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swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." By what marks shall the people know these false teachers, who murder souls, and expose the truth of God to the ridicule and contempt of its enemies? "And through covetousness shall they, with feigned words, make merchandise of you?" (2 Peter ii. 1 3.) None but wicked men can enter the ministry from such a motive, and they can have no other. But the business must be varnished over with feigned words." Hence the covetous priest, instead of avowing that he is prompted by "filthy lucre," feigns himself "moved by the Holy Ghost; " and instead of informing the people that he is a spiritual merchant, he pretends to be a spiritual doctor: his object is not to make merchandise of their souls, but to cure them. Those who credit these pretensions, "follow their pernicious ways," and perish; and those who discover the cheat, make christianity a party to it, and thus "the ways of truth are evil spoken of." What has a wicked priesthood done for France? It produced licentiousness of manners, and then infidelity; it generated those principles which ruined that country, and nearly all Europe; by defiling the altar, it destroyed the throne, and turned the land into a field of blood. When the consecrated profligates could profit by the mask no longer, they threw it off, and marched forward with brazen front to join the ranks of atheism.

It will, perhaps, be said, that the vices of the priest cannot lessen the obligations of the people to practise morality; they must do as he says, and not as he does. Obligation is not the question. The authority of divine law is independent of human conduct. The question is, can a priest who defies the authority of God, persuade the people to respect it? Attend to this point. A priest returns home drunk from a public meeting on Saturday night, and preaches next morning from, "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and

stingeth like an adder." He is caught in bed with his neighbour's wife, and takes for his text, the following Sabbath, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." He is engaged in a law suit with his parishioners about tithes, and preaches from, "Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" Can any person be extravagant enough to believe that such a wretch can persuade the drunkard to become sober, the debauchee to become chaste, and the litigious to become peaceable? But he enforces his morality with the remark, "You must do as I say, and not as I do!" Well said! If Satan be capable of a blush, such a declaration could not fail to produce it. Only keep the profligate in countenance, by your example, for six days out of the seven, and your grave lectures on the Sabbath will teach them to make a jest of religion; thus, by precept and example, you will make and keep them impious and vicious, and so complete the character and ensure the perdition of the reprobates.

It is as necessary for a minister of religion to reprove sin, as to give instruction concerning duty. But a wicked man can never do this with effect. He will seldom attempt it at all. The dreaded retort of, "Physician, heal thyself," will effectually deter those who retain any sense of shame; and the infamous character of the man whose conscience is seared, as with a hot iron, by a long course of daring impiety and immorality, will completely neutralise the severity of his censure.

The divine co-operation is necessary to the success of the christian ministry. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that

giveth the increase. We, then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." Will God employ and assist a wicked man in the work of converting sinners from the error of their ways? Before this question be answered, one or two more must be considered. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and wha. communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" But,

II. No wicked man can fully understand the christian religion. It is a very common and just observation, that no man can attain to eminence in any profession, who has not a taste for it. This observation is as applicable to a divine, as to a mechanic, a lawyer, or a physician. And no man can possibly have a taste for religion, who is in love with sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to his laws, neither indeed can be."

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Worldly considerations will sometimes prompt a man to apply to a subject which is ungrateful to his feelings. A lad is put apprentice to a business which he dislikes, and his master compels him to pay some attention to it. When he sets up for himself, he soon becomes sensible that application is necessary to his subsistence; hence he does violence to his feelings, and endeavours to rise to mediocrity; but, except his disposition change, he never attains to distinction. The case of a vicious clergyman is different. ing his apprenticeship at the university, he is under no obligation to study religion. By reading the Greek and Latin poets and historians, he may qualify himself to celebrate the mysteries of Bacchus and Venus; but other studies are requisite to prepare for the christian pulpit. A living may be obtained by being related to a patron, and by playing off a political squib against Jacobins, or a religious one against enthusiasts. The study of christianity is not necessary in order to a due discharge of clerical duties. The prayers are all ready for all occasions in the liturgy, and sets of fashionable discourses in the form of manuscript,

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are to be met with in every bookseller's shop. Thus the necessity of studying our holy religion is superseded; and, as nothing short of absolute necessity could induce a profligate young spark to apply his mind to it, he will do duty, as the cant phrase is, without, properly speaking, knowing his duty.

A mind virtuously disposed is an essential requisite to the perception of christian truth. Our Lord represents vice and ignorance, virtue and knowledge, as inseparably connected together: "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be discovered. But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. None of the wicked shall understand." (John. iii. 19—21; vii. 17; Daniel xii. 10.) Divine illumination is necessary to a right understanding of the word of God. When David opened the sacred volume, he put up this prayer: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm cxix. 18.) Though the apostles enjoyed the privilege of hearing our Lord's public discourses, and his explanations of many of them in private, yet they knew but little of the nature of his religion, till after his resurrection, when it is observed, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke xxiv. 45.) The apostle Paul lays it down as a general truth, 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." (1 Cor. ii. 14.)

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The church of England is strictly orthodox upon this point. She prays: "That it may please thee to illuminate all bishops, priests, and deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy word; and that, both by their preaching and living, they may set it

forth, and shew it accordingly." In the second part of the homily on the knowledge of holy scripture, a saying of Chrysostom is cited with approbation: "Chrysostom saith, that man's human and worldly wisdom, or science, needeth not to the understanding of scripture, but the revelation of the Holy Ghost, who inspireth the true meaning unto them that with humility and diligence do search therefor." In the first part of the homily for Whitsunday, we are told that, "The Holy Ghost, because he doth instruct the hearts of the simple in the true knowledge of God and his word, is most justly termed by this name and title to be the Spirit of truth." Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical history, telleth a strange story of a certain learned and subtle philosopher, who, being an extreme adversary to Christ and his doctrine, could by no kinds of learning be converted to the faith; but was able to withstand all the arguments that could be brought against him, with little or no labour. At length there started up a poor simple man of small wit and less knowledge, one that was reputed among the learned as an ideot; and he, in God's name, would needs take in hand to dispute with this proud philosopher. The bishops and other learned men standing by, were marvellously abashed at the matter, thinking that by his doings they should be all confounded and put to open shame. He notwithstanding goeth on, and beginning in the name of the Lord Jesus, brought the philosopher to such a point in the end, contrary to all men's expectation, that he could not choose but acknowledge the power of God in his words, and to give place to the truth. Was not this a miraculous work, that one silly soul, of no learning, should do that which many bishops of great knowledge and understanding were never able to bring to pass? After what has been said upon the subject, it is not necessary to prove here, that God will not grant his holy illumination to an unholy priest; this has been proved repeatedly; and the inference is, that no wicked man can understand the scriptures.