working faith and obedience, that constitutes their peculiar character, and identifies true religion, whensoever or wheresoever it is found. 66 When, therefore, the enemies of such a profession bring forward the stale objection--" What is true religion? For we find it one thing in England, another in Scotland, a third at Rome, and often twenty different things in the same place-Settle this," say they, among yourselves, before you address us on the subject."-We answer, it has long been settled. While you stumble at the supposed diversity, we both discern and admire the identity. We feel the fullest conviction, that real religion in itself, is so far from being a different thing in different places, that it is one and the same thing at all times, and in all places;-and that, in those particulars which are absolutely essential to it, it will yield to the impositions of no time nor place, or its martyrs had not bled. In order to understand this, men should consider what real religion is; namely-the heart of fallen man under a divine influence, returning to God through a Mediator.-The Scriptures term this LIFE. As the life of the body is one and the same principle in all men, whatever difference there be observed in their respective complexions, habits, and forms: so real religion, which is the life of the soul, is one and the same principle, of a higher order indeed, but which equally identifies the subject: and, like the former, it is discerned by the exercise of its proper faculties and acts-it requires the same almighty power to maintain as to create it-and is quite distinct from and superior to its accidents, and the circumstances among 'which it may be found. For God, who, in the first creation, commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath, in this new creation, shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; and this still continues to perform the most glorious of his miracles, the moral miracle of recovering the heart of an eccentric and exorbitant creature to his Creator. By this moral change, man is actually recovered to his God, to his neighbour, and to himself. Tell me not of the external forms and petty circumstantial distinctions with which his education or connections may have prejudiced his mind: they are but as his provincial dialect, his dress, or his complexion. The grand enquiry should be-Is the sinner humble and penitent before his God?— Is he seeking acceptance only through that Redeemer whom God hath set forth for a propitiation through faith in his blood?—Is he found walking in a course of holy obedience? If this be really his case, then call such a man by what term of distinction or epithet of reproach you please, still the man is alive to God, and will join his fellowbelievers in serving HIM; if not in the same modes, yet to the same ends: in the matter of their confessions, petitions, and praises, they will agree, however in the form of presenting them they may differ: there will be a unity, though not a uniformity; and thus the divine life of true religion, derived from a union with the one Living Head of the Church, will be identified by its essential properties and effects, in whatever Age or Church on earth it is found. Strip real religion, therefore, of that which is no essential part of it, or what is only accidental to it; and regard it as described in the Scriptures, and exemplified, though but imperfectly, in the true believer; and then you will find it the same under every dispensation. Thus, the same sense of need-choice of good-hope through a Redeemer-and good-will to men, dwelt in the hearts of Abraham and of Bacon. The latter could never more exactly express his feelings than in saying ................. With the Patriarch's joy Thy call I follow to the land unknown: YOUNG. I remember my friend saying, after church, on hearing a discourse upon Abraham's departure "In this simplicity of holy aim and of implicit dependance, I think ALL the spiritual children of the father of the faithful are perfectly united." I may add, too, that in this he was not only a sincere, but enlightened example. If, with the Patriarch, he forsook a corrupt world to go out he knew not whither; yet he knew, like the Patriarch, wHY and with whom he went out. For any one to tell us, by way of objection, of the various inventions that men have mingled with religion, whether false or true, is only telling in how many ways a puppet may be dressed, or a living man disguised. To such an objector I would say, If you stumble at the pitiable notions and practices of the weak and superstitious, and occupy yourself about the wood, hay, and stubble, with which such build upon the foundation-or, if you only listen where bodily disorder, accidentally connected with religious impression, utters its wild absurdities, verily you have your reward. In the first instance, you have pursued folly, and caught it: in the second, you have watched infir mity, and discovered that it will wander: you have looked for truth where you should not; and found, in its stead, what every considerate man would have expected to find. But, had you looked further, and where only an indisposition to find real religion (which, in reality, lies at the bottom of these objections) refuses to look, you would have found such characters as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, &c. in the first ages of the world; and, afterwards, those who, actuated by the same principles, have, until this day, trod in their steps: then, indeed, we should have the point in question properly before us-see the religion which is real and true-know how it feels and acts in different places and circumstances-and find that it is essentially the same thing in all. The same may be said of the sophistry which has been employed to blind the eyes of the ignorant, by instances of fraudulence and hypocrisy. In our enquiries upon so important a subject as religion, it is substance, and not shadow, that should be regarded;-the rule, and not the exception. It would be well, however, if the sophist could be convinced with what sincerity he acts, in his industry to accumulate and advance such instances. I would assist him in trying it, by proposing this very plain rule. When you receive your gold, and find, as you have probably found before, that a counterfeit or two has slipped in among it, determine immediately to throw away the rest, as of no value-resolve that no true gold is to be found. But you revolt at this: you love your money; and, instantly apprehending the distinction between true and false, you reject the spurious coin, and cautiously treasure up the rest, And why do you not act thus respecting the gold that perisheth not? Alas! the reason is too evident. Light is come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. But, while prejudiced minds will be occupied only about accidents and offences in religion; and |