sion, it will be easily excused at the tribunal of conscience, on account of the precious stock of merit acquired by so good an act.

Penances, and pilgrimages, and masses, and lazarettos, and college endowments, and churches or chapels "adorned and beautified," are but a few of the ostentatious equivalents which have been offered to our Creator for the revolted affections of the heart; but He who "" giveth not his honor to another" spurns at the degrading compromise, and accepts of no gift that does not spontaneously flow from the cordial obedience of faith and love. "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Not indeed that external observances are to be neglected; not that prayers, and fasting, and almsdeeds are to be discountenanced: they are undoubtedly all excellent and indispensable, and the only danger is when they are intended as substitutes for something higher. The form of godliness" is necessary, but cannot atone for the absence of the "power." Where the heart and affections are devoted to God, these things will not, cannot, be left undone; but the converse is by no means true, that wherever these things are performed, the heart is necessarily devoted to God. The act which men applaud for its piety, is oftentimes but a sacrifice to decency or custom, if not to ostentation and the love of praise.

It is to the motive that we must chiefly look for the immense difference between the moralist and the Christian, the Pharisee and the genuine disciple. The good works of the one spring from a principle of gratitude and affection; those of the other from habit, or expediency, or fear, or at best from an arrogant expectation of purchasing heaven by the performance.The one is an obedient child, the other an unwilling slave.

If, however, an earthly parent would not be satisfied with an obedience wholly unprompted by affection, why should we offer the same insult to our Father which is in heaven? No person who loves any object better than his Creator can be said to be truly obedient. God requires our supreme and unrivalled affections; which being once engaged, our conduct will necessarily become holy and acceptable in his eyes.

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To render obedience complete, it must be constant and unremitted. There are no excepted moments in which a rival is allowed. Amidst the fatigues and the anxieties of life, our spirit must be uniformly Christian. Religion, though not always in our thoughts, must be so interwoven with the first springs of action, as to be always conspicuous in our conduct. Surrounded with the worshippers of the world, we must never bow our knee to their enchanting idol. apostle exhorts us in the very same verse both to be diligent in business, and "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;" so that the importance of our callings in life is by no means an excuse for our neglect of eternal concerns. God is far from accepting that aguish piety which works itself up into a warm fit of devotion every seventh day, and then contentedly shivers and freezes the other six. Our devotion should be the regular glow of a soul in spiritual health, and not the alternate frost and fever of mere sentimental Christianity. A few tears shed in passion-week will not evince our love for the Redeemer, if we are deliberately "crucifying him afresh, and putting him to an open shame" during the remainder of the year. Unusually solemn occasions, it is true, call for unusually solemn acts; but the general impression should remain long after the individual act has ceased. The gospel being intended for all ages, and climates, and conditions in life, was made of such a nature that its energy might be unintermitted in every possible variety of circumstance. Had it simply consisted of a stated

routine of ceremonies, its operation must frequently have been suspended, or even rendered wholly impracticable; but what season or circumstance is there which can prevent the obedience of the heart? In business and at leisure, at home and abroad, in prosperity and adversity, in sickness and in health, the habitual desire to obey God will find means to operate in acts appropriate to the occasion. There is no moment in which there is not some temptation to be avoided, none in which there is not some duty to be performed.

In reply to these remarks, it may be said, that if our Creator requires an obedience such as has been described, an obedience universal and impartial, fully commensurate with our knowledge of his will, uniformly grounded on faith and love, and exerted during the whole of our lives without intermission or reserve,— who can possibly be saved? for where is the favored mortal who in this world of imperfection can boast of such an obedience ?

These questions conduct us at once to the whole scheme of Christianity. It is evident that upon the condition of perfect obedience our case is hopeless; and it is equally evident that imperfect obedience, however sincere, will not satisfy the divine law, which has a right to demand all that God originally created man able to perform. But infinite wisdom, combining with infinite goodness, devised a plan by which every difficulty is removed. How completely therefore do the doctrines of the gospel meet our case! Man, on account of his disobedience, finds himself obnoxious to the divine wrath, and therefore needs an atonement. An atonement is provided. "He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him." The Messiah was constituted the "Mediator of a better covenant." It harmonized with the attributes of Deity to accept his vicarious obedience as the means of our pardon and justification. This is

the ineffable mystery which human reason could never have discovered, but which is unequivocally revealed in a volume that possesses indubitable marks, both internal and external, of the divinity of its origin. We are required to believe this obedience to be perfect and all-sufficient to the exclusion of every thing else as the procuring cause of our redemption. This, however, is no easy task. We are unwilling to allow that Jesus Christ discharged the whole debt, and are ever attributing some degree of merit to our own performances; forgetting that the coin which we naturally offer in part of payment is defective in quality as well as quantity that it is false as well as inadequate-that for want of Christian motives it is a mere counterfeit obedience, worthless in the sight of God, and unable to purchase the rewards of heaven.

The expressions in our thirteenth Article are so exceedingly strong upon this subject, that were they not evidently founded upon scripture, we might be inclined to question their truth. "Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not out of faith in Jesus Christ ;"—"yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin."

It appears therefore that a renovation of heart is necessary to render our best acts of obedience acceptable to God. The actions of a converted man assume a new character, being performed from new motives, and under the influence of the divine "inspiration." It is an elevating thought to believe our Creator ever present, assisting us by his Holy Spirit to perform such works as shall be acceptable in his sight, and silently guiding us in the delightful paths of Christian obedience. Those very acts which, though laudable in themselves, once "partook of the nature of sin," by reason of the sinfulness of their agent, now become

aets of holiness, and are grateful to our Heavenly Parent on account of the renovated principles from which they spring.

The Church of England, in the Article preceding that which has been just quoted, renders this subject exceedingly plain. "Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins or endure the severity of God's judgments, yet they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit."

From this Article we may evidently infer several important facts.

1. That our good works cannot, in the opinion of the Church, "put away our sins, or endure the severity of God's judgments;" or, what is nearly the same thing, that they have no power to justify us, since they cannot even exist till after justification, being the fruits of faith, and not its precursors. We are thus necessarily led to look to some other cause of justification; namely, the vicarious sufferings and obedience of Christ, which are gratuitously applied to all who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto God."

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2. We learn that after justification, and as fruits of faith, the works of the Christian are highly pleasing to God. A cup of cold water given to a disciple, in the name of a disciple, will not lose its reward, while the most praiseworthy actions, if performed from simply natural motives, or intended to co-operate with the merits of the Redeemer in purchasing salvation, are too worldly and self-sufficient to be esteemed acts of genuine obedience.

3. We learn not to trust to a dead inefficient faith ; since the exalted principle to which the office of justifying is ascribed, "necessarily" produces good works;