vert it, if delivered to the uninformed, strip-class of persons, to which some appropriate ped from the connection with its proper ad- exhortation is not directed. After particujunct. larly addressing those who fill different deThus, his doctrines are never barely theo-grees of the ministerial office, he proceeds to retical. He hedges them in, as we have the more general instructions in which all elsewhere observed, with the whole circle of are equally interested. Here, again, he duties, or with such as more immediately does not fail to introduce his documents grow out of his subject, whether they relate with some powerful principle. Affection to God, to others, or ourselves. Though it and sincerity are the inward feelings which would not be easy to produce, in his wri- must regulate action; 'let love be without tings, a single doctrine which is not so pro-dissimulation.'

gent, tender sympathy with the feelings of others, whether of joy or sorrow, as their respective circumstances require; the duties of friendship and hospitality are not forgotten; condescension to inferiors; a disposition to be at peace with all men is enforced; from his deep knowledge of the human heart, implying, however, by a significant parenthesis-if it be possible-the difficulty, if not impossibility, which its corruptions would bring to the establishment of universal discord.

tected, nevertheless, perhaps, there is The love he inculcates is of the most large scarcely one, in the adoption of which, bold and liberal kind; compassion to the indiintruders have not leaped over the fence he raised; or by their negligence laid it bare for the unhallowed entrance of others, converting his inclosure into a waste. If the duty of living righteously, soberly, and godly, was ever pre-eminently taught by any instructor, that instructor is Saint Paul; it ever the instructions of any Teacher have been strained or perverted, they are his. But if he never presses any virtue, as independent of faith, which is too much the case with some, he never fails to press it as a consequence of faith, which is sometimes neglected by others. The one class preach faith as if it were an insulated doctrine; the other, virtue, as if it were a self-originating principle.

He applies himself to all the tender sensibilities of the heart, and concatenates the several fruits of charity so closely, from being aware how ready people are to deceive themselves on this article, and to make one It is also worthy of observation, that in branch of this comprehensive grace stand that complete code of Evangelical law, the proxy for another: he knew that many are twelfth chapter of the Romans, after unfol- disposed to make almsgiving a ground for ding with the most lucid clearness, the great neglecting the less pleasant parts of chari· truths of our religion, he carefully inculcates ty; that some give, in order that they may the temper it demands, before he proceeds rail, and think that while they open their to enforce the duties it imposes; that we purses, they need put no restraint on their must be 'holy' before we can be 'accepta- tongues.

ble; that we must be transformed in the He closes his catalogue of duties with renewing of our mind, is at once made a con- those which we owe to our enemies; and in sequence of the grace of God, and a pre-a paradox peculiar to the genius of Christiliminary to our duties towards our fellow-anity, shows that the revengeful are the creatures. We must offer up ourselves conquered, and those who have the maga living sacrifice to God,' before we are di- nanimity to forgive, the conquerors. He rected to act conscientiously to man. The exhorts to this new and heroic species of other disposition, which he names as an in-victory over evil, not merely by exhibiting dispensable prelude, is humility; for in the patience under it, but by overcoming its asvery opening of his subject, he prefaces it saults with good. Could this conquest over with an injunction, not to think of ourselves nature, which soars far above mere forgivemore highly than we ought to think. To ness, be obtained by any other power but omit to cultivate the spirit in which doc- the supernatural strength previously comtrines are to be embraced, and the temper municated? in which duties are to be performed, is to Thus he every where demonstrates, that mutilate Christianity, and to rob it of its ap- the maxims of the morality he inculcates, propriate character and its highest grace. are derived from a full fountain, and fed by After having shown the means for the ac-perennial supplies. When he speaks of huquisition of virtue, he teaches us diligently man virtue, he never disconnects it from to solicit that divine aid, without which all Divine influence. When he recommends means are ineffectual, and all virtues spurious.

In this invaluable summary, or rather this spirit of Christian laws, there is scarcely any • We learn from St. Peter, that this perversion had begun even in his own time. Ebion and his followers afterwards pushed the charge against Paul as far as antinomianism. Nor has the spirit of the accusation on the one hand, nor the adulteration of the principle on the other, entirely ceased.

the perfecting holiness,' it must be done in the fear of the Lord.' He shows that there is no other way of conquering the love of the world, the allurements of pleasure, and the predominance of selfishness, but by seeking a conformity to the image of God, as well as by aiming at obedience to his law.

That ignorance is the mother of devotion, has been the axiom of a superstitious church; nor is the votary of fanaticisin less apt to

despise knowledge than the slave of super-from our acquiescence in the offers of that stition. Spirit.

The first thing that God formed in nature was light. This preliminary blessing disclosed the other beauties of his creation, which had else remained as unseen as if they had remained uncreated. By that analogy which runs through his works, his first operation on the heart is bestowing on it the light of his grace. Amidst the causes of the corruption, the darkness of ignorance is scarcely to be distinguished from that of sin.

And where shall we look in the whole sa

cred Record for a more consummate statement, at once of the proper objects of knowledge, and of the duties resulting from its acquisition, than in the writings of this. Apostle? No one who has devoutly studied. him, can shift off the neglect of duty by the plea of ignorance. It would be vindicating one sin by committing another. He every where exhibits such luminous characters of God and Christ, such clear views of right. Such indeed is the condition of man in his and wrong, such living pictures of good and present state, that he ought to labour inde- evil, such striking contrasts of human corfatigably under the Divine teaching, to re-ruption and Christian purity, that he who cover some glimpses of that intellectual worth which he lost when he forfeited his spiritual excellence. Religious men should be diligent in obtaining knowledge, or they will not be able to resist gainsayers; they will swallow assertions for truths, and conclude every objection to be valid which they cannot refute. An unfurnished mind is liable to a state of continual indecision. Error will have the advantage in the combat, where the champion of truth enters the field without arms; for impiety still shows itself, as it did in the Garden of Eden, under the semblance of knowledge.

would evade the condemnation which awaits the neglect, or the violation of duty, must. produce some other apology than that he did not know it. What excuse will those modern sceptics offer for their traducement of writings, which they were too shrewd either to despise or neglect? Whatever is good in their systems, they derive from a Revelation which they affect to contemn. They are rich only from what they steal, not from that property which they may call their own. Reason, which could in no wise discover what Christianity has taught, is glad to adopt, while she disavows, what she Saint Paul estimated just views and right could never have found out herself. She notions of religion so highly, that he makes has, however, too little honesty, and too the improvement in knowledge in the Colos- much pride, to acknowledge her obligation sians, à matter not only of fervent desire, but to the source from which she draws. She of incessant prayer. He prays not only that mixes up what she best likes with her own they might be sincere, but intelligent Chris-materials, and defies the world, by separatians, filled with the knowledge of God's ting them, to detect the cheat. Revelation, will in all wisdom and spiritual understan- in truth, has improved reason, as well as ding; but he does not forget to teach them perfected morals.

that this knowledge must be made practical, But if the human reasoner despises Christhey must walk worthy of the Lord, they tianity, some Christians are too much dismust be fruitful in every good work. It is posed to vilify reason. This contempt they among the high ascriptions of glory to did not learn of Saint Paul. He never Christ, that in Him are hid all the treasures taught, that, to neglect an exact method of of wisdom and knowledge. And this ascrip- reasoning, would make men sounder divines. tion is pressed upon us for the manifest pur-No such consequences can be deduced from pose of impelling us to seek a due participa- his writings. Revealed religion, indeed, tion of thein from Him. happily for the poor and illiterate, may be Saint Paul was a strenuous opposer of re-firmly believed, and vitally understood, ligious ignorance. It is not too much to say, without a very accurate judgment, or any that he places Intelligence as the ground-high cultivation of the rational powers. But work of Christianity. To know God, and without both, without a thorough acquainJesus Christ, whom he has sent, he considers tance with the arguments, without a knowas the first rudiments taught in the divine ledge of the evidences, it can never be sucschool. This knowledge can only be ac- cessfully defended. Ignorance on these quired by a cordial love, and indefatigable points would throw such a weight into the study of the volume of Inspiration. All the scale of scepticism, as would weaken, if it conjectures of the brightest imagination, all did not betray, the cause of truth. In our the discoveries of the profoundest science, days an ignorant teacher of religion is 'a all the glorious objects of created beauty, workman that needeth to be ashamed.' He all the attributes of angels, all the ideas of should carefully cultivate his reason, were it excellence we can conceive or combine, af- only to convince himself of its imperfection. fords but faint shadows, inexpressive figures The more he proceeds under the guidance of the Divinity. The best lights we can of God's Spirit to improve his rational faculthrow upon his perfections are from his own Word, assisted by his own Spirit; the clearest sight we can obtain of them is from our faith in that word, and our only strength

ties, the more he will discover their insufficiency: and his humility striking its root more deeply as his knowledge shoots higher, he will become more profoundly thank

ful for that Divine revelation, which alone can satisfy the desires of his mind, and fill the cravings of his heart,

ing promise of such a deliverance, without directing us how it is to be obtained? The fervent habitual prayer of faith is the mean Some well-meaning instructors have plea- suggested. It is rational to suppose that ded, in justification of their low attainments, spiritual aid must be attained by a spiritual Saint Paul's exaltation of the foolishness of act. God is a spirit. Spirit and truth are preaching to save them that believe. It the requisites expected in his worshippers.— was,' says a learned divine, a mode not Though this doctrine is insisted on not less unusual with Saint Paul, to call a thing, not than twelve times in this chapter only, there by a term descriptive of its real nature, but is not one tenet of Christianity, in the adopby a name expressive of the opinion formed tion of which, the generality are more reof it by the world, and of the effects produ- luctant. ced by it.'-In calling the Gospel foolishness, It is unreasonable for us to say, we disbetherefore, he only adopted the language of lieve the possibility of the operation of the the Greeks, its Pagan enemies. It was the Holy Spirit, because we do not understand natural man,' to whom the things of the when, or in what manner it acts, while we Spirit of God were foolishness, The ex- remain in such complete ignorance how our pression, therefore, offers no apology for own spirits act within ourselves. It is proof nonsense, no plea for ignorance. However, sufficient, that we see its result, that we perthe humility of Paul might lead him to de-ceive the effect of this mysterious operation, preciate the wisdom of his own words,' he has left us the means of knowing that they were of the very first excellence. He depreciates, it is true, all eloquence, whether true or false, which was adopted as a substitute for the Cross of Christ.' He would indeed reprobate the idea of loading a discourse with ornaments, which might draw the attention of the audience from the Saviour to the preacher, which by its splen-ly implore its aid. dour might cast into shade the object he was Saint Paul powerfully inculcates that new bound to reveal; which might throw into and spiritual worship which was so condethe back ground that Cross which should scendingly and beautifully taught by the ever be the prominent figure. But though, Divine Teacher, at the well of Sychar, in establishing the doctrine of the Cross, when he declared that the splendours of the God accomplished a promise of long stand- Temple worship, hitherto performed excluing, and frequent repetition that he would sively in one distinguished place, should be destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring abolished, and the cumbrous ceremonies and to nothing the understanding of the pru-fatiguing forms of the Jewish ritual set aside, dent,' yet there is no promise that ignorance to make way for a purer mode of adoration; or folly shall be erected on the ruins of wis- when the contrite heart was to supersede the dom; the promise runs, that the wisdom costly sacrifice, and God should be worshipfrom above shall supersede the pride of hu- ped in a way more suited to his spiritual naman wisdom.

in the actual change of the human heart.Our sense of our internal weakness, must convince us, that it is not effected by any power of our own. The humble cannot but feel this truth, the ingenuous cannot but acknowledge it. Let us be assured, that Infinite Wisdom, which knows how we are constituted, and what are our wants, knows how his own Spirit assists those who earnest

ture.*

One of the fundamental truths which the Yet, even here, the wise moderation of apostle labours to establish, is, that the at- Paul is visible. He did not manifest his tainment of Divine knowledge, progress in dislike of one extreme point by flying to the holiness, conquest over sin, with all other antipodes of opposition: when ostentatious spiritual gains, are only to be effected by the rites were pronounced to be no longer ncpower of the Spirit of God. This doctrine, cessary, he did not adopt, like some other rethe importance of which he every where in-formers, the contrary excess of irregularity timates, he more explicitly teaches in the and confusion. While the internal principle eighth chapter of Romans. This convic- was the great concern, the outward appention, which he felt deeply, he paints forci-dage must be decorous. To keep the exte bly. Yet, though insisted on with such rior 'decent' and 'orderly,' was emblemafrequency and emphasis, many receive this as a speculative dogma, instead of a highly practical truth. Many distrust the reality of this power, or if they allow its existence, they disbelieve its agency.

tical of the purity and regularity within!

While Paul's severe reproof of the confusion and irregularities, which disgraced the Church of Corinth, proves him to be a decided enemy to the distempers of spiritual This tenet, however, so slightly regarded, vanity and enthusiasm; he does not, like a is in every part of the New Testament, not worldly reprover, seize the occasion given barely noticed by allusion, but incessantly by their imprudence to treat with levity the either peremptorily asserted, or constantly power of religion itself; he does not lay hold assumed. Would the apostle repeatedly re-on the error he condemns for a pretence to fer us, as the only deliverer from sin, to an deride true zeal, and to render ridiculous ideal person! Would he mock us by a bare the gifts which had been indecently abused. statement of such a power, and an unmean* Gospel of St. John, chap. iv.

On the contrary, he observes how impro- characters communicate the repose which perly these gifts, and supernatural powers they enjoy; that they excite no alarm, behad been used by some on whom they were cause they feel none. Their tale of obserconfered; who, he laments, were more vances is regularly brought in; their list of anxious to eclipse each other in these showy forms is completely made out. Forms, it is distinctions, than to convert them to the pur- true, are valuable things, when they are poses of practical use and excellence; ad-used as a dead hedge to secure the quick;' vises, that 'spiritual gifts' may be directed but here the observances are rested in; here to their true end; that he may excel to the the forms are the whole of the fence. The edifying of the Church;' gently reminds the dead fence is not considered as a protection; offenders, that they themselves were nothing but a substitute. The teacher and the more than vehicles and organs of the opera- taught, neither disturbing nor disturbed, but tion of the Spirit. While he insinuates that, soothing and soothed, reciprocate civilitics, were these miraculous powers their sole dis- exchange commendations. If little good is tinction, it might be doubtful by what speci- done, it is well; if no offence is given, it is fic mark to recognize in them the genuine better; if no superfluity of zeal be imputed, Christian; he removes the difficulty, by it is best of all. The Apostle felt what the showing them there was a more excellent Prophet expressed,—'My people love to way, by which they might most indisputably have it so. make out their title. This way,' which is now as it was then, the discriminating characteristic of the true believer, is Charity; all the properties of which he describes, not for their instructions only, but for ours also. If the apostle has here, on the one hand, furnished no example or apology for enthusiasm and eccentricity; if the solidity of his piety, and the sobriety of his mind, are uniformly opposed to the unprofitable fervours of fanaticism, both in doctrine and conduct, yet on the other hand his life and writings are quite as little favourable to a more formidable, because a less suspected and more common evil,—we mean indifference. Coldness and inefficiency, indeed, are, in the estimation of some persons, reputable, or at least safe qualities, and often obtain the honourable name of Prudence; but to Saint Paul it was not enough that nothing wrong was done; he considered it reproach sufficient that nothing was done.

Perhaps the sum and substance of the duties of a Christian minister, to which there is also a reference in this chapter, was never compressed into so small a compass as in his charge to his beloved Titus;*— In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. In doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech,.' We see here, in a few significant words, a rule of conduct and of instruction which is susceptible of the widest expansion. The most elaborate paraphrase will add little to the substantial worth of this brief monition. Every instructor must furnish his own practical commentary by transfering into his life the pattern, and into his preaching the precept. He adds, the sure effect of a life and doctrine so correct will be to silence calumny; the adversary of religion will be ashamed of his enmity when he sees the purity of its professor defeat all attempts to discredit him.

It is a truth, verified in every age of the church, that the doctrines which Paul preached, stood in direct opposition to the natural dispositions of man; they militated against his corrupt affections; they tended to subdue what had been hitherto invincible,

He sometimes intrenches himself in the honest severity which his integrity compels him to exercise against the opposers of vital Christianity, by adducing some pointed censure against them from men of their own party or country. For instance, when he the stubborn human will; to plant selfcondemns, in his letter to their new bishop, denial where self-love had before overrun Titus, the luxurious, avaricious, and slothful the ground. To convince of sin, to point to Cretans, he corroborates the truth of his tes- the Saviour, to perfect holiness, yet to extimony by the authority of one of their own clude boasting, are the apostle's invariable poets, or prophets. These slow sensualists, objects. These topics he urges by every these indulgers of appetite, these masters of power of argument, by every charm of perceremonies, he not only stigmatizes himself, suasion; by every injunction to the preachbut adds to his pagan quotation, This wit-er, by every motive to the hearer; but these ness is true.' And it may be adduced as a injunctions, neither argument, persuasion, striking instance of his discriminating mode nor motive, can ever render engaging.— of church government, that this wise eccle- Man loves to have his corruptions soothed; siastical ruler, who had before exhorted it is the object of the apostle to combat Timothy, the bishop of another Church, to them: man would have his errors indulged; be gentle unto all men, meckly instructing it is the object of the religion which Paul those who oppose themselves,' now directs preached, to eradicate them. Titus to 'rebuke sharply' these temporizing Of the dislike excited against the loyal teachers, and unholy livers. ambassadors of the Gospel, by those who He saw that a grave and sedate indolence, live in opposition to its doctrines, our cominvesting itself with the respectable attribute mon experience furnishes us with no unapt of moderation, eats out the very heart's core emblem. When we have a piece of unwelof piety. He knew that these somnolent * Titus, ch. 2. VOL. II.

come news to report, we prepare the hearer by a soothing introduction; we break his fall by some softening circumstance ; we invent some conciliatory preamble: he listens; he distrusts--but we arrive at the painful truth; the secret is out, the preparation is absorbed in the reality, the evil remains in its full force; nothing but the painful fact is seen, heard, or felt.

life, or the exigencies of society, totally unprovided for.

There are, it is obvious, certain things which refer to particular usages of the general church at its first institution, which no longer exist. There are frequent references to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and other circumstances, which though they have now ceased, are of great importance, as connected with its history, and assisting in its first formation; and the writer who had lit-neglected to have recorded them would have been blameable, and the Epistles which had not alluded to them would have been imperfect.

While the apostle made ample provisions, such as the existing case required, or rather permitted, he did not absolutely legislate, as to external things, for any church,; wisely leaving Christianity at liberty to incorporate herself with the laws of any country into which she might be introduced; and while the doctrines of the new religion were precise, distinct, and definite, its ecclesiastical character was of that generalized nature which would allow it to mix with any form of national government. This was a likely means both to promote its extension, and to prevent it from imbibing a political temper, or a spirit of interference with the secular concerns of any country.

Thy news hath made thee a most ugly man.' The apostle knew that it would afford tle comfort to the humble Christian to talk of the mercy of God in the abstract, and the forgiveness of sins in vague and general terms. He persuades the believer to endeavour to obtain evidence of his own interest in this great salvation. The fountain of forgiveness may flow, but if the current reach not to us, if we have no personal interest in the offered redemption, if we do not individually seek communion with the Father of Spirits, the Saviour of the world will not be our Saviour. But that he might not give false comfort Paul, when he wishes 'peace' wishes' grace' also; this last he always places first in order, knowing that, before the peace can be solid, it must have grace for its precursor. The character of the peace which he recommends is of the highest order of blessings. The peace which nations make with each other fre- The wonder is, that the work is so little quently includes no more than that they will local, that it savours so little of Antioch or do each other no evil; but the peace of Jerusalem, of Philippi or Corinth; but that God,' insures to us all that is good, by keep-almost all is of such general application: ing our hearts and minds in the love and relative circumstances did indeed operate, knowledge of the Father, and of his Son Je-but they always operated subordinately.sus Christ! The Epistle to the Ephesians is not marked In regard to Saint Paul's ecclesiastical with one local peculiarity. There is not a polity, we are aware that some persons, with single deduction to be made from the univera view to lower the general usefulness of his sal applicableness of this elegant and powEpistles, object, that in many instances, es-erful epitome of the Gospel. pecially in the second to the Corinthians, the Saint Paul belongs not particularly to the apostle has limited his instructions to usages period in which he lived, but is equally the which relate only to the peculiar concerns of property of each successive race of beings. a particular church or individual person, Time does not diminish their interest in him. and that they might have been spared in a He is as fresh to every century as to his own; work meant for general edification. and the truths he preaches will be as intiBut these are not, as some insist, mere lo-mately connected with that age which shall cal controversies, obsolete disputes, with precede the dissolution of the world, as that which we have no concern. Societies, as in which he wrote. The sympathies of the well as the individuals of whom they are real believer will always be equally awakencomposed, are much the same in all periods; ed by doctrines which will equally apply to and though the contentions of the churches their consciences, by principles which will which he addressed might differ something always have a reference to their practice, by in matter, and much in form and ceremony, promises which will always carry consolafrom those of modern date; yet the spirit of tion to their hearts. By the Christians of all division, of animosity, of error, of opposi- countries Paul will be considered as a costion, with which all churches are more or mopolite, and by those of all ages as a conless infected, will have such a common re- temporary. Even when he addresses indisemblance in all ages, as may make us sub-viduals, his point of view is mankind. He mit to take a hint or a caution even from to- looked to the world as his scene, and to colpics which may seem foreign to our con- lective man as the actor. cerns; and it adds to the value of Saint Paul's expostulation, that they may be made in some degree applicable to other cases.His directions are minute, as well as general, so as scarcely to leave any of the incidents of

CHAP. X.

The Style and Genius of Saint Paul.
THOUGH Saint Paul frequently alludes to