against revealed knowledge, above those who offended merely against the light of natural reason: "The servant who knew his Lord's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." All this, as might be expected, is exactly reversed in the Koran, which describes at large the final condemnation of all mankind except Mahometans; and of these, such as are punished for their sins, so far from being judged more guilty, as having sinned against better knowledge, are described as finally to be restored, by their belief in the prophet, and received into paradise. Such certainly is the revelation, and such the doctrine, which a false teacher would naturally deliver.

There are, however, some things, I am well aware, revealed in the Gospel, which but too many, even of those who assent to them, are inclined to consider as mere speculative articles of faith; as, for example, the revelation of God to us, not merely as our Creator and Governor, but also as our incarnate Redeemer, and as the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier. But we may safely affirm, that whoever does not perceive in these doctrines any practical tendency, (including in

that expression, as we certainly ought, whatever has a reference to the affections and motives, as well as to mere external conduct,) has not yet gained a just and adequate notion of what the Christian religion is.

:

Fully to refute such an error would be to give a complete explanation of the whole system of the Gospel let it suffice, therefore, to make an appeal to Scripture, and to refer thither both the infidel and the believer, who deny the practical tendency of any of its doctrines, that they may understand what the Gospel really is the one, before he too hastily rejects it, and the other, before he too hastily builds his hopes on it. A careful and candid perusal of the Bible will sufficiently evince, that, at least, the sacred writers themselves were very far from conceiving that the doctrines they delivered were mere speculative matters of faith, unconnected with any change in the heart and conduct. If they inform us, that "the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto men," it is "to teach us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;" when they describe to us "God

manifest in the flesh," they instruct us to look to Him with devout trust, and to shape our lives after the model of his perfection; "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" when they "preach Christ crucified," it is that we, while we "crucify the old man with the affections and lusts," may yet with grateful humility renounce all arrogant confidence in our own merits, and look for salvation to his sacrifice,—his intercession, his spiritual aid: and that while we trust in the Divine mercy for the pardon of sin, we may not attribute this pardon, purchased by such a sacrifice, to his lightly regarding sin, but may be sensible of its deadly nature, and its odiousness in God's sight: when they announce his resurrection, it is that we may be exhorted to rise also from the death of sin to a life of holiness, that,

being risen with Christ, we may set our affection on things above ;" and may be encouraged to look forward to a final victory over the grave and when the love of God towards us is set forth, it is given as a reason why "we ought also to love one another," and to testify our sense of his goodness by keeping his commandments.'

f See note (H) at the end of this Essay.

In short, as the doctrine of the Trinity may be considered as containing a summary and compendium of the Christian Faith, so, its application may be regarded as a summary of Christian practice; which may be said to be comprised in this: that as we believe God to stand in three relations to us, we also must practically keep in view the three corresponding relations in which, as is plainly implied by that doctrine, we stand towards Him; as, first, the creatures and "children of God;" secondly, as the "redeemed and purchased people" of Jesus Christ; and, thirdly, as "the temple of the Holy Ghost" our Sanctifier.

§ 6. On such topics, and with such views, the sacred writers dwell with the utmost copiousness,

8 It is remarkable that Christians are never spoken of individually as the "temples," but collectively as "the temple," of the Holy Ghost. The Apostles, in a great number of passages, seem to take pains to preserve this distinction; speaking of individual Christians as "living stones builded up (or edified) into an holy temple." One single text (1 Cor. vi. 19) has been appealed to as conveying the other sense; and that one, even considered by itself, would much more naturally bear the same interpretation as the rest. See I Cor. iii. 16; 2 Cor. vi. 16, &c. See also Hinds's "Three Temples of the One God."

distinctness, and earnestness; but as to the mere increase of speculative knowledge, they are scanty, indistinct, and apparently indifferent. Take, as one instance out of many, the allusion which Paul makes in the twelfth chapter of his second Epistle to the Corinthians, to the celestial vision with which he had been favoured; nothing is said of it in any other part of his writings; nor does it appear whether he had even ever mentioned it till then, though it had occurred fourteen years before: he mentions it then for a practical purpose, viz. to impress the Corinthians (who knew that his own report of a fact was to be credited) with a due sense of his apostolic dignity and authority, which they had been disposed to depreciate : and he speaks with the utmost possible brevity of his being "caught up into paradise," and "hearing unspeakable words," without relating any particulars of the vision. It is truly edifying to compare this with Mahomet's long and circumstantial description of his pretended visit to heaven, filled with a multitude of needless particulars, calculated to gratify an appetite for the marvellous. man must be a bad judge of the characters of truth and falsehood, who can peruse the two

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