hat there is no love of holiness as such; no
endeavour to acquire it, no care to prepare the soul for the reception
of this divine principle, and to expel or keep under whatever might be
likely to obstruct its entrance, or dispute its sovereignty.

It is indeed a most lamentable consequence of the practice of regarding
Religion as a compilation of statutes, and not as an internal principle,
that it soon comes to be considered as being conversant about _external
actions_ rather than about _habits of mind_. This sentiment sometimes
has even the hardiness to insinuate and maintain itself under the guise
of extraordinary concern for _practical Religion_; but it soon discovers
the falsehood of this pretension, and betrays its real nature. The
expedient indeed of attaining to superiority in practice, by not wasting
any of the attention on the internal principles from which alone
practice can flow, is about as reasonable, and will answer about as
well, as the oeconomy of the architect, who should account it mere
prodigality to expend any of his materials in laying foundations, from
an idea that they might be more usefully applied to the raising of the
superstructure. We know what would be the fate of such an edifice.

It is indeed true, and a truth never to be forgotten, that all
pretensions to internal principles of holiness are vain when they are
contradicted by the conduct; but it is no less true, that the only
effectual way of improving the latter, is by a vigilant attention to the
former. It was therefore our blessed Saviour's injunction, "Make the
tree good" as the necessary means of obtaining good fruit; and the holy
Scriptures abound in admonitions, to let it be our chief business to
cultivate our hearts with all diligence, to examine into their state
with impartiality, and watch over them with continual care. Indeed it is
the _Heart_ which constitutes the _Man_; and external actions derive
their whole character and meaning from the motives and dispositions of
which they are the indications. Human judicatures, it is true, are
chiefly conversant about the former, but this is only because to our
limited perceptions the latter can seldom be any otherwise clearly
ascertained. The real object of inquiry to human judicatures is the
_internal_ disposition; it is to this that they adapt the nature, and
proportion the degree, of their punishments.

Yet though this be a truth so obvious, so established, that to have
insisted o