188 Extracts from the Rev. E. W. Whitaker's Discourses.

be virtuously and religiously brought up: for is it not highly absurd, first to request men to enter into an engagement, and then to oppose their fulfilling it?

2dly. That when called to take this office on you, ye consider the meaning and importance of it, and not assume it, unless ye be resolved with sincerity to perform it. It is now too generally viewed in the false light of merely accommodating a friend with one's name, and, the ceremonial over, is scarcely thought of more; not even when the parents die during the child's infancy; in which case, the obligation into which the sponsors have so solemnly entered with the Church, and consequently with him who is the head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, is incumbent on them in its fullest force.

And that, lastly-When appearing at the font to be admitted into the Christian covenant in the child's name, ye should recolfect, that the questions put to you, concerning the faith ye hold, and the vows ye make, are not repeated for form's sake only, and to be answered with a nod, and by a bow, but by express declaration, and by word of mouth; it being essentially necessary, that sin be renounced, and Christ acknowledged before this sacrament be administered."

From his Sermon on " Adultery."

"It is not my present purpose, to enter on the proof of these consequences, in respect to the several civil courses to which the Apostle in the text refers. It is to the enormity and punishment of one particular crime, which stalks barefaced through the land, in the commission of which the prince and the peasant are equally shameless, and which, though most ruinous to the peace, and most destructive to the first principles of society, is (strange to consider) unrestrained by any penal laws, that I mean now to confine my discourse, and ye cannot be at a loss to discern that adultery is the crime to which I allude; a crime of which the frequency lessens our horror at it, and prevents our considering the various aggravations with which it is always accompanied. Otherwise would it be possible that men who consider mistrust of their promises as one of the worst aspersions that can be cast upon their characters, should look upon a breach of one of the most solemn engagements that can be made, as a thing of no disgrace! Because the sacred volume is not kissed, is it to be thought no oath is taken when God is called to witness the truth of a covenant entered into before the altar? Mark here the horrible, yet contemptible hypocrisy of the human heart! There are those who will consider the forfeiture of a word, passed at a gaming-table, as a reproach to be avoided at every risk, and yet mock at the breach of a promise attended with ev ery circumstance to mark it as sacred. The man who is guilty of the former, they will, (and not unjustly, so far,) deem a vil lain; but the other, who has acted far more iniquitously, they

have what shall I say?-Language furnishes not a term suffi ciently strong to express the unprincipled absurdity of this conduct; they have-the wisdom and the modesty to call an honest man! So then he who, with feigned affection, induces a woman to confide all her hopes of happiness in this world in his hands, who vows before God and the Church, that he will keep himself only unto her as long as they both shall live; yet, at one and at the same time, torments her with the keenest mortification, by leaving her bed for that of another, and tramples under foot the most solemn protestations, is an honest man! And he who enters the house of an unsuspecting acquaintance, perhaps of an intimate friend, and seduces his wife from her conjugal duty and attachment, is an honest man! While those who, by force, plunder us of our money, or by stealth carry off our goods, are justly represented as robbers, theives, nuisances to society, unfit to live-yet compare these crimes, either by the breach of obiigation they contain, by the sufferings they occasion to individuals, or by the mischief they produce in society, and ye will find that the thief, (who still deserves the fate he meets with from the executioner's hand,) is the less atrocious criminal.”

LOVE OF MANKIND.

CCORDING to the pretended philosophers of our age, it is our duty not only to love all men, but to love them all with the same ardour (or, to speak more correctly, with the same coldness) of affection; not only to do good unto all men, but, in the doing of that good, to make no distinction between individuals; not only to educate our own children, but to educate the children, and cherish the parents of others, with the same care we educate and cherish our own;-for, say they, it is the duty of man to contribute every thing in his power to the propagation of universal happiness; but universal happiness can never prevail in the world, till the whole human race be considered as one family, and all political and national distinctions be done away. "Such are the doctrines of modern philosophy: but the doc, trines of Christ and his Apostles are very different.

"As this romantic benevolence, which has, in the present age, annihilated friendship and patriotism, and let loose upon the world the demons of war, receives no countenance from the sa cred scripture, so it is inconsistent with the instinctive feelings of human nature, and with that very purpose which it pretends to promote.

"That it is the duty of man to contribute every thing in his power to the propagation of universal happiness, I hold to be a maxim incontrovertible, and the only rational criterion of moral virtue; but, surely, it is not the way to propagate universal hap

190

The Enthusiastic Christian.

piness, for creatures so weak and short-sighted as we are, to neg lect those whom Providence has placed immediately under our care; and stepping beyond the limits of our narrow circle, to busy ourselves in feeble attempts to reform the world.

"To do all the good that we can to our fellow creatures, is unquestionably our duty; and the only acceptable return that we can make to Him who hath delivered us from the power of our enemies; but, if we do not extend our good offices, first, to our own families, then to our more distant relatives, then to our neighbors, then to our country, and last of all, to mankind at large, we shall not co-operate with the plan of Providence, and, whatever we may pretend, we can be nothing more than the hypocrites of benevolence."

Dr. Gleig's Thanksgiving Sermon.

TH

THE ENTHUSIASTIC CHRISTIAN.

HE enthusiastic Christian, as soon as he feels the awakening word, goes groaning all the day long, under the sense of transgression: under the mysterious apprehensions of impending judgment, he is all anxiety and terror. He repairs to his parish priest, and is presented with a view of Jesus dying for the sins of man; and when a gleam of comfort is breaking in upon his mind, he is told, that unless Christ died for his sins in partic ular, it is to no purpose, with respect to himself, that Christ died at all.

"Whether Christ is become his own Christ, or not, can only be learnt by a sudden miraculous assurance. But, whether he shall receive the assurance, or when, is uncertain. He, therefore, returns home, in despondency; hoping and fearing, doubting and disbelieving, never at ease, unfitted for the commerce of life, and dreading the approach of death. If, however, an assurance comes, his transports are such, so great his exultation above all earthly connections or concerns, that he is no longer a being of this world. He looks down, with supercilious contempt, even on his nearest relations; and, damning them to eternal perdition, exults in the blessedness of the saints."

Such is the enthusiastic Christian !

Behold now the rational Christian.

"He hath a peace within his breast, which passeth all the understanding of those who have not experienced it. He feels no tormenting remorse; no disquieting dread of God or man; he is never agitated by malice or envy; seldom, and but gently moved with anger. Pity, indeed he often experiences; but, gratifying it, comforts both himself and others. His behav iour is friendly, and therefore agreeable. His discourse lively, if nature hath qualified him for it; but, at least, inoffensive and conciliating. His heart is open, in a proper degree, to all the

To Persons inclined to Socinianism.

191

innocent amusements of life, and he longs for none of the pro⚫ hibited ones. Virtuous discretion preserves his health and spirits, as much as worldly uncertainties permit; makes his circumstances easy, his family and dependants orderly and happy.His judicious beneficence is very useful; his blameless example yet more. Thus, he reaps no little joy from the esteem of oth ers, but unspeakably more from the testimony of his own conscience. He is sensible, indeed, of many failings; but all consistent with that sincerity which God knows, will recompense. Never will society grow gloomy, but inexpressibly more cheerful for being composed of persons of this description."

Arch. bp. Scoker, on Phil. 2. v. 21.

N

TO PERSONS INCLINED TO SOCINIANISM.

ATURAL religion, that boasted idol of the Deists, and which, unhappily for the cause of Christianity, has been a dopted by men of the greatest respectability for learning, orthodoxy, and piety, as the first principle in religion; so much so, as to have been supposed to be the foundation of revealed, derives all its information, not from the exercise of human reason, nor from the investigation of man in a state of nature, but from the revelation of the will of God.

This revelation teacheth the doctrine of an atonement from the beginning, by the institution of Vicarious sacrifices. But the doctrine of Unitarianism, by denying the SECOND and THIRD PERSONS in the adorable TRINITY, and consequently their economical offices in the Covenant of grace, deprives us of a REDFEMER to die for our sins, and to clothe us with his righteousness i and of a SANCTIFIER, to renew our corrupted nature;-cutting as off thereby from every hope of salvation, as it is tendered to us in the gospel.

The whole plan of redemption by Christ, is built upon the doctrine of the ever-blessed TRINITY in UNITY. For if God the Father did not so love the world, as to give his only begotten Son to come into the world, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life :-(See John 3. v. 16.)

If God the Son did not take upon him our nature, and became on bedient therein unto death, even the death of the cross, in order to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting rightCousness :-(See Phil. 2. v. 8. Dan. 9. v. 24.)

And, if God the Holy Ghost did not undertake on his part, to quicken, enlighten, convert, sanctify and comfort the hearts of poor sinners, alienated from God by nature, and dead in trespasses and sins-I know not, what would become of the essential, fundamental, peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of true genuine scriptural Christianity,

NOAH'S PROPHECY.—(Gen. 9. v. 25—27.)

THE

HE first Prophecy that occurs in Scripture is the sentence. pronounced upon the serpent, which is the opening of Christianity-the first promise of our redemption, Gen. 3. v. 15 --and which, if understood in the sense commonly put upon it by Christian interpreters, is a remarkable prediction, remarkably fulfilled.

There are but few prophecies or record respecting the deluge. As Noah was a preacher of righteousness to the old world, ' so was he a prophet to the new, and enabled to predict the condition of his posterity; a subject which, upon many accounts, requires a particular discussion.

In Gen. 6. v. 9, we have an excellent character of this Patriarch. The inebriation imputed to him, was similar to that of which the Apostles after the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, were accused. At the first grand propitiatary sacrifice which he offered, after the flood, having drunk some of the new wine drink-offering he retired into the Tent or Tarbernacle-(not his tent) sacred to divine communications, and there, upon receiving the divine inflatus, he rolled himself, and became uncovered.At that instant Ham, the father of Canaan, observed, and represented the condition of his father, to his brethren in an undutiful and infidel manner. Shem and Japhet, it is probable, struck with sorrow for their brother's impiety; and reverence for their father thus evidently agonizing under the painful predictions of a sacred dream, in which they apprehended themselves concerned, with the most profound reverence, and solemn silence, went backward, lest their faces should awake him; and with filial and never-to-be-forgotten affection, covered him with a garment.

And when Noah awoke, he was informed of the behaviour of his sons on this sacred occasion.

Then he began to communicate to them the mind of God which had been sacramentally revealed to himself whilst in the Tent. As a Prophet, the father of a family, nay, the father of all the future families of the earth, be not only predicted the fortunes of his own sons, but also the future fate of their descendants, to the latest generation. Full of the spirit of Prophecy (which is the spirit of Jesus) Noah thus spake

"Cursed (be) Canaan ;-à servant of servants shall he be un "to his brethren.

"Blessed (be) the the Lord God of Shem;-and Canaan "shall be his servant.

"God shall enlarge (persuade) Japheth, and he shall dwell in "the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.”

Canaan was the fourth son according to the order of chap. 10. v. 9;--but why was he so particularly marked out as the object of this prophetic denunciation? Was it for his father's trans