so conspicuously-natural to man, as that of loving himself, or seeking his comfort or happiness: and if the fact, that the one is natural, be sufficient to divest it of a directly religious character, the same mode of reasoning will place the other in the very same predicament. What, indeed, are all the affections or all the mental powers of the most gracious man on earth, but natural principles, sanctified, and harmonized, and restored to their appropriate uses by the Spirit of God? So that, if the affections which are natural to man as a creature, are on this account to be set aside from those exercises which are truly pious, then he cannot be pious at all; or, at least, the piety which attaches to him by the grace of God, cannot be human, but something foreign to his nature, or entirely distinct from it, which is manifestly absurd.'

This, however, is not maintained by our Author, although his reasoning, we fear, implies it. He admits, that the love of one's self, or a desire to possess the benefits of salvation, or gratitude for the enjoyment of these benefits, may be devotional in a collateral way, although that love to God which is detached from self, or disinterested, is so exclusively the essence of genuine piety, that, without its preexistence in the soul, these other affections cannot be characterized as truly religious. Now it is here that we hesitate, and we cannot help suspecting, that if the arguments hinted at be inconclusive, the position itself is untenable. It seems impossible, at least for any practical purpose, to clear out the distinction be tween what God is in himself, and what he is to us for salvation, so as to make it tangible to ordinary minds: and, under Christianity, we have no view of

him, except that one in which his essential moral excellence is not simply disclosed as a matter of generous contemplation on our part, but-powerfully set forth under the specific form of goodness to be communicated. But the first feelings of the man whose soul is brought to a reception of this goodness, are naturally, that is, constitutionally, feelings of gratitude; and it is by the exercise of this gratitude as a seasonable and immediate duty, that his soul is prepared for devoutly contemplating the grandeur of the character from which it came. Nor can gratitude, originated in this way, although inseparably connected with the man's own interest, be discarded as spurious, for it proceeds from an act of religious compliance with the will of God. If there be a vitiating element in the exercise, it must have its seat not in the gratitude, although it may have descended upon it, but in the supposition that the goodness proffered has been received when it has not. A real reception of saving benefits, must produce a feeling of obligation by the very laws of human nature, and that feeling of obligation must, on its own account, be religious, because it springs from religious principle, and is a deed of commanded homage to the object of Christian worship. That this exercise can be prosecuted without any reference at all to what is intrinsic in the object of worship, is by no means insinuated, for it is but the work of an instant with the human mind to infer, that he who communicates excellence is himself excellent; and it is perhaps impossible for a Christian to exult in the one view of the subject without a feeling of simultaneous admiration produced by the other. This, however, is perfectly consistent with

maintaining that the man who is conscious of either, may safely conclude, that he is adoring the God of salvation.

Had the statement in question been limited by our Author to the saints in heaven, or to some of the most distinguished in the church on earth, there might have been little occasion for remarking on it, for it is every way likely that in the state of perfec tion, or, in some instances of high maturity among Christians in this world, the love of God is exemplified to a great extent, as he describes it. For the sake of those, however, who though on the way to heaven's perfection, may feel themselves far in the rear, it seems necessary to concede, that this is not a primary but an ulterior attainment. It is the result not simply of a transition from a state of condemnation into one of pardon and friendship with God, but of a process of restoration, either more brief or more protracted, in which the person has been carried forward to a high degree of spirituality; and probably, the feeling of it is lost, or, in some measure, interfered with, on every relapse into sinful indulgence.

To understand the mystery of religious exercise, we must keep it closely in view, that Christianity is not a dispensation of bounty to the innocent, but a remedy for an existing evil; and while the action of its remedial efficacy terminates in the production of a piety, the purest and most sublime, yet it commences its operations, and continues to carry them on, by stimulating the principle of self-preservation. The man approaches the subject at first, under the conviction that he is guilty, and ready to perish; and the first movement of kindly affection within him is not

to the delighted contemplation of what God is in himself, for to this as yet he is utterly incompetent, but to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ embraced as a benefit, exactly suited to his case, and freely set before him in the word of the truth of the Gospel. This is a movement in which self-love has not a secondary and consecutive, but a primary and controlling influence; for the man "believes" intentionally and on set purpose, "to the saving of his soul." It is impossible for him to do otherwise in the circumstances of the case. He cannot look with delight on the intrinsic excellence of the God that made him, while he sees it hid in the images of wrath. He cannot adore that excellence, till he feel himself in alliance with it. He cannot so much as behold it with the eye of unbiassed intelligence, till "the light of the knowledge of its glory, in the face of Jesus Christ, hath shined in his heart." The gift of God is the very thing which prepares him for extolling the giver. From a contemplation which is altogether disinterested, he is restrained not more by the disorder which sin has entailed upon his spirit, than by the original constituents of his own humanity; for the principle of love to himself is so thoroughly interwoven with his frame, that the exercise of it ought to combine itself with every act of duty, whether to God or man. The question, however, is, whether the exercise of it, as thus described, be in itself a religious exercise: and we conceive it must be so, for this one reason, that it involves a solemn acquiescence in what God has done for sinful men, which is the very soul of religion, at least in its Christian form. A disregard of one's best in

terests is impiety, even in a general view, because it is a doing of injury to the Creator's handiwork, which every man is bound to venerate in himself as well as in others.

The precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is evidently founded on the assumption that man is bound to love himself, and to carry this affection along with him through the whole circle of relative duty. The chief end of his creation, it is true, is to glorify God; but for that very reason is he bound by an obligation the most sacred, in the first instance to take care of himself, to consult his moral well-being, and to seek relief from his moral malady, that this sublime purpose may be accomplished in his person. By no one act, however, can he do this effectually, without believing on the Son of God for salvation; but by consulting his interest in this way, he is glorifying him as really and as directly, as by contemplating his intrinsic excellence. He is thus yielding homage to the Most High, as a God of faithfulness, or doing him honour in that great point on which he has concentrated his moral attributes, and pledged them all to man in revelation; but if so, then is he obeying the impulses of an enlightened self-love, and giving scope to affections which are truly religious, by one and the same exercise of mind. With this conclusion, the inspired history of primitive conversions, and consequent religious exercises, is in perfect accordance; * and in passages almost innumerable, the principle of self

* As a specimen, the reader may consult Acts ii. 37-41. and xvi. 2634.