thus to the porch of the Christian temple, and never to have entered its hallowed walls. And in this manner many persons deceive themselves reposing upon the effects of a sacrament which, though of high and indispensable importance, may have taken place in num berless cases without being followed by one spark of practical Christianity. Men may grow up as earthly and sensual, and as much without God in the world, as though they had never been baptized; while, perhaps, they are trusting to the privileges of a sacrament which their whole conduct proves has produced no one moral or spiritual im pression on their hearts.

But we may go farther;-in addition to baptism we may possess a correct creed, and may be well acquainted with those forms of sound words in which the Scrip tures themselves, or the church of Christ, have embodied the doctrines of our holy faith. All these may be understood, and remembered, and. believed; and yet our religion be, after all, nothing more than the outward acknowledgment of Lord, Lord, while in our hearts we deny, and in our conduct we oppose, the Redeemer whom we profess to worship. If we require the strongest possible proof of this, it is, that even the devils, as St. James teaches, believe as correctly and as firmly as ourselves. When our Saviour was upon earth they expressly addressed him, "Jesus, thou Son of God."And what do we more, if our religion be but the acknowledgment of a cold and lifeless creed, every article of which is contradicted by the general tenour of our conduct? What can it profit us to say, I believe in God, when in works we deny him? to profess faith in a Redeemer, when we disobey bis commands, and are not conformed to his Spirit? to acknowledge a Holy Ghost, when we neither seek his influences nor live under his direction?

Yet we may go still farther: we may even mix with the assemblies CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 194.

of the faithful, and offer up the same prayers with them, and amidst all our religion be no more than an outward profession. It is easy to conceive of a man using the lan-. guage of the most intense devotion, without one holy thought passing through his mind. If we follow him from the house of God to his retirement, we shall, perhaps, see him the same heedless, or ignorant, or hardened being as before. He did not seriously wish for mercy, though with his lips he implored it: his prayer was but a more solemn mockery: he said Lord, Lord, while other lords had rule over him; while evil lusts and passions, unholy tempers and worldly appe tites, brought him into subjection, and turned his prayer into sin. We may even go still farther:-A man may enjoy, in a certain way, the ordinances of religion. His prayer may not be wholly insincere, He may read the Scriptures and attend to the discourses of the pul. pit with a sort of pleasure, and yet his religion not advance one step beyond that mentioned in the text. Would it cure a man of any particular disease of body to listen even with pleasure to a discourse in which his case was skilfully considered, while he refused to adopt the remedy prescribed? Would it be sufficient towards the accomplishment of a journey that we were well acquainted, in theory, with the roads to be travelled over, while we were sitting idle and unconcerned, without taking the pains to set one step in them? Neither will it profit us that we have heard of the heavenly mansion, and have been taught the way, and can tell, as a matter of information, its length and breadth, its difficulties. and encouragements, where it begins and how it will end-what is the gate of admission to it, and how we are to be supported in it, if with all our knowledge we fail in our practice-if we content ourselves with heedlessly inspecting the map of our journey, when we should be

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proceeding actively towards its accomplishment. In short, neither what we feel, nor what we think, nor what we speak, will be enough. Neither the privileges of our baptism, nor the correctness of our creed, nor the outward fervour of our devotions, will be sufficient evidence of the safety of our state. These have all existed in thousands, who at the last day shall discover that their form of godliness was without the power, their fair profession without true conversion of heart, and consequently their hopes built upon the sand, and all their proud edifice of self-complacency ready to crumble in the dust. "Many," said our Saviour, "will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity."

If, then, the gate be so strait, the way so narrow, the possibilities of self-deception so numerous, and the consequences of mistake so fearful, what diligence should we give to make our calling and election sure! If so many shall fail of entering, how important the inquiry, who shall enter and how we may ascertain the fact in our own case!

II. Under this impression, let us consider the second branch of the subject, namely, who shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

Our Lord, then, teaches us to look much higher than all that has been hitherto described, and which may exist, as we have seen, in many who are yet very far from the kingdom of God. He instructs us to view religion as a personal, an influential, a practical principle. He attaches the hopes of glory not to a formal acknowledgment, a dead creed, but to "doing the will of our Father which is in heaven." Here, then, a question arises, What is the will of God? For an answer to which we can apply only

to the sacred Scriptures. If we trust to our own understanding in an affair so important, we may deceive ourselves with a false peace. We may take the dictates of our own imagination for the will of God, and thus think ourselves safe, when we are surrounded with danger. But looking for his will where he himself has revealed it, and trusting to his Holy Spirit to direct us in the search, we cannot be deceived; and we have, more. over, the additional satisfaction of knowing that whoso will do that will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.

The Scriptures, then, inform us, "This is the will of God that ye believe in Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent;" and again, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Thus both the faith and the holiness of the Christian are conformable to the will of God; and in considering that will in its connexion with the blessing mentioned in the text, neither of these points can be safely omitted. Their union is the perfection of Christian doctrine, and the exemplification of that union in the heart and conduct the perfection of the Christian life. Let us briefly touch upon both.

In the first place, then, the will of God, we have seen, is the sanctification of the Christian. This includes various particulars:-that we should know him, acknowledge him, love him, prefer him to every created object, fix our hearts and affections upon him, and cherish towards him the deepest sensations of awe and veneration, the liveliest emotions of love and gratitude. It includes further the submission of our wills to his, and that we humble ourselves under his mighty hand. It supposes communion with him, so as to derive from his fulness daily supplies of grace and holiness; living for him and to him; enjoying his favour, and walking in the light of his countenance.

Again; this sanctification of heart and life, which is the will of

of the modern translations; the words of some of which I shall quote. The term "Exbaris, signitres end, termination; and is thus used by Polybius, rηy excαow To TOXEμe, the end of the war; aud again οὐ κατά τήν ἐλπίδα ἐκβασις TYS ETIDEσEWS, the attack not terminating according to expectation. The Apostle appears, in the exhortation contained in the seventh verse, to refer particularly to the death of those pious individuals whom he holds out as models of imitation, including also the whole tenor of their exemplary lives. This is the opinion of Schleusner in his translation, or rather paraphrase, of part of this verse. 'Avapops is rendered by Hesychius ζωης ; therefore την έκβασιν τῆς αναστροφῆς literally means the end of life, that is death; a very common mode of circumlocution in Greek authors. The Romaick version of the New Testament renders it τό τέλος τῆς συναναστροφῆς, the end of whose conversation, or commerce with mankind. Luther, in his accurate and nervous translation of the Scriptures, which is still considered in Germany as a standard work for the purity of its language, translates the seventh verse as follows: "Recollect your teachers, who have spoken to you the word of God, whose end consider, and imitate their faith." The Dutch translation of 1609 runs thus: "Recollect your predecessors, who have spoken to you the word of God: (and) follow their Faith, viewing the issue (of their) walk." In the Danish version, 1717, it is thus rendered: "Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God; the end of whose conversation consider, (then) follow after the faith."

The elegant, stereotype edition of the New Testament in French, according to the version of the Maitre de Sacy, lately published in Paris, for the use of poor French Catholics, under the superintendence of Mr. Leo, a German Pro

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testant divine, whose great labour, care, and attention in watching over this work, render him worthy of the assistance of all those who feel an interest in spreading the Scriptures, gives this verse somcwhat differently from the version of David Martin, Basle, 1760, as revised by Pierre Roques. The difference, however, is verbal, and does not affect the point in question. In the former it is expressed thus :-Ver. 7. "Souvenez-vous de vos conducteurs, qui vous annoncé la parole de Dieu, et imitez leur foi, considérant quelle a été l'issue de leur vie. 8. Jesus Christ est le meme, hier, et aujourd'hui, et le sera eternellement." In the latter, thus:-Ver. 7. "Souvenez vous de vos conducteurs, qui vous ont porté la parole de Dieu, et imités leur foi, en considérant quelle a été l'issue de leur vie. 8. Jesus Christ a été le meme hier, et aujourd'hui, et il l'est aussi eternellement.”

In the Italian translation of Diodati, 1607, it runs as follows:Ver. 7. "Recollect your conductors who have preached to you the word of God; whose faith imitate, considering the end of their conversation."

The Spanish Bible, 1569, commonly called Bible de l'Ours, gives it thus:-Ver. 7. "Remember your pastors who have spoken to you the word of God; whose faith imitate, considering what has been the issue of their conversation.”

The Portuguese Testament (Amsterdam, 1712), translated by Father Joam Ferreira a d'Almeida, gives the seventh verse thus: "Remember your conductors" (in the margin, pastors, guides, or leaders), "who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith imitate, considering what was the end of their conversation."

Our present translation of the seventh verse is the only one which uses the word "ruler," a word which appears to me somewhat too strong. Hyev in Greek, may be expressed

as properly, though, perhaps, not quite so literally, by teacher or leader, as is done in most of the modern versions; and it gives a more just idea of the mildness of the primitive Christians, who used to their disciples persuasion rather than coercion. Luther renders εv, teacher, in every instance of its occurrence, where dominion of some kind is not clearly indicated. In the above two verses, it will be observed that there is great difference in the punctuation, which might lead to the idea that they immediately referred to each other. But although J. S. very satisfactorily proves that the seventh and eighth verses do not connect well together, yet they have in some of our old translations been joined into one verse. In "the New Testament, translated out of Greek, by Theodore Beza; Englished by L.Tomson, imprinted at London by Christopher Barker, 1587;" the passage runs thus:"Remember them which have the oversight of you, which have declared unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering what hath been the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ yesterday, aud to-day, the same also is for ever." A black-letter Bible of 1613 renders the above passage precisely in the same way, joining the two verses into one, with this sole difference, that at the end of the word "conversation," there is merely a comma instead of a full stop. In an octavo copy of the Testament, printed at Edinburgh, 1812, there is a semicolon at the end of " their conversation."

J. S. asks if the verb is may not be properly supplied after "Jesus Christ," in the eighth verse, so as to make the sentence complete. This appears to be perfectly correct, from its being introduced into the text in many of the translations of this verse. The Spanish version and that of Luther follow the Greek literally, and omit the verb.

PHILO.

"About the year 1790, Mr. Cadogan was to undergo a trial of another sort. An Antinomian preacher attempted at Reading to disseminate his pernicious principles; of whom I shall take more notice than, perhaps, such characters deserve, in order to place Mr. C. as an example, before the eyes of young ministers, especially such as may have to encounter difficulties of the like kind. "To be intelligible to every reader it may be necessary first to observe, that Antinomianism is an error which sets up the grace of God in opposition to his government: accordingly, it makes light of the evil of sin, the necessity of repentance, and the evidence and excellence of holiness; and all this upon the specious pretence of exalting and glorifying the work of Christ. But the work of Christ was not only to die for the sins of his people, but also to save his people from their sins; and to fulfil his great evangelical promise of putting his law into their hearts, and writing it in their minds,' and 'causing them to walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments and do them.' The truth, therefore, as it is in Jesus,' respects both what he does for them, and what he does in them: but as half the truth is a lie, so this is the lie called Antinomianism, that mystery of iniquity of which we are speaking.

"Mr. Broughton, in his dictionary, under the article Antinomians, says, they were certain heretics, who first appeared in the year 1535,' and that they were so called, because they rejected the law, as of no use under the Gospel