sistently act otherwise than they did. They must have required the belief of it on pain of final condemnation ; and the teachers of any other religion, believing that religion to be divine, would have acted precisely in the same way as Jesus and his apostles. It may be observed also, that though there can be nothing morally good or evil in the simple and speculative assent of the understanding to the truths of any doctrine, and though this assent is the necessary result of the presentation of sufficient evidence to the mind, yet not merely can unbelief or disbelief of the gospel spring only from an immoral cause, but that practical belief of christianity which constitutes genuine faith is uniformly and necessarily accompanied by other feelings and dispositions in the mind, and these other feelings are, in the highest degree, virtuous and praiseworthy. It may just be remarked farther, that when faith is said to be an instrument of our justification, in opposition to the works of the law, faith in these passages seems generally to signify the gospel itself, or the religion of Jesus Christ as opposed to the light of nature and the law of Moses; and the meaning, therefore, of these passages is, that justification and eternal life are to be expected only through the mediation of Christ as revealed to us in the gospel, and not as the reward of human merit, not as the reward of our observance of the ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, or even of our compliance with the precepts of the moral law.

From the view which has now been given of this principle, it would not be difficult to account for the importance attached to it in the christian system; but instead of attempting that, let us proceed as was proposed,

II. To inquire what is implied in overcoming the world, and to show how faith effects this.

Before proceeding farther, it is necessary to ascer tain what we are to understand by this world, which religion requires us to overcome. By the world, in the most extended signification of the term, is meant the universe at large, or the whole system of created substances; and, in a more restricted sense, the term is used to denote the terraqueous globe, with its various objects and inhabitants. Are we then to consider ourselves as naturally at war with the whole of this goodly and magnificent frame of things? Are we to consider every object it contains as an enemy, and to view it with correspondent emotions of hostility and aversion? Were this the case, the natural state of man would indeed be a state of war, in a sense more extended than the wildest and most licentious speculators have ever supposed. Instead of this, however, we know that on this earth, with all its riches, and on the heavens, with all their splendours, you may gaze with complacency as long as you please, provided you associate with them the idea of Him of whose power and benevolence they afford so illustrious a display. What, then, is that world which we are required to conquer? It is, I would answer in general, the present as opposed to the future state; it is this earth, with its various hardships and pleasures, its various possessions and pursuits, considered not as intrinsically or entirely evil, but as furnishing the materials of those temptations that tend to alienate our minds from the calls of religion and the interests of immortality. Such is the degradation to which this nature of ours-once innocent and glorious-is now reduced, that there is not a single faculty, bodily or mental, that may not become the inlet or the instrument of sin: and there is scarcely a single object in the world without us that may not prove the occasion of temptation.

"To overcome the world," then, must signify, in general, to overcome those temptations to which our present condition in the world necessarily exposes us. These temptations are of various kinds, and arise from various objects and causes. All of them, however, are reducible to two great classes, according to the form in which they present themselves, viz. the allurements of the world, and the terrors of the world. We may remark, then,

1st, That faith enables us to overcome the allurements or pleasures of the world.

In a preceding chapter of this epistle the apostle mentions the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, as things in the world which present temptations to the christian. In these expressions he refers to the pleasures of sense, to the riches and the honours of the world. To the temptations arising from these objects, the christian is exposed in common with others. He is in the world, and therefore the syren voice of pleasure must sometimes meet his ear; his eye must sometimes be dazzled with the glare of power, of rank, and of opulence. The temptations which these objects naturally present to us are strengthened by other circumstances, and more especially by the example of the men of the world.

We are formed for imitation; there is implanted in us a strong desire of obtaining the applause of our fellow-creatures: and hence it is easy to allow ourselves to be carried smoothly along the current of custom and fashion, but to oppose it requires a mind of no ordinary energy. Ideas of dignity and honour are unhappily associated with the pursuit of pleasure and the possession of wealth; ridicule and disgrace are the rewards of those who deviate from the general practice, and who are not conformed to the world. The manners

and maxims, however, which are prevalent in the world, are but too often repugnant to the spirit of true religion; and hence it becomes necessary that the christian, who, amid the conflict of opposing solicitations, prefers the service of God to that of Mammon, be prepared, not only to overcome the temptations naturally arising from the allurements of the world, but also to resist the example and renounce the good-will of those, the desire of whose approbation would, in other circumstances, be allowable and laudable.

Such, then, are the allurements of the world, and such are the means by which the force of these allurements are increased. Now, as the desire of riches, and honours, and even pleasures, becomes sinful only from its excess, so the victory, which we are to endeavour to gain over these objects, cannot consist in a stupid and stoical insensibility to the pleasures and enjoyments of the world. In order to conquer them, it is not necessary for us vainly to attempt to eradicate any of the original and indestructible principles of our nature; nor, farther, does that victory consist in indifference and inattention to our worldly pursuits, or in retiring from the duties of active life to the cloister of the monk or the cell of the hermit. Those who act in this manner do not conquer the world, but confess themselves conquered, by basely abandoning the station which Providence had allotted them as the scene of action. In what, then, it will be said, does the victory over the allurements of the world consist? It consists, as we have already remarked, in repelling and vanquishing the temptations presented by them. That man conquers the pleasures of the world who restrains and governs all his affections according to the dictates of reason and religion. That man conquers the riches

of the world, who, though industrious and frugal, is not avaricious, who is content with such things as he has, and if he desires wealth, desires it only as the means of enlarging the sphere of his benevolent exertion. That man conquers the power and the honours of the world, who does not allow the pursuit of these objects to interfere with the discharge of duty, who is not the slave of ambition or fashion, and who desires the praise not of men but of God.

Such, then, are the more formidable of the temptations presented by the world; and it is necessary to add, that these various temptations we are taught to consider as placed, in some measure, at the disposal of the grand enemy of our peace, who is hence, perhaps, denominated the god of this world. Though the range of that enemy is circumscribed by a chain held in the hand of the Captain of our salvation, yet the Scripture teaches us to consider him as a being who possesses the knowledge and strength of creatures of a higher order; who is striving to thwart the purposes of God, and to compass the ruin of men, with all the envenomed malignity of mortified pride and disappointed ambition; who knows every point in human nature that is infirm or vulnerable; whose skill in the art of temptation is increased by the experience of thousands of years, and who has under his sway legions of fierce and potent spirits,

"The least of whom could wield

These elements, and arm him with the force
Of all their regions." *

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

* Par. Lost, VI. 221.