may not be wholly exempt from ignorance and error? He may be only a babe in Christ, and require to be fed with milk, and not with meat; but let us guard, lest by our hasty judgment of him, we incur the penalty, which our Saviour so solemnly denounces a the little ones, who believe in him. But it may be asked, shall we not lend our countenance to error, if we consent to admit an erring brother to our communion? We reply, let us obey the commands of Christ, and leave the conse quences of our actions to God. The ark needs not our hands to keep it from falling. We may bear our testimony to what we believe to be the truth, on all proper occasions. We may, by all lawful means, contend earnestly for what we think to be the faith once delivered to the saints. If we think our neighbour to be ignorant, let us seek meekly to instruct him; if we think him erroneous, let us pray for him. sincerely believes the general truth of christianity, and lives according to his belief. The communion is no where declared to be a precise measure of religious attainments. If we think our neighbour's views erroneous, we are to endeavour, by all fair and gentle means, to enlight-gainst those, who offend one of en him. If we think them essentially erroneous, we may even endeavour to persuade him to delay the act of communion till his faith becomes stronger, and his study of the scriptures more prayerful and profound. But if his means and opportunities be equal with our own-if he tell us, that he humbly hopes his views of religion are gained by a careful study of the scriptures, and the honest use of the lights which God has given him -if he can say to us, in the language of the apostle, "if any man trust to himself, that he is Christ's, let him, of himself, think this again, that as he is Christ's, even SO we are Christ's" then, we conceive, we cannot be justified in refusing to him the benefit of the means of grace, which our common Lord has appointed. Religion, let us remember it, is a personal thing. It is an affair between every man and his Maker. Our neighbour is to be saved by his own faith, not by ours. He is another man's servant, and is to stand or fall to his own master, not to us. His faith may be weaker than ours; but we are commanded to receive the weak in faith, and that too, not to doubtful disputations. He may not understand all mysteries and all knowledge; but is it not possible, that we ourselves likewise But let not the sacred rite, which ought to disarm us of every bitter and every arrogant feeling, which was intended to bind us more closely together by the bonds of love, become the instrument of mutual hostility. Let us find some other method of propagating and defending our views of Christian truth; and not convert the celebration of the memory of our Lord into an engine of persecution against those, who profess to love him as well as ourselves, and whose only crime is, that they do not read the scriptures with our eyes. If christians must differ in opin ion, let not the rent thus fatally descend to the foundation. These considerations are powerfully enforced by the reflection, that if we err with regard to the terms of communion, which we require, it will be far more dangerous to demand too much, than not to insist on all that we may lawfully ask. If this closing of the door of the church of Christ against those, who profess to found their faith and hope on him, cannot be clearly and fully proved to be scriptural and necessary, is it not both sinful and dangerous? Do we not incur the guilt of depriving our brother of a most important aid to holiness, prevent him from obeying the command of his Saviour, and refuse to him an opportunity of publicly showing forth his Lord's death? Do we not take upon ourselves the right of denying him the privilege of seeking to impress upon his memory and his heart the recollection of what his Redeemer has done and suffered for him?-We assume no light responsibility by thus shutting those doors, which Christ has thrown open, and if we cannot defend our conduct by the clear and express warrant of the word of God, we may be sure we shall have a very solemn account to give at his tribunal. On the other hand, suppose we should not demand all that we might lawfully require, still if we admit none, who do not profess their faith in the gospel, and conform their lives to their profession, religion, at least, will not be disgraced in the eyes of the world. If we err at all, we err on the side of that charity, which is declared to be greater, than even faith and hope. Suppose the worst. Suppose that some may thus sit down to the table with us, whose views of christian truth are essentially different from our own, and, it may be, essentially wrong; still, cannot this rite be blessed to me, because another partakes of it unworthily? Cannot I affectionately remember my Saviour, unless I am sure that all, who eat and drink with me, believe as much and as accurately as myself? But we must forbear to push these considerations any farther at present. We hope that christian people, as well as ministers, will think seriously of them; and, if they shall appear to be well-grounded, that our church creeds may be reviewed, and all those articles expunged, on which the scriptures do not command us to insist, as indispensable proofs of christian faith and love. The cause of truth cannot suffer by forbearing to use unlawful means to promote it. If we deemed so lightly of the principles we maintain, as to think they could not be defended, but by a system of exclusion, and a monopoly of religious privileges, we certainly should not think them worth defending. Reserving the liberty of resuming the subject hereafter, we shall close what we have to say at this time, by introducing a passage from Mr. Jay's sermon, on "Mistakes concerning the number of the righteous." In stating the various sources or occasions of these mistakes, for his fourth particular, he remarks— "The DIFFERENCE OF OPINION, which prevails among christians, has frequently occasioned a diminution of their number. Indeed the readiest way in the world to thin heaven, and replenish the regions of hell, is to call in the spirit of bigotry. This will imimediately arraign, and condemn, and execute all that do not bow down and worship the image of our idolatry. Possessing exclusive prerogative, it rejects every other claim. Stand by, I am 'sounder' than thou.' "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we!' How many of the dead has this intolerance sentenced to eternal misery, who will shine forever as stars in the kingdom of our Father. How many living characters does it reprobate as enemies to the cross of Christ, who are placing in it all their glory. No wonder if, under the influence of this consuming zeal, we form lessening views of the number of the saved. I only am left.' Yes, they are few indeed, if none belong to them that do not belong to your party; that do not see with your eyes; that do not believe election with you, or universal redemption with you; that do not worship under a steeple with you, or in a meeting with you; that are not dipped with you, or sprinkled with you. But hereafter we shall find, that the righteous were not so circumscribed, when we shall see many coming from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." ON HUMILITY IN THE INVESTIGATION OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH. Continued from page 60. This humility is founded in just convictions of our ignorance, and of our exposure to error. We should bring to the study of christianity a sense of our ignorance, of the imperfection and narrowness of our knowledge. Never let us imagine, that every important truth of religion has entered our minds; that we have exhausted the living fountains of wisdom, which are opened to us in the word of God; that we have found out the character, purpos es, and will of the Almighty unto perfection. We are not indeed required to disclaim all knowledge, to regard our improvements as utterly worthless, or to speak of our understandings as covered with thick and impenetrable darkness. Christianity puts into our lips no exaggerated confessions. We are not forbidden to see, and we ought with gratitude to acknowledge, that in comparison with the weakness and blindness of infancy, our minds are enlarged, invigorated, and enlightened. But still, when we look up to God, that Infinite Mind, or cast our eyes around on the immensity of his creation, how do our attainments shrink into nothing? How profound ought to be our convictions of ignorance and imperfection? If indeed we have studied the scriptures with attention, we have undoubtedly acquired much useful truth. The most important doctrines of religion require no long and laborious research. Every sincere christian easily obtains many valuable conceptions of those attributes of God, in which he is most deeply concerned, of the great lines of human duty, and of the sublime destination, which awaits human virtue and obedience. But still we are ignorant, and very ignorant. Even in respect to the simplest and plainest truths, our conceptions may continually be rendered more precise, more complete, more vigorous, and more affecting ; and can we then believe that we have learned all which the scriptures are designed to teach-that the Christian system in all its height and depth, in all its beauty and perfections, has unfolded itself to our minds-that all the perfections of God, and all his counsels of mercy towards the human race are distinctly perceived that the character and mission of Jesus Christ, the purposes of his life and death, the offices he sustains, the blessings he bestows, the brightness of his example, and the heavenly purity of his spirit, are all embraced by our narrow faculties-or that we have attained correct and enlarged ideas of our own nature, condition, and prospects; of the perfection, after which we should aspire; of every virtue we should cherish; of the temper which becomes every state in which we are placed; of every aid and motive to obedience; of every sin and snare, to which we are exposed; and of the sublime and tremendous realities of the future world? These are some of the topics, which are offered to our minds in the scriptures. Who has exhausted them? How much remains to be explored by the most enlarged understanding? What a sense of our ignorance should we carry with us in our investigation of religious truth? But we are not only ignorant, we are exposed to error. We are very fallible, as well as very limited in our apprehensions. This we ought to remember when we are searching for truth, and unhappily this is what christians are peculiarly apt to forget. We are exposed to error at once from the infant state of our faculties and from the influence of the passions over the understanding. Of our faculties we have no right to complain. They are noble gifts, breathed into us by God, and worthy of their original. They ally us to those orders of pure spirits, which surround his throne in heaven. But God, who delights in a progressive system, creates nothing in its most perfeet form. The human mind is to be expanded by exertion. Its faculties are now in the first stage of development, and like the faltering steps of childhood, their efforts are marked with imperfection. As yet, our mental sight is very narrow. If a complex subject be offered to our attention, a single glance of thought is not enough to seize and analyze and unfold it. Its various properties do not immediately imprint themselves on our minds, in their just order, and in all their relations. We must examine them in slow succession. We can embrace only a part, and perhaps a very small part, at a single view. In this process how easily is some important circumstance overlooked, some link in the chain of causes or effects imperceptibly dropped? How easily are we deceived by resemblances?-how often is one property mistaken for another, to which it has an affinity? How easily do we imagine some accidental appearance to be permanent and essential? Thus difficult is it to acquire complete and distinct conceptions of any complicated subject and even if such have been once acquired, we must not proudly call them our own. We cannot, at any moment we please, revive them with their original clearness and strength. Memory often loses what has been treasured up with toil, or substitutes defaced and imperfect images for the clear perceptions, which we en trusted to its care. Our faculties are not always the same; they are connected with a frail body, and partake of the infirmities of their companion. Dark clouds sometimes gather over the brightest mind. Imbecility and languor palsy the most active intellect. An irritated nerve is sometimes sufficient to destroy the balance of the understanding. The excited imagination presents her visions with the strength of reality, and we yield to them assent, as to the deductions of reason.— If then our faculties so often fail and deceive us in the common affairs of life, what ground have we for hoping that they will never err on the topics of religion? What a signal proof do we give of mental weakness, if we expect, that subjects so vast and sublime as the perfections and purposes of God, the mediation of his Son, the recovery of mankind to virtue and heaven, and the unseen and eternal world, will spread themselves before us with distinctness, which will banish obscurity or error-if we expect that no important connexion will escape our sight, and that partial views will never give a wrong direction to our thoughts, or sèduce our reason into unauthorized conclusions? Who, that looks into himself, and compares his faculties with the extensive objects on which they are employed, can escape the impression, that he is exposed to error? а But did all our danger arise from the state of our faculties, we should have comparatively little reason for fear. We have another and more copious spring of error. We have other seduc |