Creeds and Churches are

legitimate consequences. known by their fruits. Put, then, the dogmas of Rome into this Crucible. Let her actions, recorded in history, tell you what her principles are. But let all of us, my friends, bring ourselves to this ordeal. Are we shewing the Scriptural character of our Creed by the holiness of our lives? Do we assent to the utter corruption of our nature? are we then praying to be renewed by the Spirit, and pardoned through the atonement of the cross? We maintain that we are justified by trust in the alone merits of our Redeemer : does our "faith establish the law, purify the heart, work by love, and overcome the world?" We wholly deny the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper: do we enjoy his Spiritual presence, and are we walking in daily-communion with him? We argue warmly that the word of God should be read by all, and circulated among all: can we say with the prophet, "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day?"*

Let us

When, however, we have "proved all things," let us hold fast that which is good." renounce error, never again to embrace it; and forsake sin, never in future to yield to its dominion. "Many deceivers are entered into the world," and strong temptations assail us on every side. Let us "look to ourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that "we receive a full reward." Caution and holy fear; a wise discretion in improving our privileges, and in guarding against a perversion of them, should mark our Spirit and conduct. "Beloved, believe not every Spirit, but

Ps. cxix. 97.

try the Spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."*

But "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Our trust must be exclusively fixed on Him who hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Let us unite, my dear brethren, in imploring the blessing of the Holy Spirit on the Sermons which have been delivered against the errors of the Church of Rome. I trust that respect and kindness have been manifested towards its members; that they may likewise be induced to examine their own principles, and to abandon them, if unsound. At the same time let Protestants, and let the beloved people of my own charge in particular, learn to value their own faith more highly, and to "continue in it grounded and settled, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel."

I cannot here deny either you or myself the pleasure of citing the caution of an eminently holy and learned man. 'Dear Brethren (says Bishop Hall to the 'people of his charge), error is not more busy than 'subtle. Superstition never wanted sweet insinuations. 'Make sure work against these plausible dangers. 'Suffer not yourselves to be drawn into the net, by the common stale (or Handle) of the Church. Know, that outward Visibility may too well stand with an utter 'exclusion from Salvation. Salvation consists, not in a formality of profession, but in a soundness of belief. A true body may be full of mortal diseases. So is 'the Roman Church of the present day: whom we

1. John iv, 1.

'have long pitied, and laboured to cure in vain. If 'she will not be healed by us, let not us be infected 'by her. Let us be no less jealous of her contagion, 'than she is of our remedies. Hold fast that precious 'truth, which hath been long taught you, by faithful 'pastors; confirmed, by clear evidences of Scripture; ' evinced, by sound reasons; Sealed up, by the blood* ' of our Martyrs. So, while no man takes away the Crown of your constancy, ye shall be our Crown and 'rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus.'

We have been thankful, my friends, in witnessing the attention discovered on the present occasion; but it is not a momentary impression that we wish to excite. "Our hearts' desire and prayer to God" for you all is, "that your love may abound yet more "in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may "approve things that are excellent; that ye may be "sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; "being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which "are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of "God."+

• Close of the Dedication to the Treatise on the Old Religion. Philip i. 9--11.

FINIS.