Gospel, altogether diverse from that oldness of the letter, which obtained under the economy of nature and of the law.

But, thirdly, there is nothing perhaps that will better illustrate the distinction between service rendered in the newness of the spirit, and service rendered in the oldness of the letter, than one simple reflection upon what that is which is the great object of the dispensation we sit under-to be made like unto God, like unto him in righteousness, and like unto him in true holiness. Now just think what the righteousness of God is like. Is it righteousness in submission to the authority of a law? Is it righteousness painfully and laboriously wrought -out, with a view to reward? Is it righteousness in pursuit of any one pleasure or gratification that is at all distinct from the pleasure which the Divinity has in the very righteousness itself? Does not he desire righteousness simply because he loves it? Is not he holy, just because holiness is the native and kindred element of his Being?. Do not all the worth and all the moral excellence of the Godhead, come direct from the original tendencies of his own moral nature? And would either the dread of punishment or the hope of remuneration be necessary to attach him more than he already is, by the spontaneous and unbidden propensities of his own character, to that virtue which has been his glory from everlasting, and to that ethereal purity in which he most delights to expatiate? It is not at the beck of a governor-it is not with a view to prepare himself for an appearance at some bar of jurisprudence-it is nothing else in fact but the preference he bears

for what is right, and the hatred he holds for what is wrong-it is this, and this alone, which determines to absolute and unerring rectitude all the purposes and all the proceedings of the Deity. And to be

like unto him, that which is a task when done under the oldness of the letter must be done in newness of spirit, and then will it be the very transport of our nature to be engaged in the doing of it. What is now felt we fear by many as a bondage, would, were we formed anew in the image of him who created us, become a blessedness. The burden

of our existence would turn into its beatitude-and we, exempted from all those feelings of drudgery and dislike which ever accompany a mere literal obedience, would prosecute holiness with a sort of constitutional delight, and so evince that God was assimilating us to himself, that he was dwelling in us, and that he was walking in us.

And the Christian disciple who is thus aspiring after that obedience, which, while it fulfils the demands of the law in the letter, is also rendered in newness of spirit, will find in the following Treatise," SCUDDER'S CHRISTIAN'S DAILY WALK IN HOLY SECURITY AND PEACE," a valuable companion and counsellor to guide him in every condition of life, and under all the vicissitudes to which life is subject to instruct him how to prosecute his daily walk, so as to secure his peace, and to possess his soul in patience in his journey through life, and to render the circumstances of his lot, whether prosperous or adverse, subservient to the still higher purpose of promoting his holiness and his growth in the divine life, to fit him for the

heavenly rest which awaits him at the close of his earthly pilgrimage. In this Treatise, the Christian disciple will learn to combine a service the most rigid in the letter, with those principles of the renewed heart which render it at the same time a delightful and an acceptable service. He will learn how to walk with God, while engaged in the service of man. It is the production of a man who had reached to great attainments in the spiritual life, and whose wise and experimental counsels are well fitted to guide him amidst the doubts and difficulties which may beset his path in the Christian warfare. It has received the approving testimony of two of the most eminent Divines of a former age, Dr. Owen, and Richard Baxter, and we know of no work which better merits the high commendation which these competent judges have bestowed on it.

But without expatiating on the excellencies of a work, the value of which can only be estimated by those who have devoted themselves to a serious perusal of its pages, we shall conclude with two inferences from the prefatory observations with which we have introduced this Treatise to the notice of our readers. The first is, that virtue, so far from being superseded by the gospel, is exalted thereby into a far nobler, and purer, and more disinterested attribute of the character than before. It becomes virtue, refined from that taint of sordidness which formerly adhered to it; prosecuted not from an impulse of selfishness, but from an impulse of generosity-followed after for its own sake, and because of the loveliness of its native and essential charms, instead of being followed after for the sake

of that lucre wherewith it may be conceived to bribe and to enrich its votaries. Legal virtue is rendered in the spirit of a mercenary, who attaches himself to the work of obedience for hire. Evangelical virtue is rendered in the spirit of an amateur, who, in attaching himself to the work of obedience, finds that he is already in the midst of those very delights, than which he cares for none other in time, and will care for none other through eternity. The man who slaves at the employment to escape the penalty or to secure the pay, is diametrically the reverse of that man who is still more intensely devoted to the employment than the other, but because he has devoted to it the taste and the affections of his renovated nature. There is a well of water struck out in his heart, which springeth up unto spiritual life here, and unto everlasting life hereafter. There is an angelic spirit which has descended upon him from above; and which likens him to those beings of celestial nature, who serve God, not from the authority of any law that is without, but from the impulse of a love that is within; whose whole heart is in the work of obedience, and whose happiness is without alloy, just because their holiness is without a failing and without a flaw. The gospel does not expunge virtue; it only elevates its character, and raises the virtue of earth on the same platform with the virtue of heaven. It causes it to be its own reward; and prefers the disciples of Jesus Christ from the condition of hirelings who serve in the spirit of bondage, to the condition of heirs who serve their reconciled Father in the spirit of adoption; who love

what he loves, and, with a spirit kindred to his own, breathe in the atmosphere which bests suits them, when they breathe in the atmosphere of holi

ness.

sanctification.

Our second inference is, that while the life of a Christian is a life of progressive virtue, and of virtue, too, purified from the jealousies and the sordidness of the legal spirit, still to be set on such a career, we see how indispensable it is that we enter by Christ, as by the alone gate of admission through which we can reach the way of such a How else can we get rid of the oldness of the letter, we would ask? How be delivered from the fears and disquietudes of legality? How were it possible to regard God in any other light than one whose very sacredness made him the enemy of sinners, and so made him hateful to them? We are bound over to distrust, and alienation, and impracticable distance from God, till the tidings of the gospel set us free. There is a leaden and oppressive weight upon our spirits, under which there can be no play of free, or grateful, or generous emotion towards the Father of them, till we hear with effect of the peace-speaking blood, and of the charm and the power of the great propitiation. Faith in Christ is not merely the starting-post of our reconciliation with God; it is also the startingpost of that new obedience which, unchilled by jealousy, and untainted by dread or by selfishness, is the alone obedience that is at all acceptable. The heart cannot go freely out to God, while beset with terror, while combined with the thoughts of a yet unsettled controversy, while in full view of its own