acknowledged to have attained the greatest perfection. To know, then, how to attain to the greatest perfection in morality, we must apply to those who are most virtuous and moral. We must therefore have recourse to the same persons who declare their virtuous life to be the fruit of their faith, when we wish to learn how such faith has been acquired. From them we shall learn that belief is progressive; that the practice of the duties commanded by the Gospel opens the mind for the reception of its doctrines; and, reflectively, that as the conviction of their truth grows stronger, the desire and the capacities of performing the duties increase.

A man may start at first with only a vague notion of the doctrines of the Gospel, and no fixed belief of their truth: he may begin with only an idea that they may possibly be true, and that some of the facts stated by the Evangelists may have taken place. With no greater certainty than this, common prudence would lead him to give some attention to a subject, which, if real, must be of the last importance; and the moral sense implanted in his breast could not fail to lead him to admire the beautiful system of morality set forth in the Gospel. Being thus induced to conform in some measure to the precepts of Christ, and to practise some of the duties which they impose, he begins to see how admirably they are adapted to improve both the physical and moral

condition of man; how the health and vigour of the body are maintained and strengthened by temperance and continence; and how the mind is comforted and cheered by patience and benevolence. In short, how the habitual performance of all the duties enjoined by Christianity would contribute to individual and general happiness. But then, since human nature is weak, and liable to many and powerful temptations, it is not easy, even for those who see and admire the general tendency of these virtues, constantly to withstand the difficulties which are thrown in their way, from infirmities of temper or strength of passion, unless some more powerful motive be interposed than the mere desire to obtain that temporal happiness which it seems probable will ultimately result from the uniform practice of these virtues. When any great present gratification is held out to men, to be obtained by the dereliction of some virtue which they believe may perhaps, if persisted in, contribute upon the whole to their happiness at a future period of their lives, they are too ready to find an excuse for their preference of the present enjoyment, by alleging the uncertainty of life, and that they may not survive to enjoy any future advantage from this virtue: Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. (1 Cor. xv. 32.) So that, when they find, in the doctrines of Christianity, motives strong enough to induce the constant prac

tice of these virtues, which they have already learned have a direct tendency to promote universal happiness, as well as to exalt and ennoble the character of man-virtues which their moral sense tells them are most agreeable to the character of a just, good, and merciful Creator, and therefore most calculated to please him, and that sufficiently strong motives have been nowhere else propounded, it would seem absurd to conclude that these doctrines could have originated from a source directly opposed to the true God, which they must have done if the Gospel be false.

The legitimate inference is, that a system which proposes to us such duties as reason teaches us are pleasing to God, and at the same time holds out motives strong enough to enable us to practise them constantly, must have come directly or indirectly from him.

Thus far even an imperfect performance of the will of God will naturally lead a man to know of the doctrine, whether it be of God: and if with this knowledge he continue to practise that will diligently, he will grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Eph. iv. 13.) The practice of the duties will give him experience, and increase his capability of performing them. He will thus become more intimately acquainted with their adaptation to the condition of moral and rational creatures, who aim at happiness during this life,

and long for a perpetuity of it in a purer and more exalted state of existence. He finds that the Gospel alone holds out this prospect; and he therefore grows desirous to be convinced that it is true, and thus becomes disposed most willingly and gladly to receive all the evidence in its favour.

And should it be objected here that prejudice in favour of any proposition disqualifies a person from weighing impartially the evidence respecting it,for when we are strongly inclined and wish to believe a thing to be true, our bias may lead us to wrong conclusion, we answer, that in this case the objection strengthens instead of weakening our argument, which is, to prove that the doing of the will of God will bring a man to believe in the doctrines of the Gospel; since the very objection asserts that the bias acquired by the practice of goodness and virtue may lead him to believe in the doctrines of Christianity, even had they not truth for their foundation : much more, then, will it conduce to, and strengthen, his belief in them, when they are truth itself.

The whole of this system of God's providence, which has arranged that the practice of Christian virtues should tend to generate and confirm Christian knowledge and belief, is in perfect unison with the rest of his appointments with respect to our acquisition of any other kind of knowledge. Even in some branches of mathematics, the most abstract

of all sciences, there are principles which, although capable of direct demonstration to the advanced mathematician, the learner must commence with taking for granted; but as he proceeds in the application of them, he finds, from their uniform and constant results, that they are true, although he may never attain to such a state of proficiency as to be able himself directly to demonstrate their truth. This is precisely analogous to the Christian's case, when the uniform result of the application of Christian doctrines establishes and confirms their truth, although they be too sublime and mysterious to be measured by the human intellect in our present state of existence, and will only be fully comprehended and understood by the spirits of just men made perfect.

In the case of the arts and sciences, in their adaptation to the more ordinary purposes of life, the knowledge of the principles upon which they are conducted is generally acquired by those who are engaged upon them by practice and experience. The simple artisan, from habit and use, can apply them better than he who only knows them by theory; and although he may not be able so clearly to see the reasons of them, and to understand all their bearings as the other, he nevertheless derives from his experience quite as strong a conviction of their truth. The knowledge of the theorist is