sequence of the sins which more immediately afflicted his conscience when he penned this psalm, we find the self-accusing supplicant acknowledging, in the fourth verse, that God was justified in what he had spoken, and clear, or free from reproach, in judging him.

5. Hatred also to sin, and an earnest desire to be delivered from the power as well as the effects of it, constitute another feature of a truly contrite heart.To a soul labour ing under such convictions, such apprehensions, and such godly sorrow as have been described, sin appears stript of its disguises, and exhibits its real deformity. Hence it excites abhorrence, as the bane of the soul, the enemy of all true peace both here and hereafter; a viper that stings and poisons every breast that harbours it. How intense was the desire of David to be delivered from the power and the guilt of his trangressions! "Wash me," he says, "throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." "Purge me with hyssop," he continues, in allusion to the purifications under the Law, by which a leprous person, for example, was both cleansed from his disease, and freed from the inca pacities attending it," Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

The Jews were ever prone, as mankind in general are, to place confidence in religious rites and ceremonies,unaccompanied by inward repentance and conversion to God. The Scriptures frequently and earnestly remonstrate against this common delusion. "To what purpose," says Jehovah, by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, "is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of begoats. When ye come before me, who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth." And it is added, "Wash you; make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well." Such was the disesteem, yea the abhorrence, in which Jehovab held all outward rites and ordinances, even those which he himself had instituted, when unaccompanied with inward purity and sincerity of soul.

But very different was his reception of the sacrifice mentioned in the text: "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise;" that is, Thou wilt graciously receive and highly esteem it; a negative expression being often thus used in Scripture to convey the more strongly a positive idea.

And whence was it that the Psalmist learned that God sets so high a value on a broken spirit? The light of nature might indeed teach him that the omniscient Creator would prefer a sincere worshipper without a sacrifice, to a

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accept and pardon the returning penitent, however great his past transgressions; for if the contemplation of his infinite goodness might seem naturally to lead to such a conclusion, the contemplation of his unchangeable justice and holiness would equally tend the con

trary way; so that the penitent could never attain true repose from his fears by the suggestions of his own unassisted reason.

Nor was even the Jewish Law perfectly explicit on this point: for though it held out a provision for the lesser sins of infirmity and ignorance, for others of an aggravated and presumptuous kind, as we have already seen, it provided, ordinarily speaking, no remedy,-at least in its express letter; for in its typical spirit it shadowed forth the blessings of that more perfect dispensation, in which repentance is preached for the remission of sins, through the death and merits of the all-sufficient Sacrifice once offered for the transgressions of the whole world. ·

The confidence of David was therefore doubtless caused by looking beyond the mere letter, to the figurative nature of the dispensation under which he lived, and by his faith in the gracious promises which God was pleased from time to time to reveal to his servants the Prophets for the encouragement of his people. How firmly the royal Psalmist believed in those promises, —which, it must not be forgotten, were made to the true penitent in virtue of the obedience unto death of the Messiah, who was before appointed to expiate sin by the sacrifice of himself,-appears from his frequent declarations both in the psalm before us and elsewhere. Like Abraham, he rejoiced to behold by the eye of faith the day of Christ; which, though seen but at a distance, and through a glass darkly, could not but comfort and refresh his soul. As that day approached, we find brighter and brighter indications of its glory; till at length the willingness of God to accept the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, and the medium of his so doing, namely, the death and intercession of Jesus Christ his Son, were fully proclaimed in the evangelical declaration; "Be it known unto you that

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 237.

through this man is preached the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" but "Him bath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." Such were the hopes which cheered the hearts of patriarchs and prophets in old times; and the bright anticipation of which could support the royal Penitent, under circumstances in which the Levitical offerings were wholly inefficacious, except indeed as they revealed to the eye of faith that Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world, and whose infinitely meritorious sacrifice was, and ever has been, available for the pardon and purification of even the chief of sinners who come unto God by him.

Seeing then the high value which God sets upon a broken and contrite spirit above all the mere forms and ceremonies of religion, let us seriously inquire whether we have offered unto him this acceptable sacrifice? Have our hearts been rendered soft, and susceptible to spiritual impression; or do they still obstinately resist the influences of his Holy Spirit? How much bas he done for us in plainly revealing the means of salvation, and inviting us to accept his mercy! And shall we make so ill a return as to despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance? Shall we barden our hearts when we hear of his willingness to accept them only when broken and contrite? No: let us forsake our sins; let us flee penitently to the arms of his mercy: let us pray, as David did, for the influences of his Holy Spirit; for He alone who made the heart can soften it, and he has mercifully promised to do so for all who call upon him. "I will give them a new heart, and 4 C

put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh." Let us also diligently use the means appointed by him to effect this gracious purpose. His word, for example, is compar ed to a fire to melt; to a hammer to break; to a sword to cleave asunder. It caused Josiah to weep, and the heart of Lydia to open to receive the intructions of St. Paul. Let us then diligently resort to it, to produce a like effect upon ourselves. So again, his mercies are intended to subdue our souls; the riches of his grace, the exuberance of his promises, the multitude of his compassions, the eternal rewards which he hath promised to those who love him,-all combine with the salutary chastisement which he inflicts upon his people, to plough up the fallow ground of the heart, and to render it fit for the reception of the seed of eternal life. Let us not then resist these benign influences; but remember ing that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, let us cheerfully obey his command," My son, give me thy heart," and humbly trust in the inspired declaration, that a heart so given he will not despise.

Amen.

bound therefore to hope that, in the passages to which I am about to refer, the Editor has rather hastily and inadvertently, than deliberately, allowed his reviewer to shoot his arrow at an important doctrine of that faith which was once delivered to the saints, and which is the only foundation of that morality which the respectable work in question is always (on whatever principle) ready to promote.

The writer of the article to which I am referring, when speaking of "fanaticism," (and, by the way, he offers no such definition of the term as might lead the reader to distinguish between the ravings of a disordered understanding, and the fervour of a heart truly devoted to God,) actually calls in the authority of Mr. Gibbon on the subject, and that without offering even a single caution to the young and inexperienced reader, respecting the danger of perusing the works of one of the most specious writers that ever assailed the Christian faith; and of whom Bishop Hurd has somewhere, if I mistake not, said, "In Gibbon we are terrified at the strength of the bow." But, to pass on, the reviewer in question, after remarking, first, what may be readily allowed, that the proper standard of preaching and clerical duty is to be chiefly sought forfrom those inspired guides, the Epistles of the New Testament, proceeds authoritatively to declare, that "the object of the holy Apostles was to produce a divine purity and philanthropy, and unruffled contentment. by means of a faith, which produced a sublime disregard of humau events. The fall of man, the grand topic of legitimate Methodism [Query, Has the Reverend Reviewer ever read a Homily of the Church of England, entitled, “ On the Misery of Man ?"] was with them a necessary, but subordinate point. The resurrection was their grand corner-stone; and so, says Bishop Sherlock, it ought ever to be."

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Now, without entering upon the many, and not unimportant, points of discussion and reprehension suggested by the foregoing passage, and by others that precede it, I shall content myself with submitting one question to every serious and candid reader, Was the resurrection made by the Apostles so prominent a subject of their discourses, that the fall of man became subordinate point" in their theology? True, sir, in those parts of the New Testament immediately referred to by the reviewer, (Rom. v. and 1 Cor. xv.) St. Paul fully, or at least practically, dwells upon the reviving truth, that "Christ is risen from the dead;" and none who are not disgracefully ignorant of holy Scripture will hesitate to admit, that this great foundation of our faith is prominently laid down in other parts of the apostolic writings. But I would ask which doctrine stands foremost, which is most expanded and enforced, even in the very chapter to which the reviewer has referred, (Romans v.) "the fall of man," or "the resurrection of Christ?" Could "the fall of man" have been out of the Apostle's view, when he declared, in the first and second 66 verses, Being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ...by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand?"&c. Or did he look on man as an upright creature when he said, in the sixth and some following verses, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly: -and again, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.... Much more being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." And (which more systematically sets forth "the fall of man,")" If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son," &c. But really, as we proceed with the very chapter to which the reviewer has first appealed in support of his

asseveration, we find such frequent mention of the fall of man, and such slight and indirect allusion to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that I could almost persuade myself some mistake had been made by the compositor in printing the reference in question; and I am the more disposed to give this account of the quotation, when I observe in the sixth chapter of the Romans, several direct allusions to the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour. Be this as it may, it must be confessed that in the second reference (the xvth of 1 Cor.) the reviewer is so far correct, that the Apostle certainly enlarges throughout the chapter, either on the resurection of Jesus Christ, or on that of the human race. Yet it is not a little remarkable that, even here, St. Paul first affirms, that "Christ died for our sins," which surely is to assert, virtually at least," the fall of man." But, even in this very chapter, the doctrine under consideration is by no means overlooked, or made of "subordinate" importance. For does not St. Paul inform us, that "By the grace of God I am what I

am;" that "if Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins;" that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," &c.

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Thus, sir, have I endeavoured to shew, that the Apostle largely insisted on the fall of man, even in those very chapters from which the writer in question would prove that he considered it and treated it as "a subordinate point" of Christian faith. Whoever will be at the pains to read the whole of the Epistles with attention (especially the latter part of the vth of 2 Cor.) will, I conceive, be fully satisfied that the Apostles of our blessed Saviour actually dwelt more upon the doctrine of “the fall of man" than on that of "the resurrection;" and perhaps for this reason, that it is much easier to human pride to admit, that" Christ is risen from the dead," than to allow that