only through the Merits of Christ; for although obedience is necessary to render those Merits effectual in your behalf, it cannot, by any efficacy inherent in itself, even save you from the wrath to come. When you have done all that is required of you, God will forgive you, not on account of your own righteousness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

And, finally, you are to believe, that your bodies will ultimately be raised from the dead, that they will be reunited to your souls; and that they will then go away together either into Everlasting Punishment, or into Life Eternal.

This, then, is the first part of your Duty towards God, to believe in him with all your hearts, and souls, and strength, without any reservation of mind, or wavering of opinion, as the Creator, Governor, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Judge of the world. It is plainly and positively declared that he is so in those Scriptures, which, considering the Doctrines they teach, the Precepts they incul cate, the Intelligence they convey, the Divine Character they bear, and the

strong Evidences of Truth they contain, nothing but the most obstinate prejudice, and most perverse incredulity, can deny to be the Word of God.

It is universally admitted, that Error lies in Extremes, and consequently that Truth lies between them. Now as you advance in life, you will have occasion frequently to apply this maxim, and to notice the prevalence of two opposite spirits, the spirit of Enthusiasm, and the spirit of Infidelity. These, in their re

* While we condemn Enthusiasm, we should be cautious not to accuse those of being actuated by its spirit, who strictly perform their Devotional Duties, constantly participate in the Holy Communion, regularly observe Family Prayer, and frequently give their thoughts to religious studies, and their time to religious usefulness, lest we raise a prejudice against righteousness itself, and thereby obstruct the benefi cial effects of a good example. And every one, whose mind is of a more sober and religious turn, should guard against spiritual pride, and beware of passing an uncharitable judgment upon those of his fellowcreatures, who may not interpret Scripture in quite so strict a sense as he does, nor see the necessity of deny. ing themselves the moderate use of those recreations and indulgences, from which he may think it right to abstain.

spective suggestions and operations; are repugnant to the temper, and subversive of the interests, of true religion.

son,

Enthusiasm is a vain over-confident belief in divine intercourse; a vehement and heated passion of the soul, which, rejecting the guidance and co-operation of Reaand the sober dictates of an instructive Religion, hurries its votaries into the absurdest extravagances of opinion, and the wildest excesses of action. Hence it is, that so many scions of error have been grafted on the stock of truth. Hence the essence and substance of Religion are made to consist in mere feeling, in rapturous flights of the imagination, in fond assurances of a particular election, and in evident experiences of spiritual communication. And hence faith, separated from its fruits, is carried beyond its appropriate limits, and considered as the only necessary qualification for fellowship with Christ here, and for union with him hereafter. A man's faith cannot be too sincere; but if it be alone, if it produce not good works, if it operate not uniform righteousness and charity, its existence in

ness.

the breast as a vital quality may safely be questioned; for how can his faith be true, whose life is wicked? How can he from his soul believe in God and his Christ, who by the immorality of his life, is serving the cause of Satan and his Angels? It is all mockery to approach God with no other offering than that of profession; it is the vainest delusion to suppose, that that is a sound unfeigned faith which produces no labours of love, nor fruit unto righteous* "What doth it profit," says St. James, "that a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?" That is, can that faith, which is a mere speculative assent to truth, unaccompanied by practical Christianity, convey to him the benefits of redemption? "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

*James, ii. 14-18.

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works; shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

Religion and Reason must on no account be separated. The Gospel is addressed to rational beings, and requires us, as such, to believe what it teaches. It does not, indeed, press its truths upon us to the exclusion of the imagination; for it raises, and was meant to raise, in the mind, the most delightful conceptions; but it would put restraint upon its wild excursions, and prevent its flight beyond the boundaries of Right Reason and Moderation. Christianity requires a devout, not a superstitious service; a sober, not a frantic deportment; a zeal with, not without, knowledge; a regular discharge of essential duties, not an empty effusion of rapturous protestations; a grave and temperate steadiness of faith and practice, not a loose licentious vagrancy of heart and action; the mortification and correction of the inner man for purposes of spiritual improvement, and not the harsh and cruel discipline of self-punishment,

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