tween us. sustain the character. Here is an abridgment of the controversy. Here is a decision of the question beBut if it do not agree with your systems, preserve those systems carefully; preserve them to the great day, when the Lord shall render to every man according to his works; and endeavour....endeavour in the presence of the Judge of all the earth, to defend your depravity by your opinions. There is, in short, a third class of people, who ought to make serious reflections on the doctrine of perseverance. It is those who carry the consequences to an extreme: who, from a notion that they must endure to the end of their course to be saved, persuade themselves that they cannot be assured of their salvation till they come to that period. It is not to ministers who maintain so detestable a notion, that this article is addressed. It is not to captious, but to tender minds, and those tender minds who are divided between the exalted ideas they entertain of duty, and the fears of deviation. Fear, holy souls; but sanctify your fear. Entertain exalted views of your duty; but let those exalted views be a sure test that you will never deviate: and, while you never lose sight of the difficulties with which the race Christ hath set before you is accompanied, never lose sight of those objects which he hath set before you, in order that you may be enabled to surmount them. A christian is supported in his course by the very nature of the difficulties which occur. These are many, and we shall have occasion to enumerate them in a subsequent discourse. But, with discerning christians, all these things may promote the end they seem to oppose, and realize the words of St. Paul, all things work together for good to them that love God, Rom. viii. 28. One of those difficulties, for instance, to which a christian is exposed in his race, is adversity; but adversity is so far from obstructing him in his course, as to become an additional me tive to pursue it with delight; and assist him in taking an unreluctant flight towards the skies.... Another difficulty is prosperity; but prosperity assists him to estimate the goodness of God, and induces him to infer, that if his happiness here be so abundant, what must it be in the mansions of felicity, seeing he already enjoys so much in these abodes of misery. Another of those difficulties is health, which, by invigorating the body, strengthens the propensity to sin; health, by invigorating the body, strengthens him also for the service of God. So it is with every obstruction. A christian is supported in his course, by those unspeakable joys which he finds in the advancement of his progress; by the peace which passeth all understanding; by the serenity of justification; by an anticipated resurrection; by a foretaste of paradise and glory, which descend into his soul, before he himself is exalted to heaven. A christian is supported in his course, (as we have already intimated in this sermon,) by the consideration even of those torments, to which he would be exposed if he should come short. The patriarch Noah trembled, no doubt, on seeing the sluices of heaven let loose, and the fountains of the great deep broke open; and the angry God execute this threatening, I will destroy man whom I have created, from off the face of the earth; both man and beast, for it repenteth me that I have made them, Gen. vi. 7. But this fear apprised him of his privilege, being exempt in the ark from the universal desolation; and it induced him to abide in his refuge. : A christian is supported in his course by supernatural aids, which raise him above the powers of nature which enable him to say, when I am weak, then I am strong; and to exclaim in the midst of conflicts, blessed be God which alway causeth us to triumph in Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 14. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, Phil. iv. 13. A christian is supported in his course by the confidence he has of succeeding in the work in which he is engaged, and of holding out to the end. And where is the man in social life, who can have the like assurance with regard to the things of this world? Where is the general, who can assure himself of success by the disposition he may make to obtain the victory? Where is the statesman, who can assure himself of warding off every blow which threatens the nation? The christian....the christian alone has this superior assurance. I fear nothing but your heart; answer me with your heart, answer me with your sincerity, and I will answer you for all the rest. A christian is supported in his course, above all, by the grandeur of the salvation with which he is to be crowned. What shall I say, my brethren, on the grandeur of this salvation? That I have not the secret of compressing into the last words of a discourse all the traits of an object, the immensity of which shall absorb our thoughts and reflections to all eter nity? With such vast support, timorous soul, shalt thou still be agitated with those distressing fears which discourage wicked men from entering on the course prescribed by Jesus Christ to his disciples? Fear not, thou worm Jacob, for I am with thee. Thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. They that are for us, are more than all they that are against us, 2 Kings vi. 16. When thou passest through the waters, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, Isa. xliii. 2. To this adorable Deity, who opens to us so fine a course, who affords us such abundant means for its completion, be honour, glory, empire and magnificence, now and ever. Amen. SERMON V ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. HEBREWS xii. 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great & cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us; and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. THERE are few persons so very depraved, as not to admire the line of life precribed by religion; but there are few sufficiently virtuous to follow it or even to consider it in any other light than as a grand scheme captivating to an enlightened mind, but to which it is impossible to conform. Reason, as soon as we are capable of contemplating the Being who gave us birth, yields to a world of arguments which attest his existence and perfections; it joins the concert of creation which publishes his glory; it devotes itself to him to whom we are indebted for all our comforts; it makes continual efforts to pierce those veils, which conceal him from our view, and seeks a more concise and sure way of knowing him than that of nature: it receives revelation with avidity; adores the characters of divine perfections which it traces takes them for a rule of life; sighs on depravity from those models of perfection, and repairs, by revigo rated efforts of virtue, the faults it had committed against virtue. Here is the line of life prescribed by religion. And who is so depraved, as not to admire it? But who is so virtuous as to follow it, or even to believe that it can be followed? We look upon it, for the most part, as we do the notions of an ancient philosopher respecting government. The principles, on which he established his system of politics, have appeared admirable, and the consequences he has deduced, have appeared like streams pure as their source. God in creating men, says this philosopher, gave them all means of preservation from the mise.. ries which seem appendant to their condition and they have but themselves to blame if they neglect to profit by them. His bounty has supplied them with resources to terminate the evils into which they fell by choice. Let them return to the practice of truth, and virtue, from which they have deviated, and they shall find that felicity to which nothing but virtue and truth can conduct society. Let the States elect a sovereign like the God who governed in the age of innocence: let them obey the laws of this sovereign, as they formerly obeyed the laws of God. Let kings, and subjects, enter into the same views of making each other mutually happy. The whole world has admired this fine notion; but they have only admired it; and regard it merely as a system. The princes and the people, to whom this philosopher wrote are, as yet, unborn; hence we commonly say, the republic of Plato, when we wish to express a beautiful chimera. I blush to acknowledge, but truth extorts it from me, that this is the notion most men entertain of religion. They make its very beauty an argument for its neglect, and their own weakness an apology for repugnance they feel in submitting to its laws: this is precisely the temper we propose to attack. We will prove by evident facts, and by experience, which is consequently above all exception, that however elevated above the condition of man the scheme of religion may appear, it is a |