring life and immort emphatically call for a rel Did it not imperatively requi which should reprove the wo righteousness, and of judgm not pant for that blood of cleanseth from all sin."-Vol.

After some pertinent a remarks on the imperfecti efficiency of their mytho ligion, the author draws t and beautiful conclusion:

"A religion so absurd, w basis even in probability, and tion but what it borrowed f posterous fancy, could not deep-thinking philosopher;-a abstruse and metaphysical v ficiently accommodated to ge suit the people. Lactantius, thority of Plato, relates, the

declared there was no such thing as human wisdom. In short, all were dissatisfied. The wise had a vague desire for a religion which comprehended great objects, and had noble ends in view. The people stood in need of a religion which should bring relief to human wants, and consolation to human miseries. They wanted a simple way, proportioned to their comprehension; a short way, proportioned to their leisure; a living way, which should give light to the conscience and support to the mind; a way founded, not on speculation, but evidence, which should carry conversion to the heart as well as conviction to the understanding. Such a religion God was preparing for them in the Gospel of his Son. Christianity was calculated to supply the exigencies both of the Greeks and of the barbarians; but the former, though they more acknowledged their want, more slowly welcomed the relief; while the latter, though they less felt the one, more readily accepted the other."-Vol. i. pp. 17, 18.

Having in the course of this chapter demonstrated the necessity of a more perfect system of belief and morals; of such a system, in short, as the Gospel reveals; the author adverts, in the next, to the historical writers of the New Testament, and points out, with much acuteness, the fidelity, simplicity, and unstudied consonance, so strikingly manifested in their several narratives. Their simplicity is beautifully illustrated.

The following observations, which close this chapter, satisfactorily explain the grounds on which St. Paul is selected as a model and recommended as an example :

"Indeed it seemed necessary, in order to demonstrate that the principles of Christianity are not unattainable, nor its precepts impracticable, that the New Testament should, in some part, present to us a full exemplification of its doctrines and of its spirit; that they should, to produce their practical effect, be embodied in a form purely human,-for the character of the Founder of its religion is deified humanity. Did the Scriptures present no such exhibition, infidelity might have availed itself of the omission, for the purpose of asserting that Christianity was only a bright chimera, a beautiful fiction of the imagina

tion; and Plato's fair idea might have been brought into competition with the doctrines of the Gospel. But in St. Paul is exhibited a portrait which not only illustrates its Divine truth, but establishes its moral efficacy; a portrait entirely free from any distortion in the drawing, from any extravagance in the colouring.

"It is the representation of a man struggling with the sins and infirmities natural to man; yet habitually triumphing over them by that Divine grace which had first rescued him from prejudice, bigotry, and unbelief. It represents him resisting, not only such temptations as are common to men, but surmounting trials to which no other man was ever called; furnishing in his whole practice not only an instructer, but a model; shewing every where in his writings, that the same offers, the same supports, the same victories, are tendered to every suffering child of mortality,—that the waters of eternal life are not restricted to prophets and apostles, but are offered freely to every one that thirsteth,-offered without money and without price.”—Vol. i. pp. 45-47.

As the character of St. Paul is

chiefly to be traced in the Epistles which bear his name, our Author very properly allots the third chapter: to remarks on the epistolary writers of the New Testament, and particulary St. Paul;" and there is much ingenuity and pathos in the manner in which this subject is introduced.

who has followed the much-enduring hero "Can the reader of taste and feeling, of the Odyssey with growing delight and increasing sympathy, though in a work of fiction, through all his wanderings, peruse with inferior interest the genuine voyages of the Apostle of the Gentiles over nearly the same seas? The fabulous adventurer, once landed, and safe on the shores of his own Ithaca, the reader's mind is satisfied; for the object of his anxiety is at rest. But not so ends the tale of the Christian hero-Who ever closed St. Luke's nar rative of the diversified events of St. Paul's travels; who ever accompanied him with the interest his history demands, from the commencement of his trials at Damascus to his last deliverance from shipwreck, and left him preaching in his own hired house at Rome, without feeling as if

he had abruptly lost sight of some one very dear to him, without sorrowing that they should see his face no more, without indulging a wish that the intercourse could have been carried on to the end, though that end were martyrdom.

"Such readers, and perhaps only such, will rejoice to renew their acquaintance with this very chiefest of the apostles; not indeed in the communication of subsequent facts, but of important principles; not in the records of the biographer, but in the doctrines of the saint. In fact, to the history of Paul in the Sacred Oracles succeed bis Epistles. And these Epistles, as if through design, open with that "to the beloved of God called to be saints" in that very city, the mention of his residence in which concludes the preceding narrative.

"Had the Sacred Canon closed with the evangelical narrations, had it not been determined in the counsels of Divine Wisdom, that a subsequent portion of inspired Scripture in another form, should have been added to the historical portions, that the Epistles should have conveyed to us the results of the mission and the death of Christ, how immense would have been the disadvantage, and how irreparable the loss! May we presume to add, how much less perfect would have been our view of the scheme of Christianity, had the New Testament been curtailed of this important portion of religious and practical instruction." Vol. i. pp. 48-50.

In contending for the Epistles against those who represent them as having a tendency to derogate from the authority of the Gospels, our author thus pointedly argues:

"To degrade any portion of the revealed will of God is no proof of reverence for Him whose will is revealed. But it is preposterous to insinuate, that a regard for the Epistles is calculated to diminish a regard for the Gospels. Where else can we find such believing, such admiring, such adoring views of Him whose life the Gospel records? Where else are we so grounded in that love which passeth knowledge? Where else are we so continually taught to be looking unto Jesus? Where else are we so powerfully reminded that there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved? We may as well assert, that the existing laws, of which Magna

Charta is the original, diminish our reverence for this palladium itself; this basis of our political security, as the Gospel is of our moral and spiritual privileges. In both cases the derived benefit sends us back to the well-head from whence it flows.

"He who professes to read the holy Scriptures for his 'instruction,' should recollect, whenever he is disposed to be captious, that they are written also for his correction. If we really believe that Christ speaks to us in the Gospels, we must believe that he speaks to us in the Epistles also. In the one he addresses us in his militant, in the other in his glorified character. In one, the Divine Instructer speaks to us on earth; in the other, from heaven. The internal wisdom, the divinity of the doctrines, the accordance both of doctrine and precept with those delivered byahe Saviour himself, the powerful and abiding effects which, for near two thousand years they have produced, and are actually producing, on the hearts and lives of multitudes; the same spirit which inspired the writer still ready to assist the reader; all together forming, to every serious inquirer who reads them with an humble heart and a docile spirit, irrefragable arguments, unimpeachable evidence, that they possess as full a claim to inspira tion, and consequently have as forcible demand on his belief and obedience, as any of the less litigated portions of the book of God."-Vol. i pp. 68-70.

With the fourth chapter commenCes, what forms the principal subject of the work; and both that and the sively devoted to the consideration of sixteen following chapters are exclu"the character and practical writings of St. Paul." In pursuit of the object which our author has in view, she has shewn equal penetration and judgment, without affecting any artificial method. She has selected her topics with a wise discrimination; and handled them with such dexterity, as at once to exhibit the Apostle in the loftiest points of view, and yet never to take him out of that sphere within which the reader considers

himself to be placed.

It is the happy talent of this author to bring her subject into contact with those for whose use it is de

signed; and in no case was the exercise of such a talent more needed, than in that which has called forth the present remarks. There is something so elevated, so grand, so preter-human in the character of this distinguished Apostle, that it would have appeared, antecedently to the execution, difficult, if not impracticable, to adapt it to general imitation. This task, however, our author has most happily accomplished. She has displayed the qualities of her hero in so soft a colouring, and has, if we may so speak, graduated their exercise along such a scale of duties, that we grow familiar with the character as it is portrayed before us, and at once feel ourselves stimulated to imitate qualities exercised in the same circumstances with our own.

Having thus stated what has occurred to us on a general view of this part of the work, we shall now proceed to examine it more in de

tail.

The first quality of St. Paul, to which our attention is called, is that which gave direction, and purity, and elevation to all the rest, his "faith;" and this is evinced to have been, in his own estimation, as in I point of fact it is in that of every genuine Christian, "a practical principle;" a principle "received into the heart, acknowledged by the understanding, and operating on the practice." After tracing its operation as regulating, subduing, and transforming the mind, our author enforces the truth of what had been advanced in the following just and dignified appeal:

Ti

"Paul is a wonderful instance of the power of this principle. That he should be so entirely carried out of his natural character; that he who, by his persecut ing spirit, courted the favour of the intole rant Sanhedrim, should be brought to act in direct opposition to their prejudices, supported by no human protection, sustained alone by the grace of Him whom he had so stoutly opposed; that his confidence in

God should rise in proportion to his perse cutions from man; that the whole ben of his naturai propensities, the whole force of his soul should be set directly contrary to his mind and actions be turned in full opposition to his temper, education, society, and habits; that not only his affections, should be diverted into a new channel, but that his the newly directed current; that his bigots judgment and understanding should sail in ry should be transformed into candour, his fierceness into gentleness, his untameable pride into charity, his intolerance into meekness, can all this be accounted for on any principle inherent in human nature, on any principle uninspired by the spirit of God?

"After this instance, and, blessed be God, the instance, though superior, is not in this case, is not less certain in others,solitary; the change, though miraculous shall the doctrine so exemplified continue to be the butt of ridicule? While the scoffing infidel virtually puts the renovation of the human heart nearly on a footing with the Metamorphoses of Ovid, or the transmigra tions of Pythagoras, let not the timid Christian be discouraged; let not his faith be shaken, though he may find that the prin ciple to which he has been taught to trust his eternal happiness, is considered as false by him who has not examined into its truth; that the change, of which the sound believer exhibits so convincing an evidence, is derided as absurd by the philosophical sceptic, treated as chimerical by the superficial reasoner, or silently suspected as incredible by the decent moralist."-Vol. i. pp. 90—92.

The "morality" of the Apostle is next considered. And it is affirmed (with how much truth, we need scarcely say,) that "as there never was a man who expanded and illus. trated so fully the doctrines of grace, so there never was one whose character and compositions exhibit à more consistent and high-toned morality,"

Having discriminated with much precision between Christian and worldly morality, our author thus compendiously and beautifully describes the former as it appears in the writings of this masterly preceptor :

"We have employed the term morality in compliance with common usage; but,

His preceptive passages are encircled with a kind of glory; they are illuminated with a beam from Heaven; they proceed from the Spirit of God, and are produced by faith in Him. There is every where that beautiful intermixture of motive and action,

that union of the cause and the effect, the

faith and its fruits, that uniform balance of the principle and the produce, which render these Epistles an exhaustless treasury of practical wisdom, as well as an imperisbable record of Divine Grace."-Vol. i.

p. 117.

"Saint Paul and his associates were the first moral instructers who preached not themselves. Perhaps there is scarcely a more striking proof of the grandeur of his spirit, than his indifference to popularity, This is an elevation of character, which not only no Pagan sage has reached, but which not every Christian teacher has been found to attain."-Vol. i. p. 122.

"Another instance of a human being so entirely devoid of selfishness, one who never took his own ease, or advantage, or safety, or credit into the account, cannot be found. If he considered his own sufferings, he considered them for the sake of his friends. • Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' The only joy he seemed to derive, when he was 'pressed out of measure, above strength,' was, that others might be comforted and encouraged by his sufferings. So also of his consolations; the principal joy which he derived from them was, that others might be animated by them. This anxiety for the proficiency of his converts, in preference to his own safety; his disposition to regard every object in due subjection to the great design of his ministry; his humble vigilant care, while exulting in the hope of an e'ernal crown, that he might not him self be cast away;'-form, in combination with the rest of his conduct, a character which we must allow has not only no superior, but no parallel" Vol. i pp. 127, 128

In the two next chapters, which treat of this Apostle's "prudence

ment towards the Pagan a rich accumulation of ac and eloquent description. In investigating "th principle of St. Paul's and in discussing the me "style and genius," (wh the ninth and tenth cha author makes a variety tions, which, while the the topic to which they a

suggest many useful hin recting the errors both in and taste which prevail different classes of Christ limits oblige us to pass which we should be glad but the following passa plaining the general char Paul's writings, and exp sentiment, to which we be ed, of their being chief temporary, is of so mu tance, that we cannot f hibiting it at length.

"In regard to St. Paul's polity, we are aware that so with a view to lower the gener of his Epistles, object, that stances, especially in the seco rinthians, the Apostle has lim structions to usages which re the peculiar concerns of a parti or individual person, and that have been spared in a work me ral edification.

"But these are not, as some local controversies, obsolete di which we have no concern. wel! as the individuals of wh composed, are much the same ods; and though the conten churches which he addressed, something in matter, and m and ceremony, from those of m yet the spirit of division, of of error, of opposition, with churches are more or less in have such a common resemb ages, as may make us submit t or a caution even from topics seem foreign to our concer adds to the value of Saint P