by the obedient student, should be generally traduced and despised.

on;

Nor let a hesitation concerning any one specific doctrine impede the execution of your design. Not to say that it is possible you may have taken an indistinct view of that particular point, certainly you may have forgotten that any one topic of religion, and this amongst the number, may be suspicious indeed, if it were to be exclusively and crudely insisted like a separate ingredient of a valuable medicine, which, when properly mingled with the rest, may be essential to the efficacy of the whole, though by itself it may be pernicious or even poisonous. This remark applies, not only to the divisions of truth to which I have adapted the principle of my text, but to every other. The doctrines of Christianity are to be judged of, not by their separate, but by their combined tendency. It is for the purpose of preventing any partial, and consequently dangerous, display of them, that God has appointed the ministers of his word and sacraments; it is in this point of view that the importance of education and literature, as tending to correct the judgment and to invigorate the powers of the mind, particularly appear; it is in this respect that reading the holy Scriptures, and meditation, and prayer and diligence, are among the brightest ornaments of the sacred character; it

is for this end that we are solemnly admonished, not rashly and indiscriminately to inculcate religious doctrines, but to study to show ourselves approved unto God, as workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Closely allied with this point is the difficulty which may arise in the minds of some who are here present, from the mischievous use which has been made of the truths of the Gospel by the enthusiastic or designing. But what is there so excellent, which, in the hands of weak men, has not become absurd; and, in the hands of bad men, injurious? Is it not commonly seen that the best gifts of nature and providence lose all their virtue, and acquire opposite qualities, when perverted from their native intention? No one therefore should deduce any other inference from such unhappy examples of imbecility or craft, than a more steady observance of the sober and chastised method of study, which is recommended in my

text.

5 2 Tim. ii. 15. I must here again beg leave to add a thought or two from the masterly pen of Pascal.

Il y en a plusieurs qui errent d'autant plus dangereusement, qu'ils prennent une vérité pour le principe de leur erreur. Leur faute n'est pas de suivre une fausseté; mais de suivre une vérité à l'exclusion d'une autre. Il y a un grand nombre de vérités, et de foi et de morale, qui semblent répugnantes et contraires, et qui subsistent toutes dans un ordre admirable. Pensées, t. ii. p. 175.

One other difficulty remains to be noticed. It may be objected to the general position inculcated in this discourse, and matter of fact seems to add weight to the objection, that persons are sometimes to be found who appear both to apprehend and to approve of the doctrine of the Scriptures, whilst they too clearly evince that they have never been concerned to do God's will. This objection I will not attempt to silence by observing, that exceptions, or apparent exceptions, to every general statement, and especially on moral and religious topics, perpetually occur, without however being considered as in the least affecting the validity of the position in question. Nor will I content myself with remarking that the knowledge, which is thus acquired, is frequently not so correct, after all, as the objector may imagine; but that on the contrary it is generally intermingled with fatal errors; so that it cannot be said to amount, even in a speculative point of view, to a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the doctrine. I will give the objection its full weight. I will allow that, where a man has been surrounded with external advantages, where just views of religious truth have been recommended to his esteem, and in a manner forced upon his notice, from his earliest days, and where circumstances have

afterwards concurred rather to favour, than to discourage, his profession of it, he may possibly, so far as we can discern, discover and acknowledge all the various and important doctrines, with their mutual dependencies, which compose the grand scheme of the Gospel. His convictions, in this case, will be on the side of truth, whilst his heart is opposed to it. Some transient alarms of conscience, some warm movements of his affections, motives of interest or convenience, the love of fame, the ambitious desire of acquiring power or influence with a party, may combine at length to fix him as the advocate of perfectly correct opinions, and to leave him under the fatal delusion of conceiving that the zealous support of them will be a sufficient substitute for a life of devotedness to God. Thus, by an anomaly in religion, for which however the corrupt state of human nature will but too well account, he may maintain positions which in fact condemn his whole spirit and conduct; and dispute for truths, which his state of heart forbids him to love, and which, if his external circumstances had been different, he would have despised, rejected, and opposed. But even to this exempt case, however perplexing it may at first appear, the grand principle of my text is applicable. The knowledge of which we treat is not merely

speculative, but practical. The person therefore before us shall not know of the doctrine. He may have collected the outlines of it in his memory; but, not having received it into his heart, he shall not know of the doctrine in its influence and benefits. On the contrary, if, from his continued neglect of the injunction of my text, his notions remain barren and unproductive, they shall become to him a savour of death unto death; they shall increase his final condemnation; they shall proclaim, as it were, to all the world, when considered in connection with the disobedience of his life, that his damnation is just. Such characters then, so far from furnishing a valid objection to the principle of my discourse, afford it, as we have seen, a strong additional confirmation. It still remains true in its full extent, that if any one who has hitherto been negligent of religion, is really anxious to discover its genuine doctrines, he has only one resource, an obedient submission of heart to God. In this way, and this way only, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, can he enter upon a successful investigation of the momentous subject.

Permit me then finally to address myself to those persons, if such should be here present,

62 Cor. ii. 16.

7 Rom. iii. 8.