ble branches of our stock, into which they may be the more readily grafted. Hence by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, if we may not attain to true wisdom, we may be conducted to its borders. We may preserve in vigour those moral feelings which, when the heart is changed by Divine grace, will operate in unison with the motions of the Spirit. It would be interesting to show what advantage is derived to the Christian from correct moral habits, and the processes by which they have been acquired. They are the circles in which he has moved with growing ease, and in which he is to continue moving with new attractions and new delights. All the powers, motives, and processes which he has made subservient to his improvement are still to be employed to achieve new victories, in a continued course of well-doing, till he reaches the heavenly mansions.

We now proceed, after stating the duty which devolves upon man with reference to his own improvement, to notice briefly some of the provisions which God has made to restore in us his own image. Designing to speak of these provisions principally with reference to their relation to the active exertion of our moral powers, we shall here say nothing of his provision for the pardon of our race, nor that of sovereign and unconditional agency of his Spirit, by which the soul is secretly moulded into susceptibility for the influence of the means and motives of the gospel. We wish here simply to consider the fitness of the moral means employed by God to effect the complete renovation of man. It requires but a slight inspection of the nature of man to see, that in order to preserve all his powers in harmonious and legitimate action, and secure his highest excellence, he must have a perfect rule of conduct, an object of supreme regard possessing all possible perfection, and be under the action of the strongest conceivable motives. This rule and this object are disclosed to him, essaying to touch every spring of his frame, and to controul every portion of his agency, and challenging his attention, by considerations which embrace whatever is most awful or alluring in the whole range of possible existence and conception.

These motives, abundant and powerful as they are, would yet be as inefficacious in subduing the evil tendencies of our nature and promoting its progressive sanctification, as they are in first bringing the heart to the love of goodness. But in the soul, now prepared for his reception, a divine Agent VOL. I.

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takes his lasting abode, and there produces his own fruits, in opposition to the "works of the flesh." The remaining corruptions of the heart have now to contend, not merely with the rival exercises of a renewed nature, but also with the omnipotent energies of the Divine Spirit, furnishing to the struggling combatant the surest pledges of victory. He sees that though weak in himself, he is strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

What an interesting spectacle does the human heart, the arena of this conflict, now present! The infant principles of goodness contending against the inveterate powers of evil, and, strengthened by divine grace, thriving on their decay,humility contending against pride, meekness against impatience and anger, joy and faith against despondence and inaction, the stature of the new man rising, the whole nature moulded into the divine resemblance, while angels, the spectators of the conflict, carry from sphere to sphere the reports of triumph, and wake the sympathies of heaven into songs of praise to Almighty grace!

As beings of sense, we perceive only the objects of sense by which we are here surrounded, and are blind to those spiritual objects which have been mentioned as means of our moral improvement. And it is by faith only, that we can communicate with these objects, or experience their influence. This organ of our communication with divine things cannot be better described than in the words of our author. "It is to be distinguished from all pretended feelings and impressions assuming its name. The sound exercise of that mental condition which we call faith, consists, therefore, in the reception of certain truths by the judgement--the proper direction of the attention to their moral tendencies, and the habitual influence of them upon the feelings and conduct. When the sacred writers tell us that without faith it is impossible to please God, and when they speak of a man being saved by faith, it is not to a mere admission of certain truths, as a part of his creed, that they ascribe consequences so important; but to a state in which these truths are uniformly followed out to certain results, which they are calculated to produce, according to the usual course of sequences in every sound mind."

When now the natural unbelief of man has been removed, and faith has been wrought in his heart, he is open to all the influences and powers of the upper world. Faith appre

hends the before hidden beauties of holiness, and draws the heart towards them, and detaches it from earth. It overcomes the world by presenting to the affections and hopes objects of inconceivably greater value. If these effects do not follow, it is a sure indication of disorder in the moral feelings. Where these are in consistent exercise, the illumination of faith is a calm and holy light, diffusing over the soul the cleanness of a divine fear. It is a light which reveals the face of its Beloved, brings near his love, imparts his image, and lays open the way to his very throne.

The agency of the Spirit and the operation of faith thus conspire to form the heart to the exercise of that charity, which is the fulfilling of the law. God is love, and the perfect Christian is love. This love, which is the distinguishing grace of the Christian, is also an important means of his advancement in holiness. It fulfils the whole law, because it respects aright the character, the claims, the sympathies of all beings. This is that principle which makes its possessor one in all, so that when he is kind to others he is kind to himself; when he yields them obedience, he best secures his own authority; when he feeds and comforts them, he supplies his own wants, and binds up the broken members of his own body. This is that which makes service, freedom, and submission, empire ;--that "glorious liberty" in which the spirit runs the courses of time, collecting reward from hardship, performing offices at every turn, and gathering sweets from every object. This charity never faileth, but will attend the soul beyond the grave and into the heavenly world; and when faith and hope, the wings which bore our spirits thither, shall now cease, being no longer needed, charity shall still abide, and making us to partake more and more of the nature of God, will fill us with divine blessedness.

If all religions were arraigned at the bar of reason, as so many suspected criminals, would not this one, which furnishes means for the renovation of man, so adapted to the principles and wants of his nature, have a witness to the truth of its pretensions in its very judge? It finds man in a fallen condition; it makes provision for his recovery, both by presenting to his affections and hopes objects worthy of his regard, and furnishing the means by which he may be qualified to obtain and enjoy them.

ART. VI. A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF THE PARABLE OF THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.—Matt. xx. 1—15.

By Rev. THOMAS H. SKINNER, D. D.,

Bartlett Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, in the Theological Seminary,
Andover, Mass.

A REFERENCE to the circumstances which seem to have suggested this parable, will assist us in expounding it. Christ had been remarking, in a very serious manner, on the danger of riches, a striking exemplification of which had just occurred, in a wealthy young ruler's going sorrowfully away from him, upon discovering, under the light of his teaching, the incompatibility of the supreme love of wealth with the love of God. One of the Apostles, on hearing these unusual observations, seems to have congratulated himself and his brethren, that they were obnoxious to no danger from attachment to worldly things. "We have left all and followed thee, what shall we have therefore?" The reply of Jesus was in the highest degree encouraging to all who had renounced the world for his service. "Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel: and every man who hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." But though no self-denial exercised on Christ's account shall pass unrewarded, it is a sentiment wholly inconsistent with the spirit of humble piety, that any rewards conferred by Him on mankind are properly merited by them, or that he is not perfectly free from all the restraints of strict justice, in dispensing his infinite favour; and to repel this sentiment, which is so apt to associate itself with our hopes of heavenly recompense, Christ subjoined to his promise of munificence to his self-renouncing followers, the very significant remark, so often repeated by him on other occasions, that many who are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Nor did he now content himself with merely making this remark; he dwelt upon it at much length, and then reiterated it, that he might if possible fix it immoveably in the minds of his disciples. Our parable is altogether employed in its illus

tration. The design of this parable is to set this remark forth, in such a manner that no room might be left for either ignorance or contradiction. Not only is the parable connected with the remark by the word "for," but at its close, the remark is a second time introduced thus; "so"—that is, as illustrated by the parable,-"the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen."

We therefore know the just scope and purpose of this parable. It is to state and defend this procedure of the divine administration, THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST, AND THE FIRST LAST. It is particularly as exemplified under the gospel, that it is now contemplated. It is as appertaining to "the kingdom of God," that our Saviour here considers it. His doctrine is, that in God's dealings with mankind, according to the gospel, the rule and discipline of Christ's empire, many who are last shall be first, and the first last :-many, first in the distributions of nature and providence, shall be last under the distributions of saving mercy; and on the other hand, many last in the former distributions, shall be first in the latter. This is the doctrine of the parable in its general form.

This doctrine is first stated, and then defended, in the parable: we shall consider both its statement and vindication.

I. The fact itself, that in God's dealings with mankind under the gospel, many who are last shall be first, and the first last, is thus presented in the parable.-A certain householder, or master of a family, would hire labourers into his vineyard. He accordingly went out early in the morning, and employed some; agreeing to give them a penny, the customary wages, for a day's work. Others he employed at nine o'clock, three hours after; promising them what should be right. Others he engaged at twelve o'clock; others at three; and others again not until five o'clock in the afternoon;-agreeing to give them all a reasonable price for their work. At the close of the day, he directed his steward to settle with the labourers, beginning with those who were hired last, and proceeding inversely until he came to the first. This was not all: every labourer received the same wages. They received a penny who had wrought but one hour; and they but a penny who had borne the burden and heat of the day. Such is the parabolic statement of the subject. Thus it is, that under the gospel, many who are first shall be last,