out and presented by him. His works, for a theologian, ought to occupy the place that Blackstone does to the lawyer, and should be read over every year. I am determined to do it myself.

The writing out of an analysis of this work will afford to you much mental discipline, and fix the principles of the subject more deeply and accurately than any other method.

The distinctness with which the course of reasoning will thus be brought before the mind, the close attention required to follow him, the discrimination demanded in selecting the important points of the argument, and divesting it of extraneous matter, and the process of writing it down, all afford most excellent discipline.

VIEWS ON CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.

I.

"NoT as though I had apprehended, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended by Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those that are before, I press forward to the mark of the prize of my high calling in Christ Jesus my Lord.

"Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded."

Most of the disputes and differences of opinion, among real Christians, respecting Christian character and attainments, arise from misunderstanding the terms by which different individuals express their views. Not unfrequently, persons will contend most strenuously on a subject where they are perfectly agreed, because each is deceived by the language of the other, and thus supposes him to hold great and radical errors. This misapprehension is not a little increased by excited passion, pride, self-will, and a desire of reputation, which are aroused in the heat of controversy. Many are led to misapprehend the views of those whom, if

they could converse with them, they would approve and love. But because they receive flying rumor for truth, and too readily take second-hand statements of their principles, they gain false and distorted views of the whole subjcct.

In no instance has this been more apparent, than on the subject of Christian perfection. From the day in which this term was first applied to a particular state of Christian character, it has been misrepresented and perverted. It is greatly to be regretted, that when this term produced so much misapprehension in the days of Wesley, it should again have been brought into use to describe Christian character; because no term has a greater variety and latitude of meaning in its several uses than this, and by no word can less be known as to the real conception of the writer.

A slight reference to the diversified use of this term in the Bible, will illustrate this.

Noah is called a just man, and perfect in his generation; yet Noah sinned grossly. Job is called a perfect and upright man. "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright." In all these cases it is plain that a general course of integrity and holy living is intended by the term perfect.

God said to Abraham, "Walk before me and be thou perfect." "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Here complete moral purity is required. "My strength is made

perfect in weakness."

Here the sense is, that of

complete adequateness to all our wants.

"The law made nothing perfect." Here the sense is, that the law did not furnish a complete system of means for the salvation of men. "The God of peace, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, settle you." "For the perfecting of the saints, till we all come to a perfect man.' Here the word refers to a mature Christian, in opposition to the wavering, inconstant state of the new convert.

"To the spirits of just men made perfect." Here the sense is complete deliverance from all defect of constitution or character. "To make the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering." Here the idea is, that of entire adaptation and fitness for the work he was to perform.

If we attempt, by a term so diversified in its uses as this, to prove any thing with respect to the pos sible, or actual attainments of Christians in this life, we shall become involved in fruitless disputes, and "find no end, in wandering mazes lost."

We must, therefore, confine ourselves to the use of the term in particular cases, and learn by examination of the whole bearing of passages, their true meaning. There is a state spoken of in the New Testament, which is called perfection. "Leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection." "Howbeit, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.”

"He gave Apostles for the perfecting of the saints.” "Let as many of us as be perfect be thus minded.” The question here arises, What is this state? We must first consider the different senses in which the term perfect may be applied to a moral agent. Any thing may be called perfect, when all its parts are complete, and it fully answers the end for which it was designed. In this sense, a moral agent, like man, is perfect, when all his constitutional powers and actions, fully correspond with the original design of God in his creation; that is, when his intellect is sound, not biased by passion, or blinded by prejudice, or darkened by error; when his susceptibilities are all in a healthful state, not inordinately excited, or predisposed to wrong action, and when the will is fully subjected to the decisions of reason and the moral sense. This is absolute perfection, and is found only among the holy angels and the spirits of the just made perfect.

There is a secondary sense, where a being is considered only with reference to the demands of law upon him, as regulated by his present ability, and then the term perfect is used in the sense of obeying the commands of God with all the powers a being possesses, aided by all the knowledge within his reach, however great or small that ability or knowledge may be.

Perfection, in this use, relates simply to the state of the will as conformed to the law. This is the