of the very doctrines which form the groundwork of their faith.

NOTE O. Page 83.

Pascal, with his usual truth and penetration, exclaims, "Qui tient le juste milieu? qu'il paraisse, et qu'il le prouve." Every man in his religious, moral, and political creed, deludes himself with the idea that he has

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found the happy medium and yet there are not two men to be met with, one of whom does not go beyond or fall short of the other on some one point. Thus one man's happy medium becomes another man's extreme, and even the opinion of the same individual is not to be depended upon, for few men think at sixty as they did at thirty. Shall we, then,

1 This is a reflection which ought to prevent undue severity in the old; rashness and self-sufficiency in the young. For the old have been young, have most probably held the same crude opinions, indulged in the same frivolous pursuits, committed the same errors and imprudences which they often censure with a rigour and asperity, which looks more like enmity to the sinner than hatred of the sin. The young, too, will be old, and those very opinions which they

build our faith upon such a foundation as human opinion, variable as the wind, unstable as the wave? our salvation is far too serious a concern to be thus trifled with; to secure it, we must resolutely keep our eyes and our understandings wide open upon that Word, which is to judge us at the last day, and shut our ears to the very convenient, but most erroneous opinions of man: we must let them pass by us as the idle wind, which we regard not. For if we listen to the world, it would persuade us that all the fearful threatenings, the awful warnings in the Gospel are mere bugbears, to frighten those who are weak enough to believe in them that when God tells us that the way

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of life is narrow and strait, and that few there be that find it," he means, on the contrary, that it is broad and easy, and that every body has found it who does not violate the laws of his country, or outrage the decencies of society, and who gives to Him the leavings

now denounce as over-strict, condemn as fanatical, and ridicule as absurd, may be the very opinions they will themselves most conscientiously hold, when time has matured their judgment, and casts its sober autumnal tiut over "the glare of life, which often blinds (even) the wise."

of the world, the miserable remnants of his time, of his thoughts, and his affections. But we must recollect that the slothful servant was cast out, not for misusing the one talent with which he was entrusted, but for doing no good with it. We must recollect that the guest at the marriage feast was cast out because he thought he should do well enough just as he was, and would not be at the trouble (not thinking it at all necessary) to provide himself with the garment which, according to the oriental custom at regal entertainments, was prepared for every guest (" without money and without price"): a garment which he had only to ask for to receive. It is easy to be good enough for man, but it is not easy to be good enough for God. It is very possible to be too good for man, but who shall presume to say that it is possible to be too good for God? and it is He, not man, who "we believe shall come to be our judge." It is easy

The number of those who pretend unto salvation, and those infinite swarmes who think to pass through the eye of this needle, have much amazed me. That name and compellation of "little flocke" doth not comfort, but deject my devotion.-SIR THOMAS BROwn.

2 “Ask, and it shall be given you.”—Matt. vii.

to say, "I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart;" but let us not forget that whosoever speaks thus presumptuously, upon that man God has declared that his judgments shall fall, and that He "will blot out his name from under heaven."1

Original sin has been resolved by some into ambition, by some into pride, or covetousness; but we are inclined to think that the first sin which entered into the heart of man was unbelief. God declared to man, that if he disobeyed he should surely die, and so long as our first parents continued to believe that their Maker had not said in vain that He would bring this evil upon them, so long did they hold fast their integrity nor are we told that they were ever tempted by their outward senses to covet the forbidden fruit. The restraint which the threat of the Almighty had imposed upon them, while fully believed in, was powerful enough to repel even the very thought of sin. We therefore find that the first step the evil spirit takes towards effecting their destruction is, not to descant upon the virtues of the fruit, but to infuse into the mind of Eve a doubt as

1 Deut. xxix. 19, 20.

to God's ever putting in force against them his awful threat: he takes upon himself to deny that any evil will come upon them in consequence of their disobedience, and boldly declares, "Ye shall not surely die." Man believed the Devil and disbelieved his Maker; and this proneness to listen to the suggestions of him who "was a liar from the beginning," and to doubt the word of Him who cannot

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lie," has been transmitted through our first parents to their posterity, leading us to disobedience, and its penalty, death.

NOTE P. Page 85.

"Thou hast said," and "Thou sayest it," the answer recorded in the other Gospels, are in fact equally as positive and unqualified as the answer we have quoted from the Gospel of St. Matthew. Our Lord affirmed the fact, and the High Priest, rending his clothes and saying, "He hath spoken blasphemy," shewed

"And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would bring this evil upon them."-Ezek. vi.