her speculations even in matters relating to this world! What has ever been discovered or effected by hypothesis and theory? No inventions in medicine, or any other practical science, have been the result of abstract notions and reasonings. Modest and diligent observation has alone arranged the great and solid acquisitions of science. Christianity, once acknowledged as divine, is our grand experiment; from it we proceed as from first principles; thence we derive our elements of reasoning, our means of instruction, our grounds of hope, our confidence of strength and success. For the minister to keep close to the Bible, is the same as for the philosopher to keep close to nature, and the statesman to the records of experience.

But with this let us join all that EXPANSIVE CHARITY which, in this imperfect world, is so essential to any united efforts for the glory of our Saviour. Truth is not fully, and in all its parts, revealed; the degree of divine illumination differs in each Christian minister; the measures of attainment, both as to knowledge and holiness, are widely and almost indefinitely varied; the force of reasoning from premises, and the faculty of following out consequences from them, exist in very distinct degrees; the calmness and deliberation of the mind, in coming to conclusions, are widely different; whilst Satan's great aim is to divide and estrange Christians from each other. What causes are these for forbearance! How large a part of our state of probation here consists in bearing with each other; in forgiving, counselling, aiding, strengthening one the other! In all main points we agree. The simplicity of the leading truths of Scripture, received by the teaching of the Holy Spirit and expounded by a well-regulated conscience, create a substantial unity in all true Christians. Dwell on these capital points. Let others have no more than their proportionate weight. Follow each your own best convictions; but do not agitate and rend the church. Keep closely

together. Let us spend our strength on better matters than controversy. Let us exhibit to our people an united front; let us infuse an harmonious spirit; let us follow the evidences of our faith, as they are gathered from books, with the evidences which are apparent in the temper and deducible from a Christian conduct. Let each of us fill up, in the best manner we are able, our several platforms of discipline, in a spirit of consistency, indeed, but of charity; and leave the hope of agreeing formally on all points, till we reach the world of full revelation and unclouded light and glory.

To the simple preaching of the gospel, and the loveliness of real charity, let us add DILIGENCE AND COMPASSION IN THE PASTORAL DUTIES, and we shall discharge our main obligations as ministers of religion. Where should the shepherd be but with his flock? What avail public instructions, if the detail be not filled up in private? Where is the Christianity we profess, if it be exhausted in a few formal and brief exhibitions, and do not descend into the daily life? How little do the body of our people understand of our elaborate compositions, unless, by catechetical instructions, by private expositions, by application of truth to the individual conscience, we make them intelligible? What has a minister of religion to do with literary trifling, with worldly visits, with light reading, with frivolous avocations, which unfit him for serious study, render the Bible distasteful, and indispose him for the private care of souls. Let us only so carry our Christianity into practice, as to add these pastoral duties to our other engagements as ministers, and we may hope for a large measure of the divine grace to descend upon us.

May I suggest also the expediency of PAYING MORE

REGARD THAN HAS BEEN USUALLY DONE TO THE

SUBJECT OF THE EVIDENCES, which we have been discussing in this work? Can we hope to pre

serve our people in the faith, unless we teach them the grounds of that faith? Can we expect them to pass unhurt through the hosts of enemies, if we give them no shield to protect their breasts? Why do our population so soon fall away from Christianity; but because conscience was never fairly informed of the grounds of belief? Let us, then, instruct them in the foundations of Christianity; and let us unite, in doing so, the internal with the external evidences; let us make the historical the introduction to the inward proofs. Thus may we hope that our youth, wellestablished in their faith, tenderly watched over by their pastors, inflamed with a spirit of charity, and growing more and more in the knowledge and obedience of the peculiarities of Revelation, will be a seed to serve our God, and hand down to the next age the truth which we deliver to them in this.

III. TO THE HUMBLE AND TEACHABLE, AND ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG amongst his readers, let the author be, finally, allowed to address himself.

I have in these Lectures been endeavouring to urge on you the importance of cordially obeying the Christian Revelation. Let me affectionately intreat you to enter into the great subject. Let it penetrate your soul. Let its authority entrench itself in your understanding, and its holy and elevated truths in your inmost conscience and heart. Turn a deaf ear to the voice of scorn, and the temptations of sensuality. Remember, nothing is more easy than to inject doubts into the fallen heart of which it may take much argument to eradicate; just as it is easy to kindle, by a single spark, a conflagration, which it may take infinite labour to extinguish, and much time and expense to repair. My aim has been to furnish you with a protection against the mazes and artifices of infidels, by exposing the miserable sophistry of their reasoning, and the awful vices of their conduct.

man,

Keep close, then, to the Christian faith. Refresh your memory, from time to time, with a review of its chief evidences. If any violent temptation assault you, meet the shock by falling back, first on the practical holiness of Christianity, and then on the general mass of proofs of every kind, by which your faith is sustained. Act as one who was told that his house was falling; that the arches on which it was reared were giving way; and that his continuance in it was perilous: ask, Who is it tells me this; what grounds have I for crediting his information; how does his own house stand; what are his own foundations ?' If you find every thing about him in ruins; you need not much perplex yourself with alarms which proceed from folly or ignorance. However, you may examine once again. Descend to the basements of abode; your search if there are any marks of decay. You are surprised at the strength of the arches; you observe no giving way, no one sign of weakness: rather, every part seems to have settled by time into a firmer and more compact state. Resume, then, your tranquillity, and employ the blessing of a secure abode to its proper uses. Thus will every renewed examination confirm your faith in the Christian Revelation.

But remember that, in order to this, you must continue in a practical and heartfelt obedience to the blessed Saviour who is the centre of divine truth; in whose doctrine, example, grace, all Christianity is comprised and who with the Spirit of God is the divine agent in redemption. So will you have the witness in yourself. If you use Revelation, the evidence will break in upon your mind more and more; if you are not using it, nothing can render it clear: objections will arise, as noxious vapours, from a stagnant mass of notions and prejudices in your mind. God keeps things in his own hand. Truth, to be strongly seized, and fully understood, must be obeyed, loved, carried out into practice.

And be assured, that the highest effort of the human intellect, is to bow to the divine; the noblest exercise of the human powers, is to glorify God, and aspire after his favour; the truest liberty of man is a subjection to his all-perfect Creator and Lord; the only genuine source of human happiness, is the acquiescence of our will in the will of God.

All other advice is poison; all other means of elevation or happiness, are the swellings of disease, and the perverse dictates of a rebellious nature.

Man's probation consists in this one point; Will he humble his reason before God's all-comprehending knowledge, and his heart and affections before God's all-holy and perfect commands?

Christianity is the highest reason; the purest morals; the only sound philosophy; the truest happiness of man.

All the discoveries in science illustrate the divine glory in creation; as all the researches of history, and all the testimony of experience, display the divine grace in Revelation. Each new discovery adds something to the impression, though little to the obligation under which we lie to obey and love God; for this obligation is so deep-rests on so firm a foundationextends to so many points, and converges into so bright and luminous a centre, as to be little affected by a single argument, more or less clearly stated, or adequately perceived.

Soon will truth shine out without a cloud; soon will the folly of unbelief, and the wisdom of faith, be seen in other proportions than at present; soon will the moral obligation of obedience to such a Revelation as Christianity, and the unutterable guilt of rejecting it, appear in their just characters; soon will all the passing objections and cavils of men be dispersed as the early dew; soon will the day of probation be terminated for ever; this world, and all its occupations fade away; and an end be imposed on the present scene of things. Yes," the day of the Lord will come