sists. We have no ability of ourselves to take off our minds from the things that are evil, and engage them in the work of religion and godliness. This is the gift of God. It is a continued miracle that cleanses that polluted fountain, the heart, and therefore I call this experience the principal evidence of the Christian religion. It is the glory of Christianity, and renders it the perfection of all religions."

"That Christianity," I replied, " is the perfection of all religions, is granted; but that we have no ability to save our souls without a supernatural operation on them, this is what I have still some doubt of. A careful examination of the subject, produces some hard objections, and therefore, madam, I will lay my difficulties before you, that your fine natural understanding may remove them, if it be possible. I will be short on the article, for many words would only darken it.

"In the first place, then, as to man's inability to live a religious life, and practice the precepts of the gospel, it must be the effect of the human composition, or the effect of the agency of the serpent. If the former, it is chargeable upon the author of the composition; if the latter, upon the agent which acts upon it. Man could not be culpable, I think, for a bad life, in either case. If my nature be

weakness itself, or the serpent is superior to me, what good can be required of me? Can the supreme reason call for brick, where there are no materials to make it with? will you say yes, because he gives supernatural ability to perform? But then, can this be called man's action? It is the action of the author by his miserable creature, man; and in such case, may we not say, that though commands are given to man to obey revealed laws, yet the obedience is performed by God?

"In the next place, as man in his natural capacity, and all his natural powers, are the work of God, and as truly derived from him as any supernatural powers can be, it follows, I imagine, that a voluntary agent's making a right use of the powers of his nature, is as valuable as his being compelled to act well and wisely by a supernatural power. To assert, then, such experiences or operations, to me seems to misrepresent the nature of a being excellently constituted to answer the good purposes he was created for. I am likewise, at present, of opinion, that depreciating our natural abilities, does not give so much glory to God as you imagine."

To this Mrs. PRICE replied, " that by the operation of the spirit, she did not mean that man was purely passive, and had no part in the working out his salvation, but that God co-operates with man,

and without destroying the faculty of reason, improves it by convincing and enlightening the understanding, and by moving and inclining the will towards such objects as are acceptable to himself, and from those that are contrary to his gospel. The mind in this manner enlightened and affected, begins to act, and as the spirit moves upon the soul, the quickened man, under the divine direction, does all the good the scripture commands him to do, and eschews the evil he is ordered to avoid. By God through Christ, he practises the excellent virtues recommended in the holy books, and for this reason, the righteousness which Christians bring forth, is called in scripture the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God, and the righteousness of faith. Christ is the efficient. We, through him, are made able to act. Notwithstanding the weakness and incapacity of our nature, yet through faith in the power of God, which is given to all who believe in him, we are enabled to flee immorality and vice, and by a life of virtue and piety, to enjoy the pleasure of a sweet reflection, and the praises of unpolluted reason.

That this is the case of man, the sacred writings declare in a thousand places, and set forth the exceeding greatness of God's power in this respect. The ministry of the gospel appears to have been

The

ordained for this end, and the perfection of the christian religion to rest on this particular thing. Lord died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, that we, through the power of his resurrection, might be made righteous.' And the apostle adds, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.' And that the promise of the Holy Ghost had reference not only to the great effusion of the spirit at Pentecost, which was a solemn confirmation of the new and spiritual dispensation of the gospel; but also to that instruction which Christians of every age were to receive from it continually, if they attended to it, is evident from the promise of Christ, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, (the spirit of truth) that he may abide with you for ever.' This spirit was to supply the place of his persona presence. It was to become a teacher and comforter to his disciples and followers to the end of time, to enlighten and incline their minds to piety and virtue, to enable them to do all things appertaining to life and to godliness, and to have a faith in God's power and all-sufficiency. This is the glorious specific difference of Christianity from all

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other religions. We have an inward instructor and supporter always abiding with us. And what can be a higher honor to mankind, or an act of greater love in God, than for him to interpose continually, and by his holy spirit restore the teachable and attentive to that purity and uprightness in which he at first created man? Glorious dispensation! Here is a complete reparation of the loss sustained by transgression. We are created anew in Christ Jesus, and are made partakers of the divine nature. Surely this is the utmost that can be expected from religion. In short," continued Mrs. Price," it is to me a most amazing thing, to see men of sense disclaim this help, argue for self-sufficiency and independency, and receive only the outward appearance of the son of God, in a literal, historical, and formal profession of Christianity! This will never do the work. The outward appearance of the Son of God only puts us in a capacity of salvation; it is the inward appearance by the power and virtue of the spirit that must save us. The end of the gospel is repentance, forgiveness of sins, and amendment of manners; and the means of obtaining that end, is Christianity in the life, spirit, and power of it." "You talk extremely well, madam," said I, upon this subject, and have almost made me a convert to the notion of an inward appearance of