return to your Father's house. Another is drawn on step by step, by influences operating unseen and unfelt, in various circumstances which he cannot distinctly follow, until the truth has made him free; he no longer groans under the yoke of sin and death, but stands in the liberty of the sons of God.

5. We observe next, that conversion is practicable by every individual to whom it is a duty. Every bad man may cease to do evil; may repent and be converted. Otherwise such persons would never have been called upon to do and to become so. God is too wise, and good, and just, to triumph over the weakness of his creatures, by requiring what is impracticable. But our reason and consciences tell us, that we may break off our sins; that the sensualist and the intemperate may deny their criminal indulgences; that the liar may speak the truth; that the fraudulent may do justly; that the angry man may tame his ferocity; that the profane may use decency of speech; and that the profligate and sacrilegious may learn to venerate and honour religion and its laws. Though the difficulties in the accomplishment of such alterations may be, as they often are, great and disheartening, yet no man ever serionsly set about his reformation, and employed with diligence and fidelity the means afforded him by God for its execution, and laboured in the work with steady perseverance, and yet failed of success. The scriptures every where, in their various exhortations to repentance and amendment, imply that we possess this power. Turn ye, turn ye, says the prophet, why will ye die; what inference is more obvious, than that they might turn themselves, and if they did die in their sins, it was because they would? But do any of us, in a serious expostulation with our consciences, rest satisfied with this plea of inability; do we honestly think that, at the tribunal of God, it will be sufficient for our acquittal to say, that we could not avoid the sins, nor perform the neglected duties, which will then rise up in judgment against us? The apostle, with great force, describes the conflict which must take place in the heart of every man, who would rescue himself from iniquity, when he says, I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. But what is his determination? though all things are lawful for me, yet all things are not expedient, and I will not be brought

* Ezekiel xxxiii. 11.

under the power of any. I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

6. We observe next, that there is no necessity for supposing any thing miraculous or supernatural in the conversion of a bad map. God commands us to repent and be converted. Conscience and reflection teach us its propriety and necessity. The means of reclaiming ourselves are afforded, and the motives are continually and strongly urged upon us. Would this

have been the case, if the duty required were not within our power? We may ask likewise, what is there in such an event, to which the ordinary means afforded, if properly applied, are not fully adequate?

We often hear that the change is supernatural; that it is the immediate operation of the Spirit, of God; and that those persons who are its subjects, know it to be such by their own personal-consciousness and feeling. This is the test by which it is ascertained. We do not pretend that such events are impossible. With God all things are possible; and there are conversions recorded in the scriptures, which were certainly miraculous. But we are not to, multiply miracles without necessity. We are not to suppose, that a miracle has been wrought in an event, which may be otherwise and easily accounted for. If it can be accomplished only by the irresisti ble and arbitrary power of God, where is the duty of repentance and conversion?

We doubt not the sincerity of their belief, who profess to have received such communications. We have no distrust of their confidence in what they assert. We would not cast a shadow of reproach on their virtue and piety, for these are often pre-eminent. Yet may they not be deceived? Is there not a general disposition among mankind to rely on what is marvellous and extraordinary? If internal consciousness or experience be a sufficient test, if we are to believe that persons have been the subjects of a miraculous operation, because they say, or are persuaded that they have, then we must admit it in all cases. The sect of Friends, the Swedenborgians, the Calvinists, the Baptists, the Methodists, and innumerable other sects in the church, among all of whom there are many excellent Christians, must, on this subject, receive our confidence. They all maintain the fact of such miraculous operations, and assert their experience of such communications with the fullest persuasion of their reality; and yet, notwithstanding their pretensions to this supernatural influence, they are all of them, in various respects, hostile in sentiment and feeling to

2

each other. Is God the author of confusion; or of peace, of division, or of unity? Are the influences of the Divine Spirit in one case directly repugnant to what they are in another?

7. Lastly, we would not, by any thing that has been said, be supposed to deny or question the doctrine of divine influ-. ences upon the human mind. We truly believe, that more ready than earthly parents to give good gifts to their children, is our Heavenly Father to give his holy spirit to them that ask him. We believe that God is continually operating within and around us; that all the powers of nature are under his control and direction. But at the same time, we cannot be lieve that it is consistent with human virtue, that the moral influences of his spirit should be irresistible. We are expressly commanded not to grieve, nor to quench his holy spirit. We cannot persuade ourselves, that his gifts are ever arbitrary and wanton, the mere dictates of his caprice, for we look to him as the equal friend of all his creatures, and no respecter of persons. We do not think that they are imparted in a miraculous and supernatural manner, since Jesus himself was not willing to tempt him to work a miracle even for his deliverance. We do not believe that these influences are sensible and apparent, and to be distinguished from the operations of our own minds, because we are expressly told, that as the wind bloweth where it listeth, thou canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the spirit. We cannot think that they are imparted other than in co-operation with our own exertions, since we are required to ask if we would receive, and to seek if we would find. him that improves the talents committed to him will more be given; and it is only while we work out our own salvation, that we are to expect God will work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.*

To

It is left with every man's conscience to apply these considerations to himself; to examine his own heart and character, manners, conversation, and life, and thus to ascertain how far he fails in his duty; in what respect his christian attainments are defective; what are the pollutions which cleave to his soul, and what the sins, and follies which disgrace his life. and character. Knowing these, let him view them in their proper colours, and their inevitable consequences. Let him probe deep, and not spare. Humbling himself before God on account of his sins, let him determine to renounce them; to cut off the offending limb, which he cannot restrain; to

*Philippians ii, 12, 13.

apply to the diseased part the means of cure, which God, the Great Physician, proffers to him. Relying on the divine assistance and illumination, let him determine to assert the dignity of his nature and destination; to break off his follies and crimes; to acquire the purity and integrity which belong to the christian character, and to make the will of God the only rule, the glory of God the great end of his life, and the favour of the ever Blessed the supreme object of his ambition. With the psalinist, let him resolve to wash his hands in innocency, and thus approach the altar of God. While he brings there the offering of penitence, and prayer, and virtuous resolutions, and humble trust, let him remember that God delights to show forgiveness. The sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit he will not despise; and let him go forth into a world of trial and temptation, with the confident assurance, that no good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly.

H.

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

GERMAN THEOLOGY.

[At a time when so much is said of German Theology, we are happy to have it in our power to give the following character of it from the lu augural Discourse of the DEXTER PROFESSOR OF SACRED Literature in Harvard College.]

In Germany, for the last forty or fifty years, the science of theology has been more cultivated than in any other country; though certainly not altogether with the happiest results. Nobody, I trust, will imagine, that I admire the licentious, and, as it seems to me, the most extravagant and untenable speculations of some of the modern German theologians. In reading their works, I find what I cannot but regard as theories and arguments of impalpable inanity; I seem, like Eneas when entering the confines of the dead, to be passing through a region of monstrous shadows, and to be, like him, pursuing a journey,

Quale per incertam Lunam, sub luce maligna,
Est iter in sylvis.

Some of these theologians, who have attained a certain degree of celebrity out of their own country, are, I think, little entitled to any kind of respect. To others of them, I should be dis

posed to apply the character which Thirlby, in the celebrated dedication of his edition of Justin Martyr, gives of Isaac Vossius, a character which could not be more descriptive of any individual, than it is of a class of writers. "He had great learning, superior genius, and judgment too, which, if not very great, was enough and more than enough for one, who, unless I am entirely deceived, cared but little about discovering the truth upon any subject. He made it his object to seek for and invent new, out of the way, and wonderful opinions in criti cism, in philosophy, and in theology. Whether they were true or not, he left to be examined by those who might think themselves interested in the matter."* But this character is far from being applicable to the whole body of modern German theologians. There are many who are not entitled to the praise; and some who are not obnoxious to the censure. Some have executed laborious works of great value; and others have written with much sobriety and good sense, as well as learning and ingenuity. As it respects the mass of those works, with which we can become acquainted only through a knowledge of the German language, their value, without doubt, has been by some considerably overrated; nor would it be safe to recommend the indiscriminate study of them to one apt to estimate the truth of opinions by their novelty. But still the value of many of these works is such, as to render a knowledge of the language very desirable to the theological student, and necessary to a consummate theologian.

DEVOTION.

"True devotion consists not in the stated performance of certain exercises, of which God is the object, but an habit of mind and feeling, answering to the relations, in which we stand to God, as our creator, benefactor, governor, and judge; a state of the affections, produced by frequent meditation on the attributes and character of the Divine Being, and on the connexion between this Being and ourselves, who are his offspring, and lie altogether at his disposal. Iu a serious and reflecting mind, devotion is at once a powerful, dignified, and pleasurable

*Erant in eo homine multæ literæ, ingenium excellens, judicium etiam, si non maximum, at tantum quantum ei satis superque fuit, qui, nisi omnia me fallunt, quid in quavis re verum esset, leviter curavit perspicere. Satis habuit nova, devia, mirabilia in critica, in philosophia, in theologia, quærere et cogitare: vera anne falsa essent, id vero aliis exquirendum reliquit, qui sua istuc interesse existimarent."