means of satisfying themselves. "I. The first reflection which naturally occurs here then, is, what sort of doctrine, or what method, was made use of in the production of so admirable a change? because on all hands it will be allowed, that many are in the same dreadful circumstances, in point of morality, and it would be very much worth while to try the same medicines upon them.

"It would be a very absurd and unreasonable method of eluding the force of this whole business to say," there seems nothing so very strange or extraordinary in it. The man took a sudden and strong resolution to alter his life; and it was a very happy circumstance that he stuck to the resolution; and this is the whole mystery of the matter." Such careless thoughts are extremely suitable to the sceptical and superficial taste of the day. Such an answer I remember, was made to a person, whose moral change was no less extraordinary than that of Mr. How ard, when he had told his story to a person of some eminence in this kingdom. But surely such random observations prove noth. ing but the supine indifference of those who make them. No doubt all moral changes must be attended with some resolutions of the person concerned, because the will of man must necessarily be interested in them. But the difficulty is, how to account for it, that a person so circumstanced should ever

This fact I had from the person himself, who is now living, and is a very respectable clergymen in the metropolis.

resolutions, or to have his will so disposed. To say that he does it by his will or resolution, -no more accounts for the change, than to say, that it will account for a man's taking a journey to such a place, that he walked with his feet thither.

I

"The doctrines which Mr. Howard espoused, and to the force of which alone upon his heart he was ever ready to ascribe the change which took place in his whole man, were JUSTIFICATION and REGENERATION. use these two terms for the sake of conciseness, as I see no rea son why Christian divinity, low, very low indeed, and perfectly contemptible as it appears in the eyes of polite and fashionable people at this day, should not be allowed the use of comprehensive and convenient expressions, as well as other sciences. By the doctrine of Justification is meant, the particular method laid down in the Scripture of honourably acquitting sinful men before their God, through the atonement or righteousness of Jesus Christ, without the least regard had to their works or deservings, Rom. iii. 22-27. On the contrary it is supposed, that the man who is to be the subject of Christian justification, is a condemned sinner in himself, deserving only the wrath of God, and too deeply involved in guilt to be ever extricated by any merit of his own. This doctrine implies the character of the Supreme Being to be inflexibly holy and just, and makes room for the surprising display of his infinite mercy by the substitution of his only begotten Son, at once to satisfy divine

Justice, to condemn sin, and to exhibit the purest discoveries of the most unbounded goodness. The reader has seen the influence of all this on Mr. Howard's mind. His distress of soul began with these very ideas of the divine purity and justice, as signally to be displayed on the last judgment-day, and his peace and comfort were at length as suddenly effected, by the discovery of the doctrine of Justification by Jesus Christ merely through faith, as above explained. Certain it is, that the great outlines of his change depended on this doctrine, scripturally understood, in connexion with its just dependencies. It was no smooth harangue on the moral fitness of things, or on the native beauty of virtue, or on the dignity of human nature, or on the arbitrary mercy of God, to the exclusion of his justice and purity, that had the least concern on his moral alteration. Such schemes and views may please the taste of corrupt mankind, and many would think them far more like ly to have effected the change, than a doctrine so simple, and so contrary to men's natural no tions. Deo alner visum. No such happy effects have ever been the consequence of such lectures; but the instances of solid benefit derived from the Christian doc trine of Justification are innumerable.

"The other great Christian doctrine, which he as sincerely embraced, and which he ever looked on as of vast influence in all his religious concerns, is Regeneration. This doctrine implies man, all men without exception, to be naturally in a

state of extreme depravation, needing an entire renovation in all their affections and faculties, which change is called by Christ himself by the name of being born again, a change effected solely by the Spirit of God; and therefore those who are possessed of it are said to be born of the Spirit. All then who boast of man's natural love of goodness and virtue, and cherish ideas of the strength of his powers to save himself, militate wholly against those doctrines which he found so useful to his soul. Indeed it so happens in experience, that the success of such pretended reformers resembles that of noisy empirics in physic; the true lovers and genuine practitioners of genuine virtue being found only among those, whose very doctrine lays a solid foundation for humbling man, and glorifying his Maker.

“ Thus far then the presumption lies in favour of these two doctrines of Justification and Regeneration, that a change so confessedly great, or a conversion so extraordinary (will the polite reader allow me the word? I really know no other so proper) was effected, supported, and carried on entirely by the influence of these doctrines.

"We may now proceed a step farther, and observe that his change cannot possibly be accounted for in any other way than by a divine influence. The doctrines which he espoused, and by the power of which alone it was effected, are certainly of so peculiar a nature, as to evidence their divine origin. That a sinner should be justified be. fore his Maker, purely by the

merit of another, and in the way of believing only; that man, in order to become holy, and fit for the society of his God, must be made a new creature, and be wrought upon by the Divine Spirit, not only without, but even against all his natural propensities; and that the dispositions which constitute the character of an holy person, should be faith, hope, and love, and these too not of human, but of supernatural origin; and that the whole happiness of his life must be sustained by a mysterious union with an invisible Mediator; these are certainly such principles of religion as are perfectly unlike any thing that ever was invented by mere man. And they are things which lie so totally out of our reach, tend so purely to the honour of God, and are so calculated to stain the pride of human merit and glory, that we may safely pronounce them purely divine; no man ever would or could have invented and propagated such ideas; and we all know, or may know, that mankind are naturally too much at enmity against them ever, of themselves, to receive them. Now these are the principles of the New Testament, though it is very common for persons professing to believe the New Testament to despise and abhor them.

But surely they have received their religious principles from a source very different from the sacred oracles; and all the use they make of these is, by some subtle perversion to adapt some few detached texts to support a preconceived system. No man, who ever studied the Scriptures themselves with reverence and pray

er, will say that he learnt from them to despise the doctrines of justification and regeneration.

"Now a certain divine power is spoken of in the word, as connected with the true preaching of it. It is said to be 66 quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," Heb. iv. 12. Mr. Howard found it so; in the day of God's power, a single text overcame his stubborn heart, and awed him into submission to the Most High. And when the effect is observed all along to have been perfectly correspondent to the descriptions given in the Scriptures, and he became abidingly holy, comfortable, and heavenly minded, emancipated from the dominion of every sin, and truly and fervently filled with the love of God, and of his neighbour, what shall we say? Have we not here a demonstration of the truth of Scripture? Does not the coincidence of what is written, with what is wrought, prove that both are equally from God? It may be said, "it seems far more rational, that other kind of doctrine should be preached to men." But if matter of fact shews indeed, that no other sort of doctrine does burst the bonds of sin, and make men truly holy, should we not say with St. Paul, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men ?" What you think improbable, absurd, and foolish, is the real wisdom of God; it is your own taste that needs to be rectified, and you ought to think more modestly of your own understanding. I see not how the conclusion can be avoided, that the work of Mr. Howard's con

version was from God, and that the scripture doctrines of regeneration and justification are divine.

"And here one sees at first sight, how easy it is to answer the question, which with some confidence been asked, "Granting that men may be influenced by the Divine Spirit, how can men ever distinguish his influences from the emotions of their own minds?" Every instance of conversion sufficiently answers this question. The subject of it knows experimentally, that such holy views and tempers could never be the product of his sinful nature; and their own native power and glory shew they are from God. He who has once seen the sun in his majesty, needs no other argument to convince him, that it is not a light of his creating.

"Till, then, some other adequate cause can be assigned for these religious phænomena, of which no age has ever been wholly destitute, it is reasonable to conclude, that "the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."

And

"I am aware, that a partial reformation of conduct is attainable by other methods. Socrates might justly boast, that by his philosophy he had corrected some vices of his nature. the libidinous Polemo, by hearing Xenocrates' lectures on temperance, might from a dissolute rake, be metamorphosed in to a proud philosopher. Just as the Duke of Wharton, "whose ruling passion was the lust of praise," might undergo various alterations of external character,

now a punk, and now a friar."

But still in all such cases the radical character remains the same. To gratify self, in some form or other, was the very hea ven of Socrates, of Polemo, and of Wharton. To humble themselves before the Most High, tỏ give glory to their Maker, to love him sincerely and supremely, and to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, of this they knew nothing; but this is the change which my friend experienced. Self lost in him all its props and supports; he was a new creature throughout; he who had always lived for self, now lived for God. These men I have mentioned, and ail who walked in their steps, whether Pagan, Philosopher, or Christian by name, are essentially distinct from this in their whole character. They may exchange one vice for another; what they part with in sensuality, is sure to be amply compensated in pride. It belongs to God's revealed reli, gion alone, and to the power by which he applies it to the heart, to destroy the dominion of vice universally, and to make a man truly humble, wise, and happy.

"II. The truth of this real in. fluence of the Holy Spirit in producing the conversion of sin. ners, and the simple nature of Christianity, abstracted from those circumstances of controversy and of policy, that so of ten cloud and embarrass it, would appear in a very strong light to any one who should trace the historic progress of the gospel from age to age. It would take up a volume of some length to illustrate this, and the employ ment would well recompense the pains of any who should have leisure and ability sufficient for

been gratified, even to satiety, with tedious and circumstantial details of ecclesiastical history, constructed on a very different plan. The intrigues and politics of Churchmen, the ambition of Popes, the superstition of Monks, the subtility of Jesuits, the external history too of the Reformation, and the factions of various sectaries, have been largely exposed. And though few think it worth their while to wade through the voluminous narratives of Fleury and Du Pin, yet in Mosheim's history their materials have been compressed into a narrower compass, and you see in him all that can tend to disgrace Christianity, reduced as it were to a point; and this is the effect with those who know not, and who care not what the gospel is, to render them indifferent with respect to Christianity itself, and to extol above all things the sceptical fastidiousness which, under the decent names of moderation and charity, now pervade the polite world. The excellence, indeed, of Mosheim's history is in most things very great, and perhaps unequalled.

But as he seems himself not to have understood the nature of Christianity, all, or nearly all, his narrative is spent on external things.

"But there was in every century, from the apostles' days to ours, a real church, that which deserved the name in the best sense, men who feared God, and wrought righteousness, living by faith in the Son of God, and practically applying to their own hearts the peculiarities of Christianity, which, I must still say, on Scripture exidence, consist in

The gates of hell never prevailed against this church, though always opposed. Here alone the true nature and beauty of Christianity are seen. With these dwell the virtues and graces of the gospel, faith, hope, charity, patience, meekness, self-denial, and the love of heavenly things. The history of these, as they appeared in different places and circumstances, is, properly speaking, the history of the church.

"But in Mosheim they are scarce at all to be found. Public and noisy transactions engage his attention throughout. "Is this Christianity? (says the infidel)-Are these its fruits? What good has it done in the world?" How much more useful had it been to have been more sparing in these scenes, and to have laid open, in an impartial and ingenuous manner, the real church of Christ! This would have been properly the history of the church; the scenes which chiefly fill his book having no more to do with real Christianity, than robberies and assassinations have to do with good government. Yet his pains in laying open the evils and abuses is by no means to be condemned; it has its solid uses, which would appear also to great advantage, had the history of real Christianity been given also at the same time.

"For there have ever been some, who, though not many of them converted, perhaps, with the same remarkable circumstances that attended Mr. Howard's change of mind, have yet been converted by the same Spirit of God, and brought to the same principles and sensations; men whe felt and owned themselves