conscientious disposal of patronage; the employment of wealth to the noblest purposes; the education and instruction of the poor; these are amongst the duties which Christianity imposes upon the great and honorable. To lead forward their countrymen in designs of benevolence, to marshal them in purposes of charity, in the diffusion of the Scripture over the world, and in the dissemination of missions; these are becoming acts of the Christian noble and

statesman.

And for all these ends, let them imbibe the peculiar grace and 'influence of the Christianity which they profess. Let them not be Christians by halves. The fallen heart of man, the power of the cross of the Saviour Jesus Christ, the operations of the Holy Spirit in renewing the whole soul, the life of faith and love, the necessity of communion with God, separation from the vanities of the world and devout preparation for eternity; these are the peculiarities of Christianity, from which alone, as from a root fixed in a fertile soil, can the abundant fruits of a Christian life be produced.

Christianity is every thing or nothing. If it be true, it is true in all its parts, in all-its discoveries, in all its consequences. And none are more solemnly called on to imbibe its very inmost principles, than those who, from their elevated rank and the flatteries and follies which usually surround them, are most exposed to a worldly and inefficient profession of that holy faith..

II. But may the author venture to turn himself to his REVEREND BRETHREN AND FATHERS IN THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST'S CHURCH of every confession, but especially of his own beloved Protestant apostolical ENGLISH CHURCH.

On them will rest, after all, the great burden of instructing mankind and carrying out the evidences of Christianity into their holy efficacy upon the heart and life. They are the appointed stewards, messengers, ambassadors of the King of kings. They represent their Saviour in the world; they preach his doctrines; they administer his sacraments; they apply his promises; they give warning of the solemn consequences of disobedience. Christianity is interpreted by their life, propagated by their labors, estimated by their spirit.

They create the practical standard, the tone, the general notion of what religion demands of man. And what but the decline from the purity of the gospel, in doctrine and practice, amongst us, has been the occasion of the lamentable state of things in Christendom? Revered brethren, I take a full share myself in this guilt. It is the ministry secularized, dishonored, sunk down into tame and worldly generalities, which has opened the flood-gates of infidelity upon Europe. Men have known little of real, vital, Scriptural Christianity. They have taken up their opinions from the defective, and erroneous, though perhaps fashionable, doctrines of the day; and from the vain, speculative, indulgent, worldly lives of the ministers of Christianity. Thank God for that renewed sense of duty and responsibility which is visiting Europe, and which appears in our return to the pure truth of the Bible in our doctrines and lives, in our zeal for propagating the gospel abroad, and in our active and humble discharge of the pastoral duties at home.

Let me be allowed to offer two or three suggestions. We are ever in danger of MISTAKING TALENT, effort, exertion, for evangelical doctrine and the mighty operations of grace; we are in danger of leaning to literary taste, acuteness of intellect, secular eloquence, a spirit of partizanship, the discovery and undue elevation of novelties. Let a humble, holy, pure exhibition of the gospel be our constant aim. The full, simple, unaffected preaching of Christ crucified, in all the amplitude of its doctrines, and in all the sweetness and loveliness of its practical fruits-this is Christianity. The Son and Spirit of God are the peculiarities of Revelation, and they must be the peculiarities of our ministry; and this in the same spirit of humility, humble dependence upon God for a blessing, and ascription of every thing to him, which we see in the inspired epistles. In short, the Bible expounded and applied; Revelation in its own words and its native simplicity; truth as it came down from the Father of lights, and is consigned in the books we have been defending; the holy Scriptures expounded to the heart by the Holy Spirit by whom they were indited-this is the Christian ministry. What has

human reasoning ever done? How powerless is reason in her speculations even in matters relating to this world! What has ever been discovered or effected by hypothesis and theory? No inventions in medicine, or any other practical science, have been the result of abstract notions and reasonings. Modest and diligent observation has alone. arranged the great and solid acquisitions of science. Christianity, once acknowledged as divine, is our grand experiment; from it we proceed as from first principles; thence we derive our elements of reasoning, our means of instruction, our grounds of hope, our confidence of strength and success. For the minister to keep close to the Bible, is the same as for the philosopher to keep close to nature, and the statesman to the records of experience.

But with this let us join all that EXPANSIVE CHARITY which, in this imperfect world, is so essential to any united efforts for the glory of our Saviour. Truth is not fully, and in all its parts, revealed; the degree of divine illumination differs in each Christian minister; the measures of attainment, both as to knowledge and holiness, are widely and almost indefinitely varied; the force of reasoning from premises, and the faculty of following out consequences from them, exist in very distinct degrees; the calmness and deliberation of the mind, in coming to conclusions, are widely different; whilst Satan's great aim is to divide and estrange Christians from each other. What causes are these for forbearance! How large a part of our state of probation here consists in bearing with each other, in forgiving, counselling, aiding, strengthening one the other! In all main points we agree. The simplicity of the leading truths of Scripture, received by the teaching of the Holy Spirit and expounded by a well-regulated conscience, create a substantial unity in all true Christians. Dwell on these capital points. Let others have no more than their proportionate weight. Follow each your own best convictions; but do not agitate and rend the church. Keep closely together. Let us spend our strength on better matters than controversy. Let us exhibit to our people an united front; let us infuse an harmonious spirit; let us follow the evidences of our faith, as they are gathered from books, with the evidences

which are apparent in the temper and deducible from a Christian conduct. Let each of us fill up, in the best manner we are able, our several platforms of discipline, in a spirit of consistency, indeed, but of charity; and leave the hope of agreeing formally on all points, till we reach the World of full revelation and unclouded light and glory.

To the simple preaching of the gospel, and the loveliness of real charity, let us add DILIGENCE AND COMPASSION IN THE PASTORAL DUTIES, and we shall discharge our main obligations as ministers of religion. Where should the shepherd be but with his flock? What avail public instructions, if the detail be not filled up in private? Where is the Christianity we profess, if it be exhausted in a few formal and brief exhibitions, and do not descend into the daily life? How little do the body of our people understand of our elaborate compositions, unless, by catechetical instructions, by private expositions, by application of truth to the individual conscience, we make them intelligible? What has a minister of religion to do with literary trifling, with worldly visits, with light reading, with frivolous avocations, which unfit him for serious study, render the Bible distasteful, and indispose him for the private care of souls. Let us only so carry our Christianity into practice, as to add these pastoral duties to our other engagements as ministers, and we may hope for a large measure of the divine grace to descend upon us.

May I suggest also the expediency of PAYING MORE RE

GARD THAN HAS BEEN USUALLY DONE TO THE SUBJECT OF

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THE EVIDENCES, which we have been discussing in this work? Can we hope to preserve our people in the faith, unless we teach them the grounds of that faith? Can we expect them to pass unhurt through the hosts of enemies, if we give them no shield to protect their breasts? Why do our population so soon fall away from Christianity; but because conscience was never fairly informed of the grounds of belief? Let us, then, instruct them in the foundations of Christianity; and let us unite, in doing so, the internal with the external evidences; let us make the historical the introduction to the inward proofs. Thus may we hope that our youth, well-established in their faith, tenderly watched over

by their pastors, inflamed with a spirit of charity, and growing more and more in the knowledge and obedience of the peculiarities of Revelation, will be a seed to serve our God, and hand down to the next age the truth which we deliver to them in this.

III. TO THE HUMBLE AND TEACHABLE, AND ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG amongst his readers, let the author be, finally, allowed to address himself.

I have in these Lectures been endeavoring to urge on you the importance of cordially obeying the Christian Revelation. Let me affectionately intreat you to enter into the great subject. Let it penetrate your soul. Let its authority entrench itself in your understanding, and its holy and elevated truths in your inmost conscience and heart. Turn a deaf ear to the voice of scorn, and the temptations of sensuality. Remember, nothing is more easy than to inject doubts into the fallen heart of man, which it may take much argument to eradicate; just as it is easy to kindle, by a single spark, a conflagration, which it may take infinite labor to extinguish, and much time and expense to repair. My aim has been to furnish you with a protection against the mazes and artifices of infidels, by exposing the miserable sophistry of their reasoning, and the awful vices of their conduct. Keep close, then, to the Christian faith. Refresh your memory, from time to time, with a review of its chief evidences. If any violent temptation assault you, meet the shock by falling back, first on the practical holiness of Christianity, and then on the general mass of proofs of every kind, by which your faith is sustained. Act as one who was told that his house was falling; that the arches on which it was reared were giving way; and that his continuance in it was perilous: ask, 'Who is it tells me this; what grounds have I for crediting his information; how does his own house stand; what are his own foundations?' If you find every thing about him in ruins; you need not much perplex yourself with alarms which proceed from folly or ignorance. However, you may examine once again. Descend to the basements of your abode; search if there are any marks of decay. You are surprised at the strength of the arches; you observe no giving way, no one sign of weakness: rather, every part