Hen. Ah! but uncle, such sort of notions will never make out what Mr. Lovegood said about the law from the word of God, how it is " the letter that killeth, and the ministration of death and of condem-nation." If the law required nothing but outward sobriety and morality, I suppose you never transgressed it; and then the Bible is not true, that says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God," and that consequently "judgment is passed upon all men to condemnation".

Steadym. Why, I have no more a desire to make myself a beast by getting drunk, than I have a desire to go and lie to-night in brother's hog-stye: and as for outward integrity between man and mán, I thought myself almost to be a little god upon that account; because people would say of me, that they would rather trust me upon my word, than believe many others upon their oath. But I did not quite understand what Mr Lovegood meant by the law being "the ministration of death and of condemnation."

Hen. Why, you know, when any one commits a capital offence by transgressing the laws of his country, then the law administers condemnation and death to that man; and when he is given over to the executioner he loses his life by the letter of that law, and therefore it is "the letter that killeth." Now, you know, uncle, the first and great command is, that we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and minds, and souls, and strength;" but our. blinded consciences think little or nothing of living, in the perpetual neglect of love to God; while we are much more alarmed, if we neglect those rules of morality we ought always to observe between man and man. Thus we live in entire neglect to the duties of the first table, that tell us what we should be before God, and think that all will be well it we keep up a little outward decency in attending to the

duties of the second table, which direct us how to act among our neighbours.

Steadym. But how Mr. Lovegood talked about the spirituality of the law, and what a holy frame of mind was needed before ever we could love God, and that we could practise nothing that was truly good before God unless we loved him. That it was impossible that any man could repent of sin till he hated it, and that sin never was hated till God was loved: and how plainly he made it out, that without this love to God we could never pray aright, believe aright, or do any thing aright.

Far. Ah, brother Steadyman, and so I found it with me directly as I took to go to Brookfield church; for though I had much more reason than ever you had to find fault with the outward wickedness of my actions, yet I now felt the worst of the evil lay in the inward wickedness of my heart; that as I knew nothing what it was to love God, so I had no heart nor inclination to do any thing that was good in his sight. Never till then could I say with Job, though so much more holy than any of us, "Behold, I am vile!" O what strange foolish creatures we must have been, in the midst of our wickedness to think that we were righteous, when God's word so plainly says, "There are none righteous, no not

Miss Nancy. Well, as for my part, I never thought whether my heart was either good or bad, or any thing about it, only I thought it was wrong to oppose people because they were desirous to be better than myself; but I never saw what a state I was in till I heard Mr. Lovegood preach upon that text out of the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done," and then I saw, as he explained it, I never did the will of the Lord in all my life-time, and that I never could do it so as to please God, till I had a new heart.

Steadym. A new heart! aye, I heard Mr. Lovegood make use of that expression.

Hen. Yes, and can't you remember what he said? how that God never wrote his holy law but upon the tables of a new heart; and that every sinner without a new heart was in a condemned and ruined state; and that all we did in such a state was sin, because done from a sinful principle *?

Steadym. Well, till this day I always thought I had as good a chance for heaven as any of my neighbours, but I never considered the state of my heart before God.

Far. Ah, brother, there is the gripe. When we think of our actions before man only, though now and then we get ourselves daubed and dirtied, yet we suppose by a little of the white-wash of morality we can soon cover all this. But when we look at the state of our hearts, how can we think of justifying ourselves before him?

Steadym. Well, I shall never think I shall be able to justify myself before God any more. What the publican said I must say, "God be merciful to me a

sinner!"

Hen. How heartily glad I am, uncle, that you now understand it. "By the law," or by the knowledge of the law, "is the knowledge of sin;" for this is the only way we can come by the knowledge of the glorious doctrine of salvation by Christ alone. And how wonderfully well our minister preached upon that subject in the afternoon.

Mrs. Littlew. Why, Patty, child, how you sit yawning! What, are you going to sleep?

Miss Patty. Why, is not going to church once or twice a Sunday religion enough for any body, without having so much of it over and over again after supper ?.

See Article the XIIIth,-Of Works before Justification.

Mrs. Littlew. Well, well, if you and Polly don't love to hear any more talk about these matters, you had better put away the things into the pantry, for we have all done supper. (To the Farmer.) Master, shall you want any more drink?

Far. Oh no, mistress, you may put it all away: but let us see (The Farmer takes out his watch), it is not above five minutes after nine by the townhall clock at Mapleton; and if our poor daughters don't like our conversation, yet I think it will do brother Steady man, and none of us any harm, if we sit up a little longer to talk about the good things we have been hearing this day at Brookfield church.

Steadym. I admire that your minister takes such different texts to preach from, to what Mr. Dulman, and such sort of ministers chuse to head their ser mons with; and then when they have taken their text, we hear very little more of the Bible, but only about some moral duty we ought to perform, and against some evil practice that people ought to avoid. I never heard that text preached upon before, which Mr. Lovegood took this afternoon, "that God might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus," and at first I could not conceive what he could make of it.

Far. Why it is the sum and substance of all the Bible.

Steadym. So I thought when he came to open it; what a deal of pains he takes to make the people understand the Bible.

Far. Whenever he has shewn us our ruination in ourselves, he is sure to tell us of our redemption in Christ.

Steadym. Well, I never thought of any Christ till to-day, but my own good works.

Mrs. Steadym. Why, Nathaniel, and what can you

have better than good works? There is nothing like them, I am sure; don't tell me good works are better than all the faith in the world. I am afraid I shall be plagued to death by your new notions in religion, and I shall not like that; and if you take to go after parson Meek, you shan't be taking him a pocketful of money every time you go there. Don't you know that we have got a family?

Mrs. Littlew. Why, sister, I used to be very cross with my husband when I suspected that he gave away his money to Mr. Lovegood's followers; but, I don't know how it is, we have prospered more of late than ever.

Far. Ah, sister, we have all enough of this world; it would be well for us if we thought a little more of the next but I remember the time when I used to keep up a main bustle about my good works, but it was when I did nothing but bad ones. Now I rever thought of leading a new life till after God had given me a new heart, and we know that good faith will produce good fruits; but it will never do to turn religion topsy turvey.

Hen. Let me see; I think I put down something that Mr. Lovegood said this day on that subject, (looking at his notes) here it is, he brought these three texts, "Without faith it is impossible to please God."-"Faith worketh by love."-"Love is the fulfilling of the law.” So that unless we are rooted and grounded in the faith of the gospel, we shall never bring forth any fruit unto God.

Steadym. Well, well, I now see I have been trusting upon the decency of a heathen, without the spirituality of a Christian. O, brother, what shall I do to be saved?

Far. Why did you not hear at church how "God could be just, while he was the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus?" Was it not worth while to go