unbelief, practical atheism, or that sort of despair, which leads to carelessness and indifference, or to all "wretchlessness of unclean living." The pleasures and delights of faith, and hope, and charity, and the things which accompany salvation, are out of the question with such a man. And he will most forcibly prove by. his disposition or actions, in some way or other, that he, who has no share in the kingdom of Christ, cannot live out of the dominion of the devil.

It may be also observed, that the Holy Scripture always leads the heart of the Believer to love the PERSON of Christ, as well as his work and office in the economy of redemption. Where this personal attachment does not take place, and abide, the professor may very justly question, whether his faith be of the right sort, or rather, whether he has any faith at all deserving

deserving that name.

This may serve to detect many prevalent errors. of the day, which lead men, not to Christ firmly and entirely, but to their own works and wisdom for the attainment of salvation. How barren, and how dry, are the hearts of such men! How little of gracious effect or knowledge results from those, who give themselves up to these delusions! Love only can animate, elevate, and sweeten, Duty. Duty without Love becomes barren, if attempted, and commonly a burden. See the lives of men, who act upon the plan of recommending themselves to the divine favour by what they can do of themselves; and they will generally be found, either deeply tinctured with a gloomy moroseness, sufficient to impress others with dismal apprehensions of the nature of religion, or with a mixture of pastimes and amusements, in the full spirit of the world, with which true G 2 religion

religion ever was and ever will be found, as incompatible as the worship of God and Mammon.

§ 43. But there are people, who will object and say, that, according to this statement, the right knowledge of the Christian Religion is wholly a matter of divine influence or inspiration. Granted. It does indeed, when genuinely attained, shine into the mind, warm the heart, and `animate the life, solely through the Inspiration and Influence of God's Holy Spirit. For this "inspiration," for this both" burning and shining light," the Church of England, following the lively oracles of truth, instructs its members constantly to pray; and, particularly, when they assemble for public worship. Surely, she would neither mock God, nor us, when she constantly enjoins us to implore the inspiration of his Spirit, in order to think, to speak, to do, what is holy, just, and good.

Her

Her articles also profess, what her Liturgy prescribes. Her Homilies, only more at large, explain and confirm the object of her constituted forms. They breathe (if the phrase may be used) one and the same spirit of faith.* The same Spirit pervades all the Confessions of Faith, published by the several Reformed Churches on their deliverance from the tyranny and the errors of Rome. All the Fathers of the primitive Christian Church, whether Latin or Greek, confess more or less the same truth; and, it is remarkable, in that proportion too as their piety and usefulness

* See various passages in the Liturgy, and the two Homilies on the Misery of Man, the Homily on Whit-Sunday, and the third Homily or Sermon for Rogation Week.

+ Syntagma Conf. ferè passim, et speciatim Consens. Patrum, ad calcem ejusdem libri. Edit. 1612.

were more or less eminent in their lives or writings. But, above all these who have only a derivative authority, the supreme judgement of God himself is that decisive rule, to which all men, calling themselves Christians, should implicitly bow, and to which all other men, however reluctant here, must one day be compelled to submit. This judgement, this infallible rule, is contained in his most holy word, and, like a golden vein, runs through a multitude of texts, with the clearest brightness, and with the fairest analogy, encouraging those, whose eyes are opened to see it, to search with industry and advantage for the precious ore. Or, using another figure, this holy word, like a dial, correctly drawn and standing fair for observation, affords information by the immediate shining of the sun, but only to those, who have eyes to distinguish characteis and mark its delineations.

It is an