most clearly revealed; which sets up a claim to piety, proportioned to its want of good sense, and to its excess of that daring spirit that would subvert the foundations of Christianity by means of instruments which Christianity itself appears to supply it with. It is that imprudence—that rashness—which regards as nothing the instincts and affections of nature; which, unable to approach the reason, seeks to strike the imagination, and by this means shakes the most rooted and cherished convictions of men, and plunges them into an abyss of tormenting doubts; which shows itself the most fearless, when those whom it attacks are the most enfeebled; which, devoid of all respect even for the most genuine sentiments of humanity, seems to delight in aggravating the sufferings of the sick, and in hastening the last moments of the dying. It is, above all, that spiritual pride which decides, with unhesitating assurance, points that have been debated to no purpose for ages; which, presuming to pass sentence without remission, on all who refuse to acknowledge its decrees, carries its extravagance so far as

to deny the title of such to the name of Christians; which appears to prize the doctrines of the Reformation only for the reason that they enable it, on the prostrate ruins of the authority of Popes and Councils, to set up its own ridiculous pretensions to infallibility. It is that unreflecting impetuosity in religious matters, which would confound the domains of conscience and the laws of the land, and summon the power of the magistrate against those opinions, and the aid of force in those controversies, which belong exclusively to the province of thought and calm inquiry. It is that fanaticism which assails nature, even in her inmost sanctuary,-robs the authorities who preside over established institutions, of the confidence and respect of those placed under their controul,-introduces coldness between friends, and distrust among relatives,-substitutes an artificial and constrained show of good-will for the cordial intercourse of accustomed familiarity, and, by attempting to draw a line between what is due to earthly relations and what the claims of faith require, withers the

E

heart, and deprives the exercise of the affections of all its charm. It is, in a word, that spiritual blindness which ultimately succeeds in perverting the sense of rectitude, and sets the stamp of piety upon such actions as morality condemns.

False zeal, and the deplorable excesses to which it leads, present abundant matter for useful reflection at all times; but, under the circumstances which at present surround us, My Christian Brethren, this subject peculiarly recommends itself to the attention of your Preachers. So many persons are to be met with in our time, who, in the honest sincerity of their hearts, mistake the servile compliances of an unenlightened conscience, the dreams offa bewildered imagination, and the numberless suggestions of vanity and self-love, for the inspirations of piety,-Religion, long persecuted by its enemies, is now, in turn, suffering so deeply from the headlong indiscretion of those among its friends who maintain an opposition between it and the light of knowledge and the dictates of reason-who invest it with their human passions, contract it to their narrow views, and

represent it under a form calculated to prejudice against it every reflecting person who has the misfortune of having first regarded the subject under this erroneous aspect, that one might reasonably fear that the spirit of Christianity would yield to the exertions of their well-meant but misdirected activity, did not the history of the human mind demonstrate to us, that, at various epochs, the very same notions, the same contentions, the same intolerance, the same principles of conduct, have for a time agitated divers countries, and again fallen into utter oblivion. Thus suffering from the mistaken zeal of those who might have been expected to advance its cause, the Religion of Christ calls upon its ministers to oppose to those representations which disfigure it, by making it answerable for the extravagant dogmas, intolerant views, and unsocial precepts of such persons, the majestic simplicity of its doctrines the affecting beauty of its morality—the plain and practical nature of its instructions--the mildness of its commandments-the indulgency of its judgments-the boundless reach of its beneficence-the enlight

ened charity with which it blends the warmest zeal for the salvation of souls, with that discretion which the frailties of our nature demand. It calls upon them to show how much there is in the faith which we profess, adapted to raise us above the influence of our mean interests and narrow prejudices, to enlarge our views, to ennoble our conceptions, to purify and soften our affections,-how much there is, in short, to recommend the Gospel to the esteem of honourable minds, to the admiration of men of lofty intellect, and to the love of every good and feeling disposition.

Should your ministers, from worldly compliance, from fear of censure, from private interest or presumption, decline to answer that appeal which Revelation addresses to them, in the critical position in which it is placed by the caprices of the human mind, they would be guilty of betraying the cause committed to their trust. God forbid, Brethren, that we should dishonour our office by such base compliances! God forbid, that any regard to motives of human prudence should induce us to cor