tainly, very strict and circumstantial Articles will lead more and more to lax and yet violent interpretations; to more frequent and desperate attempts to wrest and torture words from their obvious legitimate signification. Of the two, therefore, we might, after all, prefer Articles and Formularies more comprehensive rather than less comprehensive, than those which we have at present. In fact, the practical alternative is between comprehensive Articles and multiplied sects. Either we must allow some latitude of opinion within the pale of the Church, or we must fearfully augment the number of separatists—not to say actual enemies-without it. And surely, we may be co-religionists, that is, fellow-Christians, fellow-churchmen, without insisting upon absolute identity of sentiment on those minor points, which now awaken disputation. On both sides we may be instructed by Christian antiquity. For, from the beginning, there were Creeds; but the first Creeds had few and simple articles. Yet we must not expect in any case quite to escape all evil or inconvenience. If Formularies and Confessions of Faith are too narrow and rigid, the current of religious feeling will chafe and fret within its banks; yet, if permitted to overflow those banks and spread out at large, it may become as a shallow, stagnant, useless expanse, which loses itself in sands, instead of flowing into the ocean.

One lesson, therefore, to be derived from this inquiry is the great and solemn lesson of Christian moderation, in the true meaning of that much-abused word. This moderation we must cultivate and cherish; though it may be the more liable to attack and censure from bigots and zealots on both sides, even because it is moderation, the mean between two extremes, or rather,

the measure, harmony, and adjustment of opposite principles.

For the rest, three practical conclusions may be drawn from this whole inquiry; for each of which one word may suffice; yet which seem to me of no ordinary importance. The first is, that we should at least approach and discuss this subject in the spirit of meekness, and charity, and mutual tenderness, 'forbearing one another in love,' even from the acknowledged difficulties with which it is surrounded; difficulties which can beset the most intelligent and enlightened, the most upright and impartial, the most serious and pious minds. In the formation and interpretation of religious Articles, we also see how easy it is to take exceptions; how hard, and almost impossible, to discover any line or plan, against which no exceptions can be taken; we see with what facility, at how little expence of thought or study, reproaches may be bandied about, here of disingenuousness and equivocation, there of narrow-mindedness and bigotry; here of want of expansion, there of want of probity; here of latitudinarianism, there of intolerance; here of eluding or sophisticating truth, there of cramping and fettering investigation; and we may well refrain from taking part in so inglorious a warfare, when we ought rather to advance against the common enemies of Christian doctrine and Christian godliness, in the close and serried ranks of Christian soldiership.

The second inference is, how far wiser it must be to keep the Forms which have been delivered us, and which have helped to make our Church what it is, than in some feverish fit of momentary irritation or impatience, to think of tampering with our Articles, of infringing their spirit, or altering their letter, before we can see our

way; and while we cannot hope, from the very nature of things, to unite and reconcile contradictory, and therefore irreconcileable, requisitions. On this point, indeed, there are the same reasons to persuade us: we may say in the particular what we have just said in the general. We must again perceive how easy it is to find fault; how easy to shake, to loosen, to unsettle, to pull to pieces, to urge, or to complete, the work of demolition: but when the other process is to be begun; when the labour of construction is to be undertaken; then will the renovators find how arduous a thing it is to make men agree as to the ground-work of their new fabric; how still more arduous to induce them heartily to cooperate in laying one stone upon another; or how soon, and how effectually, the same weapons and implements which had been brought to the subversion of the former edifice, may be used to destroy their

own.

The last lesson is, that we must not expect too much from Articles, nor must a church too much depend upon them. Creeds and Articles, after all, have a negative power rather than a positive. They may stand in the way of heresies and schisms; they may be certain protections of theological orthodoxy; they are more than the shell or frame-work, they are real and substantial elements, of Christian truth; and they may be needed to ensure the regularity and stability of Christian co-operation for good and holy purposes: but still they cannot, of themselves, make either a church strong, or churchmen religious. Our Articles have been the same, and the mode of subscription to them the same, in the days of the Reformation, of Edward the Sixth, or of Elizabeth; and in the days of Charles the Second, or George the Second; in the days of the restoration, or in the days

of the declension, of piety. They present and preserve to us some objective portions of religion; but they do not and cannot constitute religion itself. Religion is a personal thing, a personal disposition; a thing which has its home and fortress in the individual heart. The personal spirit of Christianity, and the great realities of the spiritual life, these are required to give vitality and living force to the Articles of a communion; and may also aid us towards the right interpretation of those Articles, by imparting to us those excellent gifts which delight to come together, the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.' This spirit we must cultivate; for this spirit we must pray; ever supplicating that it may be illumined and fed by the Spirit of God Himself. For it is just in proportion as this spirit is infused into us by the Divine Grace; just in proportion as we cherish it in our souls, and exhibit it in our behaviour, that we may hope to promote, in our respective stations, the unity and peace of our church and country; as well as work out, through Him who died for us, our individual and everlasting salvation.

SERMON XX.

GOD ALONE EXALTED IN THE GREAT DAY.

IN

day.

ISAIAH II. 17.

The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

connexion with this text, two questions will naturally suggest themselves:

I. What that day is: and

II. How the Lord alone shall be exalted in that

I. As to the first question, it is scarcely doubtful, my brethren, to what day the mind of a Christian will be turned, as he hears or reads these words of the Evangelical Prophet. There can be still less doubt to what day our Church intended to direct us, as this chapter of Isaiah is one of the lessons appointed for the solemn season of Advent. I do not mean to deny, that the primary allusion of the passage is, not indeed to transactions altogether secular, yet to occurrences, which should take place in time, and form part of God's earthly dispensation. The first five verses of this chapter,' says Bishop Lowth, foretell the kingdom of Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into the Church. From the sixth verse to the end is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God's protection; and,