Creator, which must be clearly apprehend- And here I cannot but remark, how much ed, and manifested with power unto the effect and simplicity go together in the anconscience. We believe, that however much nals of Moravianism. The men of this truly philosophers may talk about the compara- interesting denomination, address themtive ease of forming those conceptions selves exclusively to that principle of our which are simple, they will, if in good earn- nature on which the proper influence of est after a right footing with God, soon dis- Christianity turns. Or, in other words, cover in their own minds, all that darkness they take up the subject of the gospel mesand incapacity about spiritual things, which sage, that message devised by him who knew are so broadly announced to us in the New what was in man, and who, therefore, knew Testament. And, oh! it is a deeply inter- how to make the right and the suitable apesting spectacle, to behold a man, who can plication to man.-They urge the plain Word take a masterly and commanding survey of the Testimony; and they pray for a blessover the field of some human speculation, ing from on high; and that thick impalpable who can clear his discriminated way through veil, by which the god of this world blinds all the turns and ingenuities of some human the hearts of men who believe not, lest the argument, who by the march of a mighty and light of the glorious gospel of Christ should resistless demonstration, can scale with as- enter into them-that veil, which no sured footstep the sublimities of science, power of philosophy can draw aside, gives and from his firm stand on the eminence way to the demonstration of the Spirit; and he has won, can descry some wondrous thus it is, that a clear perception of scriprange of natural or intellectual truth spread tural truth, and all the freshness and perout in subordination before him ;-and yet manency of its moral influences, are to this very man may, in reference to the be met with among men who have just moral and authoritative claims of the God-emerged from the rudest and the grossest head, be in a state of utter apathy and blind- barbarity.-Oh! when one looks at the ness! All his attempts, either at the spiritu- number and the greatness of their achieveal discernment, or the practical impression ments; when he thinks of the change they of this doctrine, may be arrested and baffled have made on materials so coarse and so oy the weight of some great inexplicable unpromising; when he eyes the villages impotency. A man of homely talents, and they have formed; and around the whole still homelier education, may see what he of that engaging perspective by which they cannot see, and feel what he cannot feel; have chequered and relieved the grim soliand wise and prudent as he is, there may tude of the desert, he witnesses the love, lie the barrier of an obstinate and impene- and listens to the piety of reclaiming trable concealment, between his accomplish-savages;-who would not long to be in ed mind, and those things which are re vealed unto babes. But while his mind is thus utterly devoid of what may be called the main or elemental principle of theology, he may have a far quicker apprehension, and have his taste and his feelings much more powerfully interested, than the simple Christian who is beside him, by what may be called the circumstantials of theology. He can throw a wider and more rapid glance over the magnitudes of creation. He can be more delicately alive to the beauties and the sublimities which abound in it. He can, when the idea of a presiding God is suggested to him, have a more kindling sense of his natural majesty, and be able, both in imagination and in words, to surround the throne of the Divinity by the blazonry of more great, and splendid, and elevating images. And yet, with all those powers of conception which he does possess, he may not possess that on which practical Christianity hinges. The moral relation between him and God, may neither be effectively perceived, nor faithfully proceeded on. Conscience may be in a state of the most entire dormancy, and the man be regaling himself with the magnificence of God, while he neither loves God, nor believes God, nor obeys God. possession of the charm by which they have wrought this wondrous transformation-who would not willingly exchange for it all the parade of human eloquence, and all the confidence of human argument and for the wisdom of winning souls, who is there that would not rejoice to throw the loveliness of the song, and all the insignificancy of its passing fascinations, away from him? And yet it is right that every cavil against Christianity should be met, and every argument for it be exhibited, and all the graces and sublimities of its doctrine be held out to their merited admiration. And if it be true, as it certainly is, that throughout the whole of this process, a man may be carried rejoicingly along from the mere indulgence of his taste, and the mere play and exercise of his understanding; while conscience is untouched, and the supremacy of moral claims upon the heart and the conduct is practically disowned by himit is further right that this should be adverted to; and that such a melancholy unhingement in the constitution of man should be fully laid open, and that he should be driven out of the seductive complacency which he is so apt to cherish, merely because he delights in the loveliness of the song; and that he should be urged with the imperiousness of a demand which still remains unsatisfied, to turn him from the corrupt indifference of nature, and to become personally a religious man; and that he should be assured how all the gratification he felt in listening to the word which respected the kingdom of God, will be of no avail, unless that kingdom come to himself in power-that it will only go to heighten the perversity of his character-that it will not extenuate his real and practical ungodliness, but will serve most fearfully to aggravate the condemnation of it. With a religion so argumentable as ours, it may be easy to gather out of it a feast for the human understanding. With a religion so magnificent as ours, it may be easy to gather out of it a feast for the human imagination. But with a religion so humbling, and so strict, and so spiritual, it is not easy to mortify the pride; or to quell the strong enmity of nature; or to arrest the currency of the affections; or to turn the constitutional habits; or to pour a new complexion over the moral history; or to stem the domineering influence of things seen and things sensible; or to invest faith with a practical supremacy; or to give its objects such a vivacity of influence as shall overpower the near and the hourly impressions, that are ever emanating upon man from a seducing world. It is here that man feels himself treading upon the limit of his helplessness. It is here that he sees where the strength of nature ends; and the power of grace must either be put forth, or leave him to grope his darkling way, without one inch of progress towards the life and the substance of Christianity. It is here that a barrier rises on the contemplation of the inquirer-the barrier of separation between the carnal and the spiritual, and on which he may idly waste the every energy which belongs to him, in the enterprise of surmounting it. It is here, that after having walked the round of nature's acquisitions, and lavished upon the truth of all his ingenuities, and surveyed it in its every palpable character of grace and majesty; he will still feel himself on a level with the simplest and most untutored of the species. He needs the power of a living manifestation. He needs the anointing which remaineth. He needs that which fixes and perpetuates a stable revolution upon the character, and in virtue of which he may be advanced from the state of one who hears, and is delighted, to the state of one who hears, and is a doer. Oh! how strikingly is the experience even of vigorous and accomplished nature at one on this point with the announcements of revelation, that to work this change, there must be the putting forth of a peculiar agency; and that it is an agency, which, withheld from the exercise of loftiest talent, is often brought down on an impressed audience, through the humblest of all instrumentality, with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power. Think it not enough, that you carry in your bosom an expanded sense of the magnificence of creation. But pray for a subduing sense of the authority of the Creator. Think it not enough, that with the justness of a philosophical discernment, you have traced that boundary which hems in all the possibilities of human attainment, and have found that all beyond it is a dark and fathomless unknown. But let this modesty of science be carried, as in consistency it ought, to the question of revelation, and let all the antipathies of nature be schooled to acquiescence in the authentic testimonies of the Bible. Think it not enough that you have looked with sensibility and wonder at the representation of God throned in immensity, yet combining with the vastness of his entire superintendence, a most thorough inspection into all the minute and countless diversities of existence. Think of your own heart as one of these diversities; and that he ponders all its tendencies; and has an eye upon all its movements; and marks all its waywardness; and, God of judgment as he is, records its every secret, and its every sin, in the book of his remembrance. Think it not enough, that you have been led to associate a grandeur with the salvation of the New Testament; when made to understand that it draws upon it the regards of an arrested universe. How is it arresting your own mind? What has been the earnestness of your personal regards towards it? And tell me, if all its faith, and all its repentance, and all its holiness are not disowned by you? Think it not enough, that you have felt a sentimental charm when angels were pictured to your fancy as beckoning you to their mansions, and anxiously looking to the every symptom of your grace and reformation. Oh! be constrained by the power of all this tenderness, and yield yourselves up in a practical obedience to the call of the Lord God merciful and gracious. Think it not enough that you have shared for a moment in the deep and busy interest of that arduous conflict which is now going on for a moral ascendency over the species. Remember the conflict is for each of you individually; and let this alarm you into a watchfulness against the power of every temptation, and a cleaving dependence upon him through whom alone you will be more than conquerors. Above all, forget not that while you only hear and are delighted, you are still under nature's powerlessness, and nature's condemnation-and that the foundation is not laid, the mighty and essential change is not accomplished, the transition from death unto life is not undergone, the saving faith is not formed, nor the passage taken from darkness to the marvellous light of the gospel, till you are both hearers of the word and doers also. "For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." APPENDIX. THE writer of these Discourses has drawn up the following compilation of passages from Scripture, as serving to illustrate or to confirm the leading arguments which have been employed in each separate division of his subject. DISCOURSE I. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Gen. i. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. Gen. ii. 1. Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Deut. x. 14. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. Deut. xxxiii. 26. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 2 Kings xix. 15. For all the gods of the people are idols; but the Lord made the heavens. 1 Chronicles xvi. 26. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein; and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worship thee. Nehemiah ix. 6. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Job ix. 8, 9. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Job xxvi. 7. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens. Job xxvi. 13. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handy-work. Psalm xix. 1. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm xxxiii. 6. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. Psalm cii. 25. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. Psalm civ. 2. He appointed the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down. Psalm civ. 19. You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Psalm cxv. 15, 16. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm cxxi. 2. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm cxxiv. 8. The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion. Psalm cxxxiv. 3. Which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, Psalm cxlvi. 6. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. Prov. iii. 19. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a scale, and the hills in a balance. Isa. xl. 12. It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heaven as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Isa. xl. 22. Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. Isa. xlii. 5. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Isa. xliv. 24. I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. Isa. xlv. 12 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited. Isa. xlv. 18. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call unto them, they stand up together. Isa. xlviii. 13. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion. Jer. x. 12. Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Jer. xxxii. 17. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. Jer. li. 15. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, The Lord is his Amos ix. 6. name. We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein. Acts xiv. 15. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Heb. i. 2. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thine hands. Heb. i. 10. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Heb. xi. 3. DISCOURSE II. THE secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deut. xxix. 29. I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause; Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number. Job v. 8, 9. Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. Job ix. 10. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job xi. 7. Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? Job xv. 8. Lo, these are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? Job xxvi. 14. Behold, God is great, and we know him not; neither can the number of his years be searched out. Job xxxvi. 26. God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend. Job xxxvii. 5. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice. Job xxxvii. 23. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Psalm lxxvii. 19. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm cxlv. 3. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isa. lv. 8, 9. Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt. xviii. 3. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein. Luke xviii. 17. O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Rom. xi. 33. 24. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 1 Cor. iii. 18. For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Gal. vi. 3. ter the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Col. ii. 8. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. I Tim. vi. 20. DISCOURSE III. BUT will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today. That thine eyes may be open towards this house night and day, even towards the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there; that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make towards this place. 1 Kings viii. 27, 28, 29. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven. Job xxviii. 24. For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. Job xxxiv. 21. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. Psalm cxxxviii. 6. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising: thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compasseth my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord! thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Psalm cxxxix. 1-7. Such How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them they are more in number than the sand: when I awake I am still with thee. Psalms cxxxix. 17, 18. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Prov. xv. 3. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord: do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. Jer. xxiii. 24. Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow? they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little of faith? Matt. vi. 26, 28, 29, 30. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Heb. iv. 13. DISCOURSE IV. Beware lest any man spoil you through philoso- AND he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on phy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, af- the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and i behold the angels of God ascending and descend- therein, that there should be time no longer. Rev. ing on it. Gen. xxviii. 12. For a thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Psalm xc. 4. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Isa. li. 6. For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Matt. xvi. 27. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Matt. xxv. 31. Also, I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. Luke xii. 8, 9. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. John i. 51. We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. Cor. v. 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil. ii. 9, 10, 11. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. 2 Thess. i. 7.. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Tim. iii, 16. I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things. 1 Tim. v. 21. And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. Heb. i. 6. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Hebrews xii. 22, 23, 24. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. 2 Peter iii. 8, 9, 10. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are x. 5, 6. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. Rev. xiv. 9, 10. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. Rev. xx. 11. DISCOURSE V. Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unte AND Nathan departed unto his house; and the David, and it was very sick. David, therefore, besought God for the child: and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth; but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and the child was dead; for they said, Behold, while he would not hearken unto our voice, how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead; therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and, when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for Then said his servants unto him, What thing is the child while it was alive: but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept ; for I said who can tell whether God will be he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring gracious to me, that the child may live? But now him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. 2 Sam. xii. 15-23. them that fear him, and delivereth them. Psalm The angel of the Lord encampeth round about xxxiv. 7. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm xci. 2. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other. Matt. xxiv. 31. Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Luke xv. 10. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Heb. i. 14. DISCOURSE VI. THEN Was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Matt. iv. L. The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the |