spiritual operation of the Holy One in renovating and preparing the heart for the reception of his mercy, will have no cause to say they have been hardly dealt by, if they do not find salvation in this their own way. They pertinaciously refused and resisted the free and sovereign grace of God set forth in the Gospel; perhaps reviled it for enthusiasm, or by some other hard name, and embraced, upon the plan and principle of their own reason, (denying that it was, as God calls it, corrupt, depraved, and darkened,) some or other of these schemes of morality and self-righteousness, with which the world hath been amused from age to age, and which the antient heathens understood and expressed, at least, as well as most of their modern successors. It therefore was a true observation of a valuable writer,

that it has fared with the Gospel,

as it commonly does with the Law:

when

when men find they cannot come up to it, they try to bring it down to them." But the Lord will doubtless be found to have decided with perfect justice by such persons in the end, as he hath already decided in the case of the Jews, who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, went about to establish their own righteousness, and, therefore, did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. Acting upon their own will and imagination, they found, that what through grace was proposed for their wealth became, through the perverseness of blinded nature, only an occasion of falling; or, to use the words of the Prophet quoted by the Apostle: Behold, I ley in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of defence; or, the words of our Lord: Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes:

Even so, Father; for, so it seemed good in thy sight. To these also were addressed God's awful admonition: Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

$55. "But is there no want of charity in these statements, which seem so particularly exclusive ?" - It has been lately well observed; "There are few things so calculated to impose on superficial thinkers, as that indiscriminating cant of charity, which characterizes the present day." But there is no real charity in the circulation of falsehood, or in the support of error. If the judgement be according to truth, it cannot be void of that best charity, which springs from the Author of truth; and, however specious in its appearance, no other charity (if so it may be called)

when men find they cannot come up to it, they try to bring it down to them." But the Lord will doubtless be found to have decided with perfect justice by such persons in the end, as he hath already decided in the case of the Jews, who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, went about to establish their own righteousness, and, therefore, did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. Acting upon their own will and imagination, they found, that what through grace was proposed for their wealth became, through the perverseness of blinded nature, only an occasion of falling; or, to use the words of the Prophet quoted by the Apostle: Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of defence; or, the words of our Lord: Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes:

Even so, Father; for, so it seemed good in thy sight. To these also were addressed God's awful admonition: Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

§ 55. "But is there no want of charity in these statements, which seem so particularly exclusive ?" - It has been lately well observed; "There are few things so calculated to impose on superficial thinkers, as that indiscriminating cant of charity, which characterizes the present day." But there is no real charity in the circulation of falsehood, or in the support of error. If the judgement be according to truth, it cannot be void of that best charity, which springs from the Author of truth; and, however specious in its appearance, no other charity (if so it may be called)