Burke. He traced the reachings of Law into man's finer nature, and had that nicer sensibility, wherewith to feel the delicate, electric aura, which this individual nature gives back, and diffuses through every fibre of the great, general frame.

If there be this principle of unity binding together the intellectual capacities, the moral sensibilities and perceptions, and those multifarious qualities, which go to make up what we call character; and if every the least outward circumstance or condition, has an influence upon some one of these, and, through their sympathetic connexion with each other, upon all, and, so, upon their unity, or that which constitutes character; it follows, upon every principle of harmony in God's universe, that there should be no jarring nor discordant influences within or without, and that the nearer man draws to his first, unfallen state, the more will be developed the resemblances and relations of things to each other, and the more plainly order will be traced out through all varieties, and a tending of the upper and lower, the inward and outward world to one great end; and the more this world will be found to contain, as it were, within itself, heaven, and a moment of time to involve eternity-the greater, to speak with seeming paradox, to be contained in the less.

If the influences of this world reach into eternity, in order to fit man truly for either, they must fit him for both, and that, not partially, if they could, but in his whole mind and heart. But if there needs must be this family relation and likeness, which shall be taken for the original ?—the form of this world, or of the other? and by which, so far as he has the shaping of circumstances, shall man mould his condition?

I have full faith in the doctrine, that He who made man, body and spirit, framed the material world for a spiritual as well as a physical use-that He formed man a microcosm, and would teach him to know himself, not only by the revealed Word and by the influences of his Spirit, but by his providences, by the modes in which He has formed the animate and inanimate worlds, and by the ways in which He carries these forward to fulfil his great ends. Nor must this be barren knowledge-its purpose is to bring man into the likeness of this pattern, and thus into conformity and union with the general ordering of God, and with God himself.

How prone are we to cut these relations right athwart-to consider, for instance, our religious character one thing, and our political character another :-one set of ties to God, another to

man. Religion teaches humility, obedience; not so Politics :"We are all sovereigns!" cries the christian speaker, and the religious assembly clap their hands! Was it the Rights of man, or the pride of man, that gave voice to the thought, and returned the applause? This principle of severance will never do! The nerves we thus cut must grow together again, or just action will cease, and the man die. We must not think of going to God to learn humility and obedience, only to go back to Law again, to throw it off. There are no such contraries in God's plans; and the rule of this world must be after the pattern of the heavenly (imperfect it will be, but yet) teaching, in the main, the same lessons, and acting upon the same attributes of

man.

This great principle of Obedience, and the spirit of Humility, with which to obey, need be taught us in every thing; and Law should be so formed, while allowing us due freedom, as to be our schoolmaster in this lesson. It cannot be consistent, that what becomes so slowly the habitual state of the mind towards its Creator, should not be intended by Him, to find help in the forms of Law on earth-that, on the contrary, Law should be at war with this principle, and should nourish pride; thus keeping man under opposing influences, and hindering his progress in that way which is to make him a meet subject for the order and sovereignty of heaven. Were it natural to man to live under an abiding sense of humility, and of obedience to his Maker, were it the first and only impulse of the heart, in honour to prefer one another, we might not stand in so extreme need that Law should meet us every where, with the air of supreme authority, pressing upon our senses, and rising up before our minds.

If we look at Law, in this way, as intended to fall in with the general plan of God, as a part faying in with the other parts of a great whole as a something made necessary to the universal ordering of our condition and character, and having both a necessitated beginning and continuance in our very nature, and acting upon it every where, and not as a mere arbitrary Institution set up by man himself, out of convenience and choice, to be taken down, remodelled, and put up again, at his good pleasure; then will it have to us an origin like that from which we ourselves sprang, and a bearing as lasting as our own existence; then will it become sacred in our eyes-a somewhat set over us-our rule, our head. Authority will be seen written over its portal; and we shall take our shoes from off our feet as we en

THE

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY

117467

AND

QUARTERLY OBSERVER.

CONDUCTED

By B. B. EDWARDS.

VOLUME FIFTH-Nos. XVII, XVIII.

ANDOVER:

GOULD AND NEWMAN, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS.

BOSTON:

PERKINS, MARVIN AND CO.

1835.