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of that body of sin which constrained him to cry out, “O wretched man that I am!"

"All

It is the character of too many persons to be severe toward the failings of others, while they show the utmost lenity toward themselves, with respect both to their infirmities and their vices. Always ready to place the faults of their neighbours in an odious light, and their own in the most favourable point of view, they seem to be made up of nothing but partiality and self-love, while the true minister reserves his greatest indulgence for others, and exercises the greatest severity toward himself. things are lawful for me," writes St. Paul, "but I will not be brought under the power of any." 1 Cor. vi. 12. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? And every one that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Cor. ix. 24-27.

One reflection naturally finishes this trait of the character of St. Paul. If this spiritual man, if this great apostle, thought himself obliged to use such strenuous efforts that he might not be rejected before God at the last, in how great danger are those careless pastors and Christians who, far from accustoming themselves to holy acts of self-denial, satisfy their natural desires without any apprehension, and treat those as enthusiasts who begin to imitate St. Paul, by regarding their baptismal vow, and renouncing their sensual appetites!

TRAIT XXVI.

HIS LOVE NEVER DEGENERATED INTO COWARDICE, BUT REPROVED AND CONSOLED AS OCCASION REQUIRED.

THE charity of the true minister bears no resemblance to that phantom of a virtue, that mean complaisance, that unmanly pliancy, that unchristian cowardice, or that affected generosity, which the ministers of this day delight to honour with the name of "charity." According to these insufficient judges, to be charitable is only to give some trifling alms out of our abundant superfluities, to tolerate the most dangerous errors without daring to lift up the standard of truth, and to behold the overflowings of vice without attempting to oppose the threatening torrent. Such would be the mistaken charity of a surgeon, who, to spare the mortifying arm of his friend, should suffer the gangrene to spread over his whole body. Such was the charity of the high priest Eli toward Hophni and Phinehas, an impious charity, which permitted him to behold their shameful debaucheries with too favourable an eye, a fatal charity, which opened that abyss of evil which finally swallowed them up, and into which they dragged with them their father, their children, the people of Israel, and the church over which they had been appointed to preside.

The good pastor, conscious that he shall save a soul from death, if he can but prevail with a sinner to forsake his evil way, uses every effort to accomplish so important a work. And, among other probable means which he employs on this occasion, he tries the force of severe reprehension, rebuking the wicked with a holy authority; and, if it be necessary, returning to the charge with a spark of that glowing zeal with which his Master was influenced, when he forced from the temple those infamous buyers and sellers who had profaned it with their carnal merchandise. Thus St. Paul, on receiving information that scandalous errors had been discovered in the ronduct of a member of the Corinthian church, immedi

ately wrote to that church in the following severe and solemn manner : "It is reported that there is fornication among you. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," and that the plague in any single member of a society is sufficient to infect the whole company ? "Purge out therefore the old leaven, and put away from among yourselves that wicked person. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, keep not company with such a one, no, not to eat. Be not deceived: fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Flee fornication," therefore, and avoid the company of fornicators. "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Further: "I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already concerning" the lascivious person that is among you, "to deliver such a one unto satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus." 1 Cor. v., vi.

When the true minister has passed the severest censures upon sinners, and beholds those censures attended with the desired effect, he turns to the persons he lately rebuked, with testimonies of that unbounded charity that "beareth all things," and "hopeth all things." More ready, if possible, to relieve the dejected, than to humble the presumptuous, after having manifested the courage of a lion, he puts on the gentleness of a lamb, consoling and encouraging the penitent offender, and never ceasing to intercede for him, till his pardon is obtained both from God and man. Thus St. Paul, who had so sharply rebuked the Corinthians in his first epistle, gave them abundant consolation in his second, and exhorted them to receive with kindness the person whom he had before enjoined them to excommunicate. It is easy to recognise the tenderness of Christ, in the following language of this benevolent apostle: "I wrote unto you" my first epistle "out of much affliction and anguish of heart, with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the

manner.

love which I have more abundantly unto you." 2 Cor. ii. 4. "Great is my glorying of you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. God, that comforteth them that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus," my messenger, "when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, and your fervent mind toward me. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance for ye were made sorry after a godly For behold what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing of yourselves, what" holy "indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what revenge. In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter." Moreover" we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, and how you received him," together with my reproof, "with fear and trembling. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things." 2 Cor. vii, And with respect to the person who has caused us so much distress, "sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that" now "ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also ;" nay, I have already forgiven him, for your sakes, as in the presence of Christ. 2 Cor. ii. 6-10.

Great God, appoint over thy flock vigilant, charitable, and courageous pastors, who may discern the sinner through all his deceitful appearances, and separate him from thy peaceful fold, whether he be an unclean goat, or a ravenous wolf. Permit not thy ministers to confound the just with the unjust, rendering contemptible the most sacred mysteries, by admitting to them persons with whom virtuous heathens would blush to converse. Touch the hearts of those pastors who harden thy rebellious

people, by holding out tokens of thy favour to those who are the objects of thy wrath; and permit no longer the bread of life, which they carelessly distribute to all who choose to profane it, to become in their unhallowed hands the bread of death. Discover to them the impiety of offering their holy things to the dogs; and awaken in them a holy fear of becoming accomplices with those hypocritical monsters who press into thy temple to crucify thy Son afresh, and who, by a constant profanation of the symbols of our holy faith, add to their other abominations the execrable act of eating and drinking their own damnation, with as much composure as some among them swallow down the intoxicating draught, or utter the most impious blasphemies.

AN OBJECTION ANSWERED.

BEFORE we proceed to the consideration of another trait of the character of St. Paul, it will be necessary to refute an objection to which the preceding trait may appear liable: “Dare you,” it may be asked, "propose to us as a model a man who could strike Elymas with blindness, and deliver up to satan the body of a sinner?"

ANSWER.-The excellent motive and the happy success of the apostle's conduct in both these instances entirely justify him. He considered affliction not only as the crucible in which God is frequently pleased to purify the just, but as the last remedy to be employed for the restoration of obstinate sinners. Behold the reason why the charity of the primitive church demanded, in behalf of God, that the rod should not be spared, when the impiety of men was no longer able to be restrained by gentler means, determining that it was far better to be brought to repentance even by the sharpest sufferings, than to live and die in a sinful state. To exercise this high degree of holy and charitable severity toward a sinner was, in some mysterious manner, to deliver up his body to satan, who was looked upon as the executioner of God's righteous vengeance in criminal cases. Thus satan destroyed the first-born of Egypt, smote the subjects of David with the pestilence, and cut off the vast