tian church as heresies of perdition. But come when they will, and how they will, they are sure of a ready reception, and many abettors, among those who are "tossed to and fro, and are carried about with every wind of doctrine." They indeed call themselves "philosophers," and liberal inquirers;" but the Apostle calls them by their true name, " babies ;" and will allow them no place among inquirers, but the place of those who are "ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth." Learn what they will, the truth is what they do not learn, and never can perceive. They have no fixed first principles; nothing to keep them firm and steady in the hour of temptation, or to prevent them from being led away by the error of the wicked. In the calm sunshine, while there is no disturbance of the church's tranquillity, they mingle with the multitude, and pass for Christians. But when the storm gathers, the waters swell, the winds blow, they are shaken from their own steadfastness. They never were secured on the rock of safety, but lay loose and idle upon the surface. Now the trial hath reached them, and without strong moorings, without grapplings, without anchors, without any fastenings, they are swept out of the Christian roads, and are the sport of the waves and the winds on the trackless ocean. Soon are they scattered away from the rock; and while they run, swift as the evil blast can drive them, towards certain destruction, they are elated, ignorant as they are, with the rapidity of their course, until they are suddenly dashed among the breakers, or ingulfed in the billows, or absorbed in the quicksands. Thus terminates their adventurous speculation, and the last news of the poor souls is, "They perished!"

I have been referring to those errors, in the success of which the Destroyer goes directly to his proper work, the irretrievable ruin of men. But a capital error seldom comes alone. There are many smaller deviations from the soundness of the faith which attend the steps and prepare the way for that which strikes at the foundation of entire Christianity. It is melancholy and almost incredible to see what a mere puff of wind is sufficient to drive many a gallant-looking vessel out of her course; and the odds are infinitely against her, but, before she recovers it, she falls among enemies who decoy her to her ruin. Without figure, you often find those who, upon the whole, are friendly to the truth; yet by the merest trifle in the world, something which appears to them ingenious when it is only absurd,-something which is recommended by a respectable name,-something of which the whole attraction is its supposed novelty,-turns them aside from "the old paths where is the good way."

The swarms of little sects which spring up, and die almost as soon as they are known, yet for a time vex the friends, and furnish matter of exultation to the foes, of evangelical doctrine, owe their origin, for the most part, to a paltry individual vanity. The peace of the church is broken; her strength is divided; the vigour of her sons is impaired by foolish contentions. The wily adversary does not let the occasion slip.

Many who set out with an apparent trifle do not end till they have made inroads upon the substantial truth; and Christians are called to struggle with an enemy who has already penetrated their camp. On such fickle beings you can never count; they want that sobriety of mind, that Christian common sense, which is proof against such small attacks, and is infinitely better for preserving the order and the truth of God pure and entire than the finest genius and the profoundest learning can be without it.

2. Liableness to imposition by the arts of the insidious, is another eharacter of these religious children.

Error, when seen in its true colours, is rather apt to deter than allure. Nor is there perhaps a single one which, if exhibited without disguise, would ever succeed in making proselytes. Even children would be too sagacious for such dupery. Accordingly its approaches are conducted with caution and address. It is very careful not to alarm suspicion or excite prejudice. Concealment is its very life. Its abettors will pretend that your faith and theirs, however they may differ upon speculative points, come nearer to each other on all questions of practice than you are ready to admit. They will enumerate a number of things which no man in his senses ever thinks of disputing; and when there is no gainsaying them in these matters, they will leave you, if they are masterworkmen, to draw the inference, that, after all, they cannot be so far wrong as some would persuade you; well knowing that the great obstacle to your conversion is surmounted when you are brought by this piece of craft, to form a favourable opinion of their tenets. But you have already entered into temptation; you have already set your foot in a path which goes down to death; and if God in his great mercy do not enable you to make a speedy retreat, your ruin is inevitable. Take it then, at the very beginning, as a simple rule, and of easy and sure application,-The man who equivocates in religious matters, who declines giving you a prompt explanation of his views, and rather evades your inquiries than meets them," is a deceiver and an Antichrist." Truth was not intended to be smuggled. A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor is a lighted candle to be put under a bushel. "Preach the word," is the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the Teacher who does not do it frankly, so that men may not only understand his meaning, but cannot possibly misunderstand it, when treating of our eternal peace, is an enemy to our happiness, and to our Lord. Avoid him as you would a pestilence. My contempt and horror embrace all those who, after years of public ministrations, leave their people in doubt what their sentiments are. Truth is not with them the infinitely important interest. Their prospect is that of a fearful reckoning with that Saviour who came into the world that he might bear witness to the truth; " and even here it is the duty of the church to spew them out of her mouth. 3. Another artifice of those who lie in wait to deceive, is the wrapping up of their deceptions in scriptural phrases, and even in the language

which is consecrated by the usage of the Christian church. Every thing sounds fair, and looks well; has a pious air, and apparently a sound sense; and they may, notwithstanding, be inculcating the most damnable errors, and converting the very word of God into a vehicle for poison. Undoubtedly the inspired word expresses revealed truth in the most precise and proper manner. And the objection to these men is, not that they quote the Scriptures, but that they quote them fraudulently. The cheat lies here: The passages quoted have, from time immemorial, borne in the church of God a definitive sense. You, of course, understand them in that received sense. But you are not aware that these apostles of error take them in quite a different sense. They and you use the same terms, but you do not intend the same thing; and when they think you are not drilled quite enough, they will never have the candour to undeceive you. They will let out in other places, and at other times, as far as they judge it prudent, what their meaning is; and, in the mean while, you become so accustomed to hear this perversion of holy writ, that your minds are debauched from the simplicity of Christ, and you imperceptibly slide into the pit they have digged for you. Sometimes, indeed, this trick overshoots the mark. It is related of John Taylor, the famous Arian of Norwich, that he gave mortal offence to an Arian congregation in London by the use of Scripture language. His hearers, like people of that class every where, were not much acquainted with their Bibles, and mistook him for an old-fashioned Puritan! Thus the common sense of mankind, even of Arians themselves, when they are not put on their guard, decided that, whatever the Bible teaches, it does not teach Arianism.

4. Another stratagem of deceivers is an affectation of unbounded liberality and charity.

Nothing is so odious in their eyes as bigotry. Why must you claim the exclusive privilege of being in the right? Why is not another man's opinion as good as your own? Why not allow your neighbours the privilege of thinking for themselves? Why must your charity be confined to sects or principles? Cannot a man be distinguished for Christian virtues, and exemplary in the discharge of his Christian duties, a sincere lover of the truth, and ardent in the pursuit of it, unless all his ideas of propriety be squared by your own rule? How terrible that the religion of peace should set friends a quarrelling! How unworthy of the good-will which the Gospel was intended to cherish, and of the generous philanthropy of its Divine Author! All this is very fine, no doubt; very plausible talk, but in the mouths of the crafty nothing but talk: yet its effect is to overthrow the faith of some, who, from want of discrimination, from a softness of mind, from not suspecting any mischief with so benevolent a face, from not having nerves to withstand a little raillery, from the joint power of ridicule and flattery, run headlong into the arms of the fiend, and from a dread of bigotry adopt ruinous heresy. On all which I crave leave to submit a remark or two.

(1.) They who are very anxious about the liberty of thinking for themselves mean, in reality, the liberty of thinking for you, and through you. Who hinders them from thinking and speaking too? Who meddles with their thoughts or their speech, until they invade the sanctuary of our own faith? Then, if they be resisted,-if every thing is not yielded to them, as a matter of course,-if we exercise the right of thinking and speaking,-they are vastly indignant. Then come forth the lamentations about the lack of charity, and all the whinings about "bigotry" and "persecution," of which the true grievance is, that they cannot provoke something which might appear worthy of the name. But do you shut your mouths, and allow them to have all the representation in their own way; let them, without contradiction or opposition, spread their doctrine and instil their poison throughout the community; and you will doubtless be lauded for your liberality and charity!

(2.) My second remark is, that, after all, the truths of the Gospel are not matters of human opinion, nor have you any right to treat them so. They are facts, about which our appeal must lie to the veracity of God, speaking in his word. He has committed them to us as a sacred deposit, which we are ordered to keep pure and entire, contending earnestly for them, and are not at liberty to make a compromise of them with any opinions whatever.

(3.) Once more, This profession about "liberality" and "charity" is a mere artifice of imposture. No men have less of it than they whose boast of it is the loudest. How do they exult and triumph in the misconduct of any who hold sounder principles than themselves! Now if the Apostle understood the nature of charity, when he said that she "rejoiceth not in iniquity," they who do so rejoice proclaim that they are utterly destitute of its influence.

You shall find these advocates for charity, when they are in mixed companies, all gentleness, all forbearance, all the milk of human kindness; but when they are by themselves, to use the expression of one who had once been of their party, "bitter enough." In short, of all the sects which are abroad in the world, not excepting even the followers of the man of sin, there are none which ocasionally evince more virulence and violence of feeling, nor a more persecuting temper, than these same smooth-tongued praisers of charity. Of all the bigots on this earth, let me be farthest from the bigot of modern liberality. Let us now turn our eyes for a moment,

II. To the contrast which we ought to exhibit to these religious children. "That we be no more children." We should then display,

1. Intelligence. I know not how it has come to pass, but such is the fact, that hearers of the Gospel are prone to take their profession upon trust. They think, or act as if they thought, that any particular acquaintance with its principles and proofs belongs exclusively to the ministry. They commit the interests of their property to the Lawyer; of their bodies, to the Physician; and as for their immortal souls, the

Clergyman may look after them, if he pleases. In this spirit of listlessness do they hear the Gospel, and forget it almost as soon as heard. But for diligent inquiry; for ascertaining with their own eyes and understandings what are revealed truths, on points, too, of infinite moment; for searching the Scriptures daily whether these things which they are taught from the pulpit are really so; why, it is what no genteel professor ever thinks about. The consequence is, and must be, that they are mere children in the most important of all knowledge. Even men of high respectability for talents and research in other things betray the most surprising ignorance of the Bible. No wonder that they are carried about by every wind of doctrine, and fall helpless victims into the snares of those who lie in wait to deceive. At the same time, if they happen to get any crude and undigested notions of Christian truth, they are as obstinate and positive in maintaining their own hasty views, as if they had studied the Scriptures all their lives long. My friends, this will not do. Have you not immortal souls? Do you know when they will be required of you? Are you fully aware of their natural condition? and what is requisite to their eternal happiness? On all these questions the Bible treats plainly and decisively. It fairly warns you that a mistake is very possible, very common, and infinitely dangerous. Is it a waste of time, think you, to know what it really does determine? Is the message of the great and terrible God to men, to you, to you personally, to be thrown aside, with less ceremony than a daily newspaper, and without an effort so much as to understand what he says? and all your awful concern in it to be tossed away with a carelessness which makes angels tremble? Do you consider, while you indulge this supineness, while you neglect to become proficients in the knowledge of that wisdom which cometh from above, you are habitual breakers of God's commandments, in a higher degree than if you were common drunkards, thieves, adulterers, and prostitutes? Rouse from your slumbers, or you may see stranger things than publicans and harlots going into the kingdom of God before your faces, and leaving you with all your decencies, your morals, your accomplishments, your respectability, to beg for admission and be refused. Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Aim at being not only Christians, but intelligent Christians. Study that great charter of your salvation, the Bible, until, by God's enriching blessing, you shall " always be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you," and no longer be ranked as children, nor be considered as an easy prey to them who lie in wait to deceive.

2. The second attribute of Christian character, as opposed to the infirmities of children, is firmness.

In religious as in other life the plausible are the least solid, and the least to be trusted. They who have arrived at what the Scriptures call perfection, who have grown up into Christian manhood, are not to be moved away from the hope of the Gospel by smooth stories and bland professions; nor to be cajoled out of their faith concerning the Lord