characterised by delicate and trembling sensibility, | account of those infirmities to which, from the but of one who, beyond other men, was framed weakness of our nature, all of us are liable. Now, for deeds of daring, and trained amidst scenes of we shall not enter on the question of our achardship, and violence, and blood. There is no- quittal or condemnation on account of these sins, thing, indeed, for which he was so remarkable as for or, more generally, on account of this natural corthe fortitude and stern grandeur of his character, ruption; nor will we dispute the possibility of unless it be for the marvellous combination which avoiding these sins, or repressing this corruption. he exemplified of the ardour and intrepidity of the We will admit all that you will venture to delion with the gentleness of the meek and unoffend- mand-that you are as good as it is possible for ing lamb. Never, perhaps, was there one whose you to be; and, in making this admission, we are mind bore the burden of such an anxious and heavy taking a favourable position for pressing upon you responsibility as his-never, perhaps, was there one the wretchedness of your condition in this world. who endured such afflictions, or underwent such For, if you could refrain from sinning-if you fatigues, both of body and of mind as he did; but, could dislodge the evil principle from your minds to use his own words, "None of these things move me." His enemies might blast his reputation, and rob him of liberty, or deprive him of life; but, in the midst of all persecution, he could "rejoice and be exceeding glad." His was not a heart to faint in the prospect of danger, or to weep over unavoidable evils. The sinews of his soul were made, as it were, of iron and brass; and he never feared what man could do to him. But he who had no tears for himself, wept over the enemies of the cross of Christ; and while all the wrongs and the sufferings which were inflicted on him could not wound his peace, or even impair his joy, the law of sin within him constrained him to cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"

if this most hateful and pernicious of all things were not ingrained into your nature, then there would be an alleviation in your misery which does not exist. If sin, in all its forms, and even in its least degrees, be, as it ought to be, an abomination in your eyes, then the fact, that there is a law of sin within you, and that, do as you will, you cannot expel it-you cannot escape from it—no, not for an hour, this, if it were not a fearful aggravation of your guilt, must be at least an insupportable addition to your misery. While you make acknowledgment of your infirmity and the weakness of your nature, do you feel that, if you are not more worthy of condemnation, your condition is, at least, more pitiable and deplorable? Unless this is the case with you-unless the law of sin within you is odious and intolerable as a body of death to which you are bound-there is reason to fear that your heart is not right with God. The loss of your worldly property would vex you, the loss of your good name would distress you, and bereaved of your friends you would suffer poignant anguish. But if there is not something in sin, which, beyond all these things, fills you with sorrow, and constrains you to cry out, "O, wretched man that I am!" then the mind that was in the apostle is not in you; and you have reason to stand in doubt of yourselves, and to implore of God that he would take away from you your hard and evil heart, and give you a new heart, an heart of flesh. II. The apostle expresses an earnest desire to be delivered from the bondage of corruption : Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" There is a grief which it is luxury to indulge there are idle regrets which expend themselves in fruitless lamentation-and there is a sorrow which worketh death. But none of these was the sentiment of the apostle. His was not a grief which it was gratifying to indulge; his was not an idle and vain lamentation; nor was his the wretchedness of despair,-for he was longing and looking for deliverance. It is true, indeed, that he despaired of effecting his own deliverance, or of obtaining it from human agency. Great and gifted as he was beyond the race of common men, even his energies were insufficient for the work of crucifying sin. Ile might have availed himself of all the aids which Providence had placed within his reach, and, in the strength of a firm and earnest resolution, he might have strung up his soul

And here, my friends, let us pause to inquire if your sentiments, in regard to your natural corruption, correspond in any degree with those of the apostle. You cannot but admit that your hearts are depraved, and that the weakness of your nature manifests itself in a thousand infirmities. It cannot be denied that this is the condition even of the most advanced and stedfast Christian amongst us, The question which we have to ask, then, is, What are the sentiments with which you regard your infirmity and corruption? It must be unnecessary to remind you that there are some who derive, from the consideration of this subject, comfort and even encouragement in sin. When we speak of the frailty of our feeble nature, we are prone to plead it as an excuse for the sins with which we are chargeable; and we are willing" to believe, and are easily persuaded, that due allowances will be made for our weakness in the day of final trial. It is impossible for us, in our present state, to obey God's law uniformly and perfectly; and, forgetting that the inability is moral, and not physical, we feel as if we would be hardly dealt with if no leniency were to be shown to us. Thus we speak to ourselves comfort in sin; and so sadly successful are we in doing so, that the sins which are called, and perhaps called justly, sins of infirmity, and more especially those tendencies to sin which may not be manifested in open acts, fail to awaken in the minds of many of us one sorrowful or compunctious emotion. Nay, there are even some who would regard it as a symptom of morbid sensibility, as a proof of a diseased conscience, if we were to distress ourselves on

to the highest degree of determination to which | as well as its pleasures, even in this world; and, our fallen nature has attained; but, after all this perhaps, there is not a sinner upon earth whose expenditure of counsel and strength, he found wickedness has not brought him into trouble and that, even when he would do good, evil was pre- distress. But there may be a sincere and deep sent with him. A first or a second defeat might regret on the commission of sin, while no efforts not convince him of his own helplessness. The are made to avoid it in future; and there are some conflict might be sustained; and it was not, per- who bemoan themselves with the apostle, saying, haps, till after multiplying his helps, and redoubling "O wretched man that I am!" who do not, with his exertions-not till after every art and device the apostle, seek for deliverance. Would you, my which he conceived had failed him, and sin still brethren, be happy, according to your heart's best lived within him, that he was convinced of his liking, if sin had not only no dominion over you, own insufficiency, and taught to look away from but no power or place within you? Will you himself for deliverance at the hands of another. consent to have your ears for ever shut against Is not the experience of some amongst us similar the dulcet notes of a bewitching flattery? Are to this? You have been awakened to the evil you willing to deny yourselves for ever the inand the danger of sin; you have consented to the toxicating incense of self-sufficiency and pride? law that it is good, and constrained by the reason- Would you have the thought of God second to ableness of the service and by the love of Christ, every other thought; and if we could tell you of you have resolved to devote yourself wholly to a power by means of which the world could be God. You know, that from the very first, your dislodged from your heart, and the rising of every performance has fallen short of your purpose. selfish desire could be repressed, and by which But, perhaps, you were taken at unawares, and a you might be enabled to walk through the world little more prudence and watchfulness, you ima- with a mind as pure, and holy, and elevated, as an gined, would be sufficient to preserve you from angel's, would you desire that this power should sin in future. But, while your mind was fixed be put forth in your behalf, or would you be disupon the suppression of one sin, another has posed to avoid him who wielded it, as the disturber sprung up to trouble you-and evil desires which of your peace, and the spoiler of your joy? There you thought had been brought into subjection, have must be not a few whose consciences will return suddenly risen in recovered strength, and carried a clear and unhesitating testimony upon this subyou whither you would not. Nay, the means ject; and if there are any of you who must acwhich you have employed for enabling you to cast knowledge that you could not part with the pleaout the unclean thing may, at times, have appeared sures of sin, then, whatever may be the misery to give it new power and malignity; so that, which your ungodliness inflicts upon you, you when you had recourse to meditation and prayer, have not the mind of the apostle, who sought when you read God's holy Word, and sought the deliverance from sin; and you have neither part ministry which searched your soul, even then, nor lot with Christ; "for if any man be in Christ when you were most zealously intent upon per- he is a new creature; and they that are Christ's fecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, you may have crucified the flesh, with its affections and have found that there was a law in your members lusts." But, at war with the law of your mind, so that you were guilty of sins which your hearts nevertheless abhorred. In all your attempts to transcribe upon your souls the character of God, you have been, at the best, like the artist who fruitlessly labours to express upon the canvass the beautiful conception which has been formed in his mind, and upon whom there is impressed the painful and distressing conviction, that every line which he adds gives an air of coarseness or uncouth deformity to the likeness which he labours to realize. And baffled in all your efforts, and disappointed in all your hopes, you have at length yielded to the conviction that your strength is weakness, and your wisdom folly, and in sorrow and in wonder, and on the very verge of despair, you have cried out, " Who, O who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"

It can scarcely be doubted, however, that there are some amongst us who can look back to no such experience as this. There may be a few who are prepared to "glory in their shame," but the greater number, it is believed, are willing to take credit to themselves for the unfeigned grief with which they have repented of their sins. Sin has its pains

III. The apostle confidently rejoiced in the appointed way of deliverance from sin. Though the law of sin in his members rendered him miserable, and though he could by no efforts of his own obtain a victory over it, still he did not despair. The folds of the serpent were around him, and though he could not uncoil or destroy it, he could not return to the paths of folly. While he despaired of himself, he trusted in God, and in the midst of the misery which sin had occasioned him, he could nevertheless give God thanks, through Jesus Christ. It is scarcely necessary to observe in this place, that the Gospel provides a full and adequate provision for the sanctification and final redemption of every believer. He in whom we trust is faithful, not only to forgive us our sins, but also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "Having begun a good work, he will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ." It is not, however, to the fact that provision has been made for our deliverance from sin, nor is it to the peculiar nature of that provision, that we are anxious at present to call your attention. It is the sentiment which a trust in the provisions of the Gospel awakened in the mind of the apostle, that we

[Written with the view of explaining the object and design of the Lectures instituted by the Association for promoting Chratian Philosophy, which has been recently formed in Edinburgh.] WHEN We look into the constitution of our minds, and observe that one prominent result of the combination

of our mental powers is the capacity for contemplating, and a delight in the contemplation of His marvellous works, we naturally conclude that this aptitude is accompanied by a corresponding obligation to exercise it. It is recorded by the Holy Ghost of the Creator himself, that" He saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good." And so strongly does the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, rest upon this obligation, as to declare, that "the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even bis eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."

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this divine language, it is one grand object of the Association in the scheme they have adopted, through the labours of gratuitous Christian lecturers, to connect together a considerable portion of Heaven's interesting message, and to deliver it to the people. The telescope, which traverses space immeasurable by the human faculties, and the microscope, which dives down towards the recesses of the ultimate atoms, contain, it will at once be perceived, a field of amplitude far beyond the reach of our capacity-if not of any finite capacity. We would be lost at once were we to launch on such an ocean as this; and, therefore, while there may be occasional glances sent to those far distant regions with which we hold intercourse only by some

come in their brightness to establish a fraternity between us and them as connected portions of the universe of God, the object of the Lectures will be mainly confined to the structure and relations of the globe on which we dwell, including the very interesting science of astronomy, in as far as our planetary system is explained by it.

Many and various were the crude speculations in which the ancient philosophers indulged relative to the formation of the earth. Amongst these, the Atomic theory held a conspicuous place; but the Atomic theory of Epicurus resembled in name only that which Dr Dalton has, in the present day, so ingeniously and satisfactorily explained. The Epicurean atoms were organized particles, which, by a self-directed combination, transformed chaos into the useful and beautiful forms of nature. The Atomic theory of Dalton leads us to an acquaintance with the relative magnitudes and densities of the ultimate particles of the simple substances, demonstrating, among other things, the error of the dogma generally taught in our philosophical schools, that matter is infinitely divisible. With the ancient speculations we have little to do; but it imports us much to be made aware of the mischievous tendency of those modern theories of the world's origin, which go to sap the foundation of our faith in that blessed Word of Truth which declares, that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

In the exercise for theological purposes of this capacity for examining the works of Nature, the object has gene-friendly rays of light, which, as accredited ambassadors, rally been to obtain and exhibit the evidence they afford of the being and attributes of Jehovah; and, no doubt, in some circumstances it is very advantageous, if not quite essential, to establish from the design manifested by the peculiar collocation of things, as well as by the nicely-balanced powers by which the planetary system is maintained the being and attributes of God. It may be well, in circumstances of prevailing scepticismwhen the worldly-wise man, as well as the fool, says in his heart, There is no God,"-to press against him the invincible argument, that where there is design there must be a designer; that where there is a combination, requiring power, there must be a superior power; and, when the result of the combination is to promote happiness, that the Being from whom such designs and combinations emanate must be great and good. Many and interesting have been the works published on this subject; they already constitute what may be considered a very complete system of natural theology, embracing an improving series, from Cicero's work, "De Natura Deorum," to the splendid illumination which streams from the "Bridgewater Treatises." It is not intended, in these Lectures, to adopt that principle of natural theology; on the contrary, it is meant to assume the being and attributes of God. The Lectures are to be delivered on the assumption that the hearers are professing Christians, who, however far short they may come of walking in conformity with a Christian profession, do not venture to deny that there is a God; but rather that, believing in God, the Creator The late Dr Hutton,-whose " Theory of the Earth," of all, they will accept the invitation to come and take published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of pleasure in learning something of the Creator's works, Edinburgh, and adopted by a large portion of its memwhich the Scriptures declare to be wonderful-in every bers, has obtained considerable celebrity,-seems, amid way calculated to excite admiration, and to call forth much important and valuable information, to have conthe adoring homage of the intelligent creature. centrated and systematized the speculations of Epicurus. heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament He transfers, indeed, the organization from the atoms showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, to the globe itself, ascribing to it a principle of decay and night unto night teacheth knowledge. There is no and reproduction, by which a regular system of revoluspeech nor language where their voice is not heard." It tion is carried on—of which the progressive destruction is impossible for the most superficial observer to avoid of the strata forming the existing continents may, for perceiving something of this silent, solemn language; illustration, be taken as the first step. This destrucbut the remarkable circumstance is, that not unfre- tion, according to the theory, is accomplishing by the quently the persons least affected by it are those whose decompositions of the rocks and other superficial subattention is the most directed to the study of those stances, and transportation of their debris, by means of very phenomena. They are so much engaged in inves- the streams and floods, into the ocean; there they are tigating the proximate cause of the muscular motion of spread out in horizontal beds, and accumulated till they Nature's lips, that they are deaf to the voice of wisdom attain sufficient magnitude to answer their intended and instruction to which they are ever giving utterance. purpose. In the central region of the earth, is a vast However imperfectly qualified to be the interpreters of magazine of fire, of which the volcanoes are the chim

"The