Further, if we believe in the good providence of God, extending to all mind as well as to matter, or in the real though imperceptible aid of his spirit, we cannot doubt, that he who ingenuously seeks and diligently obeys the truth as far as he discovers it, will be ultimately led into every necessary article of faith. 'The meek thou wilt guide in judgment; the meek thou wilt teach thy way.' He who is willing to learn, is commonly taught; and he who is disposed to obey God, may depend upon it, that he does not break any of God's commandments by disbelieving a doctrine which he cannot find in the instructions of Christ and his apostles. On the other hand, let it not be forgotten, that obscurity and incapacity of mind are infallibly promoted by the prevalence of unworthy passions and the force of sinful habits. As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, says the apostle, God gave them up to an undiscerning and injudicious mind; and when speaking of the corruptions which should find their way into the christian church, the same apostle says, the man of sin shall come with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Once more; if we believe the words of our Saviour in the text, it is fair to conclude, that every Iman who will do the will of God is much more sure of the truth by his diligent study of the scriptures in general, or even of the words of Christ, than he can be made by any of the declarations of a

church professing itself infallible, or by any of the compends of doctrines framed by art and man's device. Of course, then, it should never give a pious and humble mind a moment's uneasiness that it cannot bring its faith to any one of the popular standards; for if the truths which we firmly believe, are fewer than are required by the impositions of men, yet if our creed is the result of a fair and rational study of the scriptures, unbiassed, as we can perceive, by any improper considerations—the man who is conscious, I say, of this state of mind, need be under no alarm for the salvation of his soul as far as belief can affect his salvation. His great anxiety should be to act up to the light he has received, and faithfully to fulfil the extent of his duties; for such, God be thanked! is the intimate connexion of all doctrines and duties, that the man who religiously fulfils one branch of knowledge or practice, will have gone very far to the observance of the whole.

I will conclude the subject with a simple recapitulation of those conclusions which our text has suggested to us.

We have concluded, then, that a man may be seriously disposed to do the will of God, before he has had knowledge of the christian revelation, and of course, there is something in human nature on which Christianity may be built. We have seen also, that the truth of his claims and the nature of his doctrines are submitted by our Saviour himself to the judgment of unperverted reason.

We have seen how virtue produces belief, and vice unbelief in the authority of Christ or in the christian revelation, and we know that he who best practises Christianity will best understand it; and that all the truth which is essential in Christianity is that which a mind disposed to do the will of God cannot fail to receive by the study of the scriptures. God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge; and may God grant that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we may understand what is the excellency of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SERMON XXII.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS AND UNCERTAINTIES OF LIFE.

ECCLESIASTES, I. 14.

I HAVE SEEN ALL THE WORKS THAT ARE DONE UNDER THE SUN; AND BEHOLD ALL IS VANITY AND VEXATION OF SPIRIT.

THERE are some maxims of practical morality, which are so common and so familiar to every man's experience, that it seems idle to tell what every one knows, and superfluous to prove what it is impossible to doubt. But the effect of moral maxims is produced, rather by placing them in new and striking aspects. Among those truths, which all men believe, but which few practically feel, may be mentioned the utter uncertainty of human life and all its expectations and enjoyments. The experiments which prove this fact, have been making ever since the world was made; and not an individual has entered on the stage of life and passed through the common career of worldly probation, who has not been sooner or later willing to confess with Solomon, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.'

6

There is a spirit of dissatisfaction pervading this whole book of Ecclesiastes, from which our text is taken, which renders the perusal of it painful and melancholy. The royal author, in the course of his luxurious life, had drained every source of pleasure, till satiety had succeeded enjoyment. He had decked himself in every flower that grew by the walks of life, and worn them till their colors. had faded, and their perfume had been exhaled. He had intoxicated himself with every variety of sensual gratification, till awaking at last from his dream of delight, he found himself sick at heart, and his spirits sunk within him to a stagnant level of discontent.

Solomon, indeed, was now suffering the misery of disappointment. He had been disappointed, not of obtaining the means of enjoyment in any particular instance, but he was blasted with excess of pleasure. He had collected around him all the means and appendages of enjoyment, but the substance had escaped him. The ingenuity and the patience of his servants had been exhausted in contrivances of new pleasures for the monarch. He had tried mirth, and it was mad; wine and it was folly. I made me,' says he, great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards; I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; I made me pools of water; I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle, above

،