force of corrupt habits, to enkindle in the heart the love of religion, and to establish a disposition habitually virtuous and holy,

From the preceding observations it will appear, that the experiences of one man in his conversion furnish no rule by which the Christian attainments of another may be tested. This individual was early taught the truths of the gospel. The seeds of Christian piety and virtue were sown in his infant mind, and, by the blessing of Heaven, these were nourished, and yielded fruit. "Religious

principles grew with his growth, and were strengthened with his strength." His life from his youth, though attended with weakness and infirmity, was sober and virtuous; he habitually lived in the fear of God, and in view of a future judgment; and his hoary head in advanced life is a crown of glory, he being found in the way of righteousness. This man never experienced the compunctions and conflicts which the sinner in conversion experiences; his life was a continuous course of progressive improvements in Christian knowledge and virtue.

That individual was a profligate in youth; he early formed habits of vice, and for years lived in the wilful indulgence of the worst passions of human nature. By some impressive dispensation of Divine Providence, this abandoned character was brought to serious reflection: death was placed in near prospect before him: he pondered on the retributions of the final judgment, and was terrified by the contemplation: his mind was overwhelmed by a view of his impending destruction: he keenly

felt the sting of an accusing conscience: his past sins arose to his contemplation in all their turpitude and guilt: he reflected upon the infinite blessings which God has conferred on sinful men by Jesus Christ; and, in the bitterness of his sorrow that he had neglected to embrace the offered salvation, he cried to God for grace and mercy. By divine assistance he is enabled to conquer his vicious habits, and to bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Attaining to an habitual state of piety and virtue, he becomes prepared for heaven. This man, in the attainment of the qualifications of the Christian character, widely differs from the former. His change was great, sudden and visible: he is able to state the time of his conversion, and to give a history of the circumstances which attended it. Between these two characters, the experience of Christians may differ through all the intermediate grades of vice and virtue. Some individuals may have been led to repentance by the threatenings of the gospel, and others allured to the paths of Christian duty by its promises. The change in one might have been sudden; and in another it may have been more gradually produced, as the effect of reiterated instruction and entreaty. This man may date his conversion from a given time, and that can satisfy himself that he is a Christian only by a consciousness that religion has an abiding effect upon his temper and life.

In religion, men discover their constitutional complexion. Men of a grave and sedate temperature do not in religion express that warmth of feeling, nor in their devotions manifest the zeal and

fervour, which men of quick passions and ardent minds express and display. As in the interchange of common offices of good neighbourhood, and in the intercourse of friendship, men of cool and reserved dispositions do not make their declarations of esteem and regard in those impassioned expressions which are heard from those whose feelings are more nice and more easily excited; yet the former may be as sincere, and in all instances of trial may discover as great constancy, and by their actions manifest as high effects of real friendship and humanity. In like manner, amidst the conAlicts of Christian virtue, men of cool and reserved tempers may prove themselves as well grounded and settled in their religion, discover as great strength of moral principle, and in conduct display as much of the spirit of the gospel, as persons of more zealous and fervid minds.

2. To review some passages of the New Testament which describe the requisite qualifications of the Christian character in other phraseology than conversion, or regeneration.

The sacred writers describe the essential qualifications of the Christian character in various ways; but the several descriptions are in substance the same. In some places the word faith is used to express the principle of religion in the heart, and its effects upon the life. But faith, in this general sense, consists not in the mere assent of the mind to Christian truth, nor in the inefficacious application of the merits of Christ to ourselves. Saving faith works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world. The Christian must hold faith

and a good conscience; and they who put away a good conscience, make shipwreck of faith. "The end of the Christian commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."* In other places, repentance expresses the qualification of the character which will be accepted as the disciple of Christ Jesus. "God to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." But the essence of repentance consists not in mere sorrow and humiliation. Effectually to repent, is to subdue evil propensities, and to reform vicious practices. Attend to the description which the prophet gives of true repentance-" Wash ye, make ye clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seck judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow." On this condition the prophet assures the offender that he shall be forgiven. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."+ "Paul showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance."} In the epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul declarcs, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." In the same epistle he affirms-" Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumeision, but a new creature." In the first to the

* 1 Tim. i. 5, 19.

Isaiah i. 16, 17, 18.

Acts xxvi. 20.

+ Acts xi. 18.

Gal. v. 6; vi. 15.

Corinthians, he says, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God."* And in the epistle to the Hebrews, he observes, "Christ, being made perfect, became the author of eternal salvation to all them who obey him." In these places, the essential qualifications of the Christian character are dif. ferently expressed; as by faith, the first principle of the Christian life; by the new birth, or the change from vice to virtue; by keeping the commandments of God, or evangelical obedience.— These several phrases convey the same meaning. Wherever the inspired writers express the sum and substance of religion by one leading principle of it, they include all essential graces and virtues as its fruits; and where they express the whole of relig ion by some primary virtue, they always include faith as its principle. The general term faith includes obedience; and evangelical obedience implies faith. The believing disciple, the humble penitent, the converted man, the obedient Christian, in scriptural phraseology, all delineate the same character.

We shall be brought to the same result, if we attend to those passages of the New Testament which describe the properties of which a man, when he becomes a Christian, divests himself, and the properties which he acquires; the practices which he renounces, and the practices which he adopts. The apostle Paul thus exhorts the Ephesian converts "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt accord