Rather we may found to assert that it is untrue. wonder that so few are to be met with to assert it; and we may take it as no small argument of the power with which the evidence for the truth of the Bible commends itself to men's judgments and consciences, that thousands who violate its pure and Christian morality every day, are yet strenuous supporters of its authenticity. Let me, then, entreat you my Christian brethren, (and I speak particularly to the young, the inexperienced, and the unskilled in such enquiries,) let me entreat you to bear in mind that mere assertion, mere denial, mere boasting of superior knowledge is of no weight nor authority whatever; that the fact of many in this or any other age being found to deny the Revelation of God, is no argument, nor the shadow of argument against the truth of it; since those of Christ's day who beheld the miracles wrought were yet not convinced nor converted. I entreat you not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits by the ordinary means in your power; to carry along with you the recollection of that important truth, that God has at no time given a revelation of himself to mankind of a nature to oblige them to receive it; and consequently, that it must needs be, from the perverse and refractory character of the spirit of man, that offences -the offences of denying and rejecting the gift of God-come. Since the world began it has been always so; Adam in Paradise was tried by that same test, and fell; the miracles in Egypt failed in convincing the witnesses of them; and the thunderings on Mount Sinai were heard without any enduring effect. The visible symbol of God in the first Temple, did not preserve the people from the foulest idolatry, nor did the preaching of God, tabernacled in flesh, in the second Temple protect the hearers from the grossest unbelief. Each of those manifestations was enough to touch and convert the heart really devoted to the search after truth; and more than such sufficient evidence was never vouchsafed, nor contemplated by the majesty of God. So also is it with ourselves: what we lose in visible and miraculous manifestations, we gain in an increased knowledge, and a more accurate perception of what truth is: what the withdrawal of the supernatural agency of the Spirit might seem to deprive us of, is fully compensated by the clear witness furnished, through the operation of that same Spirit, to the truth of what has been already revealed. "To the law" then, "and to the testimony," "* we may well exclaim: they will be our guide through all the troubled waves of contention and strife, and he who trusts in them will find, in due season, that his confidence has been founded on an enduring substance. To the law of righteousness, my brethren, and to the testimony of faith which the Holy Scriptures of our God present to us; to "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free;" to the unrestrained means of Grace, to the enjoyment of which we are so freely and lovingly invited by our God; to the knowledge of his saving truth which we are desired to drink in abundantly and be satisfied; to these free and unmerited mercies we are all called and bidden. May the God of all mercies and loving-kindnesses fill us full of the abundance of his favour, and keep us all in the faith of him who has redeemed us unto the day of the restitution of all things, through Christ Jesus. *Isaiah, viii. 20. + Gal. v. 1. SERMON XXI. THE DUTY OF PROVIDING CHURCH ACCOM MODATION. ST. LUKE, xi. 2. Thy kingdom come. It is a privilege which cannot be too highly estimated by the Christian, to be permitted to draw near to, and hold communion with his Almighty Maker by prayer. By means of that trusting and confiding intercourse which prayer of necessity presupposes, the immeasurable distance existing between a Creator and his creatures is so far contracted, at least the sense of overwhelming awe which it would otherwise inspire is so far softened down and diminished, as to allow of a free indulgence in those feelings and emotions by which our minds are naturally influenced; and under the operation of this encouraging condescension on the part of him whose attribute is Infinity, we are enabled to lay open all our wants and desires without restraint. Through this gracious permission to pray we can express, freely, what otherwise it would be felt the height of presumption to give utterance to; we can declare our sorrows, make known our infirmities, acknowledge our transgressions, confess our backslidings; we can ask for help, entreat for consolation, supplicate for pardon; and in all this, the least of which we could not of our own selves dare to do, we can plead the indulgence and encouraging assurances of our great High Priest and God. But there is yet a further privilege conceded to us in this permission to pray, which furnishes a still more striking proof of the condescending goodness of God than the former. By it we are in some degree placed in the position of being "labourers together with God."* As the end of all his righteous revelation of himself, through his dear Son, is the perfecting of his * 1 Cor. iii. 9. |