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SERMON XIX.

RELIGIOUS REFORMATION.

JEREMIAH vi. 16.

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

ALTHOUGH divine revelation is so constituted as to accommodate itself to the progress of the human mind; so as to expand with the expansion of intellect; and, like an exhaustless mine of truth, yield the more richly the more of talent and of industry are brought to work on its resources; yet is it also true, and completely consistent, that its principles and spirit were perfect from the first and at the first; it is not in them, but in their applications and results, that the accommodation takes place to man's advancement; and a frequent appeal to them is needful to stem the course of the errors and corruptions which obtain from time to time. As to the first and fundamental principles of faith and con

duct, our inquiry must be for the old paths; they alone are the good ways which will lead to a safe rest for our souls. And the antiquity to which we look should be the highest. Not the old ways of this or that sect or church, but of religion itself, and its authorized teachers, of Moses and Christ, of prophets and apostles, as delineated in the sacred Scriptures. This is the only antiquity entitled to authority. To the law and the testimony;' there is the rule, which must show whether we have the true light in us, or are bewildered in error and stumbling in darkness.

This appeal we are accustomed to make as to the differences of doctrine between ourselves and the rest of the Christian world. I think it becomes us to make that appeal at all proper times and in all proper ways; from the press and from the pulpit; to make it frequently, earnestly, and zealously. Our allegiance to the cause of knowledge and of truth demands it of us; and the vindication of our conduct in doing so, is, to my mind, complete and satisfactory.

But even if it were not so, there is another way in which our zeal is equally required, and where the duties and difficulties which some feel about efforts which have truth, abstractedly considered, for their object, can have no place. The departure from the doctrinal verity of the Gospel is not greater than that from its practical spirit. The

two are connected; zeal is justified by either; but as in relation to the latter it rests on grounds which are universally undeniable, its obligations ought to be universally admitted, and its power universally felt and exhibited.

To this I would now direct your attention; I would show you how much there is, in the Christian world, besides such doctrines as those of the trinity, satisfaction, eternal torment, and the like, which needs correction; how much there is which is practically wrong, mischievous, and melancholy; how much there is which will not bear the test, but which should nevertheless be brought to the test, of primitive Christianity; how much which calls on us, according to the opportunities of our several stations, for active, liberal, and persevering co-operation.

so too.

If it be said that, in the great work of reformation, we had better look to ourselves than to others, I say It is our first concern that our own hearts be right in the sight of God. Of this we should never, never lose sight; and God grant us grace to pursue it so wisely and steadily as to accomplish the object, to our souls' salvation. But I say too, that looking to ourselves includes looking occasionally to others. I say that we do not look to ourselves effectually, if we allow indifference as to the prevalence in society of truly Christian modes of feeling and action. I say that our consciences are misinformed, sluggish, or unfaithful, if they allow

us to stand tamely by, and not exert ourselves, nor encourage and strengthen others in exertion, for aiding the triumph, over the opposite feelings, of those sentiments of liberty and liberality, of holiness, love, and hope, which constitute the spirit of the Gospel. Here the concerns of others are our own concerns, as the honest, consistent, and faithful followers of Christ.

I shall now therefore bring into contrast with the genuine spirit of Christianity, some of the practical evils which prevail among professed Christians, and against which we should bear our unswerving testimony.

The secularizing of Christianity, the making it a kingdom of this world, the blending and mixing up of its doctrines and worship with political considerations, is not one of the old ways in which the primitive Christians walked. The simplicity and spirituality of the Gospel cannot be impaired or obscured without mischief. Let princes and potentates, let magistrates and senators do it reverence; it deserves and demands their reverence; their personal and official, their public and their private homage; in itself and in the persons of its consistent professors; but let them not affect to be its patrons. The only righteous and useful establishment of Christianity by law, is the conducting of legislation on Christian principles. It is the upholding of justice and mercy; it is the direction of all

power to the public good; it is the preservation of the weak from the oppression of the strong; it is the assertion of the rights, and the advancement of the interests of humanity; it is the due apportionment of punishment to crime, so that there is only so much suffering inflicted as is needful to protect the innocent, and such suffering as best tends to amend the guilty: it is the securing to all full liberty of speech and worship, and holding an even balance between contending parties: this, and this alone, is an establishment of Christianity, consistent with Christianity. Now is it not an evil, and a crying evil, that there should ever be such a political adoption of the Gospel as that its ministry is brought into suspicion of subserviency to earthly greatness, and of being pursued merely as a lucrative and honourable avocation; as that its profession has annexed to it secular advantages: as that prejudice is created against its evidences by blending them with the dictates of legal authority; and as that free inquiry into its truths is obstructed by the national imposition of certain formularies? Are we not bound to tell the Christian world that all this is innovation and corruption? That these are not the old ways of Christians, but a devious path down a slippery steep, where, though gold may glitter by the way, Religion is in sore peril of being soiled and crippled? She loses her good name. She becomes confounded with the tricks by which men have sought to blindfold their