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dread a termination like this, cannot but live in cloudy sorrow and anxious dread, totally unworthy of their profession or of themselves; and when the Lord by his Spirit is pleased to open their eyes to discern his truth clearly, and to seal instruction upon their hearts concerning the unchanging certainty of his covenant, as he sometimes vouchsafes to do, and particularly before their departure from the world how do they admire the goodness of their heavenly Father, thus by faith discovered; and how much are they astonished at their former hard and unbelieving thoughts concerning that mercy, which is the sure portion of all convinced and all repentant sinners! They now see that, to distrust God, is to dishonour him ; and, with sweet contrition of spirit, can ask themselves the Lord's gentle question of reproach; O thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt?

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All this experience perfectly accords with the observation of an excellent Christian of the last age, that as "leaves will not put life into the tree,' so the soul must first "" "rely upon Christ to receive life from him. All life lies in the root, and comes thence by naked believing; whereby God, through Christ, vents his own life by mere grace into the soul, that all actions of holiness may be no other than the life of God working within it."*

There are some, however, who suppose, that it is quite enough for a Christian to understand and believe a few fundamentals of our holy faith, and to attend principally to their tempers and practice upon these, without going into farther researches or difficulties.

* DORNEY'S Contempl. p. 153, Edit. 3.

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Though in matters of doubtful dis-. putation, the rule is, that he, who is weak in the faith, is not to be exercised with them; and though strong meat is not fit for babes, but only the sincere milk of the word; yet, so far is there any injunction for believers always to continue babes, that the apostolic exhortation is, that they should grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour; always adding, to this increase of grace and knowledge, those fruits or effects, which specifically and peculiarly belong to it. There is but too much cause to fear, that, when the mind is uninformed, it will not only be unsteady in practice, but be exposed to those poisonous tenets and insinuations of crafty and cunning adversaries, lying in wait to deceive, without having the means, or a sufficient portion of understanding and experience, to repel them. Can any real Christian be

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afraid to know more of the height and depth, and length and breadth, of the love of Christ, than he at present does? It may well be doubted, that, if any man can entertain such an opinion, he knows nothing yet, as he ought to know; and that his heart remains too cold to the things of God, and too much alive to the opinion or the things of the world. He, that had a rich mine before him, would be thought rather weak and insensible to its value, if, instead of getting deeper and deeper into the precious ore, he should content himself with looking at the surface, and leave the richer part of the property untouched and unexplored.

Besides, it may be thought, without much breach of charity, that the people, who can talk at this rate, though (like writers of romance) they may ingeniously draw fine characters upon paper, are at the bottom really afraid

of the free and sovereign dispensation of the grace of God. This is the great stumbling-stone and rock of offence to almost every unrenewed mind, whose highest views go no farther than the employment and exaltation of poor animal nature in its passions and powers, which, in severe trials and temptations, will ever, like Belshazzar in the balance, be found wanting. There is nothing in fallen nature, which can to any just purpose be substituted for grace, or can endure like it.

True knowledge can hurt no man. The sciolist only in divinity, as in other things, is the most liable to be puffed up. "The clearest light (said a late Bishop) is ever necessary to guide the most important actions," even in temporal affairs. "And whatever the world thinks, he who hath not much meditated upon God, the human mind, and the summum bonum, may possibly make a thriving

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