lovely, and of good report, in continual remembrance; to discharge the acknowledged duties of every station in life, with an energy proportioned to the superior force of the Christian's animating principle, a danger too naturally arises, lest we should rest satisfied with performing, in some creditable degree, the exterior duties of life, associated, perhaps, with a more than ordinary attention to the outward offices of religion. But may it not justly subject us to the charge of ingratitude, if we make such a return as this to that very kindness of our heavenly Master, which has rendered the path of duty the path also of respectability; and, instead of placing us in the trying circumstances of the first Christians, who were subjected to dishonour and evil report, as well as to still severer sufferings, has so ordered our lot, that without violating the sanctity of the Christian character, we may experience, in the estimation of others, the present fulfilment of the apostolic declaration, that "godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come?"

But it is not merely by his obtaining credit with the irreligious world, that the Christian is in danger. Perhaps he has even more to dread from becoming popular among those who profess a more than ordinary respect for religion. We all, for the most part, naturally associate with those who agree with us substantially in opinion. With them we form our intimacies and our friendships-their applause is the fame we covet. In truth, to all men, the world may be said to consist of those with whom they are chiefly conversant, and whose good opinion they hold in habi

tual regard. The world of the professing Christian, therefore, consists mainly of those whose opinions and conduct are formed on a principle of respect for the doctrines and precepts of Christianity; and he cannot but be habitually conscious that he would lose his eredit with them, if he were openly, or to any great degree, to violate the proprieties of his assumed Christian character. But this habitual reference to the opinions and feelings of others, though it may sometimes supply a counteracting influence against open vice, and an additional security against the suddenness or force of temptation, especially of temptations to actual sin, is yet but too apt insensibly to become the main spring, the actuating principle of our conduct. But, alas! we may be popular among our fellow-christians from the exterior of our Christian character, while the inner man may all the time be growing weaker and weaker. The true Christian, therefore, conscious of the corruption and deceitfulness of his own heart, will be constantly on his guard against the delusion to which he knows himself to be prone. He will be afraid of having the respect and attachment of his fellow-christians chiefly at heart, while he professes to be supremely actuated by love and gratitude to his God and Saviour. He will therefore be endeavouring to fix, and habitually to maintain, in his mind, a strong impression of the nature and effects of true spiritual religion; and having ascertained, beyond dispute, his own title to that blessed character, he will strive to keep the evidences of this title to the name of Christian continually present to his view, remembering the Apostle's declara

tion, that "as many as are LED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Still farther. It is the never-failing characteristic of true religion, to prompt its professor, in imitation of the great apostle of the Gentiles, forgetting the things that are behind, to press forward towards the prize of his high and heavenly calling; and to be continually advancing in his Christian course, and never to be satisfied with his actual attainments, but to be striving to root out every remaining corruption, and to perfect every Christian grace, that he may bring every thought and feeling into the obedience of Christ;-to live more habitually under the influence of that divine Spirit, of which Christians are said, in Scripture, to be the temples ;-and to feel more constantly and more powerfully the life and force of this blessed principle. To those who are thus desirous of continually growing in grace, no less than to those who would guard against being fatally beguiled by the fairness and even excellence of their character, few publications are likely to be more useful than the Treatises of the late Dr. JOHN WITHERSPOON, to which I have undertaken to write an Essay. I am conscious, indeed, that the excellence of that Work is far too well established to render necessary any eulogium of mine. Nevertheless, from what cause I know not, it appears to me, of late years, scarcely to have been valued at its proper worth; still less to have been perused as generally as it deserved to be. The Author had drunk largely of that abundant stream of practical divinity, which is supplied by what I may be permitted to term the

church's well-head, the works of the ancient worthies of the English religious establishment, from the period of the Reformation, till toward the close of the 17th century, to which also many of the excellent Puritan writers copiously contributed. And while his writings contain much of that searching examination of the human heart, for which they were so distinguished, we have the same sentiments at a less expense of time and trouble; relieved not only, from their prolixity, but sometimes from their obscurity, by the omission of those numerous subdivisions with which the works of our older divines so generally abound. It was the object of Dr. Witherspoon, in the present admirable Work, to trace the grand outlines of the Christian character-to lay before his readers the vital principles of real Christianity—and to point out the effects which those principles, when really in the heart, will infallibly produce. More especially he endeavoured to point out the genuine features of him whose glorious privilege it is to be renewed after the divine image, and to distinguish them from those false appearances which, however fair at first sight, possess not the substance and symmetry, the life and power of that character, which entitles its possessor to the denomination of a child of God. But in our high commendation of this excellent work, it may perhaps be necessary, in one instance, if not to withhold, at least to qualify our eulogium. In the chapter wherein the Author treats of the view which will be taken, by all true Christians, of the nature of God, it may perhaps be conceived that there may be some danger of making

sad the heart of many a truly righteous, though timid and trembling believer. It is not however that the Author is erroneous in his statement: the prin ciples and feelings which he describes are found, substantially, in all real Christians. But besides that all are not able to take an accurate view of the state of their own hearts, these principles and feelings exist in very different degrees, in persons of different measures of intellect and sensibility. But in all Christians there is a hatred of sin and love of holiness; there is a genuine and deep humiliation, from a consciousness of disobedience and ingratitude towards God, which necessarily arises out of a deep sense of the infinite perfection of God, and of the moral excellence of his commandments. Thence arises that sense of our disease, as our blessed Saviour terms it, which renders the Physician so acceptable; which so endears the Saviour, not only as the atonement for our sins, and as the means of obtaining the forgiveness of them, but as the way also by which we may be delivered from their power, and be conformed to the character and image of Christ. Hence, too, we become more suitably impressed, (even overwhelmed would be an inadequate name for a feeling which we never can experience in a just degree,) with a sense of the unspeakable mercy and love of God. It is not merely that he pardons those who deserve punishment at his hands: but, if we may presume to use such an expression, in speaking of truths, the grandeur of which exceeds our limited faculties, He who declares himself to abhor all iniquity, has devised a plan for exercising his lenity,