be in the church, symbols of evangelical doctrine, associated with the earliest recollections of her children.

The objection that children cannot understand the doctrines of the Bible, is unfounded. They can understand them, in their order, as early as they can understand any thing. The being and character of God, the doctrines of accountability, depravity and the necessity of a moral change, are comprehended by children early, and with great ease. But even, if they do not, at the time, understand the words, they commit to memory, will they never understand them, or derive benefit from them? Would any parent be willing to risk the commitment by his children of obscene songs, because, at the time, their import was not understood? Would not the words be a leaven of impurity in the memory, to contaminate the mind as it opened to the comprehension of their meaning? So the doctrines of the Bible, though deposited as a dead letter, may become a fountain of life to the soul, when it shall open the eye of its understanding upon them.

The plan of leaving children uninstructed in religion that they may come with an unbiassed mind to the subject, is impracticable. An evil heart, is, itself, a powerful bias against the truth. And if the servants neglect to sow good seed, the enemy will certainly sow tares. The sure consequence of leaving children to grow up without religious instruction, will be irreligion, and prejudice against the truth.

Whenever, therefore, our doctrinal catechisms are laid aside, a breach wide as the sea is opened for the enemy to come in.

3. The faith delivered to the saints must be maintained by means of literary institutions regulated and controlled by its sanctifying power.

It is evident, that the youth of our colleges cannot be governed, without efficient moral influence. In our free country neither military coersion, nor civil power, nor ambition will, alone, avail to subdue the vicious propensities and direct the principles and habits of the young. Moral influence must be employed; and the most powerful moral influence is that ex

erted by evangelical religion. This system of faith imposes a stricter rule of duty, and enforces its requisitions by more powerful sanctions, attended, when faithfully exhibited, by the influences of the Spirit giving them effect on the heart. The salutary influence of revivals, and of the beneficiaries of the churches in our colleges, in promoting among the young men generally, purity of morals, and increasing the facilities. of government, are manifest and great.

Another proof of the necessity of such an influence is found in the destructive consequences of a perverted literature. Talents and learning are moral power; and cannot be arrayed against religion without disastrous effects. If these, then, are beheld chiefly in alliance with error, and the truth associated chiefly with uncultivated intellect, how great and powerful will be the prepossession in favor of error, and against the truth? We may as well expect the application of all the mechanical powers in the natural world, without effect, as of the energies of talent and literature in the moral world, without effect. A reliance on the power of God, in such circumstances, is presumption; for it supposes, in opposition to the declarations of his word and his providences, that he will protect by miracle without the use of means.

The opinion that God has dispensed with learning and talents as auxiliaries in the work of defending and propagating the faith, has been adopted hastily and without reason. The foolishness of preaching by which he saves, is not foolish preaching; and the weak things which he employs to confound the mighty are not uncultivated intellect and ignorance. The principal defenders of the faith in the Primitive Church were men of vigorous minds and extensive knowledge. The apostles could speak in every tongue; and, besides having been instructed by Christ, were, by the Holy Ghost, reminded of his words, and taught what to say. Augustine was, in his day, a host. Luther and Calvin were men of might. And the Reformers generally had the advantage of their antagonists in literature and science. That none should preach the gospel who have not had the advantages of a liberal education, we do not assert nor believe. But that such should be the

ordinary qualifications of Ministers we do stedfastly believe.

Is it necessary to add, that, it is the duty of the Church universally, to withhold her sons from those literary institutions which are hostile to the doctrines of grace? It is ludicrous to pretend that "no doctrines in particular are taught" in such institutions; and that no influence is exerted to bias the minds of young men against the evangelical system. We might as well speak of a sword with no edge in particular, or a book containing no ideas in particular, as of religious instruction without any religious doctrines in particular. Besides, what shall we think of Churches associated on purpose to train up youth in the doctrines of Christianity, sending them where "no doctrines in particular are taught?" And is it true, can it without a miracle be true, that no influence is exerted in such institutions to pervert the minds of young men? Will the faculty, whose opinions are known and revered as they are wont to be by their pupils, and having in their hands the distribution of literary honors, have no influence in forming a popular sentiment hostile to the doctrines of the Reformation? Will this atmosphere of opposition and ridicule, in which a youth, whose previous education has been evangelical, is sent to live and move and have his being, exert no influence in unsettling his opinions? Possibly he may not make shipwreck of the faith; but is this a justification for exposing him to temptations which to nineteen in twenty will prove fatal? How many pious parents already weep over blasted hopes? How many children of the Church have, through the perversion of their talents and acquirements, become her most powerful adversaries? Were the evils confined to the unhappy victims, it would be deplorable: for what shall it profit a man if his son gain the highest point of literary attainment and renown, and lose his soul? But many parents of evangelical opinions, influenced by the example of Christians, may send their children who are not themselves beyond the reach of perversion. And all may have brothers, and sisters, and companions, and relatives, on whom they may exert a fatal influence, and thus be

come the instruments of an extended diversion of the public opinion.

4. The faith delivered to the saints, is to be contended for by a faithful exhibition of its sanctions.

These, are contained in the punishment threatened to the rejection of truth, as a crime; and the calamities inseparable from the rejection of it, if it were not a crime. The doctrines of revelation are not articles of speculation merely, but principles of moral government. They disclose the law, the Gospel, and the providence of God. They are declared also, to be so plain, that they can no more be misunderstood, innocently, than darkness can be mistaken innocently for light, bitter for sweet, thorns for grapes, thistles for figs, tares for wheat, or ashes for bread. But if there were no criminality attached to the rejection of the truth, the calamities of rejecting it, would be the same, as if its rejection were criminal. If we could separate criminality from sin, it would still be a principle of misery. Enmity against God, malevolence, envy, revenge, intemperance, and lust, are sources of misery, if they were not crimes; and thus it is with fundamental error in doctrine. The character, law, Gospel, and providence of God, are realities, as unmodified by human opinion, as the laws of the natural world: and the calamity of adopting false opinions on these subjects, and of opposition of heart to the true character and government of God, is the same in its consequences as a calamity, whether it be criminal or not. To be carnally minded, in either case, is death. He that goes into eternity, in a state of opposition to the character and government of God, is undone, whether guilty or not guilty.

It is an admitted fact, that, repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, are some how, indispensable to render it consistent for God to pardon sin. But this repentance, and this faith, are definite realities, and if a mistake were not criminal, that which is not repentance, cannot have the effect of repentance, and that which is not faith, cannot have the effect of faith, in rendering it consistent for God to pardon sin; however innocently the mistake may come to pass. Beside, men as sinners, must be sanctified, as well as pardoned, to fit them for heaven. But their sanctification must be accomplished, not by physical power exclusively, but by the instrumentality of the truth. It no more belongs to omnipotence to give to error, the effect of truth, on the minds of free agents, than to cause a thing to be, and not to be, at the same time. A law without rewards or punishments, cannot be made as influential on moral beings, as a law with sanctions, at all more than vacuity in the scales, can be made as weighty as lead. Thou shalt kill cannot be made to have the same effect, as the prohibition, "thou shalt not kill.” And "the soul that sinneth it shall" not "die," cannot be made to affect the mind of a sinner, like the denunciation "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." In like manner, the declarations, "The carnal mind is" not "enmity against God;" "if a man be" not "born again, he shall see the kingdom of God;" "he that doth" not "repent and believe, shall be saved;" and he that is" without "holiness, shall see the Lord;" "and he that doth" not "deny himself, shall be a disciple of Christ;" cannot be made to have the same effect in exciting fear, or producing conviction of sin, or repentance, or faith, as the contrary declarations. It is idle to talk of the power of God, or of the goodness of God, or of the mercy of God, or of his paternal character; we may as well rely on these attributes to prevent the effects of fire, or water, or poison, on the natural body. We may as well play with the adder, or meet the hungry lion, or leap the precipice, or stand before the cannon's mouth, confiding in God's goodness and our sincerity to prevent harm, as to disregard or oppose all the great laws of his moral government, and our moral nature, and expect that his power and goodness will avert the consequences, and save us without the truth, or by the instrumentality of error. Believing, then, as we do, that the evangelical system is the faith delivered to the saints, the very gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: and that the rejection of it is fatal, on the ground of crime, and fatal in the nature of things, as moral beings are constituted, we are bound to preach this gospel, as, in our opinion, indispensable to salvation.