even a sound theory of religion has been established. I understood too well the general state of man under the Gospel not to know that a new degree of caution, of watchfulness, and of self-denial, was necessary to the conquest of these particular temptations. Nevertheless a general spirit of negligence and selfindulgence had unquestionably crept upon me, and had in some degree engrafted itself on my religious system. For I had imagined, or at least I had partly imagined, that when we believe certain truths, can solve certain paradoxes, and have ascended certain heights in doctrine which it is given to a few only to reach, temptatious for the most part flee away, and, temptations having departed, a life of privileges rather than of duties succeeds. I persuaded myself that I had been converted at a former period; that having been converted my condition was safe; and that I might now enjoy my victory and lay aside my arms. I resembled a general, who, having defeated his enemy, and imagining that he has advanced into some impregnable ground, finds himself again attacked by the adversary whom he had despised, and is reduced to the mortifying and unexpected necessity of renewing and even augmenting his guard, especially in some one evidently weak and exposed quarter. Happily my caution did not confine itself to a single point. My consciousness of the necessity of an increased watchfulness in one particular, led to much serious self-examination as to many others: and thus, Sir, I was led to revise the whole of my religion. I have not totally discarded either any doctrinal or practical part of it; and yet I have made almost daily discoveries of something in me which was defective or erroneous; and a new cast seems already given to my whole character. "Cavendo tutus," ," "safe by being cautious," cautious I mean in respect to the first approaches of sin, and cautious as to every species of it, is the motto which CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 54. I would now wish to assume. In the corruption of my nature I still believe. How indeed should I not believe it, when I perceive how much sin may continue to be indulged while we are making a great profession of religion, and even perhaps, while there is some piety in the heart? And on the deceitfulness of sin my whole paper is so strong a comment, that I shall not dwell on this equally momentous topic. To a perusal of the Scriptures, which I now study after a new manner, I likewise owe in part, the alteration which has been lately wrought in me. But in order that I may not leave your readers in obscurity as to this important change of views, which I admit that I have as yet but imperfectly defined, I will run over a few particulars in which I seem to myself to have acquired new light through the study of that sacred volume. Many of the points on which I shall touch may seem small when separately viewed, but they will be found considerable when they are contemplated together. I therefore request. your readers not at once to condemn me as hypercritical, but to have the candour to suspend their judgment until they shall have arrived at the conclusion of my paper. My first remark may seem slight. I had been accustomed in reading the New Testament to consider the term " the world," as meaning the men of the world rather than the things of the world; whereas I am now disposed more frequently to offer to it, or at least to include in it, the last mentioned signification. I was insensibly led into my former error by the prejudices of my mind as well as the circumstances of my situation. Living in a small party, disliking contradiction, and parlty on that account averse to mixed company, I naturally construed those passages of Scripture which command us not to be conformed to the world, and not to "loose the world," as sanctioning my own separation from general society, but Z z I little reflected that we may possibly indulge our love of the things of this world, and not a few of our worldly tempers, while we live in the narrowest circle, nay even in a cloister; a truth indeed which has been verified by the example of many cloisters. The term "light" and "truth" are also expressions to which I have learned to give a somewhat new meaning. According to my former vocabulary" to know the truth""to be in the light," and "to see clearly,"signified almost exclusively a knowledge of scriptural doctrines, and especially of those which are commonly denominated evangelical; and to possess the higher degrees of light was to receive those other doctrines of a higher kind, by which many well-disposed persons are in the first part of their Christian course very apt to be offended. I do not altogether reject my old interpretation of the terms light and truth: but I have learnt through a more strict attention to Scripture, to give to them a far more practical meaning. St. John has taught me to think, that "he that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother," however advanced in the knowledge of doctrine he may be," is in darkness even until now;" and that if we "walk in darkness," that is in sin, "we lie and do not the truth." St. Peter also has instructed me that he who lacketh the practical virtues of Christianity, "temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity, is blind, and cannot see afar off," and "has forgotten" one of the most important of all points, namely, that "he is purged from his old sins." Pharisees is another term to which I affix a somewhat new meaning. Once I contemplated the Pharisee merely as a man who trusted in his own righteousness, and I freely applied this expression to all those friends and neighbours who were not vicious, and who appeared to me to want that acquaintance with evangelical doctrine which I pos sessed. I now perceive that many persons entertain tolerably just sentiments on religion, and have also a very contrite heart, who do not express themselves after my manner; and I have deeply repented of having once so currently bestowed this harsh and odious term on one or two individuals whom, in consequence of a nearer acquaintance, I have discovered to be more strict and self denying, more simple and unprejudiced, more faithful and upright, more gentle and forbearing, and more humble and unassuming, than myself. My Bible has told me, that one characteristic indeed of the ancient Pharisee was his "trusting in himself that he was righteous;" but that another was his disposition" to despise others.” Alas, Sir! have I not myself inclined to this latter fault? The word of God has instructed me that another great characteristic of the Pharisee was his hypocrisy. "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy." And has there not been much hypocrisy in my own heart? To be vain of our own religious knowledge and attainments is another part of the Pharisaical spirit: Have I not been infected with this species of sin? I am afraid that a secret conceit of my knowing that I am to renounce my own righteousness, and of my being able correctly to define the doctrine of justification by faith, had become a ground of self preference, and the means of fostering a species of evangelical Pharisaism in my heart. The judgment day is another subject on which my sentiments have in some degree changed. Heretofore if I contemplated this awful day, I was used to spare myself the anxiety which was apt to arise, by recollecting that I was a believer, and that on that day I should stand complete in the righteousness of Christ. Far be it from me to renounce the doctrine of being justified only through faith in Christ. It is a doctrine which is now dear to my very heart: I recur to it in the exercise of repentance, and especially in seasons of spiritual depression; and it is, I trust, never far from my thoughts. It however no longer so exclusively occupies my mind on every occasion of my calling to recollection the great day of account. For I have discovered that the Scripture, in its description of the proceedings of that awful day, usually speaks of all men as judged according to their works; and I have thought it both safe and right to habituate myself to the same view of the subject. This improved idea of the judgment day has materially altered the character of my religion. It has given to it a new seriousness: for, since my melancholy had been dispersed, a certain degree of levity had crept upon me. It has also checked my disposition to judge others, by suggesting that I myself must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of my thoughts, words, and actions. It has disposed me to try my faith by a more practical test; and it has deeply impressed upon me the absolute necessity of being very fruitful and abundant in good works, and especially in those deeds of mercy, which Christ has described as constituting one leading distinction between the persons who shall stand on his right hand, and those whom he shall place on his left. I have already intimated that one of my leading errors had consisted in a too great readiness to believe that I had been once converted, and therefore could never fall away. I was used to say to myself, that a man once in grace is always in grace; and that a true believer cannot fail to persevere. I do not know that I have altogether changed my creed either on this or on any other doctrinal subject; although now perhaps, I may be less confident, less zealous, and also less accurate and systematic, in this part of my faith. Certainly my mind reasons on this subject after a new manner; and the practical difference is very great. Instead of affirming that I am a be ture. liever, and that I therefore need not doubt, that I shall persevere, (a sentiment which introduced much slackness into my practice) I have learnt rather to say to myself, that it is necessary to persevere, since if I do not persevere I shall be found wanting in true faith. Instead of saying, as I once used to do, "He that shall be saved endureth to the end," I have learnt rather to say with Scripture," He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved." I have indeed been taught to employ this mode of treating the subject by various passages of ScripMoreover, brethren," says the Apostle to the Corinthians, "I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." Here the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to keep in mind the doctrines once delivered to them, that is, to persevere in the exercise of faith, and represents their very salvation as depending on this perseverance, and their faith, without this perseverance, to be a mere "believing in vain." I perceive that the children of Israel are spoken of in the Hebrews as manifesting an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;-that a promise was afforded them of entering into rest; and that they having come short of it, we are said to be admitted in their place into the Church of Christ, and to constitute "his house," "if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of our hope firm unto the end." "For we have need of patience (that is as I conceive of "patient continuance in well doing,") "that after that we have done the will of God we may inherit the promises." "Hold fast that which thou hast let no man take thy crown." I am afraid, Mr. Editor, of detaining you too long, and I shall therefore mention only one other point in which I have experienced an alte ration in my sentiments. I once considered the great difficulty of religion as consisting in the due comprehension, and in the willing admission, of certain strong, unwelcome, and yet general truths: and having myself embraced those truths, having surmounted the difficulties which oppose the reception of them, and having learnt to understand a few seeming paradoxes which they involve, I had a very inadequate conception of the necessity of any farther victory. I now consider the difficulties of religion to consist rather in the application 'to ourselves of the general doctrines which we recognize; in the subjugation of our passions; in the due government of our tongue; in the daily and hourly triumph over our several evil inclinations and humours:-in short, in the great article of Christian practice. And here likewise I think that I am supported by scriptural authority. "For if ye know these things," says the Apostle, "happy are ye if ye do them ;" an expression evidently implying that there is a knowledge not issuing in practice, and that the practice founded on doctrine is the completion or perfection of religion. Our Saviour by his manner of concluding his Sermon on the Mount has convinced me that he also considered the practical part of religion as constituting the main difficulty; and that he deemed the neglect of this to be the great danger to which hearers of the truth are subject. To "hear and to do," is, according to him, to erect our building on a rock, whereas to "hear his sayings and not to do them," is to build our house upon the sand. I trust, Mr. Editor, that by that union of practice with my faith which I have endeavoured to describe, (a union which by no means confounds the one with the other in the great point of justification,) I am now endeavouring to build on a right foundation: and I would humbly hope that when the rains descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow; in other words, when temptation shall assault my building in this world, and the day of judgment shall make the final trial of its strength; the gracious Judge may pronounce concerning it, "that it fell not, for it was founded on a rock." I conclude with the title which I ventured to assume in the beginning of this paper, namely, that of A SELF-OBSERVER, MISCELLANEOUS. doubtedly received. Yet I will confess, that in this lecture there was a negative fault, a sin of omission, which in my esteem is of such magnitude that it throws into the shade all its merits. In order that I may at once explain and vindicate my censure, I will give you from memory a short view of the substance of this lecture. The Rev. Sydney Smith (for it is idle to affect obscurity where none can exist) had cleared his ground on the Saturday preceding by maintaining an origi nal equality of talents in the two sexes, and expressing his clear conviction that those talents in the softer sex ought to be better cultivated. He began his present lecture by repelling an objection which has frequently been urged against encouraging women in the prosecution of knowledge. The pedantry dreaded (he observed) does not grow more naturally out of literary than any other pursuits; for it may be found in substance, though not in name, through every department of life, that knowledge, when it becomes common, ceases to confer superiority; and that couceit is in truth the child, not of wisdom or learning, but of ignorance and folly. Having disposed of this objection, he introduced his subsequent observations by a quotation from a female writer*, whose example, it might have been hoped, would ere this have made knowledge as fashionable among her own sex, as her practice has rendered it eminently useful to mankind; and, shielded by her authority, he enlarged fully, and with irresistible force of reasoning, on several topics which shew the necessity or wisdom of cultivating the female understanding more assiduously. We were taught how much the education of men must be trusted, during the earliest years, to the hands of women; how greatly the character is formed in that period; and how little those can be qualified to teach who themselves stand in need of instruction. We were taught that the diffusion of knowledge among women would raise its standard among men, by compelling those who are too idle to learn, yet too vain not to be proud of their learning while they can find inferiors, either to surrender their pretensions altogether, or to acquire by industry some better means of sustaining them; that women will thus become companions better suited to the taste of reasonable men, and better qualified to contribute to every social enjoyment;-that they will * Mrs. More. acquire resources which may qualify them not merely to glitter in the brilliant interval between sixteen and six and twenty, but to fill with propriety every age and situation of life;--that, when sustained by the dignity of knowledge, mothers will no longer be despised by their children, nor woman lose all when she has lost her beauty. And lastly we were taught that a taste for intellectual acquirements will furnish the best corrective to those habits of dissipation which are nursed by the present system, and which, said Mr. Smith, though not vice, are the very best preparative for it. Now here I must pause to ask, whether Mr. Smith did not abate a little of that manly independence. which characterised every other part of his lecture, by making so needless and so dangerous a concession to his fashionable audience. Vice indeed is frequently confined to a particular class of sensual indulgences, and so the question might end in a mere logomachy; but this may be safely affirmed, that if dissipation be not vicious, it is guilty, it is criminal, it is subject to the same penalties which are denounced by revelation against those sins which are sometimes exclusively termed vice. I fear it is certain beyond controversy, that she who spends her days in idleness, and her nights in gaiety, has no promise of salvation from the Gospel. Consider the images under which our course through this life to the attainments of a better is depicted. It is a race, a journey, a pilgrimage, a pugilistic struggle, where heaven is the prize to be contended for. Consider the injunctions continually repeated: "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men; strive to enter in, for straight is the gate; let us not be weary in well doing; see that ye walk circumspectly redeeming the time; be sober, be vigilant." Consider the motives: "Because your adversary the devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour; for we wrestle not with flesh and |