of all the common and unimportant appeals of life. He saw too clearly, from the first, how wide are the distinctions between right and wrong, between the attractions of folly and the noble pleasures of wisdom, to be diverted from the path of holiness. He could never have become involved in the labyrinths of error, which render every circumstance, even the most trifling, of importance to most men; nor could the objects presented to his gaze, and which usually make so favourable an impression on our hearts and imaginations, have affected him with sufficient force to change the current of his thoughts, steadily flowing on in the channels of divine meditation. For these and other similar reasons, a circumstantial account of our Lord's early life was not required. His character was formed not from without, but from within. The sublime virtues he displayed were ripened not by experience, but by a wisdom anticipating experience; and it would have been to give an entirely wrong view of the nature of his character, had the curiosity of men been gratified by details of events which never reached even the outworks of his mind.

While, however, circumstances are not stated, it is distinctly intimated that the unfolding of his character was progressive-a point of importance; for in acquiring a progressive fulness of grace and power, the principles of its advancement, the

spirit which ruled within became manifest, and those principles and that spirit are the objects to be continually sought and contemplated by the imitator of Christ. On such points again as the circumcision and baptism of our Lord, it is highly necessary that the believer should reflect with equal care and seriousness. But as forming parts of the general record, they are so succinctly stated, that if the mind be not habituated to meditation, it passes them over with an attention wholly inadequate to their importance. When, however, they are viewed with steady observation, and learning and devotion lend us their aid in pursuing the contemplation, these facts, which occupy so small a space in the narrative, expand into broad tracks of doctrine, forming the foundation of the system.

In treating of subjects like these, the wisdom, piety, and erudition of our author shine with conspicuous lustre. He looks to the deepest groundwork of divine philosophy. Imbued with a solemn sense of the Almighty's attributes-of his eternal love, power, knowledge, as dsiplayed in the creation, he treats of the mysteries of the Christian dispensation as one entering the recesses of a glorious temple, after having long contemplated, with awe and admiration, the beauty of the outward architecture. He shows that reasons for the rites alluded to may be found in the ordinary proceed

ing of Providence, and that their utility may be demonstrated by allowed analogies and general principles. Then collecting the reflections, the arguments and criticisms of the fathers of theology, he proves from the whole, how intimate a connexion exists between Christ's sacramental obedience and our own justification and hope of glory; inculcating thereby a lesson of incalculable value on the right method of studying the gospel history, and pressing upon the reader's conscience most powerful reasons for love and resignation to the divine will.

The dissertations on the general topics of meditation, obedience, fasting, and others of like nature, are but an expansion of the sacred text. Christians require to be continually admonished on the necessity of a careful discipline. Our Lord himself had trials proportionable to his strength and dignity. Superior to ordinary circumstances, the malice of Satan prepared others, which bore some appearance of being fitted to subdue his constancy. To meet these by the power which he possessed, required the direction of that power to its proper ends; the right disciplining of the power, the collected and ever-ready application of wisdom, knowledge, and a sanctified will to new and strange occasions. The man Christ Jesus could not dispense with thought, foresight, the exercises of self-command, the fortifying of resolution by the comparative view of good and evil. Therefore it

was that he retired to pray; that he fasted; that he had to struggle with himself till the struggle became an agonized resignation; and in all this he exhibited both the necessity and the force of an holy discipline. Had not retirement and prayer been required for the overcoming of evil, Christ would have awaited the approach of danger without an extraordinary preparation. Whatever he did in these instances was demanded of him by the nature he had assumed; and his example is a law set forth in the clearest language of love and wisdom.

On no subject has greater difference of opinion existed than on the nature of religious discipline. In some ages doctrine has been almost lost sight of in the eager desire of churchmen to establish rules of penance and mortification. Practical morality even has dwindled into a shadow under the broad wing of formal discipline. In other periods no heed whatever has been taken of the subject: the bands of discipline have been not merely loosened, they have been broken and thrown away. 'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,' has every where resounded; and men have resolved to own no other law but their will and their own notions of expediency. That there is little wisdom in this appears from the plain fact, that an undisciplined will is the worst guide or master we can have; and that, if it refuse

to be chastised by wholesome rules, it is not in a condition to decide on what course it is best or wisest to adopt. Of so much consequence is this matter, that the greatest masters of wisdom have always laid down principles for self-guidance, and desired them to be considered subsidiary to the eternal laws of moral rectitude. These principles have been exhibited sometimes in short sentences, at others in apothegms, or formal discourses. The treatises of our author partake of the value of whatever has been taught by any of these methods. They are replete with the experience of ages; but experience itself is exhibited as taught by a wisdom surer and more universal than its own. Over that which was obscure, light is thrown from its purest fountains: to that which deviates from the straight line of truth, a rule is laid which shows the exact degree of its deviation; and the sentiment which, though beautiful and amiable according to its extent, seems to languish for want of a stronger, healthier spirit, is confirmed by new appeals to the sanctions of unchanging goodness.

In these dissertations, moreover, the nature of moral and religious discipline is described in a manner which enables the reader to make it a matter of personal application. Rules technically stated, and appealing dogmatically to the human heart, rouse up all its pride and selfishness; but exhibited through the medium of divine love, they

VOL. II.

b