fruitless, who give no indications of piety except what are displayed in feelings possessed while engage I in worship, especially public worship, and in their profession, is not doubted, and cannot be disputed. Yet perhaps they honestly suppose themselves Christians. What is the explanation?

We suppose it may be found in our subject. They have had their religious sensibilities awakened and supposed themselves converted, perhaps from the fact that the keenness of these sensibilities after awhile became blunted. Yet they are frequently moved under the sound of the preacher's voice, or amid the ceremonies of worship; and this stir of the emotions is mistaken for the true experience of the Christ an soul, although they themselves are quite aware that their lives do not exhibit the fair and full fruits of genuine piety, and do not afford satisfactory evidence of genuine Christian discipleship.

Nevertheless, as they cannot explain the devotional phenomena, of which they are subjects, in any other manner, they conclude themselves Christians, though professedly faulty ones.

In this way multitudes are deceiving themselves by mistaking the devotional feelings of the soul, when its religious sensibili ties are temporarily awakened by natural causes, for the genuine. exercises of the Christian soul.

Now it must be admitted that these persons are in imminent danger. For the very means of grace which are blessed to the salvation of others are very likely to produce a contrary effect on themselves. For example, when others draw near to God in the sanctuary, they are reminded of their sinfulness, and caused to feel their exceeding vileness in view of his infinite holiness. But these fail to perceive their own true character, and absolute need of spiritual renewing and of pardon, in their contemplations, in their enjoyment of the forms and accessories of worship, and in the devotional feelings awakened by them. When the Law utters its thunders in the ears of others, it awakens them. from their security, and when the salvation of Christ is offered they are ready to flee to it as a refuge. But these are troubled with no apprehensions. They could even advance and touch the very mountain that trembled at the presence of Jehovah ; since, while they know too little of themselves to feel their sinfulness, the scene would be adapted to increase those religious feelings on which their reliance is placed, and which they make the occasion of their self-deception.

5. We learn why so many religious impressions, received under the presentation of the gospel, pass away without permanent and saving effect. We have reason to believe that the gospel is never properly presented from the sacred desk without producing much feeling in many hearers. They are made serious and

thoughtful. They are deeply impressed with a sense of personal demerits, and their need of a Saviour.

But instead of complying with the gospel call forthwith. instead of seeking the pardon of sin by repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, there are multitudes, who, on finding themselves the subjects of these religious feelings, are disposed on this account to take some credit to themselves. They think that all religious emotions must have in them something good and praiseworthy, and persuade themselves that, if they are not already accepted of God, they have but to continue in the same direction and these feelings will ripen into genuine piety.

Thus the true effect of the gospel is evaded. There is no closing in with the offers of mercy. There is no yielding to the influence of the Holy spirit. There is no renewing of the heart. The mind, though thoughtful, is still full of worldliness and vanity. The eyes, though tearful, are still gazing on the pride of life. The heart, though overwhelmed with emotion, is still in the bond of iniquity. The soul, though complaisant, is still in bondage of fear. Its religious impressions are but ripples on the surface of the stream. The imaginary "goodness" that is nourished by them is like the morning cloud. While its possessor is flattering himself as to his prospects for eternity, his of fended Maker is exclaiming, "What shall I do unto thee?" and the arm of his justice is ready to fall. But methinks one of this class of hearers inquires, "What shall I do?"

I reply, you must break away from the habits of remaining passive under religious impressions. You must also cease to think of any "goodness" of your own. You must admit your lost condition as a sinner. You must repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You must beware of grieving the Holy Ghost.

Arise, then, my hearer, call upon thy God. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

NATIONAL

PREACHER

No. 12, VOL. XXV.} . DECEMBER, 1851. [WHOLE NO. 300.

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, GLENN'S FALLS, NEW JERSEY.

THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.

The subject assigned me for discourse on the present occasion. is "The Scriptural doctrine of the perseverance of the saints."

It is hardly fit, therefore, to take any single passage as a text. My work is prescribed. It is simply to gather up from the open Bible the doctrine in question, and to offer it to you, as near as I can, just as it comes from God.

I am not to cast the doctrine in the moulds of any denominational creed, nor to take it out of any of those moulds already run to my hand.

I shall not, therefore, at this place, even attempt to define the doctrine. If I can succeed in grasping it, and in holding it up before you, a sight of it will afford the best knowledge of what

it is.

It will be admitted that there have been, and that there now are in the world, the righteous and the wicked, the regenerated and the unregenerated, the justified by faith in Jesus Christ and those whose iniquity remaineth. To one of these two great classes every man belongs.

One of the questions which we naturally raise as we read the Bible, one of deep interest, and one which we now raise, is, "Can the truly righteous, the regenerated man utterly fall away from his righteousness, become again unregenerate, and be lost?"

1. Is there any thing in the nature of holiness which renders this fall impossible? Clearly not; for the Scriptures teach us

Preached in Troy, N. Y., Oct. 15th, 1851,-before the Synod of Albany, and published by its request.

that both holy angels and holy man, the prime father of our race, have fallen. Mere holiness, then, does not make utter apostacy impossible.

2. Is there anything in the nature of regeneration which renders falling away impossible? This depends upon what its nature is. If it be a physical change, and holiness depends upon it as upon a physical cause, then we might infer that falling away could no more occur than that the sun can cease to shine. All sin, we should infer, would be impossible. And the passage in the 1st Epistle of John-" Whosoever is born of God. . . . cannot sin, because he is born of God"—we should interpret as stating an absolute impossibility.

But this view is disproved by both Scripture and fact. The Scriptures allow that real Christians do sin, and facts prove that they do. The Scriptures and facts teach likewise that they are strongly disposed to holiness, and that, the old man having been crucified, they do not live in any known habit of sin. But the impossibility of their thus living is only parallel to that under which the Lord Jesus" could do no mighty works in Nazareth, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folks and healed them." Shall we say," Weak Redeemer, his power and skill must have been very limited!" Hush, lest we blaspheme! He had all power both in heaven and in earth.

But the change which is called regeneration is purely and solely moral. All the constitutional faculties of the soul are the same after as before the new birth. None have been taken away, none added. There is nothing, therefore, in the nature of regeneration which takes away the power of apostacy. Nay, as the change is not complete, there being produced but an imperfect holiness, and there being left remains of unsanctified affections, the regenerate person not yet glorified, in himself considered, is in far greater danger of apostacy than were the angels before their fall, than was Adam before his.

There being nothing, then, in the nature of holiness, nothing in the nature of the change in which holiness takes its origin, that renders it impossible for a righteous man to utterly apostatize, I now remark,

3. The Scriptures every where seem to assume man's freedom, and to go on the admission, as a fact, that the righteous man carries with him the power, and hence lives under the possibility of apostacy.

In the book of Ezekiel, this admission occurs frequently: "When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, he shall die in his sin; and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered."Ezekiel iii. 20. "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to

all the abominations that a wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."-Ezekiel xviii. 24. "When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby."-Ezekiel xxxiii. 18. Very similar are the forms of expression in these three places, and very similar are their contexts.

The view cannot be maintained that the righteous spoken of in these passages were only outwardly or apparently so, and not really:

(1.) Because is is a forced construction.

The simple reader who has no theory to subserve would never think that the really righteous are not here meant.

(2.) That they are the really righteous is evident, from the fact that they are contrasted with the wicked.

(3.) It is evident that they are the really righteous, because they are represented as safe if they maintain their righteousness; and in the same connection the wicked are spoken of as exposed to death because they have not righteousness-a righteousness which is not represented as in any way differing from that of those with whom they are contrasted.

And besides, what force or meaning would the passages have, if speaking only of a seeming righteousness? Why say, if a man turn from this he shall perish, when, if he cling to it, he shall as certainly perish? Neither, if he cling to it, is he the safer; nor, if he renounce it, is he in the greater danger. Both are alike ruinous, and alike fatal.

So did not the prophet attempt to heal the hurt of the daughter of his people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace."-Jer. viii. 11. He can speak only of the truly righteous and the truly wicked. There is, according to the fixed ordination of Heaven, as a settled fact in the moral world, an indissoluble connection between righteousness and life, and between wickedness and death. To this the prophet would direct the eye of the watchman. And with the great truth burning in his own mind, he has an hypothesis for both characters: If the righteous man should become a wicked one,-or when such an event as this occurs, as it might, were he to use his own free powers in that direction,-his character will link him to ruin; and if the wicked man becomes righteous,-or when he becomes righteous, -his character will link him to life.* If they should exchange characters, they must exchange dooms.

*The wicked man never becomes righteous without special grace. In this all evangelical Christians agree. Considering him, then, in himself alone, his power of becoming holy is never used. Shall it be thought strange, then, that the power of the Christian to apostatize is never exercised when he has the special grace of God to prevent it?