It should therefore be a matter of extreme caution with every man, how he trifles with sacred things, and how he resolves them into the mere speculations of the human mind. Such speculations may be ingenious, and yet false; they may be abstruse and erudite, and yet nothing worth. Universally may they be disowned, without impairing the piety, or endangering the salvation of the soul. But at the same time, let each individual be sure, that neither passion, nor prejudice, nor ignorance is suffered to triumph over his understanding, to the disparagement of those words of eternal life, which, so far from being exclusively Calvinistick, have been adhered to by the friends of Jesus from the earliest promulgation of the gospel; those words of eternal life, which the Church ever has recognised, and which she never will relinquish, so long as she retains a sanctuary for her children, and a faithful minister to stand at her altar.

She is indeed catholick and enlightened in her views of religion, but in nothing does she presume to be more so, than its divine Author; in nothing will she sooner accommodate herself to the lax principles of some, than to the excessively rigid and austere sentiments of others. But her course is the happy medium pursued by Christ himself; in appearance simple without baldness, and beauti-ful without pageantry; in spirit humble without cant, and grave without hypocrisy; in doctrine liberal without licentiousness, and tenacious without bigotry. Whoever repairs to her, with other views and prepossessions, must either rescind them, or find no pleasure in her communion. He must walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, or he will obtain no passport from her to the heavenly world.

The preceding remarks must have convinced you, that the melancholy doctrines of arbitrary election and reprobation have no form, nor comeliness, no beauty in her eyes, that she should desire them; and with the divine blessing, I propose, upon the ensuing sabbath, to prove, that she is equally pure and free from blemish, in the remaining articles of her faith. And may Almighty God, of his infinite mercy, enable us to discern their truth; may we be inhe grant duced to receive them into honest and good hearts; may us capacity to understand, wisdom to improve, and grace to obey; and to Him, the Father, to the Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, shall be ascribed all the glory, and honour, and praise, world without end. AMEN.

SERMON XVI.

ISAIAH lxii. 1.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

HAVING concluded a very brief and cursory survey of the doctrines of the Church, in relation to the natural corruption of man, the extent of Christ's redemption, and the much debated subjects of election and reprobation; I am compelled to prolong the investigation, for the purpose of vindicating "the salvation thereof," in some other particulars, upon which her opinions are either grossly misunderstood or designedly misrepresented. Ignorance is unquestionably the principal cause; but then the promotion of a sect, the interests of a party, come in for their full share of productive capital, in the ungracious office of defaming the views, she is solicitous to maintain upon the prominent features of the gospel.

It is said, for example, that we entertain a confident persuasion of the inherent capacity of the sinner to work out his own salvation, and that the Holy Spirit is by no means an indispensable agent in the process of conversion. But where our accusers obtain their au thority for a charge, so grave and imposing, is to me entirely unknown. If true, it would indeed destroy all our pretensions to the Christian name, and convict us of what the Apostles would have boldly pronounced a damnable heresy. We deny it with deserved, and I trust with holy indignation. No more can we advance one single step towards the attainment of the graces of religion, without the assistance of the Spirit of our God, than deprived of his providential care and protection, we could inspire one breath of air, or move a muscle of the body. But are we here corporeally dependant? So in the more noble functions and susceptibilities of the soul, we are spiritually dependant; the Holy Ghost is our indispen sable guide and director; the purveyor of every good thought, and word, and deed.

Listen to the strong and plenary language of our tenth article; "The condition of man after the fall of Adam, is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God, by Christ preventing" that is, preceding "us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will." Does this look like winning Christ and heaven, by our own unaided efforts? Can our fellow Christians present us with a more humble acknowledgment of their reliance upon the divine assistance? Let them produce it; let an inquisition be held, and if it should prove scriptural and orthodox, we will gladly embrace it; we have no objection to the most positive contradiction of mere human ability to choose the good, and refuse the evil.

All that we contend for is this. In the order of nature, God hath given us power to elevate the arm in compliance with our own volition, and in the order of grace, he has equally bestowed upon us the power to learn his will, and observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded us. Upon no other principle can we account for the well known remonstrance addressed to the Jewish nation, "Q Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help," or that yet more severe reprimand pronounced, by our Saviour, against the unbelieving Jews, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Declarations, which plainly indicate the necessity of human co-operation, in attaining the virtues of the divine life, and as plainly evince, that the inclination of God to save is only frustrated by the disinclination of man to obey. Power he gives, capacity he does not withhold, the Spirit is perpetually admonishing us to accept the overtures of redeeming love; but whatever may have been the character of Paul's conversion, the age of miracles has terminated; supernatural coercion is no longer employed. We have it submitted to our personal choice to become penitent, and faithful, and obedient, and in case of failure, can ascribe it to no other cause, than our fatal opposition to the will of heaven. Irresistible grace is an invention of modern times. He, that waits for it, may as soon calculate upon gathering a redundant harvest from fallow ground. If he does not put forth the best labour of his head and heart, he will only sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

There is however another form, in which the same charge is virtually brought against us. We are accused of disowning the new birth, or rather of limiting it to the external act of baptism. Upon what foundation? Because in our baptismal offices, immediately after the sacrament is administered, it is said, "Seeing now, dearly. beloved Brethren, that this child is regenerate;" and "these persons are regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church." But a more illiberal criticism was never offered; a more disingenuous appeal to the prejudices of the uninformed never made. When will the individuals, who seemingly love to misinterpret our language, learn to be candid and magnanimous? How often are we to be required to refute an oft refuted calumny?

If there were the slightest real cause for its circulation, there would be no applause from the Christian world, which they might not justly challenge, for their unremitted assiduity in decrying a Church capable of countenancing so gross a fallacy, as to identify the shadow, with the substance of religion; as to confound the outward and visible sign, with the inward and spiritual grace of holy baptism. But no such thing: We maintain no such fallacy. Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, we rather insist upon the absolute necessity of being spiritually born again, in order to our acceptance with God, and ultimate enjoyment of the kingdom of heaven. In applying the word “REGENERATE” to the baptized, we are indeed justified by the authority of Paul, who speaks of the outward symbol, as "the washing of regeneration," and the inward grace, as the "renewing of the Holy Ghost." And when infants are thus brought to Christ, its reception implies a change of state, a transmission from the world into his kingdom; when adults present themselves, we are bound to believe, in the judgment of charity, that they come forward with convicted hearts and sanctified minds. If otherwise, then are they only REGENERATE in tho lower and ceremonial, and not in the higher and spiritual sense. The distinction is happily expressed in our twenty seventh article; "Baptism is NOT ONLY a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christened: BUT it is also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism RIGHTLY are grafted into the Church: the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy

Ghost, are VISIBLY signed and sealed: faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God."

ment."

How idle then to impute to us a belief in mere sacramental regeneration! How idle! When a thorough change of the heart and its affections is constantly urged upon the hearer, and described, as "A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness: For being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace:" When the qualifications required of adult persons, previous to their baptism, are these, "Repentance whereby they forsake sin; and faith, whereby they steadfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacraWhoever misconstrues language forcible and unequivocal as this, must be determined to misconstrue. Whoever, secretly insinuates or openly declares, that we have no faith in the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit in producing these blessed results, can from his own feelings derive but a very faint conception of the sincerity, with which, after the ordinance of baptism is celebrated, we address this prayer to our heavenly Father; "GIVE THY HOLY SPIRIT to these persons; that being now BORN AGAIN, and made heirs of everlasting salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, they may continue thy servants, and attain thy promises, through the same Lord Jesus Christ thy Son."

The truth is, that there is no Church, there is no ministry set for the defence of the gospel, more strenuous in contending for a radical change of nature; a change of a moral, as well as of an intellectual character; a change in the habits, inclinations, and delights of the soul. We have no confidence in loud professions, none in mere ceremonial compliances. We are for making Chris, tians such as Paul, as dead to sin, and as alive to righteousness. We are for counselling you, Brethren, "as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And is all this happily effected? Instead of imputing it to unassisted human capabilities, we gratefully acknowledge, it is only "through the Spirit," that man can "mortify the deeds of the body;" it is "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," that doth make us "free from the law of sin and death."