their strength upon him, and are dissipated. And now that the fume, and the turbulence, and the uproar, of this temporary warfare have been all cleared away, does he stand forth with a moral dignity on his part, and a warranted confidence upon yours, which, under God, are the best guarantees for the success of his future labours.

May the spirit of all grace abundantly strengthen and uphold him in the arduous office to which he has been called. May living water from the sanctuary above descend on the ministrations of the word here below; and both fertilizing the soil of your hearts, and fructifying the good seed which is deposited there, may you be made to abound in all the fruits of righteousness. May this House in future years be the scene of many sound and scriptural conversions; and never, till in the course of generations its walls have mouldered into decay, and its minarets have fallen, never may it cease either in our own day, or in the days of our children's children, to be a gate to Heaven, a place of busy and successful preparation for Heaven's exercises, and Heaven's joys.

THE EFFECT OF MAN'S WRATH IN THE AGITA-
TION OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES:

A

SERMON,

PREACHED AT THE OPENING

OF

THE NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL

IN BELFAST,

ON

SABBATH, SEPTEMBER 23, 1827.

L

PREFACE.

THE following Sermon was written and preached three years ago, in behalf of the Catholic Schools in Glasgow; and, of course, without any anticipation of the more recent occasion on which it was preached at Belfast, and in consequence of which its publication has been called for.

The only material variation from its original state occurs in pages 180, &c., where allusion is made to the controversy which respects the person and dignity of the Saviour.

I was no stranger to the fact, that this great topic had been zealously occupying the public mind in the North of Ireland; and I may have been led by this very circumstance to seize upon it. For, first, if there be entire soundness in the general principle of the discourse on the subject of religious differences, it must admit of being applied to any religious difference whatever. And, secondly, though actuated by no other wish than that of making full and lucid conveyance of the principle into the minds of my hearers, it was natural to select that instance, which, as being most familiar to them at the time, was best fitted to serve the purpose of vivid and convincing illustration.

It could not fail to be gratifying, that, in the applications made to me for the Sermon being printed, so many respectable members of the Synod of Ulster, as well as a number of the highest and most influential people in the town and neighbourhood of Belfast, made this call, on the ground that the publication was suited to the state of parties, and might subserve the cause of peace and charity. In justice, however, both to myself and to others, I think it proper to state, that, while preparing this imperfect composition, I only felt myself to be acting as an expositor of general truth; and that, placed as I was at a distance from the scene, and unacquainted with the detail of those theological contentions which have lately taken place, I should have deemed it both presumptuous and indecorous to have set myself forth in the capacity of a judge, and far more in that of a censor, either on the proceedings of public bodies, in regard to this question, or on the conduct of individuals.

SERMON V.

THE EFFECT OF MAN'S WRATH IN THE AGITATION OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES.

"The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."— JAMES i. 20.

WITHOUT attempting, what we should feel to be impossible within the limits of one discourse, to expound the principle of our text in all its generality, we shall satisfy ourselves with adverting to but one or two special applications of it. We shall first consider the effect of man's wrath when interposed between the call of the gospel, and the minds of those to whom the gospel is addressed-and, secondly, consider the effect of man's wrath when interposed between a right and a wrong denomination of Christianity.

I. You are all aware of there being much wrathful controversy on the part of men relative to the gospel of Jesus Christ, wherein the righteousness of God is said, by the apostle, to be revealed from faith to faith. To understand the way in which this great message from heaven to earth may be darkened, and altogether transformed out of its native character, by the conflict and controversy of its interpreters, we ask you to conceive the effect, if a message of most free and unqualified kindness,