Thus, at the very entrance to the ministry of the Christian church, honest, conscientious men may be shut out; and men who may be neither, will, without scruple, gain admittance. If a candidate for the sacred office conscientiously subscribe to this human test of faith, what effect is it likely to have on him? It is evident that he must thenceforward feel himself under the temptation either to check all inquiry beyond the prescribed boundary of his avowed creed; or, if he should be prompted by curiosity, a natural and laudable curiosity, to consult the scriptures for himself, and find that any portion of his avowed creed is inconsistent with scripture-to keep his sentiments to himself, however important he may think them ;—or if he do not possess more firmness than men commonly do, even to go the length of disavowing them!-Human nature is encompassed with many weaknesses. The ministers of religion are not exempted from those weaknesses. They are but men, subject to the like infirmity with others; and there should be no such stumbling-blocks of temptation systematically placed in their way.

And I here put to you, as a Christian people, a people valuing the truth of the gospel as it is in itself, greatly beyond all the glosses and interpretations which men have ever put on it,— whether you could wish that your future ministers should come into the church of Christ with

the yoke of human authority about their necks, and bound down thereby to the maintenance of certain doctrines, whether, they may find them in scripture or not; or that they should come into this pulpit in the full enjoyment of that liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, the blessed liberty of taking their creed from the Bible only-the liberty of declaring to you, unshackled, "the whole counsel of God," so far as they know it; the liberty of putting you, from time to time, in possession of "the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you," just as they find it disclosed in the volume of divine revelation.

Your present minister values this inestimable liberty beyond all price. Allowed, as he has been, "to be put in trust with the gospel," he esteems himself happy that he has it in his power to submit the truths and the treasures thereof to your minds, uninfluenced by any other restraints than those of unerring wisdom. He thanks God he has never been bound to any creed but the Bible. He conceives it his bounden duty to search the scriptures for himself; and to collect the principles of the Christian faith, and the particulars of Christian duty, from that pure source; and whatever he believes in his heart and conscience to be the teaching of the word and spirit of God, he has had the sincerest pleasure in communicating to his beloved hearers, in all

plainness and simplicity of language; and it is his fixed purpose, with the blessing of God, to continue to do so, uninfluenced either by the fear or the favour of man, so long as he lives. In this way, and in this way only, can the instructions and the services of your pastor come to you, and be valued by you, as the ready, cordial, unconstrained offering of "Christ's free man;"-in any other way, they may lie under the suspicion of being nothing better than the unwilling, the dastardly, the crouching servileties of a slave.

In the whole of these observations on the discipline of the several churches, as it regards the admission of candidates into the ministry of the gospel, and the manner in which it may be supposed to influence their conduct in the discharge of their pastoral duty, I have gone upon the assumption, that in all matters of faith, and especially in things essential to salvation, the written word of God is a sufficient and a perfect rule. In this sentiment, I presume, you will readily agree with me, taught and accustomed, as you have been, to regard the holy scriptures with the utmost reverence, as paramount to all other authority. For, suppose we entertain a different sentiment on the subject; suppose we take it into our heads to believe that the scripture is not a sufficient rule;-then are we pushed at once to this alternative, either to supply the

deficiency, as the Roman Catholics do, by the aid of tradition, and the authority of an infallible church; or to have recourse, as enthusiasts, to certain workings of a fanciful or fanatical mind, which have not unfrequently been mistaken for the illumination of the Spirit of God.

The illumination of the Spirit of God is promised in the gospel, and is certainly "given to them that ask it ;" but not as a rule supplementary to the scriptures. The extent of his blessed aid is ordinarily nothing more, so far as faith alone is concerned, than that of opening our minds to understand and believe the scriptures. It does not seem to belong to his gracious office to add to, or enlarge the rule of scripture; but if we seek his holy guidance as we ought, we have the promise of our Saviour, that this blessed Spirit will lead us into all necessary truth;" that "he will take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us;" that he will "teach us all things, and bring all things to our remembrance," whatsoever Christ and his inspired Apostles have taught us. And as it does not seem to belong to the office of the Holy Spirit to add to the express rule of divine revelation; still more certainly may we conclude that nothing can come from him to contradict that rule. As the whole of that rule came through his divine inspiration, it is not for us to suppose that any doctrine can proceed from him, by whomsoever, or ·

with what gravity soever, it may be delivered, which militates against the teaching of the scriptures.

It has been no unusual thing-it is not very unusual yet-for men to advance doctrines as a necessary part of Christianity, which yet are not to be found in the Bible: it is no unusual thing for men to advance such doctrines, and to lay the greatest possible stress upon them; and to tell you, that if you do not believe them, there is no salvation for you. And if you hesitate to receive them as essential to salvation, you are set down at once as an unbeliever. You are told that the "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." But if any man will tell me that those things, which he chooses to add to the teaching of divine revelation, "are the things of the Spirit of God;" I will tell him that I regard them as the things of his own spirit, as the creations of his own fancy, the wanderings of his own imagination. And I shall no more give up the plain teaching of scripture, to follow his hallucinations, than I should think of preferring the flickerings of an ignis fatuus, to the blessed light of the noon-day sun.

To believe that the Bible is a divine revelation to man, and yet to suppose that it is not a perfect rule of faith and practice, is offering a gross insult to the divine wisdom and goodness which gave it for it is, in effect, a declaration that this holy book must fail to answer the high pur