which we wait. The apostle St. John, in the former part of the Discourse from which my text is taken, speaks of this glorious transformation as the utmost that we know with certainty about our future condition. Beloved," he saith, "now we are the sons of God: and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when He shall appear" (that is, when Christ shall appear, of whose appearance the apostle had spoken just before in the former chapter; we know this, though we know nothing else, that when Christ shall appear), "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." To this declaration the apostle subjoins the solemn admonition which I have chosen for my text: " and every man that hath this hope in him," this hope of being transformed in his body into the likeness of his glorified Lord, "purifies himself, as He is pure."

For the right understanding of this admonition, it is of importance to remark, that the pronoun "He" is to be expounded not of God, but of Christ. Every one who seriously cherishes this glorious hope "purifies himself, as Christ is pure." It is the purity, therefore, of the human nature in Christ Jesus, not the essential purity of the Divine nature, that is proposed to us as an example for our imitation. An inattention to this distinction was the cause of much folly in the speculations, and of much impurity in the lives, of many of the ancient Mystics. The purity of the Divine nature is one of the incommunicable and inimitable perfections of God: it consists in that distance and separation of the Deity from all inferior natures which is the sole prerogative of Self-existence and Omnipotence. Sufficient in himself to his own happiness, and to the purposes of his own will, it is impossible that God can be moved by any desires towards things external,-except it be in the delight he takes in the goodness of his creatures; and this ultimately resolves itself into his self-complacency in his own perfections. The Mystics of antiquity,

rightly conceiving this purity of the Divine nature, but not attending to the infinite distance between the first intellect and the intelligent principle in man, absurdly imagined that this essential purity of God himself was what they were required to imitate: then observing, what plainly is the fact, that all the vices of men proceed from the impetuosity of those appetites which have their origin in the imperfections and infirmities of the animal nature, but forgetting that the irregularity of these appetites is no necessary effect of the union of the soul to the body, but a consequence of that depravity of both which was occasioned by the first transgression, -they fell into this extravagance, they conceived, that the mind, in itself immaculate and perfect, became contaminated with vicious inclinations, and weakened in its powers, by its connexion with the matter of the body, to which they ascribed all impurity: hence they conceived, that the mind, to recover its original purity and vigour, must abstract itself from all the concerns of the animal nature, and exercise its powers, apart as it were from the body, upon the objects of pure intellect. This effort of enthusiasm they vainly called an imitation of the Divine purity, by which they fancied they might become united to God. This folly was the most harmless when it led to nothing worse than a life of inoffensive quietism; which, however, rendered the individual useless in society, regardless of the relative duties, and studious only of that show of "will worship and neglecting of the body" which is condemned by St. Paul. But among some of a warmer temperament, the consequences were more pernicious. Finding that total abstraction from sense at which they aimed impracticable, and still affecting in the intelligent part parity with God, they took shelter under this preposterous conceit,-they said, that impurity so adhered to matter, that it could not be communicated to mind; that the rational soul was not in any degree sullied or debased by the vicious appetites of the depraved animal nature and under this

whether serious persuasion or hypocritical pretence, they profanely boasted of an intimate communion of their souls with God, while they openly wallowed in the grossest impurities of the flesh. These errors and these enormities had been prevented, had it been understood that it is not the purity of the Divine nature in itself, but the purity of the human nature in Christ, which religion proposes to man's imitation.

But again: the purity of the human nature in Christ, which we are required to imitate, is not that purity which the manhood in Christ now enjoys in its present state of exaltation; for even that will not be attainable to fallen man, till "the redemption of the body" shall have taken place: the purity which is our present example is the purity of Christ's life on earth in his state of humiliation; in which "he was tempted in all things like unto us, and yet was without sin." In what that purity consisted, may be best learnt in the detail by diligent study and meditation of Christ's holy life. A general notion of it may easily be drawn from our Lord's enumeration of the things that are the most opposite to it, and are the chief causes of defilement: "These," saith

our Lord, " are the things which defile a man,-evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."

Of these general defilements the most difficult to be entirely escaped are the three of evil thoughts, adulteries, and fornications. Few have hardened their hearts to the cruelty of murder, or their foreheads against the shame of theft or perjury; few are capable of the impiety of direct blasphemy: but to the solicitations of what are called the softer passions, we are apt to yield with less repugnance; probably for this reason, that neither the injury of our neighbour, nor a sordid selfadvantage, nor the affront of God, being so immediately the object of the act in these as in the other instances, we are not equally deterred from the crime by any

atrocious malignity or disgusting meanness that it carries in its very first aspect. Hence these are the sins with which the generality of mankind, in the gaiety of their thoughtless hearts, are most easily beset; and perhaps very few indeed hold in such constant and severe restraint as might be deemed any thing of an imitation of Christ's example, the wanderings of a corrupt imagination, the principal seat of fallen man's depravity, toward the enticing objects of illicit pleasures.

For this reason, the Holy Scriptures with particular earnestness enjoin an abstinence from these defilements. "Flee from fleshly lusts," says St. Peter, "which war against the soul." And to these pollutions the admonition in the text seems to have a particular regard; for the original word which we render "pure" is most properly applied to the purity of a virgin.

"Purifies himself as he is pure." Would God, a better conformity to the example of his purity than actually obtains were to be found in the lives of nominal Christians! -the numbers would be greater which might entertain a reasonable hope that they shall be made like to him when he appeareth. But, thanks be to God, repentance, in this as in other cases-genuine, sincere repentance; shall stand the sinner in the stead of innocence: the penitent is allowed to wash the stains even of these pollutions in the Redeemer's blood.

By the turn of the expression in my text, the apostle intimates, that every one's purification from defilements, which in a greater or a less degree few have not contracted the individual's personal purification, must, under God, depend principally upon himself-upon his care to watch over the motions of his own heart-upon his vigilance to guard against temptations from without -upon his meditation of Christ's example-upon his assiduity to seek in prayer the necessary succour of God's grace. Much, however, may be done for the purification of the public manners, by wise and politic institutions;---in which the first object should be, to

guard and secure the sanctity of the female character, and to check the progress of its incipient corruption; for the most effectual restraint upon the vicious passions of men ever will be a general fashion and habit of virtue in the lives of the women.

This principle appears indeed to have been well understood and very generally adopted in the policy of all civilized nations; in which the preservation of female chastity in all ages and in all parts of the world, hath been an object of prime concern. Of various means that have been used for its security, none seem so well calculated to attain the end, nor have any other proved so generally successful, as the practice which hath long prevailed in this and other European countries, of releasing our women from the restraints imposed upon them by the jealousy of Eastern manners; but under this indispensable condition, that the female, in whatever rank, who once abuses her liberty to bring a stain upon her character, shall from that moment be consigned to indelible disgrace, and expelled for the whole remainder of her life from the society of the vir tuous of her own sex. But yet, as imperfection attends on all things human, this practice, however generally conducive to its end, hath its inconveniences, I might say its mischiefs.

It is one great defect, that by the consent of the world (for the thing stands upon no other ground), the whole infamy is made to light upon one party only in the crime of two; and the man, who for the most part is the author, not the mere accomplice of the woman's guilt, and for that reason is the greater delinquent, is left unpunished and uncensured. This mode of partial punishment affords not to the weaker sex the protection which in justice and sound policy is their due against the arts of the seducer. The Jewish law set an example of a better policy and more equal justice, when, in the case of adultery, it condemned both parties to an equal punishment; which indeed was nothing less than death.