not to refute or answer, but to teach, perhaps it may be advantageous to go farther into the subject.

And this I will do, not merely as a proof of what I have now asserted, but as a most important advance in the science of Christian Ethics.

The reader will remember that the objections say, "True: God is the Highest Good; to be like Him is the Supreme Happiness; it was so to Christ and so to Adam. It cannot be so to us, because we are not as was Christ, we are not as was Adam."

We are not as our Lord; this is manifest. Whether that dissimilarity is of such a nature as to cause that Moral Good shall not be to us the same as to him, or that the Supreme Rule of Action to our Lord shall not be the Supreme Rule to us, are matters which, however easily settled, I shall not here meddle with. The objection that says, "We are not as Adam, and therefore the rule and law of Adam cannot apply to us,"—this I shall first take up. The objection says, "We are not as Adam." What, then, was Adam? That which we have above described.

And what are we? The answer is, we are "fallen;" this is the answer of all Christians. "We are fallen."

But how far fallen-to what degree? The answer with reference to degree is, "80 far fallen as yet to be men," not so far as to cease to be men; but so far as, being still men, we could fall; fallen, but not so fallen as to be Devils, all evil in nature, or to be beasts, altogether indifferent to good. Man's nature is a fallen nature;* "as far gone as it can be" from Original Righteousness, but not farther; a nature still Human, not a fiendish nature, or a bestial one. In the first chapter I have shown this; I have shown that we must count that man's nature yet is good.

Wherein, then, is the difference, if man's nature before the Fall was good, after the Fall is also good? Is it not, then, not fallen? We answer that it is fallen, although good, and we proceed to explain how it is fallen.

In theological language, the state of man now differs from that in Paradise, in Sin, Original and Actual. We have not to discuss the nature of Original or Actual Sin, for this is out of our way at present, only to show how the two states differ as regards the

* The 9th Article of the Church, "Very far gone;" better translated as above, the Latin being "quam longissime."

condition and moral nature of man. We remarked upon the state of man before the Fall; we showed that his Highest Good was God, his Highest Law the Will of God; that this was so by his nature, by his being in "the image of God." And then we showed that the Supernatural Gift of the HOLY SPIRIT abode with him, revealing "God," the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, as a LAW, so that man, "the image of God," as in a mirror, reflected the perfection of God in his Will, in his Affections, and in his Actions. In his own nature being good, he became, because of that Supernatural Gift, in finite and bounded existence, an image of the Infinite and Supreme.

To this we shall add two observations to confirm this view. The first is, that "God is a law unto himself, and has a law under which, so to speak, he is; the Law of his own infinite perfections and infinite goodness." He does not make that evil which is good, or that good which was evil by an exertion of Almighty Power; but that is good that is according to his nature, and that is evil which is against his nature.

And therefore it is, that he alone is the good, all others are good. as a quality in them exists, which is kindred to Him. And, so it follows, that of all things that are good, you may use the words, "God is."* Men may have them as qualities, but God is them— thus "God is Love," "God is Justice," "God is Holiness." Men have them, as I said, as qualities, but God as substantial realities, and parts of his very being.

Now, the relation of finite beings towards the Infinite God, being such as I have observed, such too being the nature of God, it follows that the Revelation, by the Spirit of God to Adam, must have been to him the supreme law of action in a moral point of view, an indwelling, we may say, of the Spirit of God in his heart with a law infallible of action, thought, and word. And that not as to us, but immediate, intuitive, direct, requiring nought of thought, labor, or experience, but at once and immediate to his mind.

And this immediate discernment, or rather presence of God, as the Supreme Good, the Supreme Rule of Good, brought about by the Supernatural Gift of the Spirit, is that of which mention is made in the Scriptures of the New Testament, as "seeing God." * The reader will please look back to the quotation from Bp. Beveridge, in the note on page 27, as to the phrase, "I am belonging to God.

And in this manifestly the highest perfection of a finite being. that is good must consist; this gift being withdrawn he will not be perfect, although his nature still may be good.

Now I can appeal to every one, whether the yearnings of the heart do not answer back to this picture; whether we do not yearn after an higher good; whether we do not feel that an internal good dwelling in us, but not of us, and at once revealing to us the Highest Good, and being it, whether this is not that which we feel at once most suitable and most desirable to our nature?

Man feels himself to be no fiend, he feels himself to be no beast, he feels his nature to be essentially, that is, in its own being, good; but that there is a correlative wanting to it, because of which it is imperfect. This he knows from the first moment of existence to the last. And as this, his Supernatural Gift and aid, has been withdrawn from him, thereby his Nature, although still it is good, is "very far gone from Original Righteousness."

Now with regard to man's own nature, in its being, is there any change in it? And if there be, what in kind and what in degree?

If my reader will turn back a few pages, he will see that there I recount various objects of pursuit which men make ruling objects of their life. He will see that these range from the very low to the very high, so that very distinctly men shall say, "to make this a governing desire and leading object of life, is base and mean," the pleasures of sense, for instance, and "this" intellectual pleasure for instance, "is higher," and this moral object, the "sense of duty," for instance, higher still. Which observation, leads at once to the conclusion, that of our whole nature, no part, to speak in a general way, being anything but good in itself—there are some parts subordinate and some superior. Hence is it that the perfection of our nature does and must consist in this subordination or due proportion and harmony of the whole nature.

We will illustrate it a little more. There are manifestly governing powers in man. The Will, the Conscience, the Affections, the Reason-these are good always, at all times, as governing powers, guiding man on his course. We say not any one of these separately, but all of them together, as the proper governing powers of man.

Then come passions, desires, feelings, appetites, instincts.

These are manifestly good also, but only in their place, and in

their time, and not at all times, or in all places; and not at all as ruling or guiding, but as being ruled and guided.

Now herein is man's nature of itself, in consequence of the Fall, weakened, that the lower faculties, the passions, desires, feelings, appetites, instincts, these tend to assume the place of the higher, and themselves to rule when they ought to be ruled.

And secondly, the ruling faculties are weakened so as to permit this insubordination. The Will is weakened, or loses its power in various ways; the Conscience as a faculty, is in various ways injured; the Affections perverted to unsuitable objects, or wholly alloyed by the passions, and the Reason obscured.

For this, too, we appeal to no dry discussion, but to man's nature and to the experience of every man that has ever thought. Who is the man that is naturally the best in your circle of acquaintance? Why, it is that man that unites, in the greatest perfection, these four governing powers,-first, the Will,—he that having a straight, definite, decided course before him, pursues it with decision and energy from day to day; second, the Conscience, -who in that course makes it his main object to go according to his sense of right and wrong; third, the Affections,—he who, as regards his brethren, observes the great Christian rule of "loving his neighbour as himself;" and fourth, the Reason,-who tempers all this into a harmonious and consistent course by a considerate mind. This man manifestly is the man, that of our neighbours we judge and see to be the best, having perhaps the inferior qualities as strong as others have, but ruling them by these powers, which ought to rule.

And again, when we look about for those whom we count the worst, we see that they are the men whose conduct is not ruled by these ruling qualities, but by some of the lower and baser ones.

And in ourselves, do we not in our inmost soul, whenever we feel that we have acted wrongly, whenever we have a consciousness of evil or of sin, do we not always know and feel, "Oh! that my Will were perfect; Oh! that my Conscience were a sure and certain guide, my Affections rightly directed, and my Reason as clear and active as it might be; if this were so, then would I be perfect!" Manifestly this is the feeling of all men; an universal persuasion this, of all men and all ages, that declares the one source of man's imperfections of nature, to be in the insubordination of his faculties.

Man's nature then may be good, nay, each faculty of it may be good, and yet the nature in itself be a fallen one, as an insubordinate, a disturbed one.

The consequences then of the fall, are these: First, that the Supernatural Gift is withdrawn, which revealed God to thy nature immediately; and Secondly, because of this, thy nature, which would have answered, and did answer, by its law unto God the Supreme Law, is insubordinate. These are, according to the Ethical doctrine of the Christian Church of antiquity, the precise injuries inflicted upon man by the fall. These and none else.

Now if we shall look at our present nature as fallen, having clearly and distinctly in mind these truths, we shall see what is the real and true measure of good to the present man. We shall see that it is neither more nor less than that it was to Adam in Paradise, the being and qualities of God, and the being in ourselves like to him.

And in order that this should be so, when we consider the previous elements of the problem, there must be two things. In the first place, there must be a feeling of this in our nature, existing and capable of looking even blindly and by instinct towards Him. In the second place, there must be outward agencies at work upon us, that will call into action that natural feeling, just as the sun and rain, the influences of the seasons, call forth the germ in the plant. That man's nature is good, that of itself it is not indifferent or fiendish, but made "in the image," this affords the first requisite. The nature of man, of itself, feels its own disorder, and it desires to be ordered and ruled by a superior Will, and looks after and towards it blindly, as the new-born child for the mother's breast will open and close its mouth, and desire what it does not know, but knows yet that something is wanting.

I could go over the Heathen writers antecedent to Christ, both Greek and Roman, and also the more ancient philosophy of the Hindoos, Chinese and original Persians, now opened to us by the industry of the modern oriental scholars of England, Germany and France, as well as the Northern Mythology, and show by them, that apart from all revelation, and before it, the attempts in Moral Science of unassisted nature rush towards God as the "Supreme Good," and supreme standard of good, and will be contented with no standard lower.

But I seek not to make a parade of learning, and I merely as