over. Next, pray, what kind of a virtue is that,
which is _not_ done for its own sake? So this, after all, is this
writer's idea of virtue! a something that is done for the sake of
something _else_; a sort of expedience! He is honest, it seems,
simply _because_ honesty is "the best policy," and on that score it
is that he thinks himself virtuous. Why, "for its own sake" enters
into the very idea or definition of a virtue. Defend me from such
virtuous men, as this writer would inflict upon us! Blot
_thirty-six_.

These blots are enough just now; so I proceed to a brief sketch of
what I held in 1833 upon the Economy, as a rule of practice. I wrote
this two months ago; perhaps the composition is not quite in keeping
with the run of this Appendix; and it is short; but I think it will
be sufficient for my purpose:--

The doctrine of the _Economia_, had, as I have shown, pp. 49-51, a
large signification when applied to the divine ordinances; it also
had a definite application to the duties of Christians, whether
clergy or laity, in preaching, in instructing or catechizing, or in
ordinary intercourse with the world around them.

As Almighty God did not all at once introduce the Gospel to the
world, and thereby gradually prepared men for its profitable
reception, so, according to the doctrine of the early Church, it was
a duty, for the sake of the heathen among whom they lived, to observe
a great reserve and caution in communicating to them the knowledge of
"the whole counsel of God." This cautious dispensation of the truth,
after the manner of a discreet and vigilant steward, is denoted by
the word "economy." It is a mode of acting which comes under the head
of prudence, one of the four cardinal virtues.

The principle of the economy is this; that out of various courses, in
religious conduct or statement, all and each _allowable antecedently
and in themselves_, that ought to be taken which is most expedient
and most suitable at the time for the object in hand.

Instances of its application and exercise in Scripture are such as
the following:--1. Divine Providence did but gradually impart to the
world in general, and to the Jews in particular, the knowledge of His
will:--He is said to have "winked at the times of ignorance among the
heathen;" and He suffered in the Jews divorce "because of the
hardness of their hearts." 2. He has allowed Himself to be
represented as having eyes, ears, and hands, as having wrath,
jealou