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doctrines which precludes all candid examination. They become too much personally interested in the truth of certain doctrines to suppose the possibility of their being untrue. Their hopes of salvation are derived not so much from the tenor of their daily life, as from the confident belief that at a particular time they underwent the mysterious, irreversible change. Any inquiry casting doubt on the miraculousness or the irreversible nature of that change, is resisted with alarm and indignation as undermining their hopes, as abolishing their title to spiritual privilege and aristocracy, and reducing them to take their chance among the common herd of mankind, and to be judged according to the deeds done in the body.

Let it not be understood, however, that I would deny there is some good done on these occasions, even the most fanatical. But I see no reason to resort to miracles for the good effects, whatever they may be. There is a general waking up of attention to the subject, there is a multiplication of the means of religion, reading and hearing the word of God, and prayer. These we have reason to believe are always efficacious, when sincerely used, and precisely to the extent of that sincerity. We have no reason to believe that all, on these occasions, use these for effect upon other people. Some do it sincerely and for their own improvement, and such are blessed by God under all circumstances. But the difficulty is, these new measures soon become old, and lose their efficacy. They produce no

more effect than the old measures, and when the power of excitement is worn out, a return to the ordinary means of grace, seems cold, dull and insipid. These things being so, would it not be more modest, more safe, and more true, for the conductors of these revivals, as they are called, i , if they must publish a statement of them to the world, instead of the inflation and exaggeration in which they indulge, of the special visitation of the Spirit, to say there had been an unusual attention to the means of religion, and it had been followed by the happiest results? But such a statement would rob the peculiar doctrines exhibited, of the confirmation, seal and sanction of God's truth which is intended to be given them, sink the agents in the scene from the especial and infallible interpreters of God's word, into mere, common and fallible men, and tear the veil from the wire-working and machinery they had used.

Much is said at this time of the danger of the spread of the Catholic faith. I fear there is much more to be apprehended from the spread of the Catholic spirit, if that spirit be as its enemies represent it, the spirit of priestly domination. The greatest obstruction truth now meets is, that the inquiry is not what doctrines of religion are true and Scriptural, but what will give the priesthood the most power. The greatest obstruction to charity, which is the bond of perfection and the essence of Christianity, is the holy horror which the leaders of sects think it expedient to inspire in

their followers against all other sects in order to retain their allegiance; and thus the ministry of the Gospel of Christ is in danger of being degraded from a pure, dignified, and holy calling, into a pitiful partisan warfare, in which peace, and truth, and charity, are to be sacrificed together.

We return to the subject, from which we have digressed. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." We believe that the efficacy of those means of grace which we enumerated at the commencement of this discourse, is fully sustained by the representations of the Scriptures. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple: The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." "Moreover by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them, there is great reward." "Now ye are clean," or pure, says our Saviour, "through the word which I have spoken unto you." "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "Ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you, that believe." "Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls."

Quotations of this kind might be multiplied almost without limit. No more, we trust, are needed to show that the sacred Scriptures are a divine agency upon the soul of man, sufficient to sanctify and save it, when studied with earnestness and sincerity. They are the fountain of living waters sufficient for all the spiritual wants of the soul.

As full and explicit is the sacred testimony to the efficacy of prayer. “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things," or as Luke reports it, "the Holy Spirit, to them that ask him." "Watch ye, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." "They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." If any of you are conscious to yourselves that you are not Christians in heart and life, it is not because divine influence has been withheld; but because you have not earnestly and sincerely used the means of grace, which God has appointed.

LECTURE XIV.

ORIGIN, NATURE, AND TENDENCY OF CREEDS.

"But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren."-Math. xxiii. 8.

PERHAPS there is nothing which demonstrates more strikingly the Divine wisdom which dwelt in Christ, than this charge to his disciples concerning the usurpation of spiritual power. That this is his object, appears from the connection in which it stands, for he takes occasion to give this warning from the exhibition of this disposition in the Scribes and Pharisees. They were the religious teachers of that day, they abused their trust and substituted the commandments of men for the law and truth of God. "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." They "love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men

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