this way is so clear and well-defined that | fanatics, and the discovered iniquity of we may rest assured, whatever scintilla- others of them-let the mockery of initions of truth, unobserved before, we raculous power they exhibit, and the bring to the view of men, these must lying prophecies they utter, prove to be on the surface only. The great truths these deluded mortals that their church of the Bible were, perhaps, more dis- is a refuge of lies, and, with a few sintinctly seen and grasped, at the dawn cere and holy exceptions, a sanctuary for of the Christian era, than in these its hypocrisy, fanaticism, and sin. latter days. We may illustrate, and we may place in stronger light, the great articles of a standing or a falling church; but find other and hitherto undiscovered and essential truth, we never can. Take care, then, of deviating from the path of truth by an inch. If once you leave that consecrated and beaten way, you know not to what darkness and error you may eventually come. You then follow the ignis fatuus of human fancy, and lose the only light to the feet, and lamp to the path-you lose the thread that leads through the mazy labyrinth of human life-you start away on a wrong scent. He who is dead speaks powerfully on this subject. He started some wild vagaries on the millennium, and laid these down as axioms in Christian doctrine: but he stopped not here; one wild notion was hatched after another, till the unhappy author was lost in a maze of confusion and error. Had he been spared, I doubt not but that he would have retracted his errors, and returned to the good old ways of scriptural and solid inquiry. As it is, let us learn from the dead the lesson which the Almighty has not seen meet to allow us to learn from the lips of the living-that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake the plain and the long-established ways of truth. And now, could he revisit them whom he has led astray, O how fervid and how earnest would be his exhortations to abandon their wild and unscriptural creed, and return to the church of their fathers, the mother from whose breasts they first drew the sincere milk of the word, and by whose hallowed altars they were nurtured and fed. O, let the confessed hypocrisy of some of these To us, who have escaped these delusions, the dead would speak-do not suppose that, because you have the form of godliness, therefore all is well: do not suppose that a sound creed is universally connected with a sanctified heart. Remember heart and life heresy is much worse than head heresy. Remember that to no purpose will you say, "Lord! Lord!" if you have not done those things which he has commanded. May the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds to see the truth, and sanctify our hearts to feel and to follow it! GARRICK'S PRECEPTS TO PREACHERS. THE celebrated Garrick having been requested by Dr. Stonehouse to favour him with his opinion as to the manner in which a sermon ought to be delivered, the English Roscius sent him the following judicious answer : "MY DEAR PUPIL, "You know how you would feel and speak in a parlour concerning a friend who was in imminent danger of his life, and with what energetic pathos of diction and countenance you would enforce the observance of that which you really thought would be for his preservation. You could not think of playing the orator, of studying your emphasis, cadence, and gesture: you would be yourself; and the interesting nature of your subject impressing your heart, would furnish you with the most natural tone of voice, the most proper language, the most engaging features, and the most suitable and graceful gestures. What you would thus be in the parlour be in the pulpit, and you will not fail to please, to affect, and to profit. Adieu, my dear friend." SERMON LI. ON MORAL DISCIPLINE. BY THE REV. JOHN SINCLAIR, A. M. MINISTER OF ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, EDINBURGH. "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." -Luke ix. 62. We are taught in Scripture, to regard this world not only as a state of probation, but of discipline; not only as a course of trial, to ascertain our fitness for another life, but also as a course of preparation to acquire that fitness; a school in which certain tastes, and sentiments, and habits, are to be formed, and certain capacities matured, by which we are to become, as St. Paul expresses it, "worthy of the Lord," or endowed with "meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light;" or, according to the expression in the text, "fit for the kingdom of God," suited to its moral excellence, as well as ready for its spiritual occupations and enjoyments. One branch of this general qualification, or fitness, is here, by our Lord himself, distinctly brought before us, viz. firmness and consistency of character a kind of moral courage, which, having undertaken a great object, pursues it constantly and perseveringly, without looking back. Our present purpose, however, will be not merely to confine our reflections to this one particular branch of fitness for heaven, but generally to examine the whole subject of moral discipline, showing its analogies with that natural discipline, by which men are prepared, in this life, for their several pursuits and occupations throughout society. The analogies between infancy, as a season of education for riper years, and the present life for the life to come, are various and important. On this occasion, we shall illustrate four only of the most remarkable and interesting points of correspondence between the state of a child in preparation for manhood, and of man in preparation for eternity. I. Both kinds of discipline are necessary. II. Both are often painful and mysterious. III. Both admit of no delay; and, tual. Let us, then, begin with the consideration of the first analogy, viz. That the discipline in both cases is necessary. A child, on his first production into the world, is by nature totally incapable of the pleasures and pursuits of manhood. This incapacity pervades equally his physical, his intellectual, and his moral constitution. In each of these respects, he must be properly qualified, by a series of changes and developments, before he can undertake the business of maturer years. His body must be brought, by long continued nourishment and exercise, to manly strength and consistency. His intellect must, by observation, instruction, and reflection, be gradually ripened and matured. His moral faculties, at first wholly dormant, cannot be roused to full activity, till he comprehends sufficiently the relations in which he stands, both to his Creator and to his fellow creatures, together with the duties which those relations involve. This unfitness of childhood for duties and occupations to which it has not yet been trained or disciplined is very forcibly and distinctly remarked upon by St. Paul, in an illustration familiar to every scriptural reader; "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Similar to this, my brethren, would be the unfitness of man for a crown of glory in the kingdom of God, were he not prepared by the intermediate probationary discipline of the present life. He is as unqualified, without such preparation, for the employments of the blessed in heaven, as a child is for those of full grown manhood upon earth. This incapacity, first of all, is physical. His body is of such a structure as to be incapable of enjoyment, or even life, in an abode wholly different from that which it now inhabits, and from which alone it is naturally adapted. Hence, alluding to our present bodily constitution, as gross, imperfect, and unsuitable to the heavenly state, the apostle says, " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." For the removal of this unsuitableness, proper methods and opportunities are appointed by the divine Author of our frame. Certain processes of gradual transition must be undergone. Life, death, the grave and the resurrection, are all of them but so many stages in our progress, each of which prepares the body for the next that follows, and all of which prepare it for immortality. The language of St. Paul is here again illustrative of our statement. He compares the dissolution and reconstruction of our bodies to the several changes of a seed-dead, withered, decomposed, and afterwards reviving, with other properties as a plant. "That which thou sowest," he says, "is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be. So also is the resurrection of the dead; it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality." The changes here described, as being necessary to create fitness in the body for inheriting the kingdom of God, correspond precisely with our progress from the weakness and imperfection of childhood, to the strength and full proportions of mature age. Thus far the necessity of a physical improvement or alteration has been examined. The same necessity may be inferred, respecting the developments of the understanding. Some analogy seems probable between the intellectual growth of the infant mind, and the intellectual preparation of man for the society of superior beings in the world of glory. On this subject, however, we have not the same degree of scriptural information as has been given us respecting the advancement and glorification of the body. St. Paul seems, indeed, to touch upon some mental change, as necessary for our adaptation to the immortal state, where, comparing our degrees of knowledge in this life, with our improved knowledge hereafter, he says, "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then, (that is, in the mature immortal state,) face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." To what height of intellectual stature the human mind may ultimately arrive, is impossible for our present limited capacities to conceive. It would be as absurd for us to describe the latent powers and faculties which may be unfolded, in our exal tation to celestial existence, as it would | to dwell with God-to be for ever with be for a child to estimate the depths of his Redeemer-to join the company in reasoning with which the future philosopher will pursue his calculations. heaven. In order to dwell with God-in order to be happy in communion with him, by the exercise, throughout eternity, of praise for his perfections, and of thanksgiving for his mercies, piety must have been habitually cultivated in this temporal, this initiatory state. In order to be fitted for social intercourse with the purest and holiest of created beings, unit We now come to the most important respect in which discipline, temporal and spiritual, is necessary, and in which the state of childhood is again analogous to that of Christian probation. There is necessity, as we observed, for a moral preparation, as well as for the physical and intellectual. And the momentoused in the bonds of perfect spiritual affecdistinction, which gives superior interest tion, without the smallest taint of envy, to his moral progress, is, that it can, to a hate, or selfishness, the Christian aspirant great extent, be effected in the present must have first subdued, in his course of life. Much depends upon ourselves. We earthly fellowship with his brethren of cannot, indeed, by the mere exertion of this world, the influence of every baser our will, prepare our bodies for a glorified passion, and must have made some procondition. Neither can we raise our in-gress in the attainment and in the practice tellect to angelic eminence; but with of that “charity which never faileth." respect to virtue and religious conduct, Let, therefore, my brethren, this all fitness for heaven is, by the grace of God, important truth, the necessity of piety within the power of us all. Although, as and charity, or, in one word, of holiness, our Lord declares, we are unable, "by with a view to fitness for the kingdom of taking thought, to add one cubit to the God, be continually present to your minds. stature of our bodies;" and although we Beware of superficial and inoperative find ourselves still more unable, 66 by Christianity. Add to your faith virtue. taking thought," to expand our minds Remember, that besides a title to future into a comprehension of all mysteries, happiness through the merits of your and of all knowledge; yet, "by taking Redeemer, you must be moreover qualified thought," we are able, through the wis- to enjoy that happiness. Besides being dom and benevolence of our Creator, to redeemed and justified, you must be sancmake continual approaches, morally, to- tified. You must read, and learn, and wards fitness "for the kingdom of God." study the word of revelation, and put This fitness, now to be explained, cor-your knowledge into practice. This responds exactly with the moral training knowledge and this practice must not be which prepares the heart in childhood for partial and variable, ostentatious and the duties of more advanced age. The pharisaical, but must be consistent, prochild, without such moral training, couldgressive, universal, and sincerely influnot be trusted. To be admitted safely encing your dispositions, tastes, and into society or domestic life, he must feelings. Destitute of these qualificaacquire previous habits of obedience, tions, the claimant for heavenly blesseddocility, and submission to authority-ness will be found wanting, however habits of justice, truth, and charity-plausible his pretensions, and, like the habits of attention, industry, and self-con- individual in the text, will be unfitted for trol. These moral requisites, it must be God's kingdom. obvious, are yet more indispensable for admission into the society of celestial beings. Man, considered here below, in the infancy of an immortal existence, must be trained to higher degrees of moral excellence, in proportion to the pure and holy character of that community above, which he aspires to. His aim is VOL. I.-59 II. A second circumstance of analogy between childhood considered as introductory to riper years, and the present life regarded as preparatory for the life to come, is, that the discipline in both cases is often painful and mysterious. A child placed under wise and prudent guardianship, is subjected to treatment often grievously irksome to him, which he is quite unable to account for at the time of its infliction, however useful or necessary he may eventually find it. His appetites are under troublesome restraint -his passions under severe control or suppression. His mental faculties are forced into application which he finds distasteful, and considers useless. His patience during sickness is grievously tried by the use of remedies to which he would prefer the disease, and which he finds himself incapable of understanding; or perhaps in health, his manners, looks, words, and gestures, must submit to watchful and vexatious superintendence, of which no account or explanation is satisfactorily given. Above all, his sinful tendencies, engendered by hereditary corruption, his selfishness, his pride, anger, or obstinacy, must be checked and overcome. Reproofs, remonstrances, and even chastisements, must be reiterated, which he cannot possibly reconcile with parental kindness and indulgence. At length, however, he attains to manhood, and is presented with a very different view of things. The mystery clears up-the painful discipline is accounted for his complaints and repinings at the severities of education are discontinued. He perceives their importance and necessity; he confesses that a contrary system of neglect, or of unlimited indulgence, would have either brought him to an untimely end, or have presented him to the world an object of mingled pity and disgust, diseased and infirm, ignorant, headstrong, and unteachable, a burden to himself, and a nuisance in society. acute and lingering diseases, losses, hardships, and privations, infirmity and bad propensities within, and from without bad example, wicked suggestions, and the provocations of injustice, of treachery, of oppression; the facility, above all, of acquiring evil habits, and the difficulty of removing them; these various evils under God's providential government, present to our maturer years an aspect not less revolting and incomprehensible, than in early days the restraints and corrections of our childhood. In the gloom of adversity, we are visited with disquietudes and searchings of heart in respect to the design of our Maker in creating us, and to the prospect of our future destiny. We are tempted at such trying seasons, to allege that greater tenderness and indulgence should be expected from God; and that a course of life, less imbittered by suffering, and less exposed to snares and hazards, would be more compatible with our relationship as children of the universal Father. We ask, in ignorant impatience, Why subject us to discipline at all? If discipline is to "fit us for the kingdom of God," why not at once create us in that state of fitness? Why not at once communicate the character which, by a painful process, is now slowly and uncertainly matured? The best reply to such interrogatories, my brethren, would be to put into the mouth of a child the corresponding questions :-why, before entering into commerce with the world, he is placed in a preparatory condition, and is not rather born at once in man's estate, with all his powers, bodily, as well as mental, in their Analogous, my brethren, to this whole- full development? To these questions some process of education and tuition, and of impatient youth, the answer of his innot less painful nor less mysterious, is structers is obvious. "You would, in that the discipline by which, in this world, our case, be as completely unqualified for the heavenly Father prepares his moral off-life of mature age, as an idiot; the most spring for the world to come. "Whom solitary recluse, after a life of separation the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and from mankind, brought suddenly into scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Similar, also, to the murmurings of childhood are the sentiments of doubt, and suspicion, and distrust, excited by the unsearchableness of his judgments. The misfortunes and casualties, and vexations of every kind, incident to humanity; society, would be better able to conduct himself. The novelty of your situation would distract you with astonishment, apprehension, curiosity, and suspense. A long period would elapse before you would so far be familiarized with yourself and with the objects around you as to engage |