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it, and I hope and pray that he will continue and enlarge his goodness to you. You may feel bereft and as in a wilderness for the present, but the Divine presence and blessing will do more for your comfort than the company of the best of us; the temptations to which you now feel yourself more than ever exposed, that aid will ever enable you to resist, and the trials and sufferings of life it will enable you to sustain. How reviving is the recollection of the prophet's description of the goodness of God in past ages, now, no doubt, extended to his faithful servants! "In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them." With the consolations of the word of God before us,

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION :
A Sermon,

BY THE REV. EDWARD GARRARD MARSH, M.A.,
Prebendary of Southwell, and Rector of Waltham,
Lincolnshire.

2 CORINTHIANS, xiii. 9. "This also we wish, even your perfection." the wish here BEFORE We comment upon

how confidently may we expect that he will deliver his spiritual expressed by the apostle, it is necessary that we should understand precisely what he meant by the word which in the text translated " perfection."

Israel out of all their troubles! Even viewed under existing circumstances, your situation affords abundant ground for hope and comfort; but if your son's death be viewed on his account, how greatly may your consolation abound! To the son who received from you the image of the first Adam you have been, under God, the means of communicating the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,--Christ was formed in him, the hope of glory. It has pleased God to take him early to his rest, to the enjoyment of himself in a blessed eternity; who can wish him back again in the vale of tears? It is the consummation of our hopes with regard to others as well as ourselves that they may so pass through things temporal as finally to obtain things eternal. We must, therefore, thank God for all who have died in his faith and fear; and with regard to the increase of care or trial which this separation occasions, cast all our care upon him, for he careth for us; and thus trusting in his goodness, shall find crooked things straight and rough places plain before us, for which we shall rejoice and praise God with all the redeemed from every kindred and tongue and nation,

when we assemble before his throne to dwell with him for ever. Extract from the answer of Bishop Chase to Mr. Dallin.

London, May 18, 1824. My dear friend,--The tears which gushed from my eyes at every line of the first page of your good letter of the 13th inst., were not those of regret and sorrow that my son Philander has

is

There can be no doubt that Saint Paul wished the perfection of all the disciples, even in the most absolute sense of that word. Our blessed Saviour had said in his sermon on the mount," Be ye perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect;" and without all controversy that which the Lord commanded, his apostle desired to see fulfilled. Nor is even this divine perfection an object which Christians should ever leave out of view; for it is the ultimate scope of their pursuit, and will undoubtedly be granted in the end, not indeed in this life, but in that which is to come, to their patient continuance in well-doing. To be perfect, even as our Father, which is in heaven, is perfect-what does that awful comparison import? It imports that, as the Lord is both righteous and

left this for a better world: no, the evidence of his faith in the gracious-perfectly righteous and perfectly

Lord Jesus Christ was too conspicuous, and I feel mine too full and fearless that he has exchanged the trials of the wilderness for the enjoyment of Canaan, to admit the idea of selfish complaining sorrow. I grieved and still grieve that I have not

gracious in all his dispensations towards his people, so we in return love him to the full extent of all the faculties which he has proved myself worthy of such a son. Instead of being, as you given us, and love our neighbour also with

seem to suppose, the instrument of his conversion, he has been more especially such of mine. His meekness and moderation often checked my impetuous temper, and his picty often enkindled my own. Dear loved youth! from an unsightly fruitless stock thou wast taken and engrafted into the vine Christ Jesus; thou wast in Christ by baptism, Christ was in thee by faith! Thy fragrance was of grace, not of nature; it was shed around, and all wondered and delighted at its sweetness; God has seen fit to

an impartial and disinterested affection, as equally with ourselves an object of his care and goodness. This is Christian perfection; this it is permitted to us to wish for ourselves and for each other; this will hereafter be attained in the eternal world by the spirits of

remove thee, and why should I complain? The tempests which just men made perfect.

once beat upon thy lovely head now no longer shake thy tender frame; meekly didst thou bow to the storms of life, and they were many; God has now removed thee far beyond their reach; thou didst leave as a last legacy to thy father, thou didst leave even to him thy blessing-"Tell my father not to let my death damp his ardour in the cause of the Redeemer's Church." Thus thou didst leave me, and with the sweetness of heavenly love is thy name embalmed. It is, indeed, the balm of Gilead, the odour of Lebanon. Refreshed by its fragrance I return from the untimely grave, O my son, to mingle in the busy scenes of this troublesome world. I would wish to be with thee where thou

But this, notwithstanding, is not the perfection intended by Saint Paul in the text: he did indeed wish it; but the wish was too remote for practical effort: and therefore he formed a humbler wish, one more within the present reach of human infirmity, and one, the steady pursuit of which will be productive of immediate and perceptible im

art; but God's will is paramount, and in it I would fain rejoice, provement. Though it is necessary not to

though it be for life or death. I have yet a dear wife and young
children to care for, and above all I have the cares of the Church
in the west of my dear country laid upon me,-at the thought
of these, my sorrows are brushed away like a morning cloud;
God seems to gird me about with strength; and by this I seem
to be able to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.

Faithfully yours,
PHILANDER CHASE.

(To be continued.)

be

lose sight of that high prize of our calling which is set before us; yet our approaches towards it produce no sense of progress, cause degrees of advancement are as nothing when the distance of the mark is infinite; and therefore the apostle narrows his wishes, and limits them within a nearer, a distinguishable horizon.

What, then, is the perfection which he means? The same word is used by the Evan

gelists, in its primary meaning, for repairing the fishers' nets, and thus signifies supplying all defects, and inserting the parts that are wanting. Accordingly this is the sense in which it is metaphorically used by the apostle, where, transferring the same idea to a spiritual subject, he says in the third chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians "We pray exceedingly that we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith," or in other words, that we might supply its deficiencies. Just so likewise in his sixth chapter to the Galatians-"If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness:" where the idea of repairing a rent which had been made in the integrity of a fellow-disciple's character, and thus restoring its completeness, is distinctly preserved. The same word is used in two other passages at the close of the epistle to the Hebrews, and of the first of Saint Peter, where the sacred writers pray that the God of peace and of all grace would make the disciples perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in them that which is well pleasing in his sight; and again, that after they have suffered awhile, he would make them perfect by stablishing, strengthening, settling them. In both these places the work of making perfect is clearly a gradual process, consisting in the supply of deficiencies, and the correction of that which is wrong. Hence, when Saint Paul, two verses after the text, exhorts the brethren to be perfect, he is to be understood as urging them to look well to the imperfections of their own character, that every error may be rectified and every want supplied. To this effect he says to them-" Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. I pray to God that ye do no evil, but that ye should do that which is honest;' and adds, in the words of the text-"This also we wish, even your perfection."

The sentiment of Saint Paul, therefore, in this place is as if he had said-" Be not contented with a barren profession of faith. Do not think it enough, if you have obtained peace with God, or can persuade yourselves that you are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But besides this," as Saint Peter in his second epistle amplifies the sentiment contained in this single word, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This, then, being the wish expressed by Saint Paul for the disciples, our next question is, how we may best apply it to our own edification and improvement; and may the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight.

My brethren, you must not imagine that the life of a Christian is an idle life. I do not mean that it requires you merely to be industrious in your several callings, to be diligent in business or active in charity, or to be careful in all the duties of relative and social life, as well as in the public services of religion. This also it undoubtedly requires of you. But there is much besides for a Christian to do in the peculiar nature of his Christian calling, and which may be discharged even by persons who have no great offices of active duty to perform, and may even be carried forward with impaired bodily senses, upon a bed of languishing, and with a crippled and helpless frame. For this also we must wish, for every one of you, even your perfection. And what does this wish imply? imply? It implies growth in grace, progress in faith, hope, and love, advancement in the conquest of in-dwelling sin, correction of besetting faults in temper, habits, and conduct, and improvement in the acquisition of those heavenly dispositions which should adorn our profession.

Thus the commencement of the Christian life is the same in all; for its uniform com. mencement is that faith in the virtue of our Lord's meritorious atonement, whereby a sinner is justified, and peace of conscience attained. Even here indeed there is a difference; for that faith must be accompanied by repentance of sin, and in some that repentance will be more intense and that faith more perfect than in others; but still, until there is real repentance and genuine faith, there can be no justification. In this first step, therefore, of the Christian life all must agrec.

But afterwards, when this portal is once passed, there is a vast difference in the pace of their progress, a difference which our Saviour expresses thus: "They bring forth fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty." They all bring forth some fruit, if their faith be genuine, for grace cannot be altogether unproductive; and even if the fruit be little, yet if it be the true fruit of the Spirit of God, it is not overlooked by him, who never despises the day of small things. But yet it is far from being a matter of indifference whether we bear much fruit or little, for "herein," said our blessed Redeemer, "is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall

ye

be my disciples." Accordingly in this respect there are various degrees of grace here, as there will also be proportionate degrees of glory hereafter; and we are exhorted in this race of Christian virtue to covet earnestly the best gifts, to forget those things which are behind, to reach forth unto those things which are before, and so to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It is in this respect also that scope is afforded for the discriminating instruction of a faithful minister, who has need of much spiritual understanding, that he may be able to apprehend the real state of those who apply to him, and to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine; and the people also have need of much meekness and humility of mind, that they may suffer the word of exhortation, and, looking not to their attainments, but to their deficiencies, may thus go on unto perfection. In this way every man's case has its peculiarities, and requires encouragement, warning, incitement, or instruction, suited to itself. And Saint John, combining the two requisites of individual self-inspection and of ministerial watchfulness, says to the brethren, partakers with him of the heavenly calling,-"Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."

cording to the truth of the Gospel, are easily carried away, by the force of example or the influence of authority, to act against the dictates of their conscience. These are inconsistencies of frequent occurrence, and yet are no certain proof that the root of the matter is not in them; for there is flame, smothered under smoking flax, which by due care in separating the cumbrous heap, may burst out and burn brightly. But the decisive question is, Are such persons satisfied with their condition? Are they contented to remain so? or are they desirous to obtain more light, more grace, more consistency, more progress? Are they ready to say "That which I see not, teach thou me. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more." For there is no more unvarying mark of a true Christian, than that he is one who is solicitous, not merely to receive, but to adorn the Gospel, and with that view to put aside everything which he knows to be unbecoming his profession, and to advance in the knowledge and the love of God.

But if a Christian be indeed intent on correcting the evils and supplying the deficiencies in his own character, that so he may present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is his reasonable service, he cannot long continue addicted to any vice or any vicious practices. Either that habit will destroy his Christianity, or his Christianity will overcome that habit. Still, however, such is the inveteracy of our moral diseases, that some root of bitterness will remain in us to the end; either some hasti

Remember, therefore, Christian brethren, that what we wish is your perfection: it is not sufficient to confess your sins, to believe in Christ for their pardon, and to offer a few prayers for his grace and protection; faithness of temper, impatience of contradiction, must have its work, love its labour, and hope its patience or the evidence of your Christian sincerity will be defective and unsatisfactory. The remarks which I shall now make do not at all concern those who are strangers to the hopes and comforts of religion. They must repent of sin and believe the Gospel, they must be converted and become as little children, or the light of truth visits them in vain; they have no part in its promises, no share in its reward. I will suppose that you have taken this step, that you have really repented of sin, that you do indeed believe the Gospel.

Persons in this state of mind are yet sometimes still addicted to vices, which they have not at once surmounted: perhaps they are not yet sufficiently enlightened to see the whole enormity of sin; there are some evil courses of which they do not discern the mischief; or the temptation to some wrong habits, of which they do not discern the guile, recurs too often and too powerfully to be resisted by a faith which is at present weak and inexperienced; or they are timid Christians, and though they are in earnest desirous to walk uprightly ac

love of pre-eminence, dread of human censure, desire of human applause, or some other infirmity, will impair the singleness of our devotion, or tarnish the purity of our faith; and here again the influence of genufne Christianity will be felt in detecting these iaults, and inducing a habit of vigilance against them. Failings, which once seemed to us of no moment, which still ought to be overlooked in the estimate of our character by our neighbours, come to be noticed, when the mind looks inward and compares its blemishes with the law of its God or the example of its Redeemer; and thus a habit of holy jealousy over itself is engendered, which will gradually soften every asperity, and melt down every selfish, proud, and unkindly feeling in the flame of divine love. Hence a Christian, who is a Christian indeed, will find the leaven of his religion pervade every portion of his behaviour, and will become a kinder friend, a more faithful servant, a more considerate master, and, in short, better in every relation of life, in proportion as his Christianity gains greater ascendency over him. Be sure, my brethren, that, if you acquiesce

in any known failings, and are not desirous | to remove every thing that you know to be unchristian from your intercourse with others, and even from the current of your private thoughts, you are not yet brought fully under the power of the Gospel; for this is what we wish for every one of you, and this is what every one of you should wish for himself, even your perfection.

The considerations, however, which have hitherto been adduced, relate chiefly to the second table of the law. But it is one peculiar distinction of a child of God, that, while he is more attentive than others to every social and relative obligation, he regards his duty to God with still greater reverence than his duty to his neighbour: in proportion, therefore, as he becomes imbued with the grace of God, he will become more sensible of the poverty of his devotion, the coldness of his affections, the wandering of his heart in prayer; and he will become more and more desirous to render his sabbatical exercises, his private devotions, and his family worship, real and effective acts of communion with God, by means of which he may improve in the knowledge and love of that Being, who is now considered by him as all his salvation and all his desire. Hence he will take increasing delight in meditating on the promises of Scripture; and as those promises all imply a meetness for the reception of them in those who are to partake of them, a meetness to be formed in us by the fatherly discipline of our God and the gracious operation of his Spirit, constraining us to acts of love and obedience, he will find a pleasure also in studying the precepts of the Bible, although they remind him of his miserable deficiencies and sins, because they form a correct picture of that character which he longs to acquire, by the continual observation of which he may learn to trace its lineaments more exactly. At the same time, and for the same reason, his confessions will be more deep and his praises more ardent; and he will thus come to know more and better what the apostle means when he says" our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

Does this description, brethren, remind you of your own failings, of your distance from that standard at which you ought to aim, of the dulness and slowness of your hearts in that work in which you ought to mount up with wings as eagles, and not be weary? It is good that you should be reminded of them, that you may seek grace proportioned to your want, and that your need may be supplied. We wish your perfection, and therefore lay before you your weak points, that you may perceive how

much you have yet to do, if you would live up to the character of those whom the apostles described as beloved of God, called to be saints.

I will advert only to one more distinction, which will mark an advancing Christian. He will not only depart from those practices which he knows to be offensive to God, that so he may live near to him in act and thought, but he will become zealous for God, desirous to promote his honour, to extend his kingdom, and to further his plans of salvation. Hence he will become a philanthropist in the true sense of the word, having pity upon those immortal souls, of which he has learned to know the value, and ready to make exertions and sacrifices according to the opportunities afforded to him, for the purpose of diminishing the amount of misery and vice by which he is surrounded, and helping all his neighbours in the acquisition of the true riches.

The

You perceive, my brethren, that there is much to be done, if you would abound as you ought to do in the graces of your Christian calling. If you do perceive this, the next thing is to bestir yourselves that you may supply the deficiency. It is idle to sit mourning over your failings, over the languor of your prayers, the weakness of your faith, and the insensibility of your hearts. right way to act under this consciousness of infirmity is to set yourselves to work, to abound in the active duties of a Christian, that so your feelings may follow in the train of your works. By visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, you will become better able to keep yourselves unspotted from the world; and by seeking to live more in the spirit of your prayers, your prayers themselves will be made better; till by patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, through the blessing of the God of the Scriptures, you become perfect-complete in all the elements of Christian character, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and at length meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Alas, brethren, this is a high standard; who shall reach it? I answer in the words of our Saviour himself, "With men this is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." He desires your perfection, he also will supply your need; but he requires you to be in earnest, sensible of your wants, anxious to remove them, seeking from him the grace to will and to do according to his good pleasure; and then he is able to keep you from falling, to make you stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think, according to the power that worketh in you, and, in short, to supply

all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

SACRED POETRY.

BY JAMES CHAMBERS, ESQ.
No. VI.

Balade by Anne Askewe.-Quarles. AMONGST the fragments of sacred poetry belonging to the early part of the sixteenth century, is one which I omitted to insert in chronological order, but which I shall extract here, because it will prove interesting to those readers who have perused a memoir of Anne Askewe, in a previous number of this periodical.⚫ The fragment to which I allude is entitled "The Balade which Anne Askewe made and sung when she was in Newgate."+ Though but a humble production, it derives. a thrilling interest from the circumstance that it was written by this holy woman when waiting for her crown of glory.

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Yet, Lorde, I Thee desyre,

For that they doe to me,

Let them not taste the hyre Of their iniquytie."

Francis Quarles (born 1592, died 1642). I had written an extended memoir of this poet, with copious observations on his works, when I found that much of my information and many of my remarks had been anticipated by a writer in a former volume of this work. To that memoir I refer the reader; but as no extracts from his writings are made there, I shall feel justified in presenting a limited selection from his poetry, because it is my firm conviction that very few are acquainted with the original imagery and striking sentiment which, despite his quaint conceits and unnatural measures, appear in all the productions of this abused poet.

His "Alphabet of Elegies" on Dr. Ailmer is well known. I select the tenth, for the sake of the account with which I shall introduce it.

Dr. Aylmer was a man of learning and piety. His whole life was a series of benevolent acts, and his death beautiful exceedingly. Being asked how he felt, he answered, "I thank God, heart-whole;" and laying one hand on his breast, and lifting the other up to heaven, he said, "The glory above giveth no room to sickness." And when death was rapidly approaching, "Let my people know," he said, "that their pastor died undaunted, and not afraid of death. I bless my God I have no fear, no doubt, no reluctance, but an assured confidence in the sin-overcoming merits of Jesus Christ." Then closing his mortal eyes with his own hands, he fell back on the pillow, while the smile on his dying features seemed to testify that he saw the heavenly Jerusalem, and that the deathless music of immortal harps had burst on his enraptured

ear.

Quarles had sat at the feet of this Gamaliel, and we may know from his elegies that" true worth and grief were their parents."

"ELEGY X.

I wondered not to hear so brave an end,
Because I knew who made it could contend
With death, and conquer, and in open chase
Would spit defiance in his conquered face-
And did. Dauntless he trod him underneath
To shew the weakness of unarmed death.
Nay, had report or niggard fame denyed
His name, it had been known that Ailmer died.
It was no wonder to hear rumour tell

That he, who died so oft, once died so well.
Great Lord of life, how hath thy dying breath

Made man, whom death hath conquered, conquer death!"

Quarles' poetry is remarkable not only for his quaint style, but eccentric metres. Occasionally they produced a good effect, as in the following lines, wherein the long-drawn harmony swells by degrees into a fuller and grander tone :

"BEHOLD,

How short a span

Was long enough of old

To measure out the life of man;

In those well-tempered days, his time was then

Surveyed, cast up, and found but threescore years and ten.

Vol. iv. p. 69.

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