βι nature is exalted above the ordinary rank of humanity; and according to the gospel, he is become the living temple of the Holy Ghost. That a poor man, such as were the apostles, and such as are many true Christians in the present day, should possess a nature raised above whatever earthly honours can bestow, is a doctrine offensive to all who have been taught to consider, as the chief good of man, the gratification of the pride of life. Scholars also, deep. mathematicians, metaphysicians, and logicians, feel a sentiment of scorn, when they are told that a plain, simple, humble peasant, whose mind is rightly disposed, may receive a portion of divine illumination, which shall contribute more to sound wisdom, and consequently to happiness, than all their minute and laborious disquisitions, Philosophy, towering, like Icarus, on wings made by the art of man, to the clouds, looks down with contempt on Religion, who associates with ignorant wretches, distinguished by humility of rank as much as by humility of disposition. Philosophy leaves the company of a personage so mean, and frequently passes from a contempt of her, to downright hatred and enmity*. Thus pride is a chief obstacle to the reception of the doctrine of evangelical grace. Pride blinds the eyes of the understanding against the evidence of the Holy Ghost. Pride causes hardness of heart, a quality, the most odious to the divine, and most injurious to the * The gentile or genteel philosopher too often hears with pain such sentiments of Christianity, as those of Erasmus in the following passage: "Existimo puram illam Christi PHILOSOPHIAM non aliundè "fœlicius hauriri quam ex evangelicis libris, quàm ex apostolicis « literis; in quibus, si quis PIE philosophetür, ORANS magis quàm "ARGUMENTANS, nihil esse, quod ad hominis felicitatem, nibil quod ad ullam bujus vitæ functionem pertineat, quod in his non sit "traditum, discussum, et absolutum.” ERASMUS. P human nature. It teaches us to behold our inferiors, not only as not of the same flesh and blood with our, selves*; not only as little entitled to the comforts and advantages of this life; but as unworthy of partaking with us in the divine favour, and the happiness of a glorified state. The doctrine of grace is considered by the men of the world as too great a leveller, to be freely admitted consistently with their own ideas of exclusive privileges, or of worldly policyt. It must therefore be oried down, wherever their authority can prevail. But surely their objection does it honour. It shews that the doctrine is favourable to the whole human race; that it is not narrow, partial, unjust; but, like the Author of all good, whence it flows, accepts not the persons of men, neither regards the transient and petty distinctions of rank, but shews favour to the meek and lowly, and to all that are good and true of heart, whether in the palace or in the cottage. -"Non animos et corpora nostrâ What! cries her grace-are then the swinish herd Τυν. This spirit of pride is apt to conceive the multitude, the canaille, that is, the poor, to whom the Gospel was preached, as only FOOD FOR POWDER. † Yet they should remember, that death is a greater leveller, and one whom no policy or power can escape. How can ye BELIEVE, which receive honour one of another? John, v. 44. Men lean on reeds, when they rely solely on each other for happiness and honour. Indeed, what real honour can one poor lost creature receive from another, who is exactly in the same condition, if without GRACE? Whatsoever ye do, do all to the GLORY of God. 1 Cor. 10. Take comfort, ye poor and despised brethren; for God, by his gospel, has promised to bestow on you riches and honours, durable as they are solid, and such as no earthly power can confer or alienate: and would to Heaven that they, who trust in worldly riches and honours, could but behold it in a true light, their real poverty and dishonourable state, when destitute of grace, or, in other words, the favour of the Almighty SOVEREIGN, the Lord of Lords, and the King of Kings*. SECTION XLIV.' The universal Prevalence of the Holy Spirit-the Genuine Grace of the Gospel-highly conducive to the Happiness of CIVIL SOCIETY, as well as of Individuals. IT always appeared to me an absurdity, that men should act in their corporate capacity on such principles as, in their individual and private state, they would deem profligate. Public acts are the acts of private men; and` wherever public acts are immoral, it may be concluded, that those who sanctioned them in a body, are, as separate members, insincere friends of virtue, and hypocri * Nescit religio nostra personas accipere, nec conditiones hominum, sed animos inspicit singulorum. Servum ac nobilem de moribus pronunciat. Sola apud Deum libertas est non servire peccatis. Summa apud Deus est nobilitas clarum esse virtutibus. Hieronymus ad Celantiam, Ep. 14. · Ευγένεια δε η της εικόνος τήρησις, καὶ προς το αρχέτυπον εξορ οίωσις, ην εργάζεται λόγος και αρετη. GREG. NAZ. in Orat. 11. Ευγείαν δε λέγω, ου χην οι πολλοί νομίζουσιν απαγε αλλ' ην εύσεβεια χαρακτηρίζει και τροπος, και η προς το πρώτον αγαθόν avodo;. Idem, in Orat. 23. tical professors of religion. Offensive war, and treache rous violation of the most solemn treaties, could never be countenanced by whole nations of Christians, if the individuals were actuated by the sentiments of true Christianity. It has been said, that we are not to look for the effects of Christianity in national acts or public councils. Why not? are they not men and Christians, who perform national acts, and compose public councils? When a man gives a vote for any public measure, or advises the supreme magistrate, does he drop the Christian in the voter or the counsellor? Common sense revolts at the idea of the same men's renouncing their identity, splitting themselves into several characters, and acting in one inconsistently with their most serious duties and solemn engagements in another, which, at the same time, they profess zealously to support. Misery unutterable arises to the human race, from this duplicity. The sanctity assumed in one character throws a false glare and varnish over the villainy practised in the other, and makes it pass current by authority. A man who is a real Christian, not a political conformist only, will be a Christian in his public conduct, as well as in his private. He will be a Christian statesman and member of parliament, no less than a Christian father, husband and neighbour. Now, no man is a Christian in name only, when his Christianity arises from the operation and evidence of the Holy Ghost. His very heart is converted. The whole man is renewed. He is no longer a proud, selfish, cruel being, greedily seeking his own fancied gratification, at the expence of other men's happiness, but guided in all his conduct by the sentiment of love. The law of kindness governs all his actions. His wisdom is gentle; and he uses power, if he possesses it, in imitas tion of the all-powerful being above, in diffusing bles- 1 sings to all who are within the sphere of his influence. Suppose, then, kings, and rulers of all descriptions, under the benign operation of the Christian spirit, and consequently firm believers and defenders of Christianity. Unnecessary wars immediately cease. The prophecies of Isaiah are accomplished. Swords and spears are converted into pruning-hooks and plough-shares. The lion dandles the lamb, without an inclination to devour it. The people, feeling the blessings of such government, and actuated by the gentle affections of charity, become cordially attached to it, and to each other. Universal tranquility reigns. The whole society, both the governed and governing, co-operate in adding to the comforts and diminishing the evils of life; piety to God, and love to man, display the vital efficacy of the gospel, and prove that it is not a cunningly devised fable, invented by priests for the support of kingly power, but the lively energy of God, actuating the human bosom, and restoring man to that perfection of nature by the second Adam, which was lost by the disobedience of the first in Paradise. The truest patriotism, therefore, is to revive or diffuse genuine Christianity; to teach men to seek and to find the grace of God through Christ Jesus. This is the philosophy which should be taught from the chairs of our universities, and the pulpits of our churches. It would not then fall to the illiterate and fanciful mechanic, who often disgraces it, not only by ignorance of all other science, but too often by a violence of passion and malignity of temper, which seem to evince that he does not possess what he so warmly recommends to his audience. Christianity is so far from unfitting man for society, as the calumniators have said, that its graces and vir |