Bible expounded and applied; Revelation in its own words and its native simplicity; truth as it came down from the Father of lights, and is consigned in the books we have been defending; the holy Scriptures expounded to the heart by the Holy Spirit by whom they were indited-this is the Christian ministry. What has human reasoning ever done? How powerless is reason in her speculations even in matters relating to this world! What has ever been discovered or effected by hypothesis and theory? No inventions in medicine, or any other practical science, have been the result of abstract notions and reasonings. Modest and diligent observation has alone arranged the great and solid acquisitions of science. Christianity, once acknowledged as divine, is our grand experiment; from it we proceed as from first principles; thence we derive our elements of reasoning, our means of instruction, our grounds of hope, our confidence of strength and success. For the minister to keep close to the Bible, is the same as for the philosopher to keep close to nature, and the statesman to the records of experience.

But with this let us join all that EXPANSIVE CHARITY which, in this imperfect world, is so essential to any united efforts for the glory of our Saviour. Truth is not fully, and in all its

parts, revealed; the degree of divine illumination differs in each Christian minister; the measures of attainment, both as to knowledge and holiness, are widely and almost indefinitely varied; the force of reasoning from premises, and the faculty of following out consequences from them, exist in very distinct degrees; the calmness and deliberation of the mind, in coming to conclusions, are widely different; whilst Satan's great aim is to divide and estrange Christians from each other. What causes are these for forbearance! How large a part of our state of probation here consists in bearing with each other, in forgiving, counselling, aiding, strengthening one the other! In all main points we agree. The simplicity of the leading truths of Scripture, received by the teaching of the Holy Spirit and expounded by a well-regulated conscience, create a substantial unity in all true Christians. Dwell on these capital points. Let others have no more than their proportionate weight. Follow each your own best convictions; but do not agitate and rend the church. Keep closely together. Let us spend our strength on better matters than controversy. Let us exhibit to our people an united front; let us infuse an harmonious spirit; let us follow the evidences of our faith, as they are gathered from books, with the evi

dences which are apparent in the temper and deducible from a Christian conduct. Let each of us fill up, in the best manner we are able, our several platforms of discipline, in a spirit of consistency, indeed, but of charity; and leave the hope of agreeing formally on all points, till we reach the world of full revelation and unclouded light and glory.

To the simple preaching of the gospel, and the loveliness of real charity, let us add DILI

GENCE AND COMPASSION IN THE PASTORAL

DUTIES, and we shall discharge our main obligations as ministers of religion. Where should the shepherd be but with his flock? What avail public instructions, if the detail be not filled up in private? Where is the Christianity we profess, if it be exhausted in a few formal and brief exhibitions, and do not descend into the daily life? How little do the body of our people understand of our elaborate compositions, unless, by catechetical instructions, by private expositions, by application of truth to the individual conscience, we make them intelligible? What has a minister of religion to do with literary trifling, with worldly visits, with light reading, with frivolous avocations, which unfit him for serious study, render the Bible distasteful, and indispose him for the private care of souls. Let us only so carry our Chris

tianity into practice, as to add these pastoral duties to our other engagements as ministers, and we may hope for a large measure of the divine grace to descend upon us.

May I suggest also the expediency of PAY

ING MORE REGARD THAN HAS BEEN USUALLY DONE TO THE SUBJECT OF THE EVIDENCES,

which we have been discussing in this work? Can we hope to preserve our people in the faith, unless we teach them the grounds of that faith? Can we expect them to pass unhurt through the hosts of enemies, if we give them no shield to protect their breasts? Why do our population so soon fall away from Christianity; but because conscience was never fairly informed of the grounds of belief? Let us, then, instruct them in the foundations of Christianity; and let us unite, in doing so, the internal with the external evidences; let us make the historical the introduction to the inward proofs. Thus may we hope that our youth, well-established in their faith, tenderly watched over by their pastors, inflamed with a spirit of charity, and growing more and more in the knowledge and obedience of the peculiarities of Revelation, will be a seed to serve our God, and hand down to the next age the truth which we deliver to them in this.

III. TO THE HUMBLE AND TEACHABLE, AND ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG amongst his readers, let the author be, finally, allowed to address himself.

I have in these Lectures been endeavouring to urge on you the importance of cordially obeying the Christian Revelation. Let me affectionately intreat you to enter into the great subject. Let it penetrate your soul. Let its authority entrench itself in your understanding, and its holy and elevated truths in your inmost conscience and heart. Turn a deaf ear to the voice of scorn, and the temptations of sensuality. Remember, nothing is more easy than to inject doubts into the fallen heart of man, which it may take much argument to eradicate; just as it is easy to kindle, by a single spark, a conflagration, which

it

may take infinite labour to extinguish, and much time and expense to repair. My aim has been to furnish you with a protection against the mazes and artifices of infidels, by exposing the miserable sophistry of their reasoning, and the awful vices of their conduct. Keep close, then, to the Christian faith. Refresh your memory, from time to time, with a review of its chief evidences. If any violent temptation assault you, meet the shock by falling back, first on the practical holiness of