"the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him." Sincerity is not unfrequently regarded as constituting the sum and substance of religion. It is affirmed, that if a man acts conscientiously, according to the light which he possesses, or the opinions which he maintains, and if his conduct be moral, his state cannot be one of danger, even though he may be an enemy to the cross of Christ; and the eighteenth article of our church seems to have been framed with special reference to this erroneous notion; for it is therein maintained, "that they are to be accursed, that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature; for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved."

Unbelief is never spoken of in Scripture as a matter of trivial moment; on the contrary, to its baneful workings men's sinfulness is generally traced. It is uniformly represented as involving the soul in guilt, ruin, and misery. "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the onlybegotten Son of God." "He that despised

Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses: of how much severer punish

ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Be assured that all rational, solid, well-grounded peace and happiness, in time and in eternity, is dependent on right belief; for, hear the concluding words of the verse, from which the text is taken; "But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is become the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient." The same gospel," which is the savour of life unto life to some, is the savour of death unto death to others;" and, be assured, it must be the latter to you if you know nothing of that preciousness, which we have been considering; if you are resting satisfied with a belief which neither purifies the heart, nor works by love; if, in fact, while you call yourselves Christians, Christ is not found in you "the hope of glory"; and if, as far as any personal application of his merits to yourselves is concerned, you might as well be ranking on the side of infidelity, and avowedly denying the Lord who bought you with his blood, or have had your lot cast, not amid the effulgence of gospel light, but amid the "dark places of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty."

SERMON IV.

THE VANITY OF EARTHLY HOPES.

JOB xiv. 19-(latter part.)

"And thou destroyest the hope of man."

THE character of Jehovah, as it is portrayed in the sacred volume, and as it was displayed by that ever-adorable Saviour, "who was the express image of the Father's person," is eminently calculated to excite feelings of strongest veneration and love. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious;" his dispensations have a reference, not merely to his own glory, but to the good of his rational and immortal creatures, and the grand scheme of human redemption fully testifies that the souls of men are infinitely precious in his sight,-that he has most amply provided for the eternal welfare of the human race; and that the psalmists' exclamation may be fairly

adopted by every individual—“My song shall be always of the lovingkindness of the Lord."

The language of the text, however, uttered by Job, in a spirit of the deepest despondency, places the Lord Jehovah before us, under a character very different from this. It represents him as rather delighting in inflicting misery upon his creatures, than seeking to do them good. It speaks of him, not as a kind, beneficent, merciful Being, but as the destroyer of human hopes, the thwarter of human expectations, the overthrower of human plans. "Thou destroyest the hope of man."

The whole chapter, whence the text is taken, is peculiarly plaintive. It commences with a beautiful and forcible description of the brevity of human life-" Man that is born of a woman is of a few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down, he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." It concludes with a pathetic appeal to the Almighty--"Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honours, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not. But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.". How are we to reconcile

such a description of the divine being, with other delineations of his character? How are we to view him on the one hand as the destroyer of human hopes, and on the other as the beneficent Father of the human race, causing his sun to rise, and his rain to descend on the just and on the unjust, and showering his blessings upon his children. Above all, how are we to reconcile it with the stupendous instance of his compassion-the incarnation of his well-beloved Son? Let us endeavour to reconcile such apparently contradictory assertions, by considering, in the first place-The hopes of man, which God sees fit to destroy; in the second placeThe reason of his destroying these hopes; and in the third-The practical instruction to be derived from the declaration of the patriarch.

I. There are some hopes entertained by man, which can never be destroyed; namely, those which refer to his spiritual and eternal interests. The believer's hope of pardoning mercy, through the atoning blood of a crucified Redeemer, his hope of an "inheritance uncorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved for him in heaven," and to which he is begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead;" his hope of ultimate reunion with those who have been his fellow-travel

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