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they are not calculated to impress on the mind of a learner a vivid and useful apprehension of Christianity. The object in them is not to teach religion, but to defend it; and whilst they keep their own place, they are beneficial. But any person who draws his knowledge of the Christian doctrines exclusively or principally from such sources, must run considerable risk of losing the benefit of them, by overlooking their moral objects; and, in so doing he may be tempted to reject them altogether, because he will be blind to their strongest evidence, which consists in their perfect adaptation to these objects. The Bible is the only perfectly-pure source of Divine knowledge; and the man who is unacquainted with it, is in fact ignorant of the doctrines of Christianity, however well-read he may be in the schemes and systems and controversies which have been written on the subject.

The habit of viewing the Christian doctrines and the Christian character as two separate things, has a most pernicious tendency. A man who, in his scheme of Christianity, says, " here are so many things to be believed, and here are so many to be done," has already made a fundamental mistake. The doctrines are the principles which must excite and animate the performance: They are the points from which the lines of conduct flow; and as lines, may be supposed to be formed by the progress of their points, or to be drawn out of their substance, so the line of Christian conduct is only formed by the progressive action of Christian principle, or is drawn out of its substance.

The doctrines of revelation form a great spiritual mould, fitted by Divine wisdom for impressing the stamp of the Christian character on the minds that receive them. I shall here mention some of the leading features of that character, as connected with the corresponding doctrines.

The love of God is the radical principle of the Christian character; and to implant this principle, is the grand object and the distinct tendency of the Christian doctrines. And it may be proper here to repeat an observation which has been already much insisted on,that this love is not a vague affection for an ill-defined object, but a sentiment of approbation and attachment to a distinctly-defined character. The Bible calls us to the exercise of this affection, by setting before us a history of the unspeakable mercy of God towards man. At first sight, it might seem impossible to conceive any way in which the mercy of God could be very strikingly or affectingly manifested towards his creatures. His omnipotence and unbounded sovereignty make every imaginable gift cheap and easy to him. The pardon of the sins committed by such feeble worms, seems no great stretch of compassion in so great and so unassailable a monarch. God knew the heart of man. He knew that such would be his reasonings; and he prepared a work of mercy, which might in all points meet these conceptions. God so loved the world, that he gave, his only-begotten Son for its salvation. His was not the benevolence which gives an unmissed mite out of a boundless store, -it was a self-sacrificing benevolence, which is but meagerly shadowed forth by any earthly comparison. We admire Codrus sacrificing his life for his country; we admire the guide plunging into the quicksand to warn and save his companions; we admire the father suffering the sentence of his own law, in the stead of his son; we admire Regulus submitting to voluntary torture for the glory of Rome: But the goodness of God, in becoming man, and suffering, the just for the unjust, that he might demonstrate to them the evil of sin,-that he might attract their affections to his own character, and thus induce them to follow him in

the way of happiness, was a goodness as much superior to any human goodness, as God is above man, or as the eternal happiness of the soul is above this fleeting existence; and, if believed, must excite a proportionate degree of admiration and gratitude.

The active and cordial love of our fellow
And

creatures is the second Christian duty.
can this sentiment be more powerfully impress-
ed upon us, than by the fact, that Christ's
blood was shed for them as well as for our-
selves; and by the consideration that this blood
reproaches us with the basest ingratitude, when
we feel or act maliciously, or even slightingly,
towards those in whom our heavenly benefac-
tor took so deep an interest ? Under the sense
of our Lord's continual presence, we shall en-
deavour to promote even their temporal wel-
fare; but, above all, we shall be earnest for
the good of their souls, which he died to re-
deem.

Christians are commanded to mortify the earthly and selfish passions of ambition and avarice and sensuality. Our Lord died that he might redeem us from such base thraldom, and allure us to the pure liberty of the sons of God. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, were in fact his murder

ers.

If we love him, we must hate them: If we love our own peace, we must hate them; for they separate the soul from the Prince of Peace. The happiness of eternity consists in a conformity to the God of holiness; and shall we spend our few days in confirming ourselves in habits directly opposed to him?-No; rather let us begin heaven below, by beginning to be holy.

The gospel exhorts us to humility; and deep humility, indeed, must be the result of a true acquiescence in the judgment which God passed upon us when he condemned his Son as the representative of our race. And when we think of what our Almighty Father hath done for us, our hearts must often convict us of the strange contrast which is exhibited betwixt our dealings with him and his dealings with us.

We are commanded to be diligent in the duties of life, and to be patient under its sufferings. And, to enforce this precept, we are instructed that the minutest event of life is ordered by him who loved us and gave himself for us; and that all these events, how trifling or how calamitous soever they may appeaг, are yet necessary parts of a great plan of spiritual education, by which he trains his people to his own likeness, and fits them for their

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