I. That there is much in the nafure of man to oppose the movements of the Holy Spirit.

II. That the interferences of the Holy Spirit are many and great for our safety.

III. That there is a time after which the Spirit ceases to interfere. IV. That this time is the moment of our ruin..

I. It appears, in the first place, that there is much in the nature of man to oppose the movements of the Holy Spirit.

In man, as he was first created, doubtless there was much to assist and promote the movements of the Spirit of God. As there is in the plant much to assist the action of the sun in promoting its growth; as in every part of nature, there is much to promote the end for which God designed it; so man also was formed to yield to that blessed influence which would have made him good and happy. But man fell-and, from that instant, his nature took the part of sin, and opposed the will of God. Such is the description given of our present state in the Bible. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these two are contrary one to the other." In like manner, says St. Paul, speaking of the conflict be tween good and evil in the nature of man, between the Spirit of God and the corruptions of the heart, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members warring against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin." Such then is the real state of our hearts by nature, and it is of vast importance to be fully aware of it, that we may guard against its consequences. Allow me to say, that it is almost certain, that there are some among ourselves who think too favourably of the state of our own minds-who fancy that we have more disposition to right than wrong-who conceive that, if the Spirit of God were to descend

upon us, he would find a soil congenial to his labours, and would see a harvest at once spring up under the sunshine of his presence. But this is not the state of any heart by nature.-1 will not deny that there is a difference in the natural character of men. But in none is that difference SO great, as to render the heart propitious to the movements of the Spirit. Mark the expression of the text; "My Spirit shall not always STRIVE with man." There is then a struggle between the movements of God, and the corruptions of man. God finds in the soul, not a friend but an enemy--not a beart to which he is a welcome guest, but a heart occupied by very different possessors-by deep-seated lusts, and indwelling corruptions. Let me then say to you, Look to the state of your own minds. Indulge no fond conceits of your own excellence. Remember that there is no law to exempt you from the common destiny of man; that the common curse of human nature has fallen upon you; that the widespread leprosy of corruption has seized you; that if good shall ever predominate over evil in your soul, it is to be considered, not as an achievement of your own, but as the triumph of your God. O, could we pierce the cloud which conceals the mighty movements of the hand of God, how many arrows of conviction should we see, discharged from Heaven, and blunted by the stony bosom of man. Remember this, and feel that a heart so hard is not to be trusted, or flattered, or neglected; but that, by earnest prayer, we are to call down those dews of grace by which alone it can be softened and prepared for the seed of religion.

II. But, secondly, it appears from the text that the interferences of the Spirit of God are many and great for our safety. The inhabitants of the world before the flood, as it appears, had little or no conception of the storm that was about to break

over their heads. But it is equally evident that this state of ignorance was their own fault, and not the appointment of God. If any one had said to them, "Your God has long been speaking to you by his ministers; has been warning you of the evil and danger of sin; has been stretching a drawn sword across your guilty path; has announced to you, by many a herald, the awful ruin that approaches" they would probably have answer ed, "No: God has done nothing for us. He gave us over to our corruptions, to the dominion of the world, and of the devil; and we have seen and felt nothing of the movements of Providence till now that the foundations of the world are broken up, and a flood is about to destroy the whole creation of God."-But would these declarations have been just? Was it the fact that God had done nothing for them? Did he in the first instance stretch out his arm only to scourge and to slay them? Had not the showers of mercy preceded the tempest of wrath. Had not the sun of his grace shone on them before the clouds began to lour? Hear the text; "My spirit shall not always strive with man." Hence it appears, that God had long striven with them; that he had employed mouths, and years, and ages in order to rescue a guilty world; that he had been long warning, teaching, admonishing; that he had sent them his Spirit, but they had resisted it. The day of the Lord" did, indeed, at length overtake them as a thief in the night"with all the silence and secrecy of the most unexpected assailant. But this ought not to have been their state. God had striven with them till his mercy was exhausted, till patience would have been weakness; till the perfection of his nature required that Mercy should quit the throne, and Justice take it. And this is applicable to ourselves. You may perhaps feel disposed to say, that God has done little for CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 160.

your soul; that, if you were now to die and perish, the stroke would not have been preceded by those visitations of mercy, by those movements of the Spirit in your favour, which ought in justice to precede so awful a punishment. You might indeed say this; but, if you did, you would betray your own ingratitude without criminating the character of God. No: God, from your infancy, has " striven" with you: he has visited you by his Spirit: he has himself contended, and he has strengthened you to contend with your corruptions: he has watched you in the hour of danger: he has stood ready to interfere with a mighty arm, had you but called upon him: he has checked you in a thousand crimes, prompted you to a thousand virtues, detached you from sin, and called you to religion. He has spoken to you upon the bed of sickness; communed with you in the hours of darkness; breathed upon you from the pages of his word; touched your conscience with a mysterious hand; filled you with many a wish, perhaps with many a resolution, to be good. How vast is the contrast between the dealings of God and man! Look into the world, and men are warring one with another; army is drawn out against army, and each man sharpening his sword "to flesh it" upon the body of his brother. God also "strives" with man, not to destroy, but to save; not to wound, but to heal; not to rob him of any right, but to give him a title and right to heaven; not to possess himself of the inheritance of man, but to impart to man the treasures, the glory, the unmixed goodness and unclouded happiness of heaven. He is "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." Shall we then complain of such a God? Shall we basely charge any part of our deficiencies upon him? Will you not call to mind how numerous are the mercies which have hitherte 2 G

been wasted and abused by you, and humble yourself at the footstool of the Divine compassion?— In order, under the Divine blessing, to lead you to this course of conduct, I proceed to observe,

III. That there is a period at which it appears that the Spirit of God ceases to act upon those who resist him.-There is, doubtless, a point at which mercy would begin to be weakness. At that point, of course, the mercy of God, which cannot be indulged at the expense of his other qualities, must stop. And such is the case which is placed before us by the text. God, from the commencement of the world to the period of the flood, had been in vain pouring out his mercies upon mankind. Justice now demanded that the punishment of their crimes should be inflicted; that an example should be provided for all generations, that "God would not be mocked." Then it was, he declared, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man,”—“ he has passed beyond the proper limits of compassionhe has exhausted the stores of grace. Mercy will no longer lift her shield to oppose the weapon of wrath. Man has sinned, and he must suffer." God said, and it was done. And how tremendous was the result! The "fountains of the great deep were broken up" the windows of heaven were opened :' "all in whose nostrils (except Noah and his family) was the breath of life, died;" and every living substance was destroyed."-Is the picture awful? If so, remember, that it is sketched, not as a fiction of the imagination, but as the record of a fact; and of a fact designed, not merely to punish the sufferers at that period, but to inscribe, as upon au awful monument, for future ages, the solemn lesson, that those who resist God must expect Him to depart from them. And permit me to observe, that although the departure of the Spirit from ourselves is not now

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marked by any such awful outward demonstration, still, as surely as we have sinned up to the assigned point-as surely as the measure of our iniquities is full-so surely has the Spirit of God abandoned us to our corruptions and our ruin.— I may, at this instant, be speaking to some person who, though he has not actually reached this tremendous point, may, by his longcontinued negligence of the admonitions of conscience and the voice of God, be fast approaching it. I may be speaking to some who, though they know they are wrong, neglect to do better— to some who have a secret persuasion that their way of life does not fit them for death, and who yet refuse to change it-to some who, though they design to mend, as yet delay the work of reformation-to some who are by degrees stifling the voice of conscience and quenching the light of Heaven. I do then most solemnly adjure such persons to beware of their ruin. The Spirit of God shall cease to strive with you. The season of grace may be already nearly gone bye. The year prayed for by the great Intercessor may have already been granted, and have nearly expired; and the final sentence be about, perhaps, instantly to be executed-" Thou shalt cut it down." Is this, then, I ask, a situation in which it is wise or safe to trifle; to wear out life in cavilling at religion, in the indulgence of the body, or in laying some flattering unction to the soul? By all the joys of heaven, and the terrors of hell; by all the powers of God to save, or to punish; by all the agonies of Christ; by his "cross and passion," all endured for you; and by those agonies which, if impenitent, and unchanged by the Spirit of God, you yourselves shall be called to endure, I adjure you to "awake and arise, that Christ may give you light."And, the more to impress this duty upon you, I would beg you to con-.

sider the fourth and last point to which I proposed to call your at tention, viz. that,

IV. The departure of the Spirit of God is the final destruction of the soul.-How awfully is this truth illustrated in the text! The Spirit of God ceases to strive with the inhabitants of the world. And what ensued? At once, the floods descended, and dismissed the whole creation, not merely to an untimely grave, but to the dread judgment-seat of an angry God.My brethren, it is terrible to read even of their earthly suffering. It is terrible to conceive the mother grasping her perishing child-to fancy a man escaping for a few moments, perhaps, by his accidental elevation, the growing ruin, but at last sucked in by the overwhelming waters-to see one dark and immeasurable grave gradually swallowing up all the fair creation of God. But carry your view, I beseech you, beyond the grave. There is a lake, compared with which, these horrible waters are as the fountains of life and streams of joy-the" lake that burneth with brimstone and with fire." There is a grave, to which this universal charnel-house is as the abode of peace and happinessthe "pit whose smoke ascendeth for ever and ever." Endeavour, I entreat you, to realize the scene at that awful hour when the mother shall, perhaps, feel herself, or see her child overwhelmed by that fiery flood; when the man, proud

in his fancied security, shall behold its flaming waves now swell to his feet, and now rise to his breast; when the grave of hell, the Tophit of everlasting destruction, shall yawn upon a guilty universe, and thousands of the unholy and impenitent shall descend into it, and the "smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever-their groans outlast the sphere of nature-and their agonies only begin to be when time shall be no more. 0, my brethren, "what manner of men ought we to be," when, on the one hand, such torments must be endured by the hardened and impenitent sinner-when, on the other, a God of mercy, a dying Saviour offers to all men a free ransom, an escape from these torments, an entrance, and an enduring inheritance in the regions of unutterable peace and glory!→→ May God give us a heart to accept the offer! But let us not delay"Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." The intercession of Christ is still offered. The Spirit of God still strives with us. From the altar of our God a voice speaks: "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden"-" if any man sin, he has an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." Come, then, and let us seek our Comforter and our God. Come and let us devote ourselves to him who is able and willing to "save to the uttermost all who come unto him through Jesus Christ."

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. OBSERVING that a book, entitled "A Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome," has hitherto escaped your notice, and that, I believe, of most other Reviewers, and conceiving that,

however laudable it may be in its design, able in its execution, and correct and useful in many of its arguments and inferences, it contains some sentiments upon the most important subjects, erroneous in their nature and pernicious in their tendency, I am induced to call the

attention of your readers to some remarks upon them, and to prevent, if possible, the mischief which they are calculated to produce.

The general subject of the work is likely to attract and to conciliate many, especially among the clergy. It professes to declare, distinctly and exclusively, the doctrines of the Established Church. And the station and character of the author secure for it a peculiar degree of weight and respect. He speaks on theological points é cathedrá ; and, however the propriety and utility of their application may have been doubted by some, his learning and critical acumen are scarcely denied or disputed. But all these advantages only make it the more necessary to caution the public against any errors which they may serve to accredit; and we must not give way, no, "not for an hour," to one who "seemeth to be somewhat," even "a pillar" in the church, where the fundamental truths of religion are concerned.

It is my intention to appeal "to the law and to the testimony," to the Scripture to its authorised expositions, and to some of the most justly eminent amongst our elder divines, against a few of the decisions of our modern Professor of Divi nity; trusting to his candour and love of truth for some alteration in a second edition of his work, if I should be able to prove any part of his statements to be neither safe nor true.

In his third chapter, the author professes to "review the doctrinal Articles of our Church, in order to exemplify the effects of her reject ing the authority of tradition, as a rule of faith, and founding her doctrines on the sole authority of Scripture." It might have been thought that the discussion of this subject, like that of the rest of which he treats, would involve alone the Churches of England and Rome; since the latter is the only church, or even, I believe, the

only sect, that admits the authority of tradition as a rule of faith. But the Professor thinks fit here to travel out of his record, in order to seize, or rather to create, an opportunity of aiming a side-blow at some of his Protestant and even ministerial brethren-men who differ from himself in some material points of doctrine, and whom he therefore represents as differing from their common standard-the Established Church.

He employs the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th Articles of our Church as the vehicle for this attack; and he prefaces his introduction of this apparently extraneous matter with this plausible that reason: otherwise "the

whole purport of these Articles would not be understood."

The doctrines to which these Articles relate, viz. original sin, the influence of Divine grace, and justification by faith, constitute the very basis of religious truth. The language of the Articles themselves many have thought most explicit aud forcible; but we shall see how, what I must venture to call, dextrous sophism can obscure their clearness and impair their force.

He begins with the 9th Article. What he affirms with regard, both to its near approach to the decree of the 5th session of the Council of Trent, and its diversity and distinction from that decree, is easily verified by a reference to Father Paul's History. The anathemas, of which that decree is composed, fully justify his assertion. But surely at this point he might have stopped short, and declined the gratuitous and bold assertion, that the Article was "designed virtually" to oppose an error directly contrary to that of the Pelagians, which it professes to refute, when no trace of such design is discoverable in any authorised comment or contemporary history. On the contrary, the words of the Article are considered, by Bishop Burnet and many other