looked not back, but held on their way, and accomplished their work, at the risk of reputation, of usefulness, of freedom and of property. They indeed laboured, and we of the present generation have entered into their labours. O that at the same time we could enter into that zeal for the glory of God, and lively concern for the welfare of men, that unwearied activity in the diffusion of truth, and unshaken fortitude in meeting calumny and danger, which prompted them to undertake their task, and enabled them under the divine blessing to carry it on so far towards its accomplishment!

Who that beholds the progress which the doctrine of the Unity of God has made in this kingdom, since the period to which I allude, can avoid exclaiming, " It is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes?" Who that reflects on the simplicity and scriptural authority of this doctrine, and on the inquiring spirit of the age, will think that we indulge the visions. of a romantic imagination, in looking forward to its becoming the recognised belief of the Christian church, and, by purifying the gospel from one of its most revolting difficulties, preparing the way for its progress among those nations to whom the popular faith presents insuperable obstacles? It is not indeed for us to

know the times and the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power; his kingdom cometh not with observation: and I believe that the open defection from the doctrines of orthodoxy, extensive and increasing as it is, is far less than the secret and almost unconscious renunciation of them, especially in those countries where controversy has not roused the spirit of contradiction. The avowal and even the reception of the truth are influenced by a variety of accidental causes; it may be abandoned by those whom we thought most zealously attached to it; the dispensations of Providence may call away its most faithful advocates, ere half their term of years appear to have been completed. We possess the treasure in earthen vessels; but the treasure itself is incorruptible, incapable of waste or destruction. Like a consecrated weapon, truth descends from one generation to another, sometimes wielded by a feebler, sometimes by a more vigorous arm: but its own ethereal temper is unchanged, and its enemies shall continue to feel its penetrative power, till the last of them has resigned the contest. It is mighty, and in this conflict it must prevail; the maxim rests not only on the authority of successive ages of men, who have witnessed its partial accomplishment and transmitted it with the

seal of their experience, but on the character and perfections of God, who must design the greatest happiness of his reasonable offspring, and whose power nothing can oppose and prosper.

THE END.

Lately published, price 1s.

The Necessity of Revelation to teach the Doctrine of a Future Life: a Sermon, by John Kenrick, M. A. Second edition.

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