human judgment and human devices. The course pursued by true Christianity is that of "casting down imaginations and every thing that exalteth itself against the

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knowledge of God, and bringing into "captivity every thought to the obedience "of Christ." "The preaching of the cross," says that same Apostle, "is to them that "perish foolishness." Let all who hold any part of its doctrines as foolishness take heed that they be not among the number of those who thus perish. Let us all look to this; let us not allow ourselves to be drawn aside by the snares of our own vanity, nor yet by the devices of others who have been themselves so ensnared, The foundation laid in God's word standeth sure; and so long as we have the support of his own recorded revelation, let us not fear to maintain his truth, whether it be revealed clearly or in mystery, against all the sophistry of man, the allurements of our own passions, and the suggestions of the tempter,

SERMON VIII.

CONCLUSION.

COLOSSIANS ii. 8.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

SUCH is the caution which arises as a natural inference from the consideration of that system of scepticism and unbelief, which we have now endeavoured to examine in all its avowed principles. The sect which avows them has set itself in open and declared opposition to those opinions which are held by the Church of England, with regard to the very foundations of the Christian religion. It has however, I trust, been shewn, that all the

difficulties and objections which they bring forward as impediments to the reception of the mysteries of Christianity, are grounded in no better principle than human vanity. For they set up their own reason as a sufficient measure of God's revelations; and whatever does not accord with their ideas, they make no scruple to reject it, and that too frequently in most offensive and indecent language. The great and increased activity which they have exerted in promoting their cause, by disseminating the principles of their persuasion, and reviling the profession of sound Christianity, cannot but have been visible to every attentive observer; from that time especially, when the restraints originally laid on them were withdrawn. But there is, I trust, nothing to be feared from their efforts as to any change which they can introduce generally, though much mischief may be done to unlearned or unstable individuals. The foundations of the Christian Church are laid in a rock, and "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Still however is it our duty to provide some remedies against the par

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tial evil which their confident and positive assertions are not unlikely to produce. Refuted as they have been, by the repeated answers of various able advocates, on the great cardinal point of our Saviour's Deity and Atonement, still do they bring forward the same assertions with the same assurance, as if no one had ever replied to or disproved them. They tell those who will listen to them, in a summary manner, that there is nothing in the arguments which are urged against them; and even the word of God itself is treated by them with as little ceremony. For instance, one of their principal upholders, when pressed with one of those positive texts of St. John's Gospel which is fatal to their blasphemous assertion of the mere humanity of Christ, whom the Unitarians declare to have been born in the natural way of his mother Mary, a man in all respects like other men ; thinks it sufficient coolly to reply, that there is nothing in it. The Apostle's words are these: And now, O Father, glorify thou

a

a John xvii. 5.

"me with thine own self with the glory " which I had with thee before the world "was." It is not easy to conceive words more directly affirmative of the preexistence of our Saviour before his assumption of our human nature. Yet to this it is only answered, that "no argument can be drawn "from this ambiguous text." If this be ambiguous, it is not easy to conceive what can be express or positive. Sometimes they will venture even farther than this, and insinuate, where they have not the confidence plainly to assert it, that the words which in reality tend to overthrow their system are rather favourable to it. Thus the same person says of the following passage of St. Paul, that "if it be not de"cisive in favour of their doctrine," it may "at least be regarded as neutral." Now the passage of which this is asserted is no less than one of the most positive for the actual deity of Christ, and for his coequality with the Father: "Christ Jesus; who,

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being in the form of God, thought it not p. 145.

b Belsham, Calm Inquiry, p. 148. d Phil. ii. 6, 7.

c Ib.