the real evidence of the Christian doctrine, they cannot excuse irreligion or unbelief; but they put the disposition of the heart to the test; and we may without presumption conclude, that they are permitted for this end. "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." The rule of faith speaks no ambiguous language. There is light enough for those whose main wish is to see; and darkness 'enough to confound those of an opposite character '.* 6 66 Speculative difficulties in religion of this description are not, however, an occasion of trial to the irreligious only they are adapted to prove those who profess themselves Christians, and who may really belong to the Church of Christ. The numerous exhortations and cautions contained in the Apostolic writings, which bear upon this species of trial, might teach us to expect that it would ordinarily constitute a very principal part of Christian probation. Commentators have exercised their learning and ingenuity, in endeavouring to ascertain the history and specific character of the errors, Judaical or Gnostic, against which it was found necessary to warn the Christians of the apostolic age ;-the philosophy and vain deceit," the "voluntary humility and worshipping of angels," referred to in the Epistle to the Colossians; the "fables, endless genealogies, and vain jangling" against which Timothy is put upon his guard; the heresy of Hymeneus and Philetus; the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes; and the false prophets and false apostles mentioned by Paul, Peter, and John. It is a matter of small consequence to us, however, what was the precise nature of those heresies, some of which were so plausible, that St. Paul compares the ministers who propagated them, to "the serpent who beguiled Eve through his subtlety," and to "Satan transforming himself into an angel of light." The practical inference to be drawn from such allusions and monitions, is eviently, that the Church would, in succeeding ages, be exposed to moral dangers and temptations of an analogous kind. It is clearly intimated by St. James, that some of the "divers trials" of faith which he prepares those whom he addressed to anticipate, would be such as it would require more than human wisdom' to encounter. The Galatian Christians are represented as being bewitched by the false teachers who brought them into bondage. In short, the peril of deception is quite as much dwelt upon, as the peril of apostacy in the face of persecution; and facts would amply warrant the belief, that many persons of a certain temperament, might endure the fires of martyrdom with courage and constancy, who would not be able to withstand the intellectual trial of seductive error. It is no very rare phenomenon, to find the heroism of 6 * Pascal. + 2 Cor. xi. 4, 14. + James, i. 5. zeal combined with the knowledge of a novice or the understanding of a child. Stedfastness is, under some circumstances, a higher attainment of magnanimity, as well as a more needful virtue, than courage and fortitude. The latter virtue has been carried to the highest pitch of heroic endurance by women, who are often the first to be "led captive" by the heresiarch, and whose peculiar danger led the Apostle to write: "I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully." And again: "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted them to speak it is a shame for women to speak in the church."* This last direction occurs in immediate connexion with the admonitions relative to the unprofitable display of miraculous gifts; and the exhortation with which it is followed up, is most remarkable: "If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord: but, if any be ignorant, let him be ignorant." It is a circumstance deserving attention, that the individuals in the present day who are the most deeply persuaded that a time of calamity, and judgement, and fiery trial is at hand, are, both from their characteristic temperament, and from the auguries which have gained possession of their imagination, the most exposed to peril from that opposite trial of Christian stability, to which we have referred as the prominent feature in the present aspect of the times. While gazing on the stars, or looking out for signs in the clouds, they see not the snares which have gathered round their feet. While intent on the approaching Millennium, they suffer themselves to be led by the mirage, only the further from the living waters of "the stream which makes glad the city of God." While inveighing against the abounding infidelity of the day, they are insensible of their own departure from the rule of faith. The errors upon which they strike, resemble sunk rocks, not visible to those who are at the guns, looking out for pirates, and which can be seen only from the mast-head; but upon these unsuspected shoals, faith may be shipwrecked. The present danger is one which calls upon Christians to look well at the chart. It is, in fact, danger of a complicated description, as the danger arising from error always is. To one class, the sceptical, the danger is, lest they should be hardened in infidelity or indifference by the extravagancies and follies of fanaticism. To the enthusiastic, the danger is that of being taken off from their duties, and "corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,"-of being beguiled to part with the substance of religion for its shadow,-of having the very balance of their mind so far destroyed, that faith 1 Tim. v. 14. 2 Cor. xiv. 34. shall become credulity, zeal intolerance, firmness dogmatism, courage audacity or effrontery, and mental energy a frightful approximation to insanity. But, as we are never in greater danger of going wrong, than at the moment of detecting some error which has involved itself with truth, there is yet another form in which the danger presents itself; that of being alienated in some measure from any doctrine of Scripture, by the unhappy counterfeit or burlesque of that doctrine raised up by fanaticism. Is any reader disposed to ask, why are all these difficulties and dangers permitted to obscure the evidence of truth, and to narrow the path of rectitude, and to render decision and obedience difficult? The answer is the same as that which Bishop Butler returns to the infidel. We might, without violence, use the words of St. Paul in this reference: "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved, may be made manifest among you." Let it be remembered, that they require nothing more than that probational exercise of our understanding which is itself a duty, which God has a right to require, and which is at once a test of character and a means of virtue. For the trial of faith, and of every other virtue, is designed to issue in its increase,—in the strengthening as well as development of the moral principles and affections, that so an entrance may be ministered to us the more abundantly into the kingdom of Our Lord. The difficulties of religion have at different periods somewhat varied their aspect. What the doctrine of the Cross was at the original promulgation of the Gospel, the main stumbling-block and most offensive article of faith,-what the doctrine of Justification through Faith was at the period of the Reformation,-the doctrine of Divine Influence is among the Protestants of the nineteenth century. The Cross is invested now with no such associations as rendered it unspeakably repugnant to the Jew, that his Messiah should have been crucified. Martyrdom is glory, and the cross an ensign of triumph. No part of the Socinian's hostility to the faith originates in the prejudice which influenced the Jew, or which rendered the doctrine of Jesus and the resurrection "foolishness" to the Greek. And as to the cardinal doctrine of the Reformation, although much mistake and grievous error prevail with regard to the true ground of acceptance with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, yet, the controversy respecting Justification has greatly subsided, and assumed a milder character of debate; and the spread of evangelical preaching has been accompanied with a considerable modification of the semipopish scheme on the part of the soi-disant orthodox clergy. But" the work of the Spirit" is to the formalist, pre-eminently, a stumbling-block, and to the philosopher foolishness; exciting, * 1 Cor. xi. 19. VOL. VII.-N.S. E when pressed upon the conscience, 'a feeling of indignation,' Mr. Simeon remarks, inasmuch as it requires of an unregenerate 'person, a greater degree of submission to God than he is willing to yield, and a closer intercourse with God than he has any in'clination to attain.' 'I think,' continues the Venerable Preacher, this admits of an easy illustration. It is an indisputable fact, that we are, by nature, altogether alienated from the life of God. Now we all feel, that, when alienated from a fellow-creature, however we may bear with him in a crowd, we are indisposed to have much personal intercourse with him alone. So, also, we feel in reference to God. We can hear of him at a distance, and not be disturbed; but, by reason of our alienation from him, we are averse to be brought into very near communion with him. We can bear with a display of his perfections in the universe, because, though we see him as our Creator, he is not sufficiently near us to exercise any material control over us: but when he is brought nigh to us in the law, as our Governor, we feel somewhat of a painful constraint, because of our responsibility to him, and the account we must one day give of ourselves to him at his tribunal. Let him then be brought still nearer to us in the gospel, as our incarnate and suffering God, and our inquietude is proportionably increased; because we are made to realize more deeply the terrors of his wrath, which demanded such a sacrifice, and the personal obligation which lies upon us to surrender up ourselves unreservedly to him. But, in the offices and operations of the Holy Spirit, we are led to view him, not merely as God, in the universe, displaying himself around us; or as God, in his church, declaring his will to us; or as God, in our nature, interposing for us; but as God, in our hearts, dwelling and operating in us: and this brings him into such immediate contact with us, and requires of us such a minute attention to all our ways, that we shrink back from every part of the subject, and, for the pacifying of our own minds, cast reflections upon it as visionary, unintelligible, absurd. I do not mean to say, that there is in the minds of men a distinct consciousness of such a process, but only that there is in reality such a process in the human mind, though men are not exactly aware of it. Men do not like to have God too near to them: and the nearer he is brought to them, the more they shew their aversion to that which is the means of presenting him to their minds.' pp. 2-4. Mr. Simeon's discourses are of a practical, not of a polemical or critical character. Taking for his text, Rom. viii. 9, he proposes to shew, 1. Who is that Spirit whom Christians are expected to possess'; 2. Why the possessing of that Spirit is indispensable to our being Christ's accepted followers'; 3. What that Spirit will work in us in order that we may be Christ's'; and 4. What he will work in us when we are 'Christ's. In replying to the inquiry, What is meant by having the Spirit, Mr. Simeon makes the following passing reference to the fanatical pretensions of the Row and Regent Square folk. Are we all to possess the power of "working miracles, and speak ing divers kinds of tongues?" No: the time for such things is long since passed. That they may be renewed at the time when God's ancient people shall be restored to his favour, and the whole Gentile world shall be converted to the faith of Christ, is probable enough: but no such power exists at this day, except in the conceit of a few brain-sick enthusiasts; nor, if it did, would it have any bearing upon the subject before us. The possession of that power would not constitute us Christ's: for we have reason to think that Judas wrought miracles, as well as the other apostles; and yet, as our Lord tells us, he was no better than a devil all the while. That possession of the Spirit of which my text speaks, is of such a discriminating nature, that no man who has it can fail to belong to Christ, and no man who has it not can have any part or lot with him. The Spirit of God is promised to us, to dwell in us as in his temple; for we are to be "the habitation of God through the Spirit ;" and he is further to operate in us effectually for all the ends and purposes of our salvation, producing in us all "the fruits of goodness, and righteousness, and truth." motions may not unfitly be compared with the operations of the soul in the human body. Without the soul, the body cannot perform any vital function whatever: but when that spiritual inhabitant is present with us, and discharges its proper offices, we shew, by the various exercises of our mind and body, that it really dwelleth in us. Now the Spirit of God performs in the soul an office somewhat analogous to this. The soul by itself has respect only to things visible and temporal; but, when filled by the Spirit of God, it occupies itself about things invisible and eternal. And precisely as the body needs the presence and operation of the soul for the discharge of its offices in relation to this world, so does the soul need the influences of the Holy Spirit for the discharge of its duties in reference to the world to come.'-pp. 16-18. 6 We are not aware of any Scriptural or reasonable ground for the conjecture, that miraculous gifts may be renewed at the 'time when God's ancient people shall be restored to favour'; and the dangerous tendency of cherishing unwarranted expectations, how innocent soever in themselves, has received such melancholy illustration from the extravagancies of the Millenarians, that we cannot but regret they should obtain the shadow of a sanction from the venerable Writer. That the actual possession of such gifts would neither constitute us Christians, nor prove us to be such, is evident both from the proofs adduced by Mr. Simeon, and from the language of the Apostle in the xiiith chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians. And if the possession of real miraculous gifts was nothing better, without the moral fruits of the Spirit, than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, in what fitting terms shall we express the nothingness of those whose feigned or fancied gifts have carried them far from the 'more excellent way' of the first and chief of the heavenly graces? Under the third head of inquiry, Mr. Simeon treats very fully of the necessity and nature of Regeneration; and under the |