are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." If the inspired writers could without absurdity and enthusiasm say, that the faithful "taste that the Lord is gracious, taste the heavenly gift, taste the powers of the world to come," why should it be thought irrational to declare, as our Church does, that the children of God feel in themselves the workings of the Holy Spirit, feel peace of conscience after pardon, know and feel the saving virtue of Jesus' name?

To conclude, sir, if we are to insist upon rational goodness, benevolence, &c, exclusive of feelings in the heart, what shall we make of those scriptures which our Church places at the head of all our public worship: "Rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord;" a troubled spirit, yea, a " broken and contrite heart," is the first sacrifice he does not despise.

Upon the scheme that excludes feelings, a man may say, that "the remembrance of his sins is grievous unto him, the burden of them intolerable," and have been all his life as great a stranger to godly sorrow, as if he had not been conceived in iniquity. Upon the Gospel plan, such a one is whole, he has no need of a physician, he draws near to God with his lips, while his heart is far from him: he is an abomination to the Lord, though as sincere in his blind worship as Paul before his conversion.

Upon this scheme, a man may be a believer if he give a rational assent to the doctrines of Christ, and has "a form of godliness,” though he never felt the power of it in his heart. But upon the Gospel scheme, he is to "believe with the heart unto righteousness," before he can make confession with the mouth unto salvation; and he is to turn away from such as "have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof."

Upon this scheme, again, it is possible for a man to be a true Christian, a penitent restored to God's favour, without ever going through the least trouble of mind for sin; whereas, upon the Scripture plan, Christ saves none but the lost, heals none, as says our Church, (homily on man's misery,) but those who have need of his salve for their sore; invites none to the living water, but the thirsty, offers refreshment and rest to none but those "that travail and are heavy laden;" which, I suppose, they are allowed to perceive, it being absurd to call those people heavy laden, who never felt the least load.

Upon this new scheme, the Pharisee, who had a rational conviction that he was not as other men, but benevolent, courteous, just, and chaste, must have gone to his house justified, as well as the publican who felt so much remorse, that he smote upon his breast; so much holy shame, that he durst neither draw near, nor look up to heaven. But upon the scheme of Jesus Christ, this man, who appeared to the composed Pharisee such a low-spirited, silly wretch, that he thanked God, too, he was not such an enthusiast; this man, I say, went to his house justified rather than the other; for, says the Lord, Isa. lxvi, 2, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor in spirit, and trembleth at my word.”

Agreeably to this easy scheme, a man may have the peace that the world knoweth not, the peace of God passing all understanding, and the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, without ever feeling any thing of either; whereas, this is impossible, according to the testimony of some of the best and wisest of men.

Pascal, the strength of whose reason was so much celebrated in the last age, thought that peace and love, unfelt, and consequently unenjoyed, were of as little service to him as a painted sun to a plant under snow, or the description of some beautiful fruits to a man starved with hunger. Take one of his thoughts:

"To know God speculatively is not to know him at all. Heathens knew him to be the infallible author of geometrical truths, and supreme disposer of nature. The Jews knew him by his providential care of his worshippers, and temporal blessings, but Christians know God as a God of consolation and love, a God who possesses the hearts and souls of his servants, gives them an inward feeling of their own misery, and his infinite mercy, and unites himself to their spirits, replenishing them with humility and joy, with affiance and love."

To the testimony of that Christian philosopher, I beg leave to add that of the celebrated divine, St. Chrysostom, (Hom. xxiii, on the Romans,) "How must he be ravished, (says he,) who truly loves God! The state of such a one is the happiness of paradise itself. We may study what terms we please; we shall never be able to represent the happiness of that love. Experience only can give us a just sense of it. Let us, then, taste and see how good the Lord is, and we shall anticipate the life of heaven, and live on earth in the fruition of what the angels enjoy in heaven."

But why should we go into distant countries, when this island has produced such clouds of witnesses of God's power, sensibly exerted in the souls of his children? Out of a thousand, take the famous Bradford, one of the brightest lights of our Church, who confirmed the truth he had preached, by laying down his life in the flames: (Mirror of Martyrs, page 276,)" He preached twice a day. In the midst of his repast he used often to muse, having his hat over his eyes, from whence commonly trickled plenty of tears, dropping on his trencher. Such continual exercises of soul he had in private prayer, that he did not count himself to have prayed to his satisfaction, unless in it he felt inwardly some smiting of heart for sin, and some healing of that wound by faith; feeling the saving health of Christ, with some change of mind, detestation of sin, and love to God."

I shall close these testimonies by transcribing part of the xxth article of the famous Confession of Augsburg, drawn up and signed by Luther, and all the German reformers.

"Faith," says St. Augustine, "is not a bare knowledge that may be common to us and wicked men, but it is a sure confidence that lifts up those that are cast down, and fills with consolation those that are troubled in mind. By this faith we obtain remission of our sins, the Holy Ghost is given unto us, our hearts are renewed," &c. All this doctrine belongs to the fight of a conscience awakened and galled with sin, without which also it cannot be understood, which is the reason why it is rejected of the ignorant and profane people, who suppose that "Christian righteous. ness is only civil righteousness," lifeless morality.

Now, sir, I leave you to judge whether a man may have this faith, this sure confidence, that fills a troubled mind with Divine consolation, and never be sensible of it.

Nor did the other reformers hold any other opinion, as you may see, VOL. IV.

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sir, by the following lines, Englished from articles, xx and xxii of the Confession of Faith drawn up by Calvin, Beza, &c, and still subscribed to by all the Protestant clergy in France and Holland :—

"We believe that by faith alone we are born again, and made partakers of salvation, being enabled thereby to receive the promises of life made to us in Jesus Christ. We make them our own, and apply them by faith, insomuch that we feel the effect of them." This is still more clearly expressed in the fourteenth section of their Article of Faith, printed with their liturgy, part of which runs thus :

"As the blood of Christ is to purify us, so the Holy Ghost besprinkles our consciences therewith, that they may be effectually purified; for, dwelling in our hearts, he makes us feel the power of our Lord Jesus Christ; he enlightens us, he seals and impresses his graces in our hearts, regenerates, and makes us new creatures," &c.

I own, sir, that after these great divines, I am no more ashamed to enforce faith in the Holy Ghost, the Author and Giver of life, and to say to my flock that he is to make them feel the power of Jesus Christ and the virtue of his blood in their hearts, than I would be ashamed, were I a physician for the body, to tell them they must take a medicine inwardly, if the applying it outwardly would not do; and that would cause them some pain at the first operation, but only in order to cure them more radically.

Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to prove, from the doctrine of our Church, from reason and Scripture, from the testimony of the best men, and of all the Reformed Churches, not only that feeling and rational Christianity are not incompatible, especially the feeling godly sorrow or trouble of mind, antecedent to justifying faith, and the feeling the comforts of the Holy Ghost, even peace, love, and joy, in believing; but also that such feelings, so far from deserving to be called madness and enthusiasm, are nothing short of the actings of spiritual life, or, to speak Scripturally, "the power of God to every one that believeth," Rom. i.

One more argument on this subject, and I shall conclude the whole. If good nature, affability, and morality with a round of outward duties, will fit a man for heaven, without any feeling of the workings of the Spirit of God in the heart, or without peace, righteousness, and joy in the Holy Ghost; if such a professor of godliness is really in that narrow way to the kingdom which few people find; why did our Lord puzzle honest Nicodemus with the strange doctrine of a new birth? Why was he so uncharitable as to declare, with the utmost solemnity, that he could not see the kingdom of God if he was not born again of the Spirit?

Why did he trouble the religious centurion with sending for Peter, that the Holy Ghost might fall upon him, and all that heard the word, while the apostle preached to them remission of sins, through faith in Jesus, a heart-purifying faith? See Acts xv, 8, 9.

But, above all, if inward feelings are nothing in sound religion; if they rather border upon enthusiasm; why did not our Lord caution the woman who came behind him in Simon's house, who wept at his feet, and kissed and wiped them with her hair? Why did he not take this opportunity to preach her and us a lecture on enthusiasm? Why did not he advise her to take something to help the weakness of her nerves, and

prevent the ferment of her spirits? Why did not he tell her she went too far, she would run mad in the end? Why did not he bid her (as people do in our days) go into company a little, and divert her melancholy? Nay, more; why did he prefer her, with all her behaviour, to goodnatured, virtuous, religious, undisturbed Simon? Why did he send her away with his peace, and the assurance of the forgiveness of her sins, while he did not vouchsafe to say to the composed Pharisee, "This day salvation is come to thy house?"

May I be allowed to tell the reason? Christ came not to "call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." If a man, therefore, is full of confidence in his own powers and righteousness; if he supposes he is, or can make himself, good enough outwardly, without those enthusiastic feelings of godly sorrow, pardon, peace, and love in his heart; Jesus must leave him to his self conceit and virtuous pride; for "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."

However, do not mistake me, sir; I am far from supposing that the sincerity of people's devotion must be judged of by the emotion they feel in their bodies; for the grace of God generally brings a great calm, and such a heavenly serenity into the soul, that it may even keep the body composed in a sudden danger. But as I read that God will have the heart or nothing, so I know that when he has the heart, he has the affections of course. Fear and hope, sorrow and joy, desire and love, act upon their proper objects, God's attributes. They often launch out, and, as it were, lose themselves in his immensity, and, at times, several of these passions acting together in the soul, the noble disorder they cause there cannot but affect the animal spirits, and communicate itself more or less to the body. Hence came the floods of tears shed by David, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter, Paul, &c: hence came the sighs, tears, strong cries, and groans unutterable, of our Saviour himself.

But, after all, sir, if you exclaim only against bodily feelings and emotions, when the soul itself is past feeling, you cannot do it too much; it is either weakness, or hypocrisy intolerable; it must be thundered against. Therefore a just distinction is to be made between feelings excited in the body alone by self exertion or mere natural pathos, and those bodily emotions that are necessary and involuntary consequences of the powerful workings of God's Spirit on the soul. The one are "sparks of our own kindling," which give neither heat nor light, and vanish as soon as perceived; the other are the natural effect of grace, which the soul cannot contain; and they are to grace, and the fire of Divine love, what smoke is to culinary fire: it proceeds from it, but adds nothing to it; yea, if a man lay any stress thereon, it will darken, and perhaps put out the flame.

You see, sir, by this observation, that though I plead for spiritual feelings in devotion, and would not have even all bodily feelings resulting therefrom branded with the name of enthusiasm, yet I am as far as yourself from laying any stress upon bodily frames, merely as such; and I would as soon judge of the heat of a fire by the smoke that comes out of the chimney, as judge of grace by bodily emotions, conscious that there may be more of the one when there is less of the other; yea, that grace, peace, and love often overflow the soul within, when the animal spirits are most composed, and the nerves least at work without.

Upon the whole, sir, I humbly presume that I may conclude from what I have taken the liberty to lay before you, that true Christians, as free from enthusiasm as Paul or David, may experience, at times, emotions in their animal spirits, attended with tears and sighs, especially, when the cup of blessing or sorrow runs over with desire and love, or with fear and trouble; and, if they walk in the light of God's countenance, must enjoy, and consequently be sensible of, or feel, in their inmost souls, through believing, " a peace that passes all understanding,' such as the world knoweth not, " a joy," at times, "unspeakable," such as a stranger intermeddles not with.

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This, and this alone, makes the service of God "perfect freedom;" this takes away the guilt and the power of sin, disarms death of its sting, and the grave of its horrors.

This is the first fruit of that "faith working by love," which gives confessors victory over the world, and martyrs power to clap their hands for joy on the racks, and in the flames. It is the "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," the earnest of the Spirit; the earnest of our inheritance above.

If we take this inward principle from the heart of a believer, we take away the ingrafted word, the incorruptible seed, the kingdom within, the bread and water of life, the little leaven, the pearl of great price, the hidden treasure, the wedding garment, the oil of the virgins, the hidden manna, the power of God to him that believes, the power of Christ's resurrection, the new creature, the new name which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it, the new birth, the wisdom from above, the blood of sprinkling, the life of God, &c; we take away, in short, "the faith of the operation of God;" and, in a blind zeal for formal religion, we cry out against Jesus coming in the Spirit, as the Jews, in their blind zeal for the law, cried out against Jesus coming in the flesh, "Crucify him, crucify him," and effectually, though ignorantly, crucify "Christ in us the hope," the living hope "of glory."

Thus Christianity degenerates into mere heathenish morality and good nature, dressed up with Christian rites. All that is spiritual and experimental in our Bible and liturgy must be, of course, enthusiastic stuff, or, at best, words without meaning. So that, after all, the only essential difference that will be found between us and just, sober, chaste, benevolent Deists, will consist in repeating speculatively some creeds they do not assent to, in speaking for a book they run down, in using some religious ceremonies they think useless, and entertaining dry notions of one Jesus and his Spirit, whom they despise and reject; when, at the same time, we shall be equally strangers to that Gospel "which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," to "the exceeding greatness of God's power toward those that believe, according to the working of his mighty power," Eph. i, 19.

I have found it hard, sir, to submit my carnal reason to the force of these and the like observations. I know, by experience, that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I can therefore truly sympathize with those that stagger yet at the hard saying of St. Paul, 1 Cor. iii, 18, "Let no man deceive himself; if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this