SECTION LV.

The Sum and Subftance of Chriftian Philofophy the Renewal of the Heart by Divine Grace; or the foftening it and rendering it fufceptible of virtuous and benevolent impreffions, by cultivating the two grand Principles-Piety to God, and Charity to Man.

Wthe apoftle anfwer; it is to

7HAT is Chriftian wifdom or philofophy? Let

put off the “old man, which is corrupt, and to put on the 66 new man, which, after God, is created in

righteousness and true holinefs." We must be born again, or it had been better for us that we had not been born at all. The wifdom from above is the true Christian Philofophy; that wifdom which, we are told *, "is first pure, then "peaceable, gentle, eafy to be entreated, full of "mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and "without hypocrify."

Hardness of heart, we have feen, is incompatible with this wisdom which is full of mercy. The bofom must be foftened by divine influence. Redeem the time, therefore, that you have hitherto loft in a cold, lifelefs, formal, metaphyfical, and decorous religion. Love God, love your neighbour, with the ardour of a fincere mind, and the amiable fimplicity of infantine innocence. Seek Jefus Chrift with the earnestness of one who is a Christian by choice, and not merely because he was born in a Christian country, or of Chriftian parents; not because the laws of the land have established that

* James, iii. 17.

religion,

religion, and it is creditable to appear among its profeffors in places confecrated to public devotion. Be Chriftians on your pillows, in your daily employments, in the occupation of your merchandize or agriculture, as well as in your church, and on the day fet apart for divine fervice. Let Chrift*, by the Holy Ghoft, be formed in your hearts, restoring in you the image of God, in which you were created, but which was fadly fullied, or quite defaced, by the fall of the first Adam, and can be restored only by the mercy of the fecond.

If there were but a probability that these comfortable doctrines are true, a wife man would cherish them; but as they are abundantly con-firmed by the written word, by the church, by the learned, by the experience and teftimony of millions of pious men; who would not refolve to believe, and if any doubts fhould at any time arife, to fay, "Lord, help thou my unbelief?"

Religion has been, and is, the delight of a great part of our fellow-creatures throughout Christendom. It may be ours, if we will but duly apply our minds to it. Confider with what ardour of attachment many feek pictures, books, the works of art, the objects of taste and fancy. They learn to love them, by applying their minds to them. Half the application bestowed on things, which, at beft, are but toys, would, if bestowed on religion, make it your chief delight, the guardian of your youth, and the comfort of your age and affliction. You would no longer confider its duties and employments as heavy and dull. You would feel, not only the offices of charity, but devotion, sweet to your

*God is in Christ; in Chrift dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; God is in Chrift; Chrift is IMMANUEL, God with us. Col. ii. 9. 2 Cor. v. 19. Isaiah, vii. 14. Matt. i. 23.

foul. The gracious words of Gofpel truth, of prayer, and thanksgiving, would" thine ear," as the poet fays,

come o'er

It is juftly faid, that in devotional offices, paffion becomes reason, and tranfport, temper. Heaven must disdain the cold prayer, the lukewarm praise of infenfibility and indifference. The incenfe must blaze on the altar, before the sweet odours can ascend to the fkies. Cold devotion is indevout. Heartless thanksgiving is an infult. What! shall we be warm, and anxious, and fanguine, in worldly pursuits, in politics and party, and dull and languid as followers of Chrift, in fhewing our zeal in the cause of the great Captain of our falvation, which is the caufe of all mankind, a caufe in which Heaven and earth are interested?

Be it the great endeavour of all who would obtain wisdom from above, to conciliate, by fervent prayer, the grace of God, which will remove all hardness of heart, the cause of that coldness and infenfibility, which is too often most unjustly honoured with the name of MODERATION

*Becaufe thou art LUKE-WARM, I will vomit thee out of my "mouth"-utral-one of the ftrongest expreffions of contempt and indignation in the holy fcriptures. REV. iii. 16.

SECTION LVI.

On Spiritual Slumber, as described in the Scriptures, and the Neceffity of being awakened.

THE

HE religious world is divided into many fects; but perhaps the most numerous party consists of NOMINAL Chriftians, who, tacitly profeffing Christianity, appear to adopt no religious opinions at all; who, indeed, neither deny the truth of any religion, nor controvert its doctrines; but who give themselves up to the pleasures and business of the world, or to mere thoughtleffness and inactivity, and leave religion to its ordained ministers, to their neighbours, to the weak, the fick, and the fuperannuated. In the words of Isaiah," They "hear, but understand not; and fee, indeed, but "perceive not; the heart of this people is fat, "their ears heavy, and their eyes fhut." With respect to their spiritual ftate, they may be faid to have fallen into a deep fleep; and in the midst of their bodily activity, their fouls, as far as religion is concerned, are funk in flumber. To thefe the animating words of the apoftle are addreffed: "Awake, thou that fleepeft, and arise from the "dead, and Chrift fhall give thee light."

Is it poffible (it might be asked) that men can fleep fo foundly, in this uncertain ftate, while the house they inhabit may be said to be in flames, or while they lie on the very brink of a fteep cliff, from which, if they fall, they fall to rife no more? It is not only poffible, but common; though it is a fleep, in which, whofoever indulges, may poffibly fleep on till he wake no more. It may be a fatal fleep; the fleep of death; the ftupor of a lethargy;

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thargy; the numbness of a spiritual palfy; the infenfibility of mortification.

They who fall into this deep fleep, like those who indulge the fleep of nature, commonly lie in DARKNESS; the darkness of voluntary ignorance. During their repofe, indolence smooths their pillow, and filences their pavilion. Their eyes are clofed by prejudice, and the curtains drawn around them by pride and prefumption. The opiates of vanity, of worldly eafe and pleasure, fuperinduce a kind of trance. Sealed are their eye-lids, but

their fleep is not a quiet fleep; it is not sweet and refreshing, like the fleep of virtue, the balmy repofe of health, wearied, at the clofe of day, with the exertions of beneficence.

Theirs is a fleep interrupted by dreams. Shadowy, fantastic forms, of a thousand fhapes and hues, flit before their fancy. Ambition has her dreams, Avarice her spectres, and Pleasure her vifions of ideal blifs, painted with a glow of colouring, which the pencil cannot emulate.

Crowns and fceptres, purple robes, crimson banners, with titles of honour, and armorial bearings, pafs, like a pageant, before the courtier, the ftatefman, the fenator, the lawyer, and the warrior. Each fixes his eye upon them devoutly. He catches at them eagerly, as the glittering train moves on. They elude his grafp. He catches again. The air-drawn baubles vanish. Again he is difappointed. Still he perfeveres; and with aching heart, and trembling knees, and palfied hand, he reaches, at laft, perhaps, with great difficulty, a coronet, a ftar, a riband, and places it on his shaking head, or his throbbing bofom ;then, ftumbling on the dark mountains, down he falls, stripped of all his blushing honours and his gorgeous robes. Clad in a fhrowd, and with a

few