longs to the condition of a creature, that "we live and move, and have our being in God," morally, as truly as in any other sense. What is the nature of the influence he exerts in sustaining and exciting the moral powers, whether he is the originating or co-operating agent in all we do, we are not now concerned to inquire; but in whatever manner voluntary and moral agencies depend upon him, it must be in such way as leaves to them the character of will, action, and morality. "The ways and proceedings of God with spirits," says Bacon, "are reserved to the law of his secret will and grace, wherein he worketh and resteth not." We should also bear in mind, in these reasonings, the original and proper tendencies of the human mind, before debased and enslaved by sinful passions and habits. There is a spirit in man, which having been made in the image of God, feels after him,-an essence which he has endued with a power to ascend; a suspicion of perfection somewhere, from which it is as unlawful to derogate any thing, as it is impossible that it should be attained. "For man doth not seem to rest satisfied, either with fruition of that wherewith his life is preserved, or with performance of such actions as advance him most deservedly in estimation; but doth further covet, yea, oftentimes manifestly pursue, with great earnestness, that which cannot stand him in any stead for vital use, that which exceedeth the reach of sense,-somewhat divine and heavenly, which, with hidden exultation, it rather surmiseth than conceiveth. Somewhat it seeketh; and what that is directly, it knoweth not; yet very intentive desire thereof doth so incite it, that all other known desires and delights are laid aside, and give place to the search of this."* This native thirst, this surmise of hidden good, is a relic of greatness, and a proof of necessity in our nature for a Supreme Good. This necessity in our nature, suggests the first and most essential condition of all moral improvement, which is the idea of a God, answering to these wants of the human mind. Without a trust in a God over all, superintending our actions, approving our virtues, and transcending our highest conceptions of good, human nature must be without the means to exalt itself above its frailty. Among the ancients something of this sort was felt. The sanction of some presiding deity seems to have been regarded by them as need * Hooker's Polity, b. I. p. 261. ful to their virtues. "The good man," says Horace, whenever he would please the gods with a sacrifice, cries aloud and repeatedly, "O Father Janus, O Apollo," and being a hypocrite in heart, whispers at the same time to the goddess of evil, "the beautiful Laverna," "Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumgue videri ; "Grant that I may deceive-grant that I may appear to be just and holy, and cover my faults with darkness, and my frauds with a cloud." Their vices and virtues were connected in their mind with the existence and agency of their gods. This was true of the philosophers Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and Seneca,-bright examples of the capacity of our nature for improvement. The man who would preserve the regular and healthy action of his moral feelings, should reject, as much as possible, all suspicious motives, avoid the slavery of particular appetites and passions, and call to his aid all the sanctions of obligation. By this course he may escape the hardening process, which has been described. Acting from a sense of duty, he will keep his conscience tender; and continuing to act in this manner, he will, as the result, soon have a principle and habit of right action. Resisting the tyranny of particular passions, he will be able ere long to govern them all. Rejecting motives of doubtful morality, he will become too habitually conscious of what is evil in him, to be much elated with what is good; and by each process he will grow in a knowledge of himself, and learn to feel his dependence on a higher power, and his need of superiour aid. In this way he may preside over every inferiour principle, regulate the exercise of every faculty, and limit the indulgence of every appetite, as shall best conduce to his moral improvement. In all attempts to avoid a debasement of the moral condition it should be remembered, that the objects present to the mind give character to the emotions of the heart. The images of the mind leave their impress on the heart. Hence devotion to worthy objects is as much the cause, as the proof of a worthy character. As our author justly remarks, "Though we have little immediate voluntary power over our moral emotions, we have a power over the intellectual processes with which these are associated. We can direct the mind to truths, and cherish trains of thought which are cal culated to produce correct moral feelings; and we can allow mental images, or trains of thought, which have an opposite tendency. This is the power over the succession of our thoughts, the due exercise of which forms so important a feature of a well regulated mind in regard to intellectual culture; its influence upon us as moral beings is of still higher and more vital importance." The importance of observing this principle is seen in the fact, that the beginnings of vice are commonly thoughts. They kindle the congenial elements below, and the will bends to the growing heat. Hence the maxim that safety in the hour of temptation, is ensured only to flight. Hence he whose thoughts run on noble objects, will himself grow noble ;- "Divine contemplate, and become divine." The man who would preserve a sound moral condition, should also be concerned to obey all the better impulses of his nature. Resistance weakens, and exercise strengthens them, and by reiterated acts habits are formed. Thus the feeling of compassion, when it is obeyed, leads on to a habit of benevolence; and in this manner habits of justice and veracity are formed. By observing this rule, we are enabled to keep all our improvable qualities in sound and consistent action. This action, the moral principle in man requires. It cannot therefore be deranged or resisted without violence to that principle. In the fact that the conscience requires us to act in conformity to all the best impulses and propensities of our nature, we see the supremacy which it occupies in the human constitution, presiding over and regulating the action of all the rest. This is that perfection, that moral health, which the laws of our being require us to attain. We have now briefly illustrated some of the processes adapted to preserve the moral feelings and principles in a sound condition. But after all the advances which by these or other methods we are able to make, we fall short of the mark to which our nature aims; we come not to have our fellowship with "the Father of spirits." For this we need an effectual influence from him. Still a sound moral condition may be regarded as an important approximation, because it is needful to correct apprehensions of duty, of truth and excellence, and needful to the preservation and growth of those virtues which may be contemplated as having a remote affinity to the "fruits of the Spirit," or as the improva ble branches of our stock, into which they may be the more readily grafted. Hence by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, if we may not attain to true wisdom, we may be conducted to its borders. We may preserve in vigour those moral feelings which, when the heart is changed by Divine grace, will operate in unison with the motions of the Spirit. It would be interesting to show what advantage is derived to the Christian from correct moral habits, and the processes by which they have been acquired. They are the circles in which he has moved with growing ease, and in which he is to continue moving with new attractions and new delights. All the powers, motives, and processes which he has made subservient to his improvement are still to be employed to achieve new victories, in a continued course of well-doing, till he reaches the heavenly mansions. We now proceed, after stating the duty which devolves upon man with reference to his own improvement, to notice briefly some of the provisions which God has made to restore in us his own image. Designing to speak of these provisions principally with reference to their relation to the active exertion of our moral powers, we shall here say nothing of his provision for the pardon of our race, nor that of sovereign and unconditional agency of his Spirit, by which the soul is secretly moulded into susceptibility for the influence of the means and motives of the gospel. We wish here simply to consider the fitness of the moral means employed by God to effect the complete renovation of man. It requires but a slight inspection of the nature of man to see, that in order to preserve all his powers in harmonious and legitimate action, and secure his highest excellence, he must have a perfect rule of conduct, an object of supreme regard possessing all possible perfection, and be under the action of the strongest conceivable motives. This rule and this object are disclosed to him, essaying to touch every spring of his frame, and to controul every portion of his agency, and challenging his attention, by considerations which embrace whatever is most awful or alluring in the whole range of possible existence and conception. These motives, abundant and powerful as they are, would yet be as inefficacious in subduing the evil tendencies of our nature and promoting its progressive sanctification, as they are in first bringing the heart to the love of goodness. But in the soul, now prepared for his reception, a divine Agent VOL. I. 33 takes his lasting abode, and there produces his own fruits, in opposition to the "works of the flesh." The remaining corruptions of the heart have now to contend, not merely with the rival exercises of a renewed nature, but also with the omnipotent energies of the Divine Spirit, furnishing to the struggling combatant the surest pledges of victory. He sees that though weak in himself, he is strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. What an interesting spectacle does the human heart, the arena of this conflict, now present! The infant principles of goodness contending against the inveterate powers of evil, and, strengthened by divine grace, thriving on their decay,humility contending against pride, meekness against impatience and anger, joy and faith against despondence and inaction, the stature of the new man rising,-the whole nature moulded into the divine resemblance, while angels, the spectators of the conflict, carry from sphere to sphere the reports of triumph, and wake the sympathies of heaven into songs of praise to Almighty grace! As beings of sense, we perceive only the objects of sense by which we are here surrounded, and are blind to those spiritual objects which have been mentioned as means of our moral improvement. And it is by faith only, that we can communicate with these objects, or experience their influence. This organ of our communication with divine things cannot be better described than in the words of our author. "It is to be distinguished from all pretended feelings and impressions assuming its name. The sound exercise of that mental condition which we call faith, consists, therefore, in the reception of certain truths by the judgement-the proper direction of the attention to their moral tendencies, and the habitual influence of them upon the feelings and conduct. When the sacred writers tell us that without faith it is impossible to please God, and when they speak of a man being saved by faith, it is not to a mere admission of certain truths, as a part of his creed, that they ascribe consequences so important; but to a state in which these truths are uniformly followed out to certain results, which they are calculated to produce, according to the usual course of sequences in every sound mind." When now the natural unbelief of man has been removed, and faith has been wrought in his heart, he is open to all the influences and powers of the upper world. Faith appre |