SERMON I.

INTRODUCTION.

1 JOHN iv. 1.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. THE multiplied divisions of the Christian Church, and the diversified expositions of the Christian Scriptures, have afforded an occasion of perplexity to them that are weak in faith, and of premature triumph and exultation to the rash and inconsiderate unbeliever. The one denies that the truth can be found in the assumed variableness of divine revelation, and the other is without hope of discovering that settled standard of doctrine, by which he is anxious to regulate the profession of his faith. Both agree in an opinion which seems to result

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naturally from a cursory and superficial view of the question, that a religion, which issued from God, and is designed for the present instruction and the final salvation of mankind, would have been received with holy deference, and not have been altered by men to whom it came, and would have been preserved from all material error by God, from whom it proceeded. They both overlook the weakness and corruption of the vessels to which the heavenly treasure. has been committed; they reflect not upon the state of the world, upon the interests, the passions, the pride, and the prejudices, which this religion was intended to counteract and oppose; they examine not the prophecies which from the beginning have spoken of the infirmities which this religion should exhibit, and of the trials which it should encounter in the appointed theatre of its probation.

If it were possible to have no experience of the vanity of human reason, and no sense of the imbecility and inconstancy of human virtue; if the truths of the Christian reve lation, and its distinguishing precept of mu

tual love could be proclaimed to men in a state of moral perfection; if they should be informed that the duty is illustrated by frequent allusions to the divine benevolence, that the doctrine flows from the source of infinite wisdom, and that both are sanc tioned and recommended by the most pow erful and affecting obligations; if, at the same time, the intimations of prophecy should be suppressed, and they should be left to form their own conclusions of the success or the failure of this religion from an abstract view of its intrinsic merit;-if hearers possessing these qualifications, or placed under these circumstances, could be found, they would have no hesitation in des claring, that the Christian religion would be received by all men, that it would be practised by all men, and render their dwellings a sanctuary of truth, and love,

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and peace. But when we reflect upon upon what passes within our own hearts and before our eyes, when we unfold the vision and the prophecy which represent the corruption of truth, the distractions of charity, and the oppositions of worldly interest,

however we may deprecate the fulfilment of the prediction, we can found no just exception upon the event. We cannot dispute the divine authority of a scheme, because it has not done what it never professed to do, because it has not invariably nor universally influenced and improved the affections and conduct of mankind.

Let therefore the unbeliever cease to triumph in the corruptions of the Christian Church; and let the faithful have consolation in the unfailing living evidence which the gradual fulfilment of prophecy is every day bearing to the truth. The persecutions, the apostasies, the heresies and schisms of the Church, every thing which has brought disgrace upon the Christian name where it is known, or obstructed its progress where it is not known, have been foretold from the beginning. The predictions of failure have been consolidated with the articles of our faith and the motives of our obedience, and the one can hardly be received where the other are unknown. The policy of the human philosopher might have led him to conceal the futility of his endeavours, or his

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