'^ 



O. 237. 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

AVD SOLD AT THEIR DEPOSITORY, NO. 144 JTASSaO-STREET, WEAK 

THE CITY-HALL, NEW-YORK; AND BY AGENTS OF THE 

» SOCIETY, irS BRANCHES, AfTD AUXILIARIES, IX 

THE TKINCIPAL CITIES ASV TOW.VS 

IV THP UKITED STATES. 




SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 

Jit tie Pine will he remembered in Heaven ^ 

The author of the •^ Memoirs of Scanucl J. Milk^ has 
told us of a consecrated retirement, whero, " by the side of 
a stack of hay,^^ he with two or three of his fellow students, 
*then young in College, devoted a day to prayer and fasting, 
and familiar conversation on the *' new and interesting 
theme" of Foreign Missions. " This endeared retreat \VTxa 
often made solemn by the presence and hallowed by the pie- 
ty of these dear young men ;" and it is not too much to say, 
thdt the sympathies of the Christian world have been n.oved 
by tho- story of that retired spot, where Mills and his com- 
panions presented to God " those early and fervent suppli- 
cations, to which may be traced the institution of Foreign 
Missions in the new world." It has been read in other 
lands, and will be read in other ages ; and so long as the 
servants of God shall take pleasure in the stones of Zion^ and 
favor the dust thereof that " stack of hay*^ vrill be re- 
membered. 

But there are other consecrated retreats, where olhcr mis- 
sionaries and olhcr devoted servants of the church have held 
communiun with God. I doubt not that the light of eter- 
nity will disclose many a luminous spot in this dark world 
now known only to Him " who seeth in secret," but con- 
cerning which it shall then be said and remembered for ever, 
" that this man was born there ;" and that, there, was begun 
an enterprise of piety which has turned many to righteous- 
ness, and added new glory to the empire of Christ. 

It was the happiness of the writer of this article, v>-hile a 
member of Dartmouth College, to bo a companion and fcl- 
'ow student with several devoted men who have since be- 
come Mission^uies to foreign lands. 'Among these was my 
fiiend L*** S******, a young man:df distinguished powers 
of mind, and an enthusiastic student'; but not a Christian. 
His ambition, indeed, for literary distinction, absorbed all 
his affections, and the love of God had no place in his heart, 
till, in the progress of a revival of rf^ligion in that College, 
in 18^ he became a new creature. I well recollect the 
mr ^ never can forget it — xrhen, hav'ng been oppress- 

'oad of his guilt for many days, his counte- 
1, and his flesh wasted by the agony of his 

[Sco page 3 of cover. 



KO. 237. 
SPIRITUAL, REILIGIOX. 



There are three kinds of religion among those who call 
Ihejp.selves Christians. Of one kind it were well if the 
world were destitute. Excepting by the observance of re- 
ligious rhes and solemnities, it does not distinguish the lives 
of those who practise it from the lives of irreligious men. 
It is the form of godliness without its power : the religion 
which would serve at the same time two masters ; would 
join light and darkness, Christ and Belial, believers and in- 
fidels together. 

There is another kind of religion which has been called 
the middle path of Christianity. It is thr; religion manifestly 
of the generality of those who are considered Christians. 
It embraces, besides a profession and the observance of or- 
dinances, a belief of the doctrines and an irreprehensible 
outward conformity to the duties^of the Gospel. But it falls 
short of the privileges of the Gospel; not including those 
lively hopes and anticipations, those holy joys and sorrows, 
that sensible intercourse and fellowship with God and Christ, 
that enrapturing communion with the Holy Spirit, that vivid 
and permanent earnest and assurance of heaven, which the 
Gospel warrants and encourages in every believer. 

A third kind of religion is that which does include these 
peculiar experiences. We would d-esignate it Spiritual Re- 
ligion. It is a religion which can be satisfied with nothing 
merely external, however blameless and fair. The oflering 
up of prayer and praise, meditation on the Scriptures, at- 
tendance upon ordinances, liberality toward the poor, the 
utmost exactness and irreproachableness of li^e — these do 
not meet its demands unless there is corres^pondent sensi- 
bility and life in the heart. There must be a feeling of the 
Divine presence — a relishiag of the Divine excellence — a 
heart-assured persuasion of the Divine favor and compla- 
cency. God must be enjoyed ; or there will be disquietude 
of soul, as in the patriarch — " O that I knew where I might 
find him," and in the Psalmist, " as the hart panteth after 
the water-brooks so panteth my soal after thee, O God." 
If the light of G«d's countenance ceases at any time to s. lin? 



r 



2 SPIRITUAL RELIGION. [158 

upon the soul, the darkness which then covers it no out- 
ward prosperity can dispel; its sorrows nothing can alle- 
viate. No loveliness, no excellence remains, when the heart 
cannot taste the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. No 
satisfaction is taken in the intercourse of the dearest friends 
when returns of grace from the Holy Comforter are sus- 
pended. The visible world is a waste wilderness when the 
world unseen is clouded or remote. There is no peace, no 
pleasure in life, when there is no sensible relish and delight 
in God and divine things. 

The difference between this last kind of religion, and 
those alluded to above, is very apparent in examples of 
each. Who does not see a remarkable difference in piety 
between such men as Leighton, Baxter, Edwards, Brainerd, 
and Martyn, and the mass of those who bear, and are not 
supposed to dishonor, the Christian name 1 Dr. John Mason 
Good, the distinguished and excellent author of the " Book 
of Nature," said, on his death-bed, *' I have taken what 
unfortunately the generality of Christians too much take — 
I have taken the middle walk of Christianity. I have en- 
deavored to live up to its duties and doctrines, but I have 
lived below its privileges." The men first mentioned were 
not content to pursue what is here called the middle walk 
of Christianity. Their religion was strictly and eminently 

EXPERIMENTAL AND SPIRITUAL. 

It is the design of these pages to commend and enforce 
this kind of religion above every other. 

I. It is Scriptural religion. The religion of the Scrip- 
tures is the fruit of the Spirit, which is " love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
perance ;" embracing frames and dispositions of soul more 
agreeable to that lively, affectionate, spiritual religion of 
which we speak, than to any other. Manifestly likewise is 
this sort of religion most congenial with that view of holy 
living, given us in the Scriptures : walking with God ; hav- 
ing fellowship with the Father and the Son ; communing 
with the Spirit ; walking after the Spirit ; walking in the 
Spirit ; walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfert 
of the Holy Ghost. It is most accordant also with those 
passages which call upon the saints to delight themselves 
in God ; to rejoice in the Lord ; to rejoice in him always ; 
and which represent them as havhig peace with God, and 



159] SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 3 

the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, as having the 
witness of the Spirit with their own spirit ; as walking by 
faith, not by sight, looking more at the things of the unseen 
world than at things which address themselves to their bo- 
dily senses. It is, moreover, most like the religion of Scrip- 
ture characters ; as of Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, who 
walked with God ; of Moses, and Samuel, and David and 
Elijah, and Daniel ; of the Apostles and the first Christians 
also, as far as their history has been written in the Bible. 
The religion of these men, who are held up to us as patterns 
and exemplars, was eminently a vital, affectionate, spiritual 
religion. They conversed closely and delightfully with God, 
and lived habitually under the light of his countenance, and 
in the sensible enjoyment of his love. But especially was 
the personal religion of Christ of this kind; all whose plans 
and principles, ways and movements, discourses and doc- 
trines, made it manifest, that his heart, and spkit, and will, 
were constantly one with the heart and spirit and will of God. 
2. Spiritual religion is the most ra/iowaZ kind of religion. 
If the things of religion are not merely imaginary, they 
ought in fitness and reason to command the whole heart, 
and rule the whole inner and outer man. If they are real, 
they are comparatively the only realities ; all else is shadow 
and illusion. If the God of the Scriptures, and the objects 
revealed to us in eternity do indeed exist, well may the pro- 
phet pronounce the world and its afiairs to be less than no- 
thing in the comparison. Such objects then, so transcend- 
cntly important in themselves, ought to have a correspondent 
influence om our character and conduct. And what is such 
an influence 1 If that Being who is the infinite fountnin of 
all being, who made me, and sustains me every moment ; 
who, in all the glory of his infinite perfections, " compasses 
my path and my lying down," and is ever with me ; the Be- 
ing on whom my happiness wholly depends, and from whom 
my last sentence is to proceed — if he has that influence on 
me which his character and relations to me ought to exert, 
shall I not always be in his fear ; shall I not always dwell 
in love to him ; and rejoice when he smiles upon me, and 
be troubled when he suspends the communications of his 
favor 1 Toward such a Being, so related to me as God is, do 
I not express a reasonable affection when I exclaim *' whom 
have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth 



4 Sl»miTUAL RELIGION. [160 

that I desire beside Thee." If I have any love at all for 
such a personage, and one so related to me as Christ, ought 
I not to be constrained by that love, as Paul was, to live 
and die to this infinite benefactor — making it my whole duty 
and happiness to servo and enjoy him"? And what would 
be the result upon my heart and life, of a reasonable opera- 
tion of the Gospel upon them ? What manner of person 
should I be in all holy conversation and godliness, if my ex- 
ample were a just transcript of the great truths of ilie Gos- 
pel ] That religion has been thought by some to be the most 
enlightened and reasonable w»hich has least to do with the 
affections of the heart ; but never was there a more manifest 
mistake. Reasonableness in religion is absorption of mind 
and heart — the whole man ruled and overborne by the tran- 
scendant importance and glory of the objects of religion. 
For a man to pretend to be religious, and yet be cold and 
backward in the concerns of religion, and contentedly un- 
certain whether the infinite objects which it discloses may 
not be adverse to his eternal happiness — this is not reason, 
but the supreme of inconsistency and stupidity. 

3. It is spiritual religion alone in which the human mind 
can find sensible and satisfying enjoyment. True religious 
enjoyment consists in a heartfelt complacency in God and 
divine things. There is indeed a feeling of quietude arising 
from the regular discharge of moral duties, r.nd the routine 
of religious observances, which is not spiritual joy or peace ; 
but the fruit of predominant self-rightbousness and fatal 
delusion. It implies a great abiding spiritual apathy and 
thoughtlessness ; for if sensibility were awake, and thought 
intelligently exercised on the person's habitual course of life, 
a general worHliness of spirit would be seen to pollute and 
vitiate the services of religion ; and then these services, in- 
stead of yielding hope and comfort, would conspire with 
other things to work fear, and doubt, and misery, in the 
heart. Tliere is, however, a hope of heaven different from 
that of the self-righteous, which springs from reflection on 
the general tenor of our conduct, regarded as an evidence 
of our spiritual chaiacier and state. This probably is the 
hope of the mass of professed ChristiLns. We speak not 
against it, except by lamenting that it should be made so 
generally the measure of spiritual enjoyment. AVhat is the 
amount of positive happiness that a hope of this kind yields ? 



16'] SPIRITUAL HELIGION. 5 

It is not the assurance of hope — the living, refreshing, soul 
elevating hope of the first Christians. It does not preclude 
doubt, but only despair. It leaves its subjects uncertain of 
their state. They are not sure of their calling and election. 
The Spirit does not so " witness with their spirits" but that 
they remain halting, hesitating, trembling, in respect to their 
final sentence ; or if not trembling, wondering that they do 
not, amidst their want of satisfying evidence. Such is the 
general feeling of professed Christians, in respect to their 
character and prospects for eternity — and such, or worse 
than thfs, must necessarily be the feeling of all who do not 
cultivate and exercise a spiritual religion. Nothing but a 
sensible, living, joyous intercourse with God and Christ and 
the things of the Spirit, can wholly displace anxiety or even 
torment from the heart. Without this there may be self- 
complacency, there may be delusion, there may be negative 
hope mingled with fear ; but a soul-satisfying evidence of 
present acceptableness in the sight of God, and of ultimate 
admission into the joys of his kingdom, there cannot be, 
without the pleasurable consciousness of the reality and ex- 
cellency of heavenly things. This consciousness is a wit- 
ness that cannot be resisted ; it is itself the earnest and fore- 
taste of eternal life, and can no more co-exist with doubt, 
than the consciousness of an outward world can co-exist 
with hesitation as to the reality of such a world. Let a man 
feel habitual love to God — let him feel the peace of God in 
his heart — let him feel the Spirit of Christ living in Jiim — 
let him feel pleased and delighted with the truths and pro- 
raises ofthe Gospel, and he will then enjoy evidences of his 
state, which will displace every doubt, and yield him " glory 
begun below." If therefore our readers would have a reli- 
gion full of comforts and pleasures, a religion which will 
yield them solid satisfaction, let them fix their nainds, not 
on that customary religion which rests in periodical ser- 
vices and outward strictness, but on a religion of intimate, 
sensible, living communion and intercourse with God. 

4. This is the only kind of religion which perceptibly ad- 
vances the soul in the life and likeness of God. They who 
sensibly commune with God, and keep their hearts alive to 
the excellency of divine things, from day to day, cannot but 
become more and more assimilated to those glorious ob- 
jects. These objects operating upon susceptible and aflec- 



6 SPIRITUAL RELISION. [162 

tionate minds, must make upon them their own impression 
and image ; and that image must at length become too re- 
splendent in the spirit and life, to leave it doubtful whether 
there has been progress and growth in grace. Men of spiri 
tual religion, therefore, must be advancing, as time passes, 
toward the measure of the stature of a perfect Christian. 
In their views, feelings, and conversation, they must be 
rising nearer and nearer to *' the just made perfect." T^he 
beauty of holiness must be gradually brightening upon them, 
and their affinity and relationship to heaven must be be- 
coming increasingly manifest. It must be so, by the very 
laws of such intercourse as they maintain with heavenly 
objects ; and that it is so in fact, no one can be ignorant. 
These men, of whatever country or age, do advance in mo- 
ral worth and loveliness, as they advance in years. Time 
invigorates them in all the principles, and beautifies them 
in all the graces of holiness. Even while " their outward 
man perishes" — while the animal vivacity and vigor of their 
earlier years decay, *' they are renewed in the inward man, 
day by day." Was it not thus with all the spiritually-minded, 
whose names we have mentioned, or of whom we have ever 
read or heard 1 But the same cannot; be truly said of men 
of other kinds of religion. They are, in regard to religion 
and holiness, little better at one time than at another. Take 
them when you will, in the middle of life, or in old age, 
they are not, as far as man can see, much improved in spirit. 
Their hearts do not seem to be much more in heaven ; their 
affections do not appear to be more spiritual ; their devoted- 
ness to God and his interests does not seem increased. 
Call to mind instances of the customary sort of religion — 
think of those whose religion is of this kind, and consider 
whether these remarks are not exemplified in their conduct. 
Do they present themselves to our thoughts as Christians 
advancing in the life of God 1 Are they evidently holier 
men now than some years ago ? Do we feel more confi- 
dent of their final salvation at this moment than we did 
when they first professed conversion ? Is it more certain 
now — more certain to themselves or to any others — that 
they will be saved, than it was then 1 Alas, it is well if the 
piobability of their final salvation is not diminished. Pro- 
fessed Christians who have not a spu'itual and affectionate 
leligion, often degenerate, but seldom improve. It is not 



163] SPIRITUAL RELIGION, 7 

merely praying, or reading, or hearing that profits the soul, 
but just feeling toward the objects with which the soul con- 
verses, or should converse, in prayer, reading, and hearing. 
These exercises are nothing, except as sensibility of heart 
pervades and animates them. It is by this sensibility, that 
God and our own spirits come into union and fellowship. 
It is by this, that our souls mingle with the invisible things 
of the sanctifying Spirit. Two lifeless masses are not more 
inoperative on each other, than the unseen world on the 
human character, if sensibiUty toward that world is wanting. 
AVe may speak, and read, and think, but we shall never be 
made better, if we do not feel. 

Now when we remember what the Scriptures teach con- 
cerning the essential progressiveness of true grace in the 
heart, that it is as the little " leaven which leaveneth the 
whole lump;" and join with this the fact, that professed 
Christians who are not spiritual in their feslings, do not vi- 
sibly advance in the divine life, can we rest satisfied with a 
religion like theirs 1 Is it by any means certain that their 
religion will save the soul 1 

5. Spiritual religion is far more useful than any other. 
Usefulness depends on three things, power, readiness to use 
it, and using it in a proper manner ; and no kind of rehgion 
includes these things in so eminent a degree as the spiritual 
religion of which we now speak. There is more power in 
this tnan in any omer sort of religion. Knowledge is power 
in religious concerns as well as every other ; and there is 
no religion so favorable as this to the acquisition of divine 
knowledge. Men may be led to pursue such knowledge by 
curiosity, ambition, and other motives ; but the attainments 
so made will be superficial, when compared with the illumi- 
nation shed down from the Holy Spirit into the mind and 
heart of the spiritually discerning and inquiring Christian. 
How sure and substantial, how deep and enduring, is the 
knowledge of the spiritually-minded, in comparison with 
theirs who know every thing in speculation only ! And ordi- 
narily their knowledge is greater, as well as of a better kind. 
They meditate more on the Scriptures, they reflect more, 
they pray more, and the relish for divine things which in- 
clines them to do so, makes them quick of spiritual under- 
standing, and thus becoiies the means of a more rapid 
growth in divine knowledge than would otherwise be possi- 



6 SPIRITUAL RELIGION. [164 

ble. And as the religion of which we treat joins to greater 
knowledge, greater grace and holiness, which likewise is 
the highest kind of power, it must, in respect to its intrinsic 
strength and efficiency, be incomparably superior to every 
other. 

But not only have the men of this religion more strength, 
they are also more disposed to use their strength than others. 
It is a false notion of spiritual-mindedness, that it inclines 
men to a secluded and inactively contemplative life. It had 
not this tendency in Christ and his apostles, or the prophets , 
the influence of whose untiring labors is felt over the world 
to this day. Spiritual-mindedness is nothing but a living 
and efficient benevolence, duly awake and active. From 
the secret place of the Most High, in which it dwells, it looks 
abroad upon the sensual world with a self-sacrificing, self- 
devoting compassion, like that of our blessed Savior ; and is 
ever ready to go forth, in his spirit and strength, to every 
work of faith and love. Customary religion, and even prin- 
ciples of natural goodness, have led men to practise some 
forms of benevolence ; but it is spiritual-mindedness that has 
cared for the bodies and souls of men on the largest scale, 
and has wrought miracles of mercy and love, the record of 
which will endure longer than the sun and the moon. 

But the religion here recommended is pre-eminent, as 
we have already said, not only in power and in aptitude to 
use that power, but in the excellence of the manner in which 
it uses it. It is both in labors more abundant, and in wis- 
dom and propriety of action more perfect. It does its work 
aptly, skilfully, prudently, with a spirit congenial to its ends ; 
a spirit of meekness and love, and dependence on God. In 
the highest instances and sorts of benevolent labor, men of 
little spirituality would not find themselves in their proper 
element. The unsuitableness of their spirit and manner 
would make their work irksome, and mischief might be the 
result. How much out of place do such men find them- 
selves under remarkable effiisions of the Holy Spirit ; when 
the accessions to the happiness of the universe are as the 
' clouds, and as when doves fly to their windows." It is 
spirituality alone that can make men as " polished shafts'* 
to the consciences of their fellow-men at such seasons. It 
is only this, indeed, which can ensure a right and successful 
way of fulfilling any of the offices of the holiest and noblest 



165] SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 9 

order of well-doing. These things demonstrate the superior 
usefulness of the spiritual kind of religion. Observation also 
confirms this conclusion. One spiritual Christian in a church 
is often more useful than a hundred ordinary professors. 
How many hundred Christians of the common kind would 
be required to make, in point of usefulness, one Baxter or 
Edwards, or Martyn ! These, it is true, were men of power- 
ful minds, but it was their superior spirituality that made 
tiieir power the means of exalting the ages in which they 
lived. Tliere were other professed Christrans of minds as 
powerful and of learning as great as theirs, who did very 
little toward advancing the cause of holiness in the world. 
If our readers then would pass their days in the most useful 
manner — if they would give the church and their generation 
the greatest reason to bless God for their existence, let their 
religion be of the spiritual kind. 

6. This kind of religion will best sustain us under evil. 
He v/ho is accustomed to converse affectionately and de- 
lightfully with God — to lay open his heart to the influence 
of His " excellent glory" and of eternal objects, will acquire 
a capacity of enduring evil, altogether peculiar to himself. 
His frame of spirit, and the blessedness of that intercourse, 
make him in a manner invulnerable to evil. The day of 
evil to the man of the world is insupportable ; because, be- 
sides his unholy spirit, he has no counterbalancing good in 
prospect. Past prosperity cannot be recalled; the future is 
unknown, and may be worse than the present. The unspi- 
ritual, unexercised professor of religion, too, may not be 
prepared for that day : the hope which now supports him 
may fail him then. He will then need other evidences of the 
divine favor than those on which he is accustomed to rely ; 
evidences which may not be afforded him then, as they are 
not sought for now. But the spiritual Christian is not thus 
forlorn in heart when his time of trial comes. The feeling 
toward God expressed by the Psalmist, " whom have 1 in 
heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire 
beside thee," having been habitual with him even in the 
days of prosperity, he will not be desponding and heart- 
smitten now; for God, his chosen portion, remains the same, 
and his delight in God is the same also : and how small a 
loss can befall that person, how little can he be injured by 
any calamity in the whole creation, whose happiness was not 

Vol. 8. H 



10 SPIRITUAL RELIGION. [166 

ill the creation, but in its infinite Author. Besides, if there 
is a man to whom the Father of compassion will shov/ him- 
seh' especially gracious in the hour of need, that man, doubt- 
less, is the spiritually-minded Christian. Who is an heir of 
the promises, if he is not? Whom, if not him, does God 
love and delight in ? There may be room for doubt whe- 
ther other sorts of professed Christians — all other sorts — 
may not be deceivers or deceived ; but who doubts his piety 
who lives a spiritual and heavenly life ? Such persons, then, 
are assuredly the children of God, whom God will not for- 
sake in times of trouble. The night of their affliction shall 
be as the brightest and best of their prosperous days. They 
shall glorify God in " passing through the fire;" their end 
shall be peace, and they shall depart, leaving mankind im- 
pressed with the certainty, that whoever may find their 
hope of ultimate happiness disappointed, these men were 
more fit for heaven than for earth, and " have passed 
through the gates into the city" of God. 

These are some of the considerations which show what 
manner of persons we all should be who call ourselves by 
the name of Christ. But there is one objection which we 
fear will weigh more with some persons than all these con- 
siderations, however solemn and conclusive : it is this, that 
the religion we recommend is not a practicable one. It may 
do perhaps for a very few peculiarly favored and peculiarly 
situated persons, but it wjjl not answer for the generality 
of mankind — it is too refined, too elevated, too difficult a 
religion for the mass of the people It is not, we suppose, 
the import of this objection, that this is a different religion 
from that which the Scriptures teach. The scriptural cer- 
tificate to this religion we have already presented. If there 
is a religion on earth that corresponds to the very religion 
of the Bible, it is unquestionably this. Other religions may 
not be scriptural, but no one can doubt whether this religion 
is either scriptural or true. The evidences of its genuine- 
ness are like the sun's meridian beams. The conscience of 
the world decides that it is genuine — the religion of the 
Bible — the religion of God — the religion which God has re- 
vealed to man as the sure way to heaven. But has God 
bound his creatures to an impracticable kind of religion? 
Or has he prescribed a religion for all the world, which 
cannot be practised by more than one man in a million ? 



167] SPIRITUAL RELIGION. XI 

It is oovious that if the objection means that the reHgion 
which, beyond aL others, has the best claim to be received 
as the religion of the Scriptures, is strictly, and in plain truth, 
an impracticable rehgion to the bulk of mankind, the objec- 
tion is profane and reproachful to the divine goodness and 
wisdom, and can hardly find a welcome lodgment in any 
other than an unholy breast. No ! The fact that this reli- 
gion is practicable by one man, proves it to be practicable 
by any and every other man. If any one man has ever ex- 
emplified this religion, the matter is at rest : man may exem- 
plify it : it is a religion for man, and a religion which every 
man is bound to exemplify. It should be considered by those 
who make this objection, that they are limiting, not merely 
the physical capability of man, but the resources of the Holy 
One Himself. The question as to practicability — the true 
question is, not whether I, in my own strength, shall succeed 
in practising this religion, but whether the Spirit and grace 
of God can enable me to practise it. We are not required 
to do any thing in reliance on our own strength, which 
truly would fail us, even for the exercise of a good thought* 
On the contrary, we are warned against self-confidence, as 
the certain way to be ruined, and are directed to Him for 
strength in whom it hath pleased the Father that *' all ful- 
ness should dwell ;" and certain it is t!iat destruction awaits 
us, if we do not go to Him, and put our exclusive trust in the 
provision made for us in Him. The question is this, is there 
not a sufficiency for us in all the fulness of the Godhead 1 
Can we not do all things included in this religion " through 
Christ strengthening us ?" Is there a man on earth whom 
Christ cannot strengthen to live the life of a spiritual Chris- 
tian ] Let this be demonstrated — let the arm of the Almigh- 
ty be shortened — and then may it be affirmed that the re- 
ligion we contend for is not a practicable religion. The 
truth is, that the generality of professed Christians never 
strive for, never aim at, this kind of religion. It is not in 
their hearts deliberately to purpose and intend that this re- 
ligion shall be theirs. They content themselves with what 
is customary ; and that, for the most part, is to be as religious 
as expediency or personal convenience may dictate. What 
labors, what pains-taking do they practise, to keep them- 
selves in the love and fear of God all the day long 1 What 
care do they exercise not to grieve the Holy Spirit ? What 



J-^ 



12 SPIRITUAL RELIGION. [168 

aspirations of soul have they for eminent holiness of heart ? 
What forgetting do we see in them of the things which are 
behind ; or what " reaching forth unto those which are be- 
fore ■?" What mortifications of the flesh, what fastings and 
watchings unto prayer do they practise? Who then are 
they that pronounce spiritual Christianity to be impracti- 
cable, but those who have never put it to the test of experi- 
ment? It must be confessed, that if professed Christians 
will not try and intend to live spiritually, they cannot live so. 
Paul could not have lived so without deliberate purpose and 
constant effort. 

Still, s(|me will think that although spiritual religion is 
the best and safest kind, yet as the more common sort may 
suffice, they will content themselves with that. But does not 
this savor more of a low^nd calculating selfishness, than of 
that spirit of regeneracy which instinctively pants after en- 
tire freedom from sin, and entire conformity to the image 
of God? Have those persons any true holiness who desire 
no more than may answer to keep them out of hell % But is 
it certain that the common sort of religion will suffice? Who 
feels certain of it %, Have the professors of that religion an 
assurance of their salvation ? Their hearts answer No ! Ha§ 
the world any assurance of their salvation % All men stand 
in doubt — and it is indeed a doubtful matter. St. Paul thought 
he should be a cast away if he did not keep his body under 
and bring it into subjccti-on. Do these professors of religion 
practice such discipline on themselves, that their souls may 
not be lost ? Who would stand in their souls' stead ? In the 
infinite concerns of religion, no uncertainty, no suspense of 
mind, ought to be tolerated, if it can possibly be prevented; 
and prevented it may be, by giving due diligence to that 
end. And what is due diligence in this case ? Not more than 
men generally employ to secure worldly things. But shall 
men — shall professors of religion use more diligence to se- 
cure to themselves things that perish in the using, than to 
lay hold on eternal life ? Are such men Christians % I trem- 
ble at the question ! 

Thus irresistible and overwhelming, my dear readers, are 
the arguments for spiritual religion. I beseech you, ven- 
ture upon no other. Destitute of this, kind of religion, there 
is no man, who, for a thousand worlds, would take your 
place at death or judgment. 

END. 



