"shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, "that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”* Then shall righteousness reign triumphant over iniquity, "and all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.'

This work having already commenced, will continue its progressive influence till all souls shall have seen and felt its purifying effects; or, through wilful disobedience shall have rejected their day of trial, because of the cross, and numbered themselves with the impenitent and rebellious, as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. But this day of judgment is yet in its beginning; it is yet like the little stone, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, and which pointed to this very work. It will yet grow and increase till it shall break in pieces the mighty image; the pride of human nature, and the power of Antichrist shall fall before it, and become "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors," and be driven away with the wind; while the little unseen, tho powerful agent, shall increase and grow, till, like a mountain of righteousness, it shall fill the whole earth.†

This work, tho powerful and effective in its operations, will at the same time, be so apparently slow in its progress, and so much out of sight of the natural man, that those who, through impenitence and hardness of heart, chuse to put far away the evil day, will be so blinded by wilful unbelief, that they will not be aware of the danger to which they are exposed, until, like the inhabitants of the old world, they shall be finally overwhelmed in the deluge of destruction which it will occasion. "Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory." The final and everlasting state of all souls will then be decided, not by the stroke of death, but by the unerring judgment of God. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father." They shall increase from glory to glory, and from one degree of perfection to another, through eternal ages.

But alas! what will become of the wicked? The Judge of the living and the dead hath decided the question: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." A solemn and awful consideration!

How vain and inconsiderate are the pursuits of the great mass of mankind! How little do the generality of people consider their awful responsibility to their Creator! Regardless of eternal realities, their whole attention seems to be engrossed with the things that belong to the short span of human life, as tho they were to live forever in this world. The Day of Judgment they put far away from their thoughts, as a matter of no concern, little consid

ering that they are continually increasing the black catalogue of their sins, for which they must finally be brought into judgment. Many flatter themselves that repentance and conversion, according to the general understanding of the terms, will some time or other, release them from any further trouble or responsibility for their sins, and then all will be well. Relying on this vain hope, this delusive snare of the devil, they willingly deceive themselves till death unexpectedly closes the scene upon them. Such people ought to consider that the infinite difference between Heaven and hell, does not depend on the small change generally occasioned by what is commonly called conviction and conversion, where there is no radical change of life and pursuit in the creature. The all important decision between eternal happiness and endless misery, is not weighed in such a slender balance; nor is it settled on such easy conditions.

Souls who are thus deceiving themselves, ought to remember and consider well this unalterable decree of the Almighty; "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." And let them know of a certainty, that this death the sinner cannot escape; and remember that every repeated act of sin is still increasing the power of this death upon them; still separating them at a greater distance from God, and plunging them still deeper into the gulf of spiritual darkness and loss. And every soul that ever rises from that death, must rise through sufferings, and in perfect subjection and obedience to the cross. If mankind would but seriously reflect that the more sin they commit, the deeper they sink from God, and the heavier must be their judgment, and the greater their sufferings to rise from their lost state and gain their redemption, they would dread sin as the greatest plague that could possibly come upon them. Therefore, let no one who knowingly and willingly commits sin, ever flatter himself with the vain hope that he can escape the righteous judgment of God against sin, and let all be assured "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."

Let all lay aside the false doctrines of Antichrist, and consider and rightly appreciate this important truth; That man is a free agent, capable of thinking, believing and acting for himself; and therefore he is accountable to God for the use and improvement he makes of his free agency, and must be judged and rewarded according to his works. The important period is fast approaching when the dividing line must be fully drawn, when the decisive sentence must be pronounced; "He that is unjust, let him be unjust "still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is 66 righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him "be holy still. And behold I come quickly; and my reward is "with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

CHAPTER VII.

A few Remarks concerning the true nature of Perfection. MANY controversies have been excited and maintained among the professors of christianity, concerning the doctrine of christian perfection; and modern professors of religion have most generally rejected the doctrine as unreasonable and unscriptural. Hence nothing seems to excite contempt and opposition sooner than to talk of attaining to a state of perfection in this life. This opposition evidently proceeds from two causes; first, a wrong conception of the true nature of perfection; and second, the impossibility of attaining to it while living in any known sin, as has been fully proved by the general experience of professed christians. And indeed, if it be impossible to live without sin, as many suppose, then surely it must be impossible to be perfect christians.

But those who profess to believe the Bible to be the word of God, ought to acknowledge the testimony of Jesus Christ which is contained in the Bible; for surely that cannot be unscriptural. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect."* Would Christ require any thing impossible or unreasonable of his people? Certainly not. Then perfection must be attainable; for Christ does positively require it.

The doctrine so frequently taught, and so extensively believed among mankind; "That no one can be perfect in this life," originated in the dark kingdom of Antichrist, and is admirably calculated to ease the conscience, and encourage slothfulness and indifference in the duties of religion: for who will seek after that which he believes to be unattainable? But a little attention to this subject will show the inconsistency of such a belief.

Yet

1. God who is infinite in righteousness and goodness, can never require impossibilities of any of his creatures. If then, perfection were not attainable in this life, God never would require it. he does require it. He required it of Abraham: "Walk before me, and be thou perfect." He required it of the Israelites under the law: "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Perfection is therefore attainable.

2. It has been attained. God declared Job to be "a perfect and upright man." Noah was also declared to be "a just man, and perfect in his generations." The apostle Paul saith, “We

speak wisdom to them that are perfect." And again; "Let as many as be perfect, be thus minded.”** Hence it is evident that there were those in his day, who were perfect, according to the work of that day. Perfection has therefore been attained in this life.

*Matt. v 48

Job. i. 2. and ii. 3.

† Gen. xvii. 1,
Gen. vi. 9.

Lev. xi. 44. and xix. 1. **1 Cor. ii. 6. and Phil. iii, 15.

3. Any thing may, with strict propriety, be called perfect, which perfectly answers the purpose for which it was designed. A circle may be called a perfect circle, when it is perfectly round; an apple may be called perfect, when it is perfectly sound, having no defect in it; and so of a thousand other things. A child who is perfectly obedient to all the requirements of its parents, is, in that respect, a truly perfect child: for what more can justly be required of it? Yet that same child, when grown to manhood, would be capable of doing much more than he could do in his childhood; and of course, more would be required of him. So when a man | comes up to all the requirements of God, he then stands perfectly justified in the sight of God, and is, in that sense, a perfect man, and walks before God with a perfect heart. Hence we may see that perfection, in this sense, (which is all that can be required,) instead of being unattainable, is perfectly easy.

The idea which most people have of perfection, is a state in which there can be no increase for the better. This is a mistaken idea; such a state never will be attained, neither in time nor eternity: for the very life of all things which have life, whether vegetable, animal or spiritual, consists in an increasing growth of some kind or other. Stop that increase or growth in any thing, and its life will immediately begin to decay, and it must at length die. So it is with the soul of every true christian; if the increase and growth of the soul in the knowledge and nature of Godliness, ceases, its spiritual life must begin to decrease and die. Therefore, tho a soul in the progress of faithful obedience to the increasing light and work of God, may become divested of all sinful desires and propensities; yet his life and happiness must and will consist in a further and progressive growth in the knowledge and nature of God, to the endless ages of eternity. And yet a soul who is perfectly obedient to the revealed will of God, is equally perfect before God, in every step of his travel, according to his capacity and God's requirement.

Thus the real nature of perfection, when applied to a christian life, consists in nothing more nor less than in doing what God requires of us, which is to improve all our faculties in doing good, according to the best of our understanding and capacity: and in so doing every person who sincerely desires and rightly pursues it, may attain to perfection.

THE END.