very, indeed the only course, to which reason, rightly exercised, will lead ? Is not conduct of every other kind, in the business of religion, most foolish and insane, and that of which alone men should be ashamed?

But, whilst standing immoveable upon this ground,—whilst maintaining, upon the authority of God's Revelation, these truths, and caring not for the opposition made to them by men, whether of other Churches or by Socinians, as if they were not in accordance with the dictates of reason,-we yet say, at the same time, that they are not only agreeable to, but confirmed by reason. Do I, for example, need proofs from this quarter of the depravity and wickedness of man? I look within me, around me to ancient, to modern times-to Heathen, and to Christian nations. Am I assailed by those who represent my statements of the misery of man as both unworthy of our ideas of the Divine benevolence, and as not descriptive of their actual situation? I look around and behold the "whole creation groaning and travailing in pain." I observe their disappointments, their dissatisfaction, their utter and universal wretchedness. I hear of some of them dying every moment, and see them all hastening to the grave. Oh! what a scene of vanity and death does this world present!-Yes, Socinians, this world, made by a wise and a benevolent God. Representations of this sort inconsistent with rational views of God, forsooth! Let former generations be appealed to-let the present be enquired at. The language of both, and still more their feelings, if embodied in language, would confirm the Scriptural truth conveyed in one of the catechisms, at which Socinians and other rational Christians have such a horror, and which states that, "having lost all communion with God, we are under the wrath and curse of God,subject to all the miseries of this life, to death itself,”—

"And to the pains of hell for ever." This is the view to which, say they, we most strongly object. It is the Word of God, and that should be sufficient, we reply. "Everlasting fire-the worm that dieth not," are certainly spoken of there. Therein, assuredly, eternal misery is described as the portion of an impenitent immortal. You may affect the strongest repugnance to-you may profess entire disbelief of this statement. I cannot help it. b

"Let God be true, and every man a liar." But is there ground in reason for such notions, I ask? Why, my reason tells me that there is no happiness for a creature such as man but in God; and that, if miserable without him in this world, and leaving it without being reconciled to him, he must be for ever and for ever miserable. The conscience also of the sinner loudly proclaims the same truth, and forces him, whatever the devil and the world may suggest to the contrary, to entertain "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." If the rational Christian still persist in declaring these not to be in accordance with right views of the Divine nature, I leave him to solve the difficulty the best way he can. That such is the actual condition of mankind there is every evidence. Is he prepared, then, since his reason, his conscience, and his very senses testify to these things, to impeach the wisdom, the power, the goodness of God, under whose government they are seen to exist?

That the doctrine of an atonement such as Christ made, and the proffer of great blessings from God to man as the consequence of it, is agreeable to reason, to the tenour of Divine Providence, and even to the common views of mankind, as manifested in their sacrifices to God, and in their intercourse with one another, may be seen most satisfactorily set forth in Butler's Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, to which I refer the reader.

That we are justified, or pardoned and accepted through faith, is also a doctrine which, the more it is considered in all its bearings, will the more strongly recommend itself as the only way by which such a blessing can be conveyed to the sinner, and change of heart and holiness at the same time secured. And that no man can repent and believe but by the Holy Spirit, and that every real Christian is born again by its power, is another Scriptural truth which reason not only approves, when discovered, but is led to infer.*

Under such convictions of their authority, do I proclaim these fearfully despised truths, being not ashamed. And, on farther consideration of their design and tendency, I am sustained in

* See, for example, Dr. Abercrombie's Philosophical Work, entitled " Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth," pp. 438, 439, fourth edition.

this feeling, as the Apostle showed himself to be, when, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, he exclaims,— "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." On the reception of Christ, pardon is bestowed on the guilty sinner; and the principle by which this blessing is conveyed is constituted, at the same time, the means of enlightening his understanding, purifying his heart, raising him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, delivering him, in short, from the condemnation and power of sin. Lastly, the effects produced, in the grace of God, by the promulgation of the gospel-the change of heart-the holiness of life" the righteousness, the peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," which it has diffused amongst numbers, the amount of which will remain unknown till we are all summoned, in the last day, into the presence of God-also lead me to glory, and not be ashamed, in declaring truths at once so certain, and leading to such results.

Glorious Gospel! revealing a Saviour to guilty, miserable, and helpless man-a Deliverer from all the evils that sin has brought upon him-a Restorer to more than the happiness he has forfeited. Ashamed of the gospel! Yes: I am ashamed that I have valued it so little-that I have not more faithfully proclaimed it, and disclosed more of its "unsearchable riches." For this cause should I and every minister of it be ashamed and deeply humbled, but for no other cause. Rather would we glory in it,"counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." Let those men be ashamed, who, in the awful concerns of religion, trust to the conclusions of their own darkened and deceitful reason, and their own wicked hearts, or who profess to receive, as inspired, the sacred Scriptures, and either deny or ridicule the most plainly revealed and important doctrines which they contain-whose system, if it can be so called, is without foundation in reason or the Word of God, reveals no way of sure and peaceful access to their Maker, leads to no difference in their state before him, nor any radical change in their own hearts. It is of such a false and

fruitless, and, I will add, such a prevailing religion as this, and not of the everlasting gospel, that men should be ashamed.

But though, in order to sustain myself unmoved in the declaration of the great truths of the gospel, amidst the indifference and opposition which they so generally meet with, I have thus examined them, it must be acknowledged that every feeling of shame will not be excluded from the mind of one who merely refers to such authorities. It is very true that, so far as the understanding of the sinner is consulted on these truths, he may defend them firmly, and even glory in them, as completely in accordance with its unsophisticated dictates. But, if he rely upon this ground alone, he will find himself not altogether uninfluenced by this sense of shame in the maintenance of the gospel. If his heart continue unchanged, whatever may be the conclusions of the intellect, such a feeling will certainly be present. If he remain, as he naturally is, blind to the evil nature and dreadful consequences of sin, especially as these affect himself, and if he behold not the Lord Jesus Christ by this light, even as that glorious and for ever blessed and compassionate Being, who, when he was under the righteous condemnation of God, humbled himself on his account, and became obedient unto the death of the cross, and suffered in his stead, that he might receive forgiveness and eternal life-if he be not thus enabled to contemplate these truths, assuredly, to whatever height of triumph in the vindication of them he may rise, when he employs the former means, he will fall again, and in one way or other be ashamed of them. And such instances, I am persuaded, do frequently occur. Not until the heart of the sinner is changed-not until he is laid low in the presence of God-not until he sees his original depravity, the multitude, the variety, the complication, the aggravated nature of his sins-not until, under the burden of them, he sees himself sinking into eternal perdition, and from this depth apprehend the mercy of God in Christ, and laying hold upon him, trust in him, and rejoice in him-not until this union shall have taken place, can any man truly say with the Apostle, "I am not ashamed," and look to Christ as him," whom having not seen, he loves, and in whom, though now he sees him not, yet believing, he rejoices with joy

unspeakable and full of glory." Left to themselves, the Jews rejected every evidence of Christ's divinity, though they could not disprove it; but, wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, they uttered the striking language, which has been referred to, in the fifty-third of Isaiah, saying,-Once "we hid, as it were, our faces from him he was despised, and we esteemed him not. But" now we see " he was wounded for our trangressions; he was bruised for our iniquities." And it was not until a similar change by the same Almighty Agent had been produced on the mind of the Apostle that he could say,-" Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift," and declared he was not ashamed, knowing in whom he had believed. And happy are those ministers of the gospel, who, in addition to all the other elements of their knowledge of Christ, have received this gift from God, by which these are combined and formed into principles of spiritual life and action, even "the unction from the Holy One, by which they know all things," (1 John i. 20 ;) and, on experiencing which,

66 They, unashamed, in the gate,

Shall speak unto their foes."

In this feeling of confidence would I cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, when, as we have lately witnessed in this city, very different views of Christian truth are presented; and when, as upon that occasion, the ministers of the gospel are described as declaring what is in accordance neither with Scripture nor reason, but only with the arbitrary standards of a national religion. We are not ashamed, knowing, for other reasons than those which are ascribed to us, in whom we have believed.

The great truth to which I have last referred-the necessity of a divine influence, in order to produce those views of Christ and of his gospel which will enable us to remain firm and unashamed in our adherence to him-suggests most important preliminary instruction for the reader of this Work. It is a common and a just remark, that the cause of infidelity is not in a want of evidences to the Christian religion, but in the awful prejudices of the heart. "Light has come into the world," says the blessed Saviour," and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Until the Holy Spirit remove this obstacle, the