to be done within us, is that which we have distinctly promised, and portrayed before us. The whole of this we should seek, and nothing beyond this should we for a moment anticipate. Whatever tends to produce distrust of the word of God, to nourish spiritual sloth, to impair a habit of devotion, to lessen our christian usefulness, to turn the mind from what is certain to what is doubtful, from truth to speculation, from doctrines that lead immediately to our sanctification to others which have no such immediate bearing;-whatever shall serve to puff up with spiritual pride, though under the garb of a monastie humility; or to make our own prominence and power a favourite object, though under the persuasion of a zeal for God; and, finally, whatever is found to alienate our affections from our fellow-men, and especially from our fellow-christians,-all such things are manifestly the offspring of our own earthly nature, or the result of influences still more opposed to God and goodness.

The subject of this chapter forcibly reminds us of THE IMPORT

ANCE WHICH IS ATTACHED TO HUMAN NATURE IN THE ECONOMY OF

To

THE UNIVERSE. It is a fallen nature, every way stained and polluted; but its destiny calls forth the never-slumbering watchfulness, and the never-ceasing activity, of the good and evil through every known region of spiritual existence. The ruined archangel, and his embattled host, have long since made the destruction of man the great object of their policy. To prevent this, the Son of God becomes incarnate, and a sacrifice; the hosts of heaven array themselves, and go forth to meet the enemy in our cause; and the Spirit of the Highest descends to earth, deigns to take up his abode in the human heart, and supplies the weapons, the skill, and the strength, which must render the faithful more than conquerors through Him who hath loved them. Surely the results about which such wonderful agencies are employed, and thus employed, must be beyond all our thought momentous! be among the lost, or the saved, must be an event of unspeakable, of inconceivable magnitude. Were all the power, the opulence, and the pleasures of the earth at our bidding, should we deem them valueless ? Were all its evils to break at once upon us, should we affect to be unmoved? If this would not be, then be it remembered, that to be uninfluenced by what the Almighty has said as to the worth of our spiritual nature, and the danger to which it is exposed, is to do more strangely. It is to hazard an infinite loss, and to choose an infinitude of evil in its place! What an emphasis do these considerations give to that scripture,-What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?' pp 72-76.

In the first page, we meet with this remark, well worth remembering: On earth, the individuals who aspire to the greatest good, generally impose upon themselves the greatest labour.' Following up this axiom, Mr. Vaughan, in more than one place, exposes the criminality of that subtle, specious, respectable sin, -indolence.

SLOTH is another foe of public duty we have to mention. The

love of ease has been frequently described as the besetting sin of human nature. It is certain, that we every day see, and feel, the impediments which it places in the way of usefulness. If our plans may be accomplished with little effort on the part of others, we indulge the hope of success. But if much sacrifice be required, our anticipations generally decline, until they reach the point of despair. It is the same, in a great measure, when looking to ourselves. We dare not confide in our own perseverance, if it should be put to a severe test, any more than in that of our brethren.

How many intellectual men pass life away without any thing deserving the name of labour! And this, perhaps, is their conduct, while professing to regard their ability to do good, as a matter of which an account must be given hereafter. They read, they talk, they luxuriate-but they shrink from real exertion. They look, probably, to the Redeemer of men, expecting ere long to receive from his hand a place in heaven: but they are idlers in his cause on earth. The same kind of delinquency frequently occurs in the instance of the man of business-the individual whose province is in practical affairs. He might bring his discernment, his experience, and his leisure, to the aid of many an important object. But it is easier to beguile himself with trifles, than to apply himself to duty. He is more concerned to provide personal amusement, than to benefit either the church or the world.' pp. 168, 169.

Indolence is not an unfrequent occasion of difficulty, when endeavouring to meet the ordinary duties of our station in the spirit required by the Gospel. Now, where there is any marked leaning toward this vice, along with a spirit of piety, there is another sphere added to the many which constitute the warfare of the Christian. And indolence, be it remembered, when leading to the neglect of manifest duty, is not only a sin, but one which is sure not to exist alone. If it refer to worldly duty in the first instance, it will not fail to extend itself to religious duty; and it will put the mind in search of a multitude of vain excuses, in the hope of sheltering its delinquencies. Thus a proneness to deceit becomes the never-failing associate of idleness.

'As the frauds and wrongs practised on society may be traced, in most instances, to the fact that some men, while they must eat, will not work, so nearly all the corruptions of Christianity are to be ascribed to the circumstance that men, while concerned to obtain the rest of the future world, are bent on seeking it by some easier or more agreeable process than that which the scriptures have prescribed. Hence the substitution of vagrant fancies in the room of laborious selfexamination, of airy speculations in the place of practical holiness. It is the great policy of the worldly idler to render a little effort as productive as possible; and it is precisely thus with the spiritual idler. Their system, accordingly, is to put the easiest and cheapest services in the stead of the more difficult and costly. And every one must perceive that it requires much less effort to censure Christians than to excel them; to condemn the world than to effect its improvement.

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

3 B

Indeed, there is scarcely another vanity so seductive as that which tells a man, that by loudly denouncing other persons, he is giving prominence to some conceived superiority in himself. We want something more, as the evidence of unusual sanctity, than a disposition to seem very angry with the real or the imaginary irreligion of our neigh

bours.

The substance of what we here say is this;-idleness, the pest of the world, is equally, though under other forms, the bane of the church; and that it much behoves the Christian to guard against its creeping and insidious power in all its shapes. It is the chief ally of our natural depravity, the foe of all duty, and especially of those duties which require peculiar watchfulness and exertion.

Nor has the Bible, in condemning indolence, spoken in vain. Religious men, in every age and nation, in proportion to their scriptural piety, have been distinguished by their industry, activity, and commercial enterprise. Separated from the paths of forbidden and intoxicating pleasures, they have sought their main occupation in useful and honourable pursuits, generally bringing to their plans that steadiness of character which, under the blessing of Providence, is usually allied to success." pp. 275, 276.

One of the most valuable chapters in the volume is that which treats of religious declension, as distinguished from apostasy. To the former, the uncouth word backsliding' has frequently, and we must think very improperly, been applied; and we regret that Mr. Vaughan should have sanctioned it. The sin referred to in those passages of the Old Testament where our Translators have used this word, is clearly that of an open and wilful defection from the faith, a relapse into idolatry and vice, apostasy from Jehovah. To speak of declining piety as 'backsliding, is to sanction a pernicious misapplication of Scripture, that has tended to afflict many a person of tender conscience, and to embolden many a hypocrite and wilful transgressor, by confounding those states of heart and character which Mr. Vaughan has with so much correctness distinguished. Still more strongly must we object to the common but most pernicious misapplication (p. 214) of Rom. vii. 14, as descriptive of any individual 'emancipated', as the Apostle declares he had been, by the principle of spi'ritual life in Christ Jesus, from the rule of sin and death. If we have any fault to find with Mr. Vaughan, it is, that he does not discover so much of a critical intimacy with the sacred text as becomes every expounder of THE BOOK.

The most beautiful chapter, perhaps, is that on the Fear of Death; and as we can make room for only one more extract, it must be taken from this.

-Through the Redeemer's sacrifice, death becomes to the Christian as one in a various catalogue of things which must work together for his good. So complete, indeed, is the atonement which has been made

for human guilt, that the Father might cause our spirits to be enlightened and sanctified at once, and our bodies to pass at once into heaven, without tasting of death, were such his pleasure. But the wisdom which has determined that our victory over spiritual death should be by means of a various and protracted warfare, has arranged that victory over natural death should be through the passage of the grave. Thus a new character attaches to this event, when viewed in connexion with the second Adam, instead of being regarded merely in its relation to the first. From the one, this enemy derives all that power which has rendered him the king of terrors; by the other, the foe has been deprived of his main strength, and rendered comparatively and ultimately harmless.

Hence the Christian is taught to regard THE SEPARATIONS OCCASIONED BY DEATH AS PARTS OF A GREAT PLAN, THE ISSUES OF

WHICH WILL BE ALTOGETHER BENEVOLENT. These separations, we have seen, are many, various in their character, and often painful beyond expression; and it is impossible that we should be satisfied as to the benevolence of their design, unless assured that all their evil will be indeed surpassed by the good to which they lead. The pains of the process must be exceeded by the pleasures of the result. What, then, has religion to place in the balance against separation from the intimate connexions, the endeared possessions, and the much-loved pursuits of the present world? We answer, enough, and greatly more than enough, to turn the scale in its favour. Its design is to prepare believers for a better fellowship, a richer heritage, and more exalted pursuits than can be realized on earth. If the servant of God be taken from the less, it is that he may enter upon the possession of the greater. He has to experience a dissolution of the most tender ties connected with present existence, but it is that he may ascend to the more felicitous relationships of the heavenly world. If taken from much on earth, it is that he may receive to himself a kingdom which cannot be moved. He has to relinquish pursuits, which may have served to beguile his saddest hours, and have ministered not a little of innocent and sincere delight; but it is that his sympathies may be given more entirely to others, the pleasures of which exceed whatever the mind may now conceive. This is the end of his vocation, and the believer would not live for ever at the cost of being for ever estranged from it. Hence the desire of the Apostle to depart and to be with Christ. Hence his exultation-I count not the sufferings of this present life as worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!

Believers are often strengthened in contending against the fear of death, by learning to view submission to it as AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE, HAVING RESPECT BOTH TO GOD AND MAN. Shall we receive good at the Lord's hand, and shall we not receive evil? If we bless him as having set his glorious kingdom before us, shall we rebel against him because of the way which leads to it? Is it not enough that he has called us to an eternity of greatness and happiness while deserving to perish; but must we murmur because time also is not free from the painful and the humiliating? Has he saved us from spiritual death,

and shall we deem it a severity that we must submit to natural death? Has he rescued us from the sleepless horrors of the lost, and shall we charge him foolishly because of the brief repose allotted us in the tomb? Did he deliver his beloved Son to die the death of the cross, that he might thus testify the evil of sin, even while removing it; and shall we hesitate to go down to the grave, if thereby we may do homage to our great Benefactor, and testify to the same truth?

'Among the most obvious of our religious duties is the effort to bring our rebellious nature into willing subjection to the great law of mortality. The astonishment is not that our entrance into heaven must be preceded by a life of conflict, and a death so humbling and painful, but rather that there should be any process, however great its debasement or suffering, that may lead to a result so truly wonderful. The nature which has permitted the afflictions of life, has permitted the reign of death, and both for the same reason,—that Christians, by meeting them in the spirit enjoined upon them, may glorify their Father who is in heaven.

Nor is this an act of obedience having respect to God only. The relation in which we are placed to each other, is such as to make it incumbent upon us to guard against all desire of exemption from this general law. If it be so, that as face answereth to face in a glass, so doth the heart of man to man, it would seem to follow, that if affliction, or death, be made to have their place in the lot of any, they should belong to the lot of all. And who could really wish to be an exception-especially in the latter respect? Every such wish must be a violation of that law which says, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. It must proceed from that inordinate selfishness which the great law of equity condemns. The greatest men, and the best, have alike submitted to the stroke which separates us from the earth; leaving no plea to be urged in behalf of our own respite or acquittal, which might not have been better urged in the case of others. The precept which requires us to prefer one another in honour, prohibits the faintest wish to escape from those dishonours of the tomb to which all flesh has been doomed. In this manner, those fraternal sympathies which should bind man to his nature wherever found, and which the spirit of filial submission to the divine will must ever strengthen, all assist in reconciling the mind to an event in itself so grievous and unwelcome." pp. 380-384.

And now our readers will be able to form their own judgement of the Volume which we have much satisfaction in commending to their notice.

Art. VI. Address to the Land-Owners of England, on the Corn Lars. By Viscount Milton. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 46. London. 1832.

THERE is no public man of the day to whom the honourable title of patriot more rightfully belongs, than the noble Author of this pamphlet ;-no one whose integrity of purpose, entire sincerity, and excellence of intention will be more readily admitted