things are needful neither for the life of the body, nor for the life of the soul; and if they presume to ask them, they cannot be surprised that their heavenly Father either absolutely denies their request, or gives them that which is an evidence of His anger rather than His love, and which shall turn to them as a judgment rather than a blessing. The limit which the Holy Ghost has himself assigned to prayer may be discovered in the revealed Word (1 John v. 14.), "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, he heareth us.” We may, therefore, pray earnestly, we may pray fervently, we may pray perseveringly, and yet we may not pray" according to the will of God," and if this be the case, it will be no breach of God's promise, no failure of God's faithfulness that our petitions remain unanswered.

Men ask that which God has never encouraged them to ask, and God gives that, of which the possession forms their severest punishment. I say, in the present instance,

men have asked that which they are not (at least by Apostolical example) encouraged to ask. For it is well worthy of our notice, that although there are scattered through the epistles many beautiful examples of prayers by the Apostles, for all the graces of the Holy Spirit to be poured upon their converts, I believe it would be difficult to find a single instance in which they ever asked for these miraculous powers or extraordinary gifts.

Think not, then, that when you are tempted to seek such things, you are asking bread; think not, that because you have obtained the semblance of what you sought, or even were you to obtain the reality itself, you necessarily enjoy God's accompanying blessing; the fate of the Israelites may be your own; God may give you" your heart's desire," and yet send "leanness withal into your soul."

The last difficulty which I shall notice, and which is closely allied to the former, is the following :—

It is said, many of the claimants of these

extraordinary gifts are truly pious and devoted people; can we then suppose that God would suffer them to fall into error? We would reply to this inquiry, by making another. Was not David the man after God's own heart? And did not God permit him to be "drawn aside of his own lusts, and enticed," in fact, to fall into open, dreadful sin? It cannot be denied. Unless, then, it can be shown, that errors in doctrine are worse than errors in morals, there appears to be no more substantial reason why God should permit His people to be drawn aside, and enticed by the lusts of the flesh, than by the lusts of the mind. If God permits His own people occasionally to fall into sin, we can have no assurance that he will never permit them to fall into

error.

We believe, then, that no reality of Christian profession, no length of Christian servitude, no fervour of feeling in the cause of our Redeemer, is sufficient to exempt God's children from the lot of all mortality. As surely as that the truest

professor shall, in God's good time, drop into the grave, because he carries about him a body of sin and death: so certainly, and for the same reason, may the truest professor, even one who shall never finally perish, and whom none shall pluck out of our Father's hand, fall either into error or into sin. Else vain had been the Saviour's caution, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch;" and false had been the Church's dictum, "After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin." (Art. 16.) That some of these persons, then, or that all of them, are the people of God, would no more prove that their present gross delusions were Bible truths, than it would prove that their hard speeches against all who differ from them are evidences of the gentleness of Christ, or their malediction of the ministers of the church of England,*

*See Appendix.

among the lovely and peaceful fruits of the Spirit.

My Christian brethren, my desire has been to lay before you, in this investigation, the mind of the Spirit," unfettered by any preconceived opinions, and unbiassed by any human system, or human partialities; the result at which I have arrived has not been reached hastily or carelessly, but after much consideration, and deep and anxious enquiry, and, I trust, not without sincere though imperfect prayer. Had I been brought by the Spirit of God to a different conclusion, I trust I should have had grace as plainly, as clearly, and as fearlessly, to have stated that result to you as I do the present. Every thing I have read, whether by the opponents of these extraordinary claims, or by the claimants themselves, has only led me onward, without the passage of one wavering thought, or one uncertain feeling across my mind, to this complete and entire conviction, that "the spirits" when weighed in the balance of the sanc