“Jesus Christ did not come, let it be remembered, to establish a mere external morality, that his followers might be screened from human laws and human justice, for human laws will take care of this. The holy institution of Christianity has a nobler object, that of purifying our hearts and regulating our behaviour by the love of God. In the most practical accounts of the proceedings of the last day given in the Scriptures, the excellency which is represented as being a criterion and distinguishing feature of the disciple of Christ, and which He will acknowledge, is: Christian benevolence—love to man manifested in the relief of the poor. The Apostle St. John has given us a most sublime description of the love of God, when he says, ‘God is love;’ love is not so much an attribute of His nature as His _very essence_; the spirit of Himself. Christian benevolence is not only the ‘image of God,’ but is peculiarly an imitation of Christ.” “I do not ask, my brethren, what particular virtue you have, but _how much are you under the influence of Him_? for just so much virtue we have, as we have of His spirit and character.” “Our Saviour places the acceptance of men, not upon their dispositions, but upon their actions; upon what _they have done_, not upon what they have _merely believed_ or _felt_, or in any undefined state of mind.”—“I am persuaded that the cause of the ruin of professing Christians does not arise so much from a mistake of the doctrines of Christianity as from a low idea of Christian morals; in abstaining from certain crimes and disorders through fear of the loss of character and of punishment, without reflecting on the spirit of that holy religion which we profess.”—“Christ went about doing good, not as an _occasional_ exercise, but as his _employment_; it was the one thing which he did. Though possessed of infinite power, he never employed it in resenting or retaliating an injury. He was pre-eminently devout. His was an active life; it was not the life of a solitary monk. That devotion which terminates in itself is a luxury which sometimes perverts the principles of benevolence to a pernicious purpose. Let us rather recede from being called Christians than forget the great symbol of our profession, love to one another.” [Picture: Decorative header] LETTER VIII. PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, SUB AND SUPRALAPSARIANS, SANDEMANIANS.