ages, though there may be much more than either of what is false and indifferent?

The pre

But let us turn to views that are practical. valence then, of a supernatural faith may drive us too near the mere religion of nature. Since reason has been too much discarded from religion, we may in our zeal to escape from this error, become over much rational. Because religion has been regarded too much as consisting in inward transports, and too little as appearing in the outward actions, some may conclude that internal piety is a mere fancy, and that the outward life is our only concern; yes, they may forget this fundamental maxim, that piety is, after all, an inward, spiritual, living principle in the soul. There has been too much excitement in religion, and some of us may have a horror of excitement. Revivals of religion have been extremely abused, and we may despise and ridicule the very name, and what is more, may forget that we all need, yes, as individuals, churches, and congregations, that we do need, greatly need, in the true and sober sense of those words, a revival of religion among us.

Preachers have been too severe, and perhaps some will hardly consent that they should be serious: too rude and pointed, perhaps, and we will have them too general and gentle. Christians have been too gloomy, and we perhaps are too light; too rigid, and, we, too indulgent; too formal, and we are too careless. There has been too much terror in religion, and we perhaps go to the extreme of having none at all; too much superstition, and we will have no fear. Men have thought and preached, that every body, with scarcely an exception,

is going in the broad road to destruction, and possibly we believe that nobody is. Religious anxiety has taken the forms of fright and distraction, and we are set against all anxiety. Religious experience has been wickedly feigned and extravagantly represented, and we wish for none of it. Those old Calvinistic notions of religious experience, and anxiety, of future misery, and alarming danger to the wicked, have gone by, with some of us, perhaps; but, assuredly, any thing is better to believe than to believe nothing.

What horrible doctrines have been preached, some one reflects and he has a dread of doctrines. What terrible discipline too, there has been in the church, and he cannot bear honest reproof. And as to the observances of religion, no doubt, too much has been made of them, and hence it is, in part, perhaps, that many make nothing of them.

It would be easy to extend these reflections to a much greater length; but our limits forbid it. "I had rather believe," says Lord Bacon, "all the fables in the legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind." And I shall venture to add, that it were better to believe all that the Pope has decreed, and Mahomet pretended, and Brahmins fancy, than to believe nothing. And it were better in religion to do all that they command, than to do nothing. Yes-I repeat-better were it to suffer penances, to make pilgrimages, to sell relics-better were it to go mad with zeal, or to be distracted with anxiety-than to do nothing. Better is it, in this great concern; to be an enthusiast, a bigot, or a pagan, than to be nothing. To

err in religion is the lot of humanity; to neglect religion, altogether, is the path of transgression, and the way to death.

D.

EPHESIANS ii, 3.

A Christian dies; he enters the invisible world; appears before the judgment seat of Christ; hears the voice of approval, "Well done! good and faithful servant;" and is admitted to the happiness of heaven-the joy of his Lord. Now for a person who loves to investigate the causes of things, and who desires to ascertain the grounds of his religious hope, it is a most natural inquiry, To what is the salvation of this Christian owing? This is a question of great practical importance. So momentous is it, indeed, that no man should dare answer it without the most scrupulous and heartfelt regard to revelation.

Recurring to the Bible for light, we find passages of a seemingly opposite import. While some ascribe salvation exclusively to the Supreme Being, others are equally explicit in ascribing it to the agency of man. This discrepancy I consider as only apparent: the passages, in my view, are perfectly reconcileable.

To unfold this harmony, as well as to remove all semblance of contradiction, is the object of my present remarks. If I succeed in reconciling divine grace with the efficacy of human exertion, the reader will perceive my answer to the grand question proposed: To what is man indebted for salvation?'

The passage I now propose to examine, is one of the more prominent of those, which ascribe salvation to the favor of the Most High. The reader may find it in the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, the eighth verse: "By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

These words of the apostle-do you call them words of divine comfort and encouragement? So full of heaven is their sound, I cannot wonder that many bid them welcome without examination. If you are to confide wholly in the sovereignty of God, and be saved by his free bounty; if your salvation is altogether his bestowal, unconnected with any effort of your own; no wonder you feel removed from your mind a weight of responsibility and solicitude; no wonder that with extreme reluctance you suffer yourselves to be undeceived.

But this view of human hope and expectation, I need not say, contradicts the general scope of revealed truth. That it contradicts the doctrine of man's probation and accountability, it is superfluous to add.

What then is our condition? With me you acknowledge, as his name implies, the absolute supremacy of the Almighty. This is a truth, which no Christian would relinquish, sooner than he would give up his very existence: it is one of the most valuable privileges of our faith, a support of our heart, hope and confidence, that can never fail. While, therefore, we recognize the Eternal, not only as our Father and Friend, but as our Supreme Disposer, we are to ascertain from his own word, our exact state. Nay more: such knowledge is insufficient. Such knowledge is not even the commencement of a christian course.

It

is only preparatory to taking the first step. We are not only to ascertain the exact duties, which our Disposer has prescribed, but we are most faithfully to perform them. Our first object should be to arrive at the precise import of his communications. This faithfulness of research, however difficult it may be, is of incalculable importance; for gross ignorance and perversion of scripture, uniting with an undisciplined spirit, engender the endless divisions and blind antipathies of the christian world.

Few passages of the inspired volume, for example, have been more misrepresented than that under consideration. The framers of human systems to make them consistent, and the advocates of fanaticism through ignorance, have thrown a mist around it; a mist resembling that delusion of the senses, which in our early years we heard attributed to magical influence. Too often will the serious inquirer, making truth his sole aim and object, be astonished and grieved at finding the simplicity of the gospel thus veiled and obscured.

This passage is brought to prove, as is well known, what is called the doctrine of grace; and when correctly explained, I do not hesitate to declare, salvation by grace is a doctrine of the Bible--one that excites our heartfelt gratitude; but when made to represent the Deity as foreordaining men to the happiness of HEAVEN, without the smallest reference to their obedience or qualifications on earth, it is so repugnant to the whole tenor of revelation and so subversive of its holy object, as not to be admissible even for a moment; and that it is altogether unsupported by this representation of the apostle, a scriptural exposition, I trust, will be sufficient to show.