want courage to resist what they have too much principle to think right, and too much sense to justify, will yet plead for the palliating system, and accuse these remarks of unnecessary rigour. They will declare "that really they are as religious as they can be; they wish they were better ; they have little satisfaction in the life they are leading, yet they cannot break with the world; they cannot fly in the face of custom; it does not become individuals like them to oppose the torrent of fashion." Beings so interesting, abounding with engaging qualities; who not only feel the beauty of goodness, but reverence the truths of Christianity, and are awfully looking for a general judgment, we are grieved to hear lament "that they only do as others do," when they are, perhaps, themselves of such rank and importance, that if they would begin to do right, others would be brought to do as they did. We are grieved to hear them indolently assert, that "they wish it were otherwise," when they possess the power to make it otherwise, by setting an example which they know would be followed. We are sorry to hear them content themselves with declaring, that "they have not the courage to be singular," when they must feel, by seeing the influence of their example in worse things, that there would be no such great singularity in piety itself, if once they became sincerely pious. Besides, this diffidence does not break out on other occasions. They do no blush to be quoted as the opposers of an old mode, or the inventors of a new one; nor are they equally backward in being the first to appear in a strange fashion, such an one as often excites wonder, and sometimes even offends against delicacy. Let not, then, diffidence be pleaded as an excuse only on occasions wherein courage would be virtue.

Will it be thought too harsh a question, if we venture to ask these gentle characters who are thus entrenching themselves in the imaginary safety of surrounding multitudes, and who say, "We only do as others do," whether they are willing to run the tremendous risk of consequences, and to fare as others fare?

But, while these plead the authority of fashion as a sufficient reason for their conformity to the world, one who has spoken with a paramount authority has positively said, "Be ye not conformed to the world." Nay, it is urged as the very badge and distinction by which the character opposite to the Christian is to be marked, "that the friendship of the world is enmity with God."

Temptation to conform to the world was never, perhaps, more irresistible than in the days which immediately preceded the Deluge: and no man could ever have pleaded the fashion in order to justify a criminal assimilation with the reigning manners, with more propriety than the patriarch Noah. He had the two grand and contending objects of terror to encounter which we have the fear of ridicule, and the fear of destruction; the dread of sin, and the dread of singularity. Our cause of alarm is at least equally pressing with his; for it does not appear, even while he was actually obeying the Divine command, in providing the means of his future safety, that he saw any actual symptoms of the impending ruin. So that, in one sense, he might have truly pleaded, as an excuse for slackness of preparation, "that all things continued as they were from the beginning;" while many of us, though the storm is actually begun,

never think of providing the refuge: it is true he was warned of God," and he provided "by faith." But are not we also warned of God? have we not had a fuller revelation? have we not seen Scripture illustrated, prophecy fulfilling, with every awful circumstance that can either quicken the most sluggish remissness, or confirm the feeblest faith?

Besides, the patriach's plea for following the fashion was stronger than you can produce. While you must see that many are going wrong, he saw that none were going right. "All flesh had corrupted his way before God;" whilst, blessed be God! you have still instances enough of picty, to keep you in countenance. While you lament that the world seduces you, (for every one has a little world of his own,) your world, perhaps, is only a petty neighbourhood, a few streets and squares; but the patriarch had really the contagion of a whole united world to resist; he had, literally, the example of the whole face of the earth to oppose. The "fear of man," also, would then have been a more pardonable fault, when the lives of the same individuals who were likely to excite respect or fear were prolonged many ages, than it can be in the short period now assigned to human life. How lamentable, then, that human opinion should operate so powerfully, when it is but the breath of a being so frail and so short-lived,

"That he doth cease to be, Ere one can say he is!"

or, at

You who find it so difficult to withstand the individual allurement of one modish acquaintance, would, if you had been in the patriarch's case, have concluded the struggle to be quite ineffectual, and sunk under the supposed fruitlessness of resistance. "Myself," would you not have said? " most, my little family of eight persons, can never hope to stop this torrent of corruption; I lament the fruitlessness of opposition; I deplore the necessity of conformity with the prevailing system: but it would be a foolish presumption to hope that one family can effect a change in the state of the world." In your own case, however, it is not certain to how wide an extent the hearty union of even fewer persons, in such a cause, might reach at least, is it nothing to do what the patriarch did? was it nothing to preserve himself from the general destruction? was it nothing to deliver his own soul? was it nothing to rescue the souls of his whole family?

A wise man will never differ from the world in trifles. It is certainly a mark of a sound judgment to comply with custom, whenever we safely can; such compliance strengthens our influence, by reserving to ourselves the greater weight of authority on those occasions when our conscience obliges us to differ. Those who are prudent will cheerfully conform to all the innocent usages of the world; but those who are Christians will be scrupulous in defining which are really innocent, previous to their conformity to them. Not what the world, but what the gospel calls innocent, will be found at the grand scrutiny to have been really so. A discreet Christian will take due pains to be convinced he is right, before he will presume to be singular; but, from the instant he is persuaded that the gospel is true, and the world of course wrong, he will no longer risk his safety by following multitudes, or hazard his soul by staking it on human opinion. All our most dangerous mistakes arise from our not

constantly referring our practice to the standard of Scripture, instead of the mutable standard of human estimation, by which it is impossible to fix the real value of characters. For this latter standard in some cases determines those to be good who do not run all the lengths in which the notoriously bad allow themselves. The gospel has an universal, the world has a local standard of goodness: in certain societies certain vices alone are dishonourable, such as covetousness and cowardice; while those sins of which our Saviour has said, that they which commit them "shall not inherit the kingdom of God," detract nothing from the respect some persons receive. Nay, those very characters whom the Almighty has expressly and awfully declared "he will judge," * are received, are admired, are caressed, in that which calls itself the best company.

But to weigh our actions by one standard now, when we know they will be judged by another hereafter, would be reckoned the height of absurdity in any transactions but those which involve the interests of eternity. "How readest thou?" is a more specific direction than any comparative view of our own habits with the habits of others: and at the final bar, it will be of little avail that our actions have risen above those of bad men, if our views and principles shall be found to have been in opposition to the gospel of Christ.

Nor is their practice more commendable, who are ever on the watch to pick out the worst actions of good men, by way of justifying their own conduct on the comparison. The faults of the best men, "for there is not

a just man upon earth who sinneth not," can in no wise justify the errors of the worst and it is not, invariably, the example of even good men that we must take for our unerring rule of conduct: nor is it by a single action that either they or we shall be judged; for in that case, who could be saved? but it is by the general prevalence of right principles, and good habits, and Christian tempers; by the predominance of holiness, and righteousness, and temperance in the life, and by the power of humility, faith, and love in the heart.

CHAPTER XX.

On the leading Doctrines of CHRISTIANITY.-The corruption of human nature.-The doctrine of redemption. The necessity of a change of heart, and of the divine influences to produce that change. With a sketch of the Christian character.

THE author having in this little work taken a view of the false notions often imbibed in early life from a bad education, and of their pernicious effects; and having attempted to point out the respective remedies to these; she would now draw all that has been said to a point, and declare plainly what she humbly conceives to be the source whence all these false notions and this wrong conduct really proceed: the prophet Jeremiah shall answer; It is because they have "forsaken the Fountain of living waters, and have hewn out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." It is an ignorance, past belief, of what true Christianity really is the remedy, therefore, and the only remedy that can be applied with any prospect of success, is RELIGION, and by religion she would be understood to mean the gospel of Jesus Christ.

* Hebrews, xiii. 4.

It has been before hinted, that religion should be taught at an early period of life; that children should be brought up" in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The manner in which they should be taught has likewise with great plainness been suggested; that it should be done in so lively and familiar a manner, as to make religion amiable, and her ways to appear, what they really are, "ways of pleasantness." And a slight sketch has been given of the genius of Christianity, by which her amiableness would more clearly appear. But this, being a subject of such vast importance, compared with which every other subject sinks into nothing; it seems not sufficient to speak on the doctrines and duties of Christianity in detached parts, but it is of importance to point out, though in a brief and imperfect manner, the mutual dependence of one doctrine upon another, and the influence which these doctrines have upon the heart and life, so, that the duties of Christianity may be seen to grow out of its doctrines: by which it will appear that Christian virtue differs essentially from pagan; it is of a quite different kind; the plant itself is different, it comes from a different root, and grows in a different soil.

It will be seen how the humbling doctrine of the corruption of human nature, which has followed from the corruption of our first parents, makes way for the bright display of redeeming love. How, from the abasing thought that we are all as sheep going astray, every one in his own way" that none can return to the Shepherd of our souls, "except the Father draw him :" that "the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit, because they are spiritually discerned:" how, from these humiliating views of the helplessness, as well as the corruption of human nature, we are to turn to that animating doctrine, the offer of Divine assistance. So that, though human nature will appear from this view in a deeply degraded state, and consequently all have cause for humility, yet not one has cause for despair: the disease, indeed, is dreadful, but a Physician is at hand, both able and willing to save us though we are naturally without strength, our " help is laid upon One that is mighty." If the gospel discover to us our lapsed state, it discovers also the means of our restoration to the Divine image and favour. It not only discovers, but impresses this image; it not only gives us the description, but the attainment of this favour; and while the word of God suggests the remedy, his Spirit applies it.

We should observe, then-that the doctrines of our Saviour are, if I may so speak, with a beautiful consistency, all woven into one piece. We should get such a view of their reciprocal dependence, as to be persuaded, that, without a deep sense of our own corruptions, we can never seriously believe in a Saviour, because the substantial and acceptable belief in Him must always arise from the conviction of our want of Him; that without a firm persuasion that the Holy Spirit can alone restore our fallen nature, repair the ruins of sin, and renew the image of God upon the heart, we never shall be brought to serious humble prayer for repentance and restoration; and that, without this repentance, there is no salvation; for though Christ has died for us, and consequently to him alone we must look as a Saviour, yet he has himself declared that he will save none but true penitents.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF HUMAN CORRUPTION.

To come now to a more particular statement of these doctrines. When an important edifice is about to be erected, a wise builder will dig deep, and look well to the foundations, knowing, that, without this, the fabric will not be likely to stand. The foundation of the Christian religion, out of which the whole structure may be said to arise, appears to be the doctrine of the fall of man from his original state of righteousness; and the corruption and helplessness of human nature, which are the consequences of this fall, and which is the natural state of every one born into the world. To this doctrine it is important to conciliate the minds, more especially of young persons, who are peculiarly disposed to turn away from it as a morose, unamiable, and gloomy idea. They are apt to accuse those who are more strict and serious, of unnecessary severity, and to suspect them of thinking unjustly ill of mankind. Some of the reasons which prejudice the inexperienced against the doctrine in question appear to be the following.

Young persons themselves have seen little of the world. In pleasurable society, the world puts on its most amiable appearance; and that softness and urbanity which prevail, particularly amongst persons of fashion, are liable to be taken for more than they are really worth. The opposition to this doctrine in the young, arises partly from ingenuousness of heart, partly from a habit of indulging themselves in favourable suppositions respecting the world, rather than of pursuing truth, which is always the grand thing to be pursued; and partly from the popularity of the tenet, that everybody is so wonderfully good!

This error in youth has, however, a still deeper foundation, which is their not having a right standard of moral good and evil themselves, in consequence of their already partaking of the very corruption which is spoken of, and which, in perverting the will, darkens the understanding also; they are therefore apt to have no very strict sense of duty, or of the necessity of a right and religious motive to every act.

Moreover, young people usually do not know themselves. Not having yet been much exposed to temptation, owing to the prudent restraints in which they have been kept, they little suspect to what lengths in vice they themselves are liable to be transported, nor how far others actually are carried who are set free from those restraints.

Having laid down these as some of the causes of error on this point, I proceed to observe on what strong grounds the doctrine itself stands. Profane history abundantly confirms this truth: the history of the world being in fact little else than the history of the crimes of the human Even though the annals of remote ages lie so involved in obscurity, that some degree of uncertainty attaches itself to many of the events recorded, yet this one melancholy truth is always clear, that most of the miseries which have been brought upon mankind, have proceeded from this general depravity.

race.

In

The world we now live in furnishes abundant proof of this truth. a world formed on the deceitful theory of those who assert the innocence and dignity of man, almost all the professions, since they would have been rendered useless by such a state of innocence, would not have existed.