thoughts and feelings of the world must yet have a broader channel and a freer course.

Let there be controversy. That is a different thing. It is probably a necessary thing. It is undoubtedly useful. So far from complaining and mourning about it, I welcome it, though not its too common spirit,-as a cause of good. That, I say, is a different thing from what I object against. Controversy is the contest of mind with mind. It is an intellectual business. It enforces no bonds of mental servitude. But this banding and herding of men together in sects and parties, is what a liberal and intelligent age ought not much longer to endure. It is mechanical and slavish. It is the rudeness and barbarism of religious investigation. It is the feudal age of Christianity. So shall it not be, with the word of the Lord. It shall have free course and be glorified." So shall it not be with the mind. It shall go forth and abroad, beyond all sectarian boundaries. It must have this "free course" or it can never be glorified" in that liberty and enlargement to which it is destined.

ACTS x. 34, 35.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

It was only within a short time that Peter believed this; and the greater part of Christendom does not believe it to this day. The apostles came slowly to the noble conviction. The sects of the religious world, exclusive and opinionated, come to it more slowly still. Peter saw a vision, before he could believe that God cared as much for the Gentiles as for the Jews. I would that all the dreams of zealous men had been as rational and benevolent as his! But what need have we of a vision, or sign from heaven? The testimony of our own minds, if not thwarted by prejudices, will be sufficient. The judg ment of the Jews was so thwarted. Their national vanity led them to regard the Deity as peculiarly their own, and as watchful over them with an exclusive favor. They were his chosen, and all things were made for them. Israel was his abode and possession. Zion was the centre and top of the world, and they were appointed to be priests and kings of the world. Nothing can exceed the littleness, the selfishness and conceitedness of their ideas

on this subject. The apostles came out at last from the imagination that God was a partial being. They did what they could to cure that distempered fancy. But it came down, in spite of their authority, into the half Jewish Christianity that afterwards prevailed; and the whole church has in one or another form been infected with it. Let us have done with every remnant of the fatal mistake, that the divine favor is a confined or an arbitrary thing; that the divine approbation can be any thing else than a moral approbation. It is Jewish, and not Christian. It is borrowed from the miserable notions of the rudest ages of mankind. When we look over the world, and see how it is embraced within the keeping of a common providence; when we see that the laws of the heavenly administration are the same in every part of it, with the same rewards for goodness, and the same judgments for sin; when we see what varied provision is made out of that fulness, of which all partake; we must perceive of a truth that God is no respecter of persons. And if we will but lay out of our minds the poor furniture of traditionary error and sectarian pride, we shall feel that "in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."

The simple truth contained in the text is sufficient to confute all the superstitions on earth. For it shows us what is the substance of true religion, the whole substance of it. Other things than those which it mentions may be religious, but they are not religion. They are helps to it, or they are expressions of it, but they are not the principle itself.

I propose in this discourse to present the fear of God, and the practice of righteousness, as the two great constituents of religion; and then to describe the nature of the acceptance, which is here promised. 1. And first of the fear of God. This phrase was used by the Hebrews to express generally the sentiment of piety;--not awe and reverence merely, but all those trains of thought and feeling, which have God immediately for their object. They

selected from these the impression, which in their minds was far the strongest, to represent the rest ;-and it was FEAR. By this word, throughout the Old Testament, are recommended all the duties that relate directly to the Supreme Being. "Thy fear of him," it is written in the ancient book of Job, "should be thy confidence ;" though, if we interpret this passage according to the letter, no emotion is so little calculated to inspire confidence as fear. And Ecclesiastes, the preacher, sums up his gloomy parable with the exhortation to "fear God and keep his commandments, which is the whole duty of man." The attributes of Deity, which their minds received most easily, and dwelt most constantly on, were majesty and power. He was "the Lord of hosts," "a mighty and terrible." His way was in the deep. His tent was in the stormy sky. He gave his voice in the thunder. The mountain was a volcano because-he had "touched the hill and it smoked." With these conceptions of him, it was most natural that their predominant impression should be fear, and that they should include under that name all the inward service due to him from his creatures.

The gospel also expresses the whole of this service by a single word; one, too, which in the same manner puts a part of piety for its full substance. This word is LOVE. The New Testament speaks most commonly of the love of God, where the old would use the epithet fear. They mean the same thing,-piety. But this difference of expression illustrates the different characters of the two dispensations. One was a religion of bondage, the other of freedom; one of the letter, the other of the spirit; one of ritual and sacrifice, the other of the heart; one of a servile dread, the other of an affectionate duty. One presents to us "a great king over all the earth." The other reveals a compassionate Father of the spirits of all flesh. One had nothing better to promise than the earthly blessings, which there is so much to alloy, and which perish in the using. The other confirmed the hope of those which are immortal.

The first great requisite, then, for obtaining the divine favor, is a devout mind. Many things are implied in this. There must be faith in the being and providence of God; for none can approach him without believing that he is, and that his notice is extended to them. There must be trust in his faithfulness, gratitude for his benefits, submission to his will. There must be the fear that keeps men from evil, and the love that prevents that fear from being slavish. There must be the disposition to pay him homage as the author of creation, the framer of our natures, the arbiter of our destinies; to meditate on his goodness and truth; to acknowledge him as our proprietor, and to make supplication to him as our Judge. All this, and more, is comprehended in the demands of a thorough piety. It is to be the chief principle of action, source of comfort, foundation of hope. And all this is required of those, who have been perfectly instructed, and enjoyed the highest means of religious improvement. It is required of us, each and all. But as in different nations there are different degrees of knowledge, motive and means, the idea of religious obligation will not be the same in them all, but will be in one elevated and in another imperfect, and will embrace in one more particulars than it does in another. The "fear" of the disciple of Moses, however sincerely it may have been cultivated, did not come up to the "love" of the disciple of Jesus Christ. But since it was all he was taught, it was of course all for which he was answerable. And this principle we may extend to the religions of all the corners of the earth. Over the spots on which our own churches are built, the sons of the forest once worshipped the great Spirit; rudely indeed, but singly and in truth. They "feared" him, according to the spirit of the text. They stood in awe of the Mighty One. And so far as any one of them was true to the light that was within him, do you believe that Solomon went from his new temple, just filled with the glory of the Lord, more justified than he? As for ourselves, if what the apostle calls "the spirit of adoption" has not been received into our hearts,