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And therefore those professors of the Gospel, however nominally orthodox, who rest in talk and speculation about its doctrines, while they produce no effects upon their hearts or in their lives, do but deceive themselves; and shew that they do not really believe the Gospel which they profess. They may give a verbal assent to its truths, or to something very like them; but that is not really to believe, or to be persuaded of their truth. They may even have an opinion, that it is either very possible or very probable that they are true: and may succeed in covering from their own view the real dubiousness of their mind, by not adverting to what they do not like to observe. And such an opinion may produce very little effect; and will certainly produce none decisively characteristic of a Christian. But such an opinion is not Christian faith. The truths of the Gospel are not proposed as matters of high probability; but are authoritably declared, as the certain word of that God, who cannot lie. And the more these truths are examined, the more will they be found adapted, powerfully to excite, and duly to regulate, every motion of the will, every feeling of the heart.

Most justly therefore do the Scriptures, in describing the natural state of sinners, cannect the blindness of their minds with the corruption of their wills and carnality of their affections. Are they described as "alienated from the life of God?" It is, "through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts." Under "the power of darkness," they are lovers of their own selves, lovers of the world, haters and despisers of the true God:-they are all gone astray, they have turned every one to his own way, they have set up idols in their hearts; and after them their affections go, and to them their lives are given.

"Chosen unto salvation,

And as justly do the same Scriptures connect the knowledge of the truth, the glorious truth of Him who has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel, with the conversion of the heart from idols, to "Ye shall know serve the living and true God with a willing service. "Sanctify them the truth, and the truth shall make you free." through thy truth: thy word is truth." through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth.” worketh by love:" and wherever there is the love of any object, there will be delight in the enjoyment of it, there will be desire after it, there will be fear of whatever threatens its loss, there will be hatred of whatever is contrary to its nature.

"Faith

Now, Sir, I may appear to some to have digressed unwarrantably from my subject: but, in fact, all that I have written in the four last pages has been designed, to make way for the repetition of that observation in my Address, that, the real faith of Christ is “productive of feelings the most blessed." Those feelings alone, which spring from that source, do I acknowledge to be gracious, in contradistinction to all others, whether sensual or religious. You know, Sir, as well as I, that there have been the strongest religious feelings in the wildest en

thusiasts, and others, who have been most remote from having any thing like Christian faith. And shall the strength of their feelings, or the circumstance of their being excited by certain views that they had of spiritual and eternal things, make me afraid to say that their religion was vain, and their feelings spurious?

It is a very narrow view of the carnal mind, which supposes it no where to be found, but in the garb of profaneness, or the eager pursuit after worldly objects. It appears in some in a form, ever so serious and contemplative, and abstracted from the things of sense and in a religious form also, according to a religion suited to its ignorance of the true God, and aversion to him. And just as the carnal sensualist will have his feelings wrought on by the objects, which engage his mind, so may the carnal religionist, (excuse the combination of these terms,) by the objects which occupy him. But the exciting causes of the strongest feelings in both are alike delusive; and the things which move their affections are but vanity and the carnal mind reigns in them both equally, though in different forms, because they are both alike under the power of unbelief, and alienated from the life of the only true God, through the ignorance that is in them.

Now let it be remembered, that all the matter, which true faith believes, is what God reveals in his word. The Scriptures have been given "to make us wise unto salvation;" and are so sufficient for the purpose for which they are designed, that the idea of any supplementary revelation being needful to any individual among us can originate in nothing but ignorance of Scripture. We, each of us indeed, need "the spirit of wisdom and revelation," to " enlighten the eyes of our understandings," that we may set, in their truth and glory and certainty, "the things that are freely given of God" to his believing people: but these are the things which his word declares, and no other things. In other words, we need the spirit of God, to give us to believe what his word reveals; because that is so opposite to all the natural errors and corruptions of our carnal minds; but it is, at best, but enthusiasm to expect, that the spirit of God should now be given, to reveal to sinners any thing, that his word does not contain.

When, therefore, the religious feelings of any, spring from a supposition, that any thing is revealed to them, which the Scriptures do not declare, as that they are in a state of acceptance with God; or any thing contrary to what the Scriptures do declare, as that they are delivered from the inbeing of every principle of evil, &c. I care not how strong their transports of joy are; I care not how strong their persuasion of the reality of the revelation is: the thing that they believe may be a lie, and in the latter case certainly is; and all the feelings that spring from their believing it are essentially different from the feelings that are truly gracious, are at leat delusively precarious in their tendency, and often ruinous in their effects.

I know that some of the men, who boast of such feelings, will think

that I preclude the possibilty of all joy and peace, because I confine the exercise of genuine faith to the things already revealed in the Bible. But it is to be feared they think so, because, the veil being yet upon their minds, they have never seen the glorious nature of what the Bible reveals. With every declaration of the wrath of God revealed against sin, that is calculated to awaken the most insensible conscience which believes those declarations, it reveals every thing needful to give the most oppressed conscience " peace and joy in believing" the Gospel, the glad tidings that proclaim a SAVIOUR; all sufficient for the chief of sinners, provided for such, and faithful to save unto the uttermost all who believe in him.

If we turn to the Scriptures, we shall find the belief of this simple, but glorious, Gospel of God our Saviour to be described, as the spring of every gracious affection and emotion, whether of joy or love, or desire, or grief, in the Apostolic ages of the church. It was this, that sent the Ethiopian Eunuch on his way rejoicing. It was this, that made the Philippian jailor-whose hand had, the hour before, been raised with rash desperation against his own life-rejoice, while he set meat before them, who had spoken to him the word of the Lord. Yea it was this, the belief of all that they testified concerning the Lord Jesus, that had filled the hearts of Paul and Silas with every heavenly emotion, while they lay in the inner prison, with their feet made fast in the stocks, and their backs bleeding from many stripes; so that at midnight they were heard by their fellow prisoners, "praying and singing praises unto God." The greatness and glory of the Saviour, whom the Gospel reveals, and of his salvation, are such, that they who believe that Gospel will acknowledge, that they only need to have the faith of it invigorated and maintained in their minds, in order to have all the most blessed feelings brought into the most lively and constant exercise.

As to the suddenness of their excitement, that is a circumstance which affects not the nature of the feelings, so as to make them either better or worse. President Edwards justly observes, in his treatise on Religious Affections, (to which I would refer the reader, who desires to see my present subject handled more at large, by a man whose writings appear to be the result of a deeply thinking and well informed mind,) that there are here two opposite errors, into which different persons seem to fall. The one, and the more dangerous one, is of those who imagine, that all very strong movements of the affections, that are of a religious nature, and very sudden, must come from the Spirit of God, and therefore must be good and genuine; and this, because they cannot account for their excitement upon other principles. But, in fact, they may come from the father of lies, who (we are told in Scripture) sometimes "transforms himself into an angel of light:" and they may come, in a variety of ways, from ourselves, though we are not at all conscious of the mode in which they originate. For we are too much unacquainted, not only with our own connexion with the invisible world of spirits, but with the internal constitution of our own

minds, the influence of the imagination, the mutual actions and reactions of soul and body, &c., to decide upon the origin and character of our feelings, from the circumstance of their being suddenly moved. And there is no extreme of wild or wicked fanaticism, to which the adoption of such a standard, (both unphilosophical and unscriptural,) would not expose us.

But perhaps there are others, who, observing these dangers, have fallen into an opposite error; and either altogether decry, or look with unwarrantable suspicion at every account of religious emotions, that are suddenly excited. But if they acknowledge the authority of Scripture, and the influence of the Spirit of God, in giving his people to discover and believe the great truths in his word, they cannot deny that such feelings may be genuine and gracious. And perhaps there are few Christians, who, in a greater or less degree, find not such at various times in their experience. How often, when their "spirit is overwhelmed" and their "hearts disquieted within them," is the soul “or ever they are aware, made like the chariots of Amminadib !" by the clear discovery and lively persuasion, which the spirit gives them of the things of Christ.

We have, therefore, a more sure standard in the word of God, by which to estimate the nature of our religious feelings, than either the circumstance of their being in general religious, (i. e. moved by some views that we have of spiritual and eternal things,) or the circumstance of their being sensibly strong, and accompanied with a perceptible emotion, or the circumstance of their being suddenly, or not suddenly, excited. The only certain standard, by which we can judge of them, (and it is a standard, to which the scriptural believer will at all times, desire to adhere,) is to be found in the word of God, that declares the truth, the belief of which produces every affection that is truly gracious.

And here, Sir, let me observe, that, while I have obeyed the call you gave me to treat particularly of those more sensible determinations of the affections which are called feelings, for the purpose of distinguishing between such as are genuinely Christian and such as are spurious imitations of them, I must ever maintain that the best of those feelings, so far as their perceptible liveliness is occasional and temporary, is of very subordinate importance, in comparison of the more permanent and habitual regulation of the affections, and determination of the will, which "the belief of the truth" must produce in us, as far as we walk by faith. The latter, combined with a profession of that truth, and manifested in the various exercises of willing devotedness to God, and humble, active love one to another, constitute the only scriptural evidence, to mark those whom I can recognize as Christians indeed.

Too, too often have I met with those, who were forward to boast of the times, when they had such and such sudden impressions, and fine feelings of divine joy, &c. brought into their minds, and who appear

to keep up a considerable elation of mind, and confidence about

their state, by feeding their self-complacency with such periodical recitals; in whom at the same time no one decisive "fruit of the spirit" 'could be found some of them the bitterest opposers of the fundamental truths of God; others evincing by the earthliness of their minds, or the indulged malignity of their tempers, or the unbridled falsehood of their tongues, or the injuriousness of their conduct, that they never truly believed the first principles of the Gospel which they profess: and others, who, from the defect of every temper of love to God or man, had much more reason to examine themselves whether they were indeed in the faith, than to talk of the time when they first believed.

Is not his Gospel good news to sinners, to lost sinners, to the chief of sinners? glad tidings of a Saviour for such, a Saviour of his people from their sins? a Saviour, in whom "the gift of God is eternal life, to every one that believeth" the Gospel which testifies his name? A Saviour, given for the express purpose, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life? And was it not his own express command, that this Gospel should be preached to all the nations, even those most sunk in heathenish darkness, and in diabolical corruptions?

Glorious were its effects in such: It was indeed the rod of his power. And awful have been the effects, in the religious world, of these departures from the truth, which men have introduced, too wise to become fools for Christ, and too proud to submit themselves to the righteousness of God. To such the foundation laid in Zion has been a stumbling-block of old. They were long ago offended at Him, who avowed himself the friend and Saviour of publicans and sinners; at him who addressed those, who were most wise and righteous in their own esteem, as on a level with the vilest, as blind, and servants of Satan, and haters of God. Such at that day openly rejected him: but since, through the establishment of national Christianity, it has become not creditable to be avowed infidels, they now take the Gospel, and variously accommodate it to their unbelieving fancies; and frame to themselves a Saviour, whom they call Christ, and for whom they often shew much zeal, who shall acknowledge the distinctions between sinner and sinner, which they set up in the pride of their hearts; who shall be a nominal Saviour to those who are so good themselves, that they have little occasion for any, to well disposed and qualified sinners to those who make themselves meet, by preliminary repentance, to get the blessings that he bestows.

The systems of such are various: they are often greatly puzzled by the plain declarations of scripture; and they have come to very little agreement among themselves about the best way of getting over these declarations. Some of the bolder ones are for leaving them out of the bible, as mistakes of the sacred penmen, or as interpolations of the text. Others who scruple this, find, in Eastern Metaphors, a ready, way of making them mean any thing or nothing: and then the disti ne

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