our faith to light. So that, if faith have not served its office before that time, it is a dead letter then; and if it have served its good office, there is no need to make words about the matter. The question at present is, whether we believe or disbelieve, because to disbelieve Christ, with all his commendatory graces and benefits, doth indicate a rebellious and debased spirit, most unsafe to die and go to judgment with. But the question hereafter is not, Do you believe? but, Have you believed? to ascertain which question, the heart of the party is bared, and his life unrolled; and if it appear to the judge unequivocal, he stands acquitted, if not, he stands condemned.

Notwithstanding the clearness of these principles, and their coincidence with all which Christ and his Apostles have written both of judgment and of faith, I am convinced, from the constant demand of the religious world for the preaching of faith and forgiveness, and their constant kicking against the preaching of Christian morals; the constant appetite for mercy, and disrelish of righteousness and judgment; or if righteousness, it be the constant demand that it should be the imputed righteousness of Christ, not our own personal righteousness; from these features of the evangelical part of men, I do greatly fear, nay I am convinced that many of them are piliowing their hopes upon something else than the sanctification and changed life which the Gospel hath wrought. Let no one mistake me, (for though I care little about the mistake on my own account, I am too much concerned for the sake of others in the success of this argument to wish to be mistaken) as if I advocated salvation from the wrath to come upon the ground of self-righteousness. But this I argue, and will argue, that unless the helps and doctrines of grace, deservedly in such repute, unless the free forgiveness purchased by the death of Christ, the sanctification by the work of the Spirit, and every thing else encouraging and consolatory in the word of God, have operated their natural and due effect in delivering our members from the power of sin, and joining our affections to Christ and his poorest brethren, and of working deep and searching purification within all the fountains of our heart; then it will only aggravate our condemnation ten times, that we have known, that we have believed, that we have prized these great revelations of the power and goodness of God, and insisted with a most tyrannical and overbearing sway, that our pastors should hold on pronouncing them unceasingly, unsparingly Sabbath after Sabbath. I greatly fear, I say

again, that this modern contraction of the Gospel into the span of one or two ideas, this promulgation of it, as if it were a drawling monotony of sweetness, a lullaby for a baby spirit, with no music of mighty feeling, nor swells of grandeur, nor declensions of deepest pathos, nor thrilling themes of terror; as if it were a thing for a shepherd's love-sick lute, or a sentimentalist's Eolian harp, instead of being for the great organ of human thought and feeling, through all the stops and pipes of this various world; I say, I fear greatly lest this strain of preaching Christ, the most feeble and ineffectual which the Christian world hath ever heard, should have lulled many into a quietus of the soul, under which they are resting sweetly from searching inquiry into their personal estate, and will pass composedly through death unto the awful judgment.

Now what difference is it, whether the active spirit of a man is laid asleep by the comfort of the holy wafer and extreme unction, to be his viaticum and passport into heaven, or by the constant charm of a few words sounded and sounded, and eternally sounded about Christ's sufficiency to save? In the holy name of Christ, and the three times holy name of God, have they declared aught to men, or are they capable of declaring aught to men, which should not work upon men the desire and the power of holiness? Why then do I hear the constant babbling about simple reliance and simple dependance upon Christ, instead of most scriptural and sound-minded calls to activity and perseverance after every perfection. And, oh! they will die mantled in their vain delusion, as the Catholic dies; and when the soothing voice of their consolatory teacher is passed into inaudible distance, conscience will arise with pensive reflection, and pale fear, her two daughters, to take an account of the progress and exact advancement of their mind. And should she not be able to disabuse them of their rooted errors, they will come up to judgment; and upon beholding the Judge, march forward with the confidence of old acquaintance, and salute him," Lord, Lord;" and when he sitteth silent, eyeing them with severe aspect, they will begin to wonder at his want of recognizance; and, to aid his memory, make mention of their great advancement in the faith; "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" But how shall their assurance stagger back upon their minds, and sink them spiritless into uttermost dismay, when the Judge, opening those awful lips upon which hang

the destinies of worlds, shall profess unto them," I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Now, upon the other hand, while I deal freely by the prejudices of my religious brethren, I do but introduce myself with the better grace to speak as freely upon the prejudices which the less spiritual part of the world have upon this awful event; who, while they profess to believe in Christ, do advance into an equal place within the temple of their thoughts many other objects of admiration and affection, at whose shrine they offer incense, so that after a life spent in giving him only a republican share of their regards, they cannot see how in the end he should sit supreme, the Lord of judgment and of fate. Nor will they cease to wonder that he should be so advanced, until they come to recognise him as the representative of God, the all-be holding sovereign, before whom every action should bow the kneethe all-hearing auditor, into whose car every word should breathe its confession-and the all-conscious fountain of understanding, to whom every thou,,ht should acknowledge its obligations, and perform its homage. But things being accounted of, as they seem in the eye of blinded nature, and not brought to the law of God, to be there weighed in the balance, it cometh to pass, that many principles in themselves amiable, but yet not so excellent as the love of God, are taken to the heart, and many services praiseworthy in themselves, yet not so exalted or enlarged as the service of Christ, are followed after. Now, those who know no better than as blinded nature teacheth, do offer no contempt to God in not using his noble discipline and guidance of the soul, which they know not; and if they do reverence to the good instincts which he hath implanted within their breasts, I do think that the amiable sentiments of nature and the praiseworthy pursuits of the worthy will stand them in stead before the Judge of all. But not so to us, who have had the horn of God's treasures emptied into our lap, and the oil of his consolation and joy poured over our head, and have rejected the use and blessing of them, to follow after nature's and the world's ruler; not to us will they stand in any stead! For, are we not bound to listen unto the voice of him who made us, even though not bringing a gift; and is it not guilty in the creature to spurn his parental Creator and Preserver, when uttering his good will? how much more obligated to receive him kindly, when bringing ten thousand institutions of good, and bonds of tender love! how much more guilty, if we turn a heedless mind and a callous

heart to his offerings, and spurn him from the tabernacles where he keepeth us, and which he would fain overshadow with his grace!

Thinkest thou then, my brother, because thou art following after stainless honour, diligently avoiding all meanness and untruth and ignoble ways; or, because thou art following after honest traffic, diligently shunning injustice or wrongous advantage or usurious gains; or, because thou art following after the liberation of men from political thraldom, fighting in thy courses against corruption and oppression, and the rod of tyranny; or, because thou art following after pure and blessed philanthropy, visiting prisons and dungeon-glooms, and midnight revelries, and sickly hospitals, and doing thine utmost to medicate the natural maladies and self-inflicted wounds of human life; or, because thou art escaping out of the sphere of vulgar ignorance, to bask above its cloudy region in the everlasting beams of truth and knowledge, and bringest tidings to the wondering throng, of things yet unattempted and unknown-Thinkest thou, my brother, that for one or all of these good and noble affections and pursuits of thy soul, thou shalt not be challenged by thy Creator, whose authority thou didst not regard in thy manifold avocations, and to whose glory thou didst not give the praise of all which he put it in thy heart to think, and enabled thy hand to perform? If thou dost, thou judgest far, far amiss, and hast need to be disabused by words of counsel, which for thy soul's sake I now beg leave to offer thee.

These excellent and amiable pursuits, which Nature prompts to with a voice less or more distinctly pronounced in every breast, and which call forth the good parts of her consciousness, and draw out the admiration of others over the head of envy and every bad principle, are worthy of all your estimation; and may his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth who would enter into argument against them! Now if God did withdraw your footsteps from such high walks of virtue, I should hesitate once or twice whether it was better to listen to him or not. But, seeing he doth but lift another voice in harmony with Nature's voice in their behalf, and superadd to the rewards from within and from without, a greater reward from above; and, that you may not by obstacles be impeded, or by discouragement be downcast, doth offer you every aid and needful instrument, and whisper into your ear that his Almighty power is on your side, and will enable you to surmount every let and hin

drance,-why should you refuse to take him to your side as a coadjutor, or to acknowledge him as your leader, and render to him the glory of your success? Is it a hard thing for thee to march under the banner of him that is the Almighty? is it a debasing thing to acknowledge as thy chief the Lord of heaven and earth? is it a slavish thing to be indebted for counsel and for further strength to the Creator who gave thee thy present counsel and meted out to thee thy present strength? Nay, but, my brother, is it not a proud thing in thee to give him no acknowledgment for thine excellent parts of nature? And is it not a disloyal thing for thee to make a head for thyself, when thy Captain summoneth all fencible men to march to his help against the mighty? And in the little head thou makest for thyself in the battle, is it not most contemptuous for thee to leave the lines, and, like a vain, vapouring, unsoldierly bravo, go tilting on thine own pleasure and responsibility? Then at thy responsibility be it; and if by court-martial thou be condemned, whom hast thou to blame but thy proud and petulant self?

But I seem to myself to mince the matter with the world in my wish to embrace them with the brotherly tenderness

of this argument. For upon looking at these virtuous avocations of men with a less complaisant and juster eye, I do perceive that they often exalt themselves into a head and leading against Christ, and become nestling-places for those high-faculties of human nature which are too high to stoop to be counselled by him that is the Almighty. I do find your men of honour, arching their proud brows at the harmless glories of a Christian; and your men accomplished in incorruptible honesty, presuming thereupon to claim a free passage into heaven, and setting at nought our self-veiling doctrines; and your public-spirited advocates of good government, I do find sneering upon the self-government of the Christian, and screening private delinquency behind public spirit, dying in the faith that mere patriotism will save a man, and requiring the same sentiment to be sculptured on their tombs. And your philanthropists, (be Howard for ever an exception, who appointed for the panegyric of his tomb, " In Christ is my trust,") I do frequently find magnifying their deeds and making them honourable, and placing their everlasting confidence upon their charitable works. And for Knowledge-she is as vain as the plumed peacock, and stretcheth out her neck on high, and calleth to the stars of heaven to magnify her greatness. The sons of knowledge or fancy, having gotten a spark from