Nature is kind shake the patient fortitude of his mind. Still could he raise to heaven the voice of gratitude and resignation: The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away; blessed be His name. But when his companions and friends-instead of allaying the anguish of his grief, instead of taking upon them the part of a comforter— began to insult him with their bitter accusations, then the vigour of his mind was unequal to the arduous contest, and his soul, no longer able to support itself, was subjected to the mingled emotions of indignation and grief. enough, if we only were kind to one another. do the dark designs of malice work in our breasts; often do the silly emotions of pride and of envy obstruct the enjoyments of social intercourse. O that the principle of benevolence within us were powerful enough to eradicate these passions from our hearts. O that we were sacrificing our absurd notions of importance and dignity, our views of interest and ambition, to that great object-the good of others. O that the sufferings of our fellow-men were calling forth the tears of sympathy, and rousing to exertions of beneficence and love; then the burdens of life would bear light upon us, and our days would pass in the pure enjoyment of innocence and virtue. Let us now proceed to consider the religion of Jesus in its connexion with the spirit of the text. Justice, mercy, and piety, are all that are or can be required of us by God. Hence if we are bound to acquiesce in the doctrines and to obey the precepts of the gospel, this acquiescence and this obedience must be the consequence of one or other of those duties which are enjoined in the text. Faith in the religion of Jesus must be the necessary effect of walking humbly with God, if the testimony of the apostles and evangelists be entitled to belief. This will appear from considering the nature of that evidence by which Christianity is supported. Those arguments for its truth which are derived from our experience of the usual conduct and behaviour of men have never been refuted. And on the validity of these arguments, we are capable of forming a right, unerring judgment; since the conduct of men in all states and circumstances is the subject of daily observation. But whence are the objections of our opponents derived? They are derived from some supposed defect in the scheme or dispensation of Christianity; from something which they imagine to be inconsistent with the nature of God, or unworthy of His perfections. But can this invalidate the force of that evidence which we know how to measure and ascertain? When reasoning on the conduct of men, we can form our conclusions with certainty and precision; but when reasoning on the conduct of God, we are involved in the clouds of ignorance and error. We are unable to scan the ways of Jehovah, to trace the operations of unerring wisdom. We cannot determine on the rectitude of the divine dispensations, since we know them not in all their relations and all their extent. It is not for us, the frail insects of a day, who are yet in the childhood of existence, who scarce have had time to look about us in the immense theatre of being; it is not for us to oppose the feeble powers of our reason to the wonders of Omnipotence. When we know the mechanism of the universe, when we are acquainted with the laws by which its vast operations are conducted, when we can trace the connexions which run through the various systems of being-then, and then only, are we entitled to decide on the propriety of the means which the Author of nature may adopt for the completion of His designs. Seeing then our ignorance in the ways of God, we must be cautious of making some supposed inconsistency with His attributes a ground of rejecting what is proposed as the revelation of His will. No opinion that we may form of His conduct can ever be the criterion of its truth or falsehood. But the case is different with regard to the conduct of men; here we can reason with all the confidence of truth. Shall therefore a mere assumption on the methods of the divine administration counterbalance those arguments on which alone we are capable of deciding with assurance? I leave it to the determination of sound philosophy. Thus Christianity approves itself to our understandings as being divinely inspired, and we fail in our duty to God if we believe not its doctrines, nor submit to its precepts. When inquiring into the divine will we would observe that the doctrines of revelation are laid before us with different degrees of light and clearness. Hence we would receive them. with the hesitation of partial knowledge, or with the confidence of truth. What is clearly revealed we would treasure up in our minds as of the most essential importance. What is hid in obscurity or is remote from our apprehensions we would regard with an awful reverence, but would forbear to reason on with the assurance of dogmatism. But, alas! this natural order has been inverted—and to this we are in a great measure to ascribe the corruptions of Christianity. Instead of employing their zeal in maintaining that faith and that practice which are clearly laid down in Scripture, and which it insists upon as our duty to God and as essential to our happiness, many have directed their chief attention to those subjects on which it is undecided and obscure. They have attached the highest degree of importance to those doctrines which transcend the limits of our faculties, and to these they have sacrificed all that can inform the understanding or improve the heart. Thus religion is made to consist in dark speculations and unprofitable inquiries. The beautiful simplicity of the gospel is defaced, and a dark veil of mysticism intercepts from our view the light of divine. truth. The effects of heavenly instruction are lost on the world, since Christianity thus perverted from its original excellence is unsuited to the natures and capacities of reasonable beings. The corrupters of evangelical purity, in accordance with their zeal for the particular doctrines they have espoused, maintain the absolute necessity of believing in them. Thus in their systems of theological truth, they have had the audacity to heap article on article, and to crown all with this thundering assertion-that eternal misery awaits those who should dare to dissent. What a lamentable deviation from the spirit of the text! Here the rewards of heaven are attached to the exercise of our virtuous affections. And what is the line of conduct which these would lead us to adopt? They lead us to repose an unlimited. confidence in the veracity of God, to examine the revelation of His will with humility and candour, and to keep our minds open to those impressions which the perusal of its contents are fitted to produce. If therefore the tenets of these religionists are contained in the Scriptures of truth, it will be a dictate of piety that we acquiesce in them, since it would be an insult on the Divine Being to withhold our assent. But the faith of Christianity is praiseworthy and meritorious only because it is derived from the influence of virtuous sentiments on the mind. Hence the labours of those are grossly misapplied who inculcate the belief of certain religious truths as the method of obtaining the favour of heaven. Let us rather endeavour to inspire men with virtuous affections; let us impress upon their hearts the sentiments of humility and piety; and let us refer the revelations of the divine will to their own examination. They will there recognise the doctrines which it is incumbent on them to believe, and they will discern the sources of this incumbency. Let us tremble to think that anything but virtue can recommend us to the Almighty. True, we wander in the paths of vanity and darkness, and Christ is pointed out to us as our only refuge against the terrors of guilt; but the acknowledgment of our Saviour, that faith in Him which is essential to our happiness, is brought about by the impulse of moral sentiment, and unless it were so we cannot see how it could ensure to us the favour of heaven. In nothing has the genius of mysticism more displayed itself than in the delineations of that faith which is a requisite to salvation. We recognise the faith of Christianity as that which is derived from the force of reason, and the energy of virtuous sentiment. But the misguided votaries of superstition and fanaticism have involved this subject in darkness. They talk of faith, and their notions of this faith are contradictory and absurd; a faith which consists not in the assent of the understanding, but in some strange undefinable affection of the mind-a faith not derived from the calm exercises of the inquiring faculty, or from the sober suggestions of humility and piety; but a faith which precedes all examination, and is said to be the primary source of all that is good and excellent in the human character. I ask the man of common sense, if he can form to himself any idea of this faith-the favourite topic of declamation with these famed religionists. But they love to soar aloft; their ears are soothed, their imaginations are dazzled with those high-sounding words, those notable phrases which they think can explain all the mysteries of theological science. We consider the faith of Christianity to be the humble assurance of an honest mind which grounds its confidence on the consciousness of its own sincerity, on the view of the divine goodness, and on the contemplation of those provisions which the Author of nature hath made for the encouragement of erring mortals. But the perverters of the truth as it is in Jesus have determined that to be the saving faith which none but the presumptuous can entertain; not that faith which worketh by love, which purifieth the heart, and which overcometh the world, but that faith which, according with the pride of their minds, elevates them in their own esteem as the peculiar favourites of heaven. This faith (horrible to relate) they carry about with them as an amulet against the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and thus do they stifle the feelings of nature, and check the sentiments of virtue. Sanctioned by this faith they may oppress the poor, the fatherless, and the widow-they may betray the interests of an unsuspecting friend, while they lay claim to the friendship of heaven. Sanctioned by this faith they may indulge in every excess of sensual voluptuousness, while they have confidence in their hearts towards God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Sanctioned by this faith they may meditate on schemes of robbery and murder, while they exclaim with exultation-Lo, the Spirit of Jesus is in O my soul come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations; they bathe their hands in the blood of innocence; they lurk in the dark haunts of villany; and, good God! they sit secure amidst such enormities, and rejoice in their presumption as the mark of intimacy with the Spirit, and of growth in grace. us. O Christianity whither hast thou fled? where hast thou taken up thine abode? We sought for thy instructions, but |