In the powers and faculties of our souls God requireth the uttermost which our unfeigned affection toward him is able to yield; so that if we affect him not far above and before all things, our Religion hath not that inward perfection which it should have, neither do we indeed worship him as our God.

HOOKER.

PART I.

THE ESSENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

PIETY IN GENERAL.

WE can never remind ourselves too often of the fact that Christianity is a remedy for human need; that its leading Idea is Deliverance from all the ills that flesh is heir to, and its leading proclamation is peace-peace to them that are near and to all that are afar off. This grand characteristic is beautifully exhibited in the very title which is given to it in the Irish tongue, in which our term "The Gospel," is translated "The story of peace;" and it is touchingly expressed by St. Augustine when he says, "In Cicero and Plato I meet with many things wisely said, and things that have a manifest tendency to move the passions, but in none of them do I find these words, Come unto me all ye that

are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.'"

But the ills of man are various, and as various therefore are the consolations and the helps which the Gospel of Deliverance from those ills, proclaims. Are we sensitive beings, and therefore wounded in every nerve by all the physical evil which overspreads the earth? The Gospel tells us of a time when all tears shall be wiped from every eye, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Are we moral beings, and therefore shocked and humbled by the degradation and self-contradiction which we witness in ourselves and in mankind at large? The Gospel brings that healing medicine which can both soothe the diseased spirit and restore it, ultimately, to perfect health. And are we religious beings, formed to recognize a relation of ourselves and of all things to an unseen Creator and Governor, and therefore pained to see how little this relation is remembered, nay how much that remembrance is shrunk from and opposed? The Gospel cheers us by unveiling our Heavenly Father now to the eye of faith, and promising that he shall break forth in unshrouded glory over all the earth hereafter. Only let us learn to know ourselves and estimate aright the actual condition of mankind, and the remedy which that condition needs and calls for; and so shall we appreciate the

worth of that revelation which is the supplement to that condition, the supply of that remedy, the answer to that call.

And in the same proportion also shall we be led to understand the nature of the help which Christianity supplies, and be convinced that as our disease is personal and moral, so also must the remedy revealed be equally personal and moral. The truths of the Gospel become saving, that is, effectual to deliver us from the state in which they find us,only as they are brought to bear upon ourselves. The seed is given, indeed, from Heaven, but it is only as it takes root in the heart of man, and springs up in his character, that it can expand into everlasting life.

And hence the infinite importance of personal Piety, as that without which all knowledge of Christian truth and all attempt at Christian duty will be ineffectual. There are, indeed, three grand classes of religious meditation; - the meditation, namely, on what has been done for us, what must be done in us, and what should be done by us; and these classes may be verbally distinguished into doctrinal, experimental, and practical; but they are inseparable in fact; for all true doctrine, experience, and practice, are one and indivisible. And the connecting link, say rather the assimilating life, which effects this unity, resides in the

middle term, - the experience of what must be done in us. Only personal piety, (and by the word experience we mean personal piety in all its parts,) brings down general doctrine into individual application, and quickens notions into principles. And only personal piety can supply the life, the feeling, and the energy, by which consistent practice can be either fully purposed, or successfully pursued.

How solemn, therefore, is the subject to which I would direct the attention of my reader in this book, and in the prosecution of which I would intreat the active and devout co-operation of his own mind. Suffer me to begin and carry it on throughout, with direct appeals to your personal sympathy. Join with me in frequent ejaculations for divine help and blessing. The topic is, beyond all others, devout and practical. Devoutly and practically let us enter on it. It concerns the soul of him who writes and him who reads. It can be realized only in and by our souls. Spiritual truth is but the seed of spiritual life. And though spiritual truth may be dropped into the mind by instruction from without us, spiritual life can be awakened only by an energy within us: by our meditating on the truths declared; by our applying them to our particular state of heart; by our brooding over them in our inmost soul; above all, by prayerful seeking of the Spirit of life,-which is the Spirit