has reached a considerable height. In the latter case, the same marked and striking changes of spirit and deportment will not accompany or follow the transi tion from a state of sin to a state of spiritual life as there often does in the former. And this difference will not seldom occasion a diversity of feeling ever after in the two classes in question.

To advert to one thing only-the man who has feared God from his childhood is not always the best qualified for guiding the sinner in his first approaches to the Saviour, while he will often be found particularly fitted for carrying forward disciples in the Christian course. These departments of service are in several respects distinct; and, though some have excelled in both, not a few have evinced that their skill in the one was much greater than it was in the other. This division of functions will be found even among adult converts, but still it may often be traced to a diversity in their first feelings. In particular, however, such as have been early and imperceptibly initiated into piety, will frequently be found more fitted for the business of after-culture than for that of detecting and following every lurking obliquity, and every false refuge, in the minds of the ungodly, and which are especially concealed amid the workings of a self-righteous spirit in those who have so far been awakened, and on whom a degree of impression has been made in relation to the interests of eternity. In dealing with unbelievers they are apt to employ language expressive of exercises to which such must, in their present condition, be strangers, though the semblance of them may thus at times be excited. And they are apt to speak of those emotions which were in themselves the concomitants or result of that real, though gradual, change, which, however little discernable at its commencement, and slow in its progress, yet grew with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, in a way which confounds them with such feelings and emotions as may consist with the continuance of unbelief and impenitence. The state

ments made on these subjects may be so connected with the statement of the saving truth as greatly to neutralize it. And though a great degree of concern may be produced, there is a danger that the sinner will be retarded from coming as he is immediately to the Saviour.

This may perhaps so far account for the circuitous way in which Dr. Doddridge has, in some instances, endeavoured to direct his readers to Christ. His writings have been of singular use in awakening many to serious concern, and this is of great importance; but in his reasonings with them he has not always taken the most direct method of conducting them to the hiding-place which stands open to all. He has not always sufficiently marked the distinction between that analysis of the feelings and workings of the mind which may sometimes be of use in the elucidation of a subject, and the notion that this analysis constitutes a course of distinct and successive changes, the different steps of which are each in succession actually perceptible to the individual. This distinction, however, he has distinctly admitted; and whatever may be thought of the particular analysis which he has made, or of the particular train which he has marked out, it is clear that he never intended that this process must necessarily be gone through by all, or that any should adopt his words to whose circumstances they do not apply. It may yet be proper to state, that, to describe so very circumstantially a particular process, and to con nect the whole of it with a supposed individual, is to expose many to the danger of falling into these errors, and may be the means of retarding instead of facili tating their progress. But every one acquainted with the principles and character of this distinguished man will at once allow that his great object was to bring the sinner to rest his whole hope of salvation on the finished work of Immanuel. And it is truly pleasing to know, that many whom he has been the means of awakening to deep concern, have at last found peace in the blood of the cross.

Dr. Doddridge, agreeably to the advice of some wri ers, devoted himself to God by a solemn form of coveTM nant under his own hand. He appears to have meant nothing more by this than to express his sense of pardonin g mercy and redeeming grace, and to devote himself to the service of God from a feeling of gratitude and love. On the practice itself, however, it may not be improper to make some observations.

It is altogether preposterous for a sinner, when awakened to a sense of guilt, to make any kind of contract with God, as a means of pacifying his conscience, or of obtaining an interest in the righteousness of Christ. To conceive of the covenant of God as at all partaking of the nature of such a contract, is an utter perversion of the gospel. There is nothing in his covenant of the nature of a bargain; all is of free promise. The scriptures accordingly represent sinners as taking hold of his covenant, by resting all their hopes of pardon and acceptance on the blood of Christ, by which it was confirmed, and looking for the whole of its blessings as the reward of his work. God establishes his covenant with every believer in Christ, by giving him its precious mercies in their proper order, so that he is as much interested in it as though it had been ratified for him alone. The guilty Israelites, when brought to themselves, are represented as saying, "Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord, (for) the perpetual covenant will never be forgotten," for such is the natural interpretation of the passage. Instead, that is, of trusting to the old covenant, which made no provision for a case such as theirs, they recur to that everlasting covenant which had been revealed to the patriarchs, and was to be fully ratified in the fulness of time.

It were equally preposterous, on the other hand, for a Christian to enter into a kind of contract with God, that by the fulfilment of certain terms he might continue to receive the blessings of redemption. The ground of peace under a consciousness of guilt, and the medium through which all spiritual blessings are be

stowed, are the very same to the Christian of the longest standing, as to the sinner at first.

But neither of these was the design of our author. He appears to have intended merely to express, by a particular form recommended by men whom he re spected, that devotedness to God, and that dependence on his grace, the exercise of which is the natural result of faith in the gospel. It has been admitted, however, by some of the warmest friends to the practice in question, that such a form of expressing selfdedication is exceedingly apt to become a snare, and to involve the very errors to which we have adverted. The late Mr. Adam Gib, for instance, speaking of this subject in the first part of his "Sacred Contemplations," explicitly states that there is reaons to apprehend that the practice in question is often if not mostly mismanaged; that various forms of such a personał covenant have been proposed by different writers, of a tendency to mislead Christians in regard to their exercises with God about their spiritual interests; that if it is engaged in, to pacify a troubled conscience, or as a means of obtaining or even of recommending to a saving interest in Christ, although it should be done in a manner apparently ever so evangelical, it is but some sort of an attempt, however specious it may be, to establish the person's own righteousness, and to ob tain the blessing" as it were by the works of the law," because the person will still have some respect to his own covenant, and to his supposed proper exercise in making it, as the immediate ground of the confidence to which he is brought in relation to his interest in the covenant of God; that then only is it rightly done, when a person devotes himself to the Lord as his God, (that is already,) when with a conscience purged from guilt, and already pacified through faith in the blood of Christ, with his soul at rest in God according to the new covenant, and with his heart under the sweet constraint of love and of gratitude to Christ, he gives himself up to live to him. And then he adds, that for guarding against the evils referred to, it may be more

properly reduced to pourings out of the heart before God in prayer.

Now, considering the well-known zeal of this writer for the practice of covenanting, these sentiments of his, as the result of his long experience in regard to it, carry with them very great weight. They prove, by a testimony which cannot be suspected, that it is extremely apt to ensnare and mislead, however well intended and cautiously gone about it may be.

Mr. Marshall, in his work on Sanctification, says to his reader, "Think not to bring yourself to good by vows and promises, as if the strength of your own law could do it when the strength of God's law doth it not. The devil will urge you to vow and then to break, that he may perplex your conscience the more." And in accordance with this, Mr. Fuller, in his Memoirs of the esteemed Mr. Pearce, informs us that the latter, not having known the devices of Satan, was entangled by the ardour of his soul, and was thrown into great perplexity in consequence of adopting the practice in question. Having failed in his engagements, he was afterwards almost plunged into despair. On reviewing the matter he seems to have accused himself of a pharisaical reliance on his covenant, and he therefore took the paper and destroyed it. He did not, however, consider his obligation to be the Lord's as hereby nullified, but feeling more suspicious of himself he depended on the blood of the cross.

It is by no means intended to insinuate, that every thing on the part of believers, like a firm determination to devote themselves to the service of God, is in itself inconsistent with a life of faith in the Redeemer. Every believer of the gospel will feel impelled, by a sense of the love of Christ, a sense of the happiness he has found in his service, and a conviction that misery must be connected with a state of declension, to cling to the Saviour as his only refuge and portion, and to devote his all to his glory, as his rightful Lord and gracious Benefactor. That man indeed must be ignorant of his own heart who trusts to his resolutions,