a great change has taken place. If the latter discipline be that to which he has not been accustomed, to him it will be new, and the preacher will be considered by him as an innovator. But who is to blame for this innovation? Is it the preacher who kept out of sight, in a great measure, the truths which fill almost every page of the New Testament; the truths to which the Articles and Homilies of his own Church bear the most indubitable testimony, and which constitute the vital principle that pervades and animates her Liturgy? Or is the blame to be transferred to him, who has brought into the most conspicuous point of view, that system which constitutes the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, which constitutes the basis of the Church establishment, and to which he himself has subscribed ? He who violates the discipline of the Church is an innovator; but it is not the man who preaches her doctrines, but the man who either neglects to preach them, or who preaches those that are hostile to them, that innovates.

Another charge brought against them is enthusiasm. It cannot be denied that there have been some instances of Evangelical Clergymen, who were not entirely free from this extravagance, and perhaps there may be some individuals of that body, at present, who cannot be altogether exempted from the charge. But these are but few, and instead of being admired for their eccentricities, by the general body of those whose sentiments, in other things, they adopt; their ebullitions are generally disliked and, condemned. Sobriety of doctrine, and temperance in the manner of inculcating it, are the characteristics, in an eminent degree, of the most distinguished Clergymen who have adopted Evangelical sentiments. If their elocution is animated, it is addressed much more to the judg

ment and to the conscience, than to the imagination of their hearers. The object of it is not to wind up the feelings of men, or to overpower the rational springs of action, or to give loose reins to tumultuous impulses, feelings, or passions; but to fix permanent impressions upon the judgment, heart, and memory, which ripening into holy principles, may by the blessing of God, produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness. With some men, indeed, all earnestness in religion; all árdour and zeal in the cause of God; all deep concern about the immortal souls of men; all attempts to rouse them to the awful concerns of eternity, are considered as infallible evidences of enthusiasm. To them every thing appears enthusiastic, that stretches beyond their present narrow grasp, or that rises above their sensual gratifications. To such men, all those who, expanding their desires and hopes beyond the grave, look not at the things which are seen, and which are temporal; but at the things which are not seen, and are eternal, must ever appear in the character of enthusiasts. But this is an enthusiasm in which every Christian will glory, and desire to grow; knowing that his warmest emotions are but too feeble, and too cold. No soberminded Christian will, however, lay claim to any private revelation. The influences of God's Spirit he distinguishes from the operations of his own mind, not by any distinctive feeling; but by the holy dispositions they produce, by the obedience they generate, and by that abhorrence of sin which they awaken. To preserve our religious principles and feelings from the infection of a teeming imagination, a general and correct acquaintance with the word of God is the best security. The next best, is the cultivation of those human sciences, that teach men to abstract as well as to combine their ideas, and to analyze

their opinions.

Whatever addition is made to intellectual vigour, so much provision will be made against enthusiasm, which is the imbecility and dotage of the mind.

A disposition to allegorize those passages of Scripture which are evidently meant to be taken literally, and which consequently, are not susceptible of an allegorical interpretation, is another charge, nearly allied to the former, that has been brought against the Evangelical Clergy. It must be acknowledged that the charge has not been altogether without foundation, if it were fair to make the delinquency of a few individuals, the subject of a general accusation. The parable of the man who fell among thieves, in his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho, may be taken as a specimen of the fanciful superstructure that has been raised without a foundation, on texts of the plainest import. A certain lawyer, we are told (Luke, x.), tempted our Saviour with this question, “ Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Our Saviour refers him to the substance of the law, and desires him to state its requisitions. Having given its import with respect to the love of God, the statement ends with " thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Our Saviour admits the correctness of it, and adds, " this do, and thou shalt live.” But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, " And who is my neighbour ?" This lawyer, like too many nominal Christians, though he allowed in words the obligation of loving God, supposed that his being a professor of the true religion settled the whole of that account, and that all examination of its items, was wholly unnecessary. With respect to the duty he owed to his neighbour, he felt the necessity of entering into the detail, and as all his hopes of Heaven which he was very unwilling to relinquish, depended upon the contraction, or upon

the enlargement of the term, he desired an explanation. He was conscious, that he loved his own nation, and he hoped that this was sufficient to entitle him to the reward of obedience. Our Saviour puts a case in which a Jew, his countryman, to whom he was attached by every tie of country and religion, had fallen into the cruel hands of robbers, who, after having stripped and wounded him, left him for dead. By chance a certain Priest came down that way, and casts his eyes on the unhappy victim, weltering in his blood. But this minister of the God of mercy, had never learned the compassionate maxim of his own law, " I will have mercy rather than sacrifice." He therefore passes by on the one side, and steels his heart against every sentiment of compassion. A Levite too, another Minister of the sanctuary, travelling by the same road, came and looked upon him, but his heart had never been taught to feel for the woes of others, and he passed by on the other side, and left him to become the prey of death, which seemed to hover over him, ready to assert her claim. "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him; and went to him, and bound up his wounds; pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.' Which now of these three," said our Saviour to the Lawyer," thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?" The Lawyer replied," he that had mercy on him." "Then said Jesus unto him, 'Go, and do

thou likewise.""

As if our Saviour had said, "You highly approve the offices of kindness which the Samaritan performed to the Jew in distress, and your law binds you to do to others what things soever, in similar circumstances, you think yourself entitled to from them. Every human being is, therefore, your neighbour, who has a claim upon you, as you have upon him, for the reciprocal communication of benefits and love. Your beneficence, therefore, which acknowledges none for its objects, but men of your own country and religion, is essentially defective; and till its principle become universal, it is not the obedience that your law requires." This divine comment, it is of infinite importance that every man should record in his own breast; for such is the corruption of our nature, that almost every party, political and religious, is too much disposed to contract within its own circle, that interchange of philanthropy, which ought expansively to flow among mankind; and thus to establish a rule of morality, narrow and partial, and in direct opposition to the diffusive and universal charity of the Gospel. But passing over this important document, there have been some Evangelical Divines, both Churchmen and Dissenters, who have attempted to squeeze out of this parable, all the peculiar doctrines of Christianity; and have forced it to teach all the truths connected with the Fall, and with the Redemption of man. The man who fell among the thieves, say they, was Adam. He being left half dead means that he and his posterity are dead in sin. The priest and the Levite are the moral and the ceremonial law, that refused to help us.

The good Saof Evangelical

maritan-But let us stop. The enemies doctrine will tell the rest with pleasure. The bitterest invective with which the peculiar truths of Christianity