not to impress upon the minds of their disciples, together with the benefits which would follow a steadfast and consistent belief of it, the evils which would result from rejecting it, either altogether or

in part.

1

Accordingly, St. Paul divides the hearers of the Gospel into the two classes, of "them that are saved, and them that perish:" and whilst he speaks of it as "the savour of life unto life" to the one description, he no less distinctly denominates it as being to the other "the savour of death unto death 1." Of those, whose teaching should be a perversion of the Gospel of Christ, he pronounces to the Galatians, "Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other' Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed"." The Corinthians he admonishes of their danger from such teachers, as should deviate from the Christian truth: "I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Having instructed the Ephesians in the benefits of persevering "in the unity of the faith, and of the know

12 Cor. ii. 15, 16.

2 Gal. i. 8, 9.

32 Cor. xi. 3.

ledge of the Son of God," he cautions them that they be not "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive'." Upon the Colossians he impresses a similar caution, "Beware lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world; and not after Christ." And in his epistle to Timothy he denounces the blasphemy of some, who "concerning faith had made shipwreck;" not by apostatising from Christianity altogether, but, as the context informs us, by maintaining doctrines which overthrew the true Christian faith. Upon Timothy himself, in the execution of his ministerial duty, the same Apostle lays a charge, to "keep that which was committed to his trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith." To Timothy again he gives an alarming description of the corrupters of the truth, accompanied with a salutary admonition concerning his own conduct towards them, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine

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which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself1." And to Titus, in the execution of his episcopal office, he gives this direction, “A man that is an heretick, after the first and second admonition, reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself ""

To these testimonies of St. Paul concerning the insufficiency and the peril of an erroneous or defective faith, let me add others of similar import from his brethren in the apostleship. Let me refer you to the manner in which St. Peter cautions those, who had "obtained like precious faith with" himself, against "false teachers, who should privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction "." Let me notice the "condemnation," which St. Jude describes as ordained for those "ungodly men," who had "crept in unawares" into the Christian Church, "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and de

1 1 Tim. vi. 3-5.

3

2 Tit. iii. 10, 11.

3 2 Pet. ii. 1.

nying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Finally, let me remind you, how St. John exhorts his beloved, to "believe not every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world" how he speaks of those teachers, who "were not of us," as he expresses it, that is, who did not agree with the Apostles and true Church of Christ in the doctrine of the Gospel, as "antichrists "," or opponents of the Saviour: how he denounces every departure from sound Christian doctrine, every "lie," as he emphatically denominates it, as "not of the truth" and with what severity of animadversion he reprobates a dereliction of the Christian truth in the teachers and professors of Christianity; "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed: for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds 5."

It is in language such as this that we find the Apostles guarding the first Christians against the preaching or the adoption of tenets, propounded

under colour of a profession of the Gospel, but in reality not agreeable to the true doctrine which the Gospel contains. Some of these cautions, no, doubt, had a special reference to particular deviations from the truth, at that time prevailing in) the Church. There is too abundant reason to fear, my brethren, that some of the very worst of those deviations distinguish the latitudinarian pro fessors of Christianity in these our days. Such cautions might accordingly be applied to ourselves likewise, with the strictest and most literal pro-! priety. At the same time they all concur in testifying generally the solicitude of the Apostles for maintaining the Christian faith in its original purity and integrity; for securing their disciples: against an erroneous or defective profession of Christianity; and for thereby protecting them from the evil consequences of a departure from the true faith of Christ.

Thus have we considered, as was proposed, the character under which Christianity, as a system of belief, is set forth by our blessed Lord and his Apostles; the manner, in which they inforce a belief and profession of it; and the consequences which they ascribe to a contrary conduct. According to these their views, Christianity is not a latitudinarian religion, proposing a variety of independent doctrines, and leaving to the choice of its