form of unbelief superinduced, that our forefathers escaped, at the blessed period of the Reformation. To the pernicious effects of it both Church and State gave way not many years after that time; and to the same destructive operation are we even now exposed. Are not these abundant grounds for caution; and should we not search, most carefully and anxiously, into our own hearts, and try with rigid scrutiny whether there be not in us, also, a spirit of unbelief like theirs? If I needed an instance to set before you of the workings of this evil principle amongst us, the holy feast, in which we are now about to participate, would supply one. How strong is the effort now making to undermine, and decry, and explain into nothing those two divine and most blessed sacraments, by which, as by two bulwarks, Christ has defended and sustained his Church. How unremittingly is it urged upon the unwary, that outward ordinances, the workings of which to save the soul they cannot comprehend, are needless, and unprofitable: how continually are these high appointments of the Lord Jesus himself lowered down, and explained away, and set far second to some other things * Luke, xxii. 19.

upon which, nevertheless, the word of Jesus has set neither assurance nor authority! And what is all this but clear and manifest evidence of the same ungodly spirit for which Samuel rebuked the Jewish King? What is this but sacrifice rather than obedience the fat of rams rather than hearkening to the voice of the Lord?

It was not so, my brethren, in the better and purer ages of the Church, when simple, confiding obedience held the place of what is now curious, and carnal, and profane intrusion into the deep things of God. The disciples of the holy apostles themselves had no such vain imaginations; they received the words of their crucified Master in the same unrespective temper and spirit in which they knew them to be written they found a commandment, "This do in remembrance of "* and they obeyed it; not presuming to bring the measure of their critical acumen to determine the value of things divine, but striving to rise, through faith, to a due estimation of what had received the especial honour of their dear Lord's sanction and command. Keep, my dear brethren, I beseech you, keep continually uppermost in your mind that, as Christians, you are called upon to "walk by faith, not by

me,

* Luke xxii. 19.

sight:"* that it is declared of the things which are seen that they are only temporal, whilst it is the things that are unseen that are eternal. And since your rule of conduct is to walk by faith; be very jealous of every attempt to undermine your confidence in his word upon whom your faith is fixed. Lay up in the choicest storehouse of your memory the declaration of holy Samuel, and let it be your rule of life for ever: "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

* 2 Cor. v. 7. † 2 Cor. iv. 18.

SERMON XVIII.

HAPPINESS THE GIFT OF GODLINESS.

1 TIMOTHY, iv. 8.

Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

ALTHOUGH the religion which the Lord Jesus came upon earth to establish, has now been acknowledged in the world for eighteen hundred years, yet, if we were to form a judgment from the evidence furnished by the conduct of the far greater part of mankind, we should be constrained to say that the vital influences of it had not, even

to this present hour, worked their natural effect upon the hearts of men. Not that I would be understood to mean that no considerable good results have followed from the profession of Christianity amongst us, (for it is hardly possible for the light of the Gospel to shine amidst any community, however imperfectly instructed, without its producing some considerable good effects ;) but rather that the effects really produced fall so far short of what the Gospel principles, in their full operation, are calculated to promote. If, on the one hand, we institute a comparison between the moral and religious feeling of this our own country, and the most favourable instance of morals and religion that can be selected from the Gentile world, we shall be tempted to suppose that " pure religion and undefiled"* must be now shining with its brightest lustre amongst us : whereas if, on the other hand, we put the language and the spirit of the Bible in contrast with the spirit, certainly, if not the language, of the people of this land, the conclusion will be forced upon us that much more remains to be done than has been effected hitherto, to make the Gospel spirit shine forth in the world. There is a holi* James i, 27.