his faith, and to controul his conscience. I know well the ground upon which I stand; and the surmises and censures to which I expose myself, by advancing a sentiment, which has not the practical support, of the leading parties into which the church of God is at present split, and split by adopting the opposite view of this subject.

I will not wage the war, but should it be waged, it shall not be managed as a mere defensive war on my part. The Bible is the only rule which the Son of God has given to the church; a perfect rule he intended it to be, and competent through the blessing of his spirit, to produce every good effect which can be produced, by a written code of law, in the churches which receive and use it with faithfulness. It is the Bible alone which ministers of the gospel are commissioned to preach; they must instruct by Bible-doctrine; command by Bible-law; encourage by Bible-promises; damp, intimidate, and deter, by Bible-threatenings. Woe to them if they preach not the gospel! Woe to them, if they presume to touch the conscience of God's offspring, and Christ's redeemed, by any other instrument than the Bible.

I know the sophistries by which it is maintained, that the holy scriptures are not a sufficient bond of unity among the faithful; are not a sufficient test of orthodoxy; are not a sufficient means to preserve the unity and purity of the church. And I know the conclusions which flow from such promises, conclusions degrading to the worth of the Bible, and derogatory to the glory of its author. Nor am I entirely ignorant of those human Bibles, which are supposed to be capable of rendering services to the church, in respect to her

unity and purity, which God's Bible is held incapable to render. Neither am I unapprised that those human compends of theology, which are represented, as such powerful bonds of unity, and harmony, and purity, in the church of God; have been the wedges of division, the arena and battle-ground of controversy, the cause of wrath, and strife, and all evil passions, between men; who if left to their own unbiassed agency on the field of revealed truth, would have harmonised and co-operated as brothers.

I speak these things, with confidence, to my present audience; because every minister in this Presbytery knows, that it was not I, who introduced this tremendous (for so I call it,) theme. It is just six months, since we were called upon by superior authority, to decide whether our churches should be ruled by the Bible as it is, or by the Bible as it is represented in a certain human formulary. You recollect the powerful sensation excited; and the discussions which ensued, of a week's continuance. Then, for the first time, did we ascertain our respective views and opinions. Before that time we were strangers to each other's views but we then discovered, that though we had all along been able to operate upon the church of God, by the Bible, to our own conscientious satisfaction, yet we had been obliged in doing so, to modify and set aside certain human authorities, which some of our best, most cherished, and worthy christian friends, hold as sacred. My brethren, we must bear the consequences. My consolation is, that each man in this Presbytery stands on his own bottom. I would not have mentioned this subject at all, lest I should appear to invite and provoke controversy, were it

not that I consider it as the brightest, most hopeful, and most glorious of the signs of our times, that the Lord Jesus is bringing his Bible into operation among men, in an entirely new stile. I declare, that, situated as I am, in the character of a preacher to God's own ministers, I dare no more suppress the truth, that the holy scriptures are, and of right ought to be, the sole test of orthodoxy, and rule of faith and manners in the church, than I dare on ordinary occasions, to conceal from mankind, that salvation is to be found only in the Son of God. It is the more my duty to speak out, that all the ministers whom I see before me, are much younger than myself. My sun has passed its meridian, and is declining towards the west; your sun has not yet reached its meridian, and the church may reasonably calculate on many years of useful labour from you. And what should the church of God think of me, what would you yourselves think of me, or what could I think of myself, if so circumstanced and situated, I were to forbear telling you that which I think, and am absolutely certain to be the very truth of God, and the truth which you of all mankind ought to know, that the Bible itself is the sole rule of our faith, the only test of orthodoxy, and the best written instrument and means of promoting the salvation of mankind.

It may be, that there will be persons to tell you, that in adopting these sentiments, you are nothing but my misled disciples; when they are no longer able to resist the spirit and wisdom with which you speak, they will, no doubt, endeavour to humble you, by impeaching the manly independence of your character, and insinuating, that you meanly adopted from man, the principles which you found in your Bibles. The only as

sistance I can give against this accusation, is solemnly to assert, that it is untrue. For although I have long been convinced, that the faith of the church is corrupted, her unity broken, her peace disturbed, her beauty marred, her graces, virtues, utilities, impaired and diminished, by human Bibles officiously thrust upon her, instead of God's Bible; yet I have kept my opinions, so far as I could, to myself; conscientiously studious not to embroil, any farther, the already too troubled state of the church. It was not till we were all hemmed in by conscientious difficulty, that any of us spoke out: and those who were my juniors spoke before me.

But brethren, if you should get into any involvement, by your exclusive attachment to the Bible, or should you have to submit to the unjust, but humiliating insinuation, of having been led astray by a man like yourselves; I will compensate that evil as far as I can. I will, (if you think proper) take that war upon myself, on my own resources; though, like the Fabii, I should perish in it. I pledge myself, in true Spartan spirit, that while God gives me animal and intellectual vigour, our women and children shall never see the smoke of the enemies' camp in this war. We will settle it one way or another on the frontier line. In the mean time, pursue your profitable ministry→ faith-the Bible-the throne of Grace and manly courage your watch words.

There are circumstances in the present age, which give to this doctrine, at all times important, a new edge. No age hitherto, has had so many reasons for limiting the doctrine of the pulpit by the strictest rule of the Bible; I am very willing to grant, that the Bible ought to have been the standard, and the instrument,

of preaching in all ages; but yet I do maintain, that a stricter application of that standard, and a more liberal employment of that instrument, are required in the present generation, than in any of all that have preceded. This is truly an intellectual age, whatever we may think of its morality. Whether it will believe, when a reason for belief is furnished, is rather doubtful; but without a reason, it will not believe. I would not pledge myself, that the men of this generation will obey God, but I am very certain they will not obey man. Of consequence, the preacher of the gospel should entrench himself in the scriptures, should make himself mighty in the scriptures, and should operate on society by the only instrument which can produce effect, the scriptures.

In some of the ages which have passed away, if a preacher had entertained his audience with the fine spun theories of school divinity, the people would have listened to him with the most devout attention, though they understood not a word that he spoke; and with christian humility would have ascribed their want of comprehension to their own ignorance... If the preacher was not mighty in the scriptures, yet an authority was conceded to his official character, which rendered many obedient to his exhortations. In this age the condition of things is quite changed. Mankind know something; or, at least, think, that they are not quite ignorant; and therefore, they insist, that their preacher shall convince them that his doctrine is true and good; and before they obey his exhortations, they insist upon seeing the law which creates this obligation. They are, unquestionably, right in all these demands; and if the preacher would wish to