*

received the gift, even so let us minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God ; nor forget the account we must render of our stewardship, when we may be no longer stewards. Above all, we are made watchmen unto the house of Israel; let us, having heard the word at God's mouth, give them warning from God. When the liberal reasoner, not indeed denying the justice of God, but determining, according to his own fallible and finite understanding, what is justice, and what is mercy, and how far divine justice may be tempered with mercy, says, in the language of the first Tempter, Ye shall not surely die; let us remember who it is that hath said unto the wicked, Ye shall surely die: and who hath of old declared unto the watchmen of Israel: When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness,

* 1 Pet. iv. 10.

D

+ Ezekiel xxxiii. 7.

invites, as to the exercise of a privilege, but enjoins, as a duty of paramount obligation, all its members, according to Christ's special command, to search the Scriptures*; which encourages them to imitate the Bereans, whose commendation from the Apostle was, not only that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, but that they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so†. In the same spirit our Church interferes, as of herself, with no man's conscience. She asks assent to no principles of her own devising. She requires faith of the reasoner upon reasonable grounds. She refers only to doctrines which existed in the Scriptures before the Church, from which she derives her existence, her orders, and her authority, was founded by Christ, and built up by his Apostles; to those doctrines of His divinity, incarnation, and mediatorial office, on which He ordained His Church to be erected, as on a rock, against which he promised that the gates of hell should never prevail ‡. Intolerance may lengthen out the feeble ex

* John v. 35.

+ Acts xvii. 11.

Matt. xvi. 18.

istence of a falling church, propped up by hu man devices, and striving to support itself by earthly dominion, but it could add no stability to an edifice deeply founded on the rock of ages. St. Paul himself was intolerant, while strong in human learning, and firm in the world's morality, he was yet in ignorance and unbelief on the subject of Christ's kingdom. He then made havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison He then breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord; but when he was miraculously called to preach the faith which once he had destroyed with all his former zeal, how forbearing became his demeanour! with all his accustomed earnestness of manner, how mild, how gentle, how persuasive his addresses!

Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God §. Now I Paul myself beseech you, by

*Acts viii. 3.
Gal. i. 23.

+ Ibid. ix. 1.

§ 2 Cor. v. 20.

the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you

Nor is it only to the doctrine (the doctrine †, κατ' εξοχην) which we are appointed to teach, that we ought now to take heed with peculiar jealousy, but to ourselves. Far be it from me to be supposed to have spoken in derogation of science, or with apprehension as to the results of its widest diffusion. The faithful Minister must hail with joy the rapid progress of the present age in intellectual attainments. True science has ever been the hand-maid of religion. It is often hers to clear up what was obscure, to confirm what appeared to be doubtful, and thus to shed around the Sacred Volume a new, an unexpected illumination. She has thus peared to be one of the means, since the cessation of miraculous interpositions, designed by the Divine Spirit to enlighten and to cheer the path of the believer; and to invite and to lead the steps of the doubtful to the temple of Divine Truth. But when human science, vain of the facility with which she may have subdued prejudice and error in worldly concerns, acquires

* 2 Cor. x. 10.

† Επεχε σεαυτῷ, καὶ τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ. 1 Tim. iv. 16.

ap

an overweening confidence in her own powers, when she indicates a contempt of sacred institu tions, and a disdain of the helps to devotion and religious peace, which are mercifully vouchsafed to our weak and limited faculties in Sacraments and Ordinances;-when, forgetting that the world by wisdom knew not God, she presumes to undervalue the claims of Revelation, and to question the influence and authority of a visible Church-when thus she walks, after the rudi, ments of the world, and not after Christ, hér torch affords then only an unsteady gleam, a bewildering glare; her power becomes an unmitigated despotism. The Apostle in the text does not proscribe philosophy, properly so called, but that which is associated with vain deceit. It becomes us, indeed, at this time, if ever, to extend to its utmost possible limit the horizon of our knowledge, sacred and profane. To continue to be efficient instructors, we must preserve our relative station in society by higher attainments in secular as well as sacred erudition. We cannot otherwise retain the respect and confidence of those who have a right to expect that the priest's lips should keep knowledge, if they are to seek the law at his mouth*; and if *Malachi ii. 7.