nothing? Does he, a layman, think himself qualified to cashier men whose whole life is devoted to that, of which his knowledge must, of necessity be very limited ?-men whom he himself admits to have been called of God to the sacred office, and with whose mouth God has promised to be? A querulist of this kind acts by ministers as if their chief excellence was like the fragrance of the Egyptian reed, which can be extracted only by beating and bruising it. Alas, alas! Nothing earthly can depress the elevation of such a man's eye-brows!

Let us notice,——

III.

Symptoms.

I mean the blessed symptoms of soul renewal: for, as I stated before, the Divine Spirit will not suffer the true heirs of promise to remain finally under such delusions and degrading influences as we have considered. God speaks. once, twice; yea thrice; and though nature may say, like Eli to Samuel, Lie down again, my son,-lie down again: yet when God judgeth he will overcome: when he setteth his hand a second time to the work, his captives shall be brought back again. The symptoms of such a restoration in your soul will be

1. Concern. A holy concern for the unfruitfulness and backwardness of your spiritual state. The saint who has wandered long, returns to a

sense of amazing wretchedness. "O that it were with me as in months that are past, when the candle of the Lord shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil!"-when every ordinance was blessed: when from the rock Christ a holy unction descended to my soul! Now, alas, how altered! O my leanness! my leanness!

This is but a perpetuation and renewal of the very first impression of conversion; and what was that? A holy, awful concern for an eternal world: now comes the same sentiment again; now stirs the infinite feeling; we stand on the edge of the world; we look at rocks and mountains of difficulty,-on wastes of untried being and the majestic spirit trembles in herself, that she may rest in the day of trouble. I think it may fairly be asserted that this soul-jealousy,→→ this suspicion of ourselves, this constant dissatisfaction with our present attainments, and quickness of alarm at whatever may be below our privileges, and dishonourable to the Saviour, is one unalienable proof of grace, and is indeed quite inseparable from the Christian character, unless for the time overshadowed and benumbed by the lethargy we have deplored. "Look well to the state of thy flocks and thy herds,"-may be applied spiritually. The man of God is ever anxious to be right. and, when made conscious that he has wandered or fallen, in however small a degree, he is filled with anguish.

Another symptom will be found in

2. Simplicity. By this I mean spiritual do cility and humbleness of mind." Learn of me," says the Saviour, "for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Those who have never duly felt "the plague of their own hearts," will be "haughty" and "lofty," in the senses in which the Psalmist deprecates such a quality. A flourishing professor, whose knowledge is only theoretical, will be found, however fair his creed, to retain too much of self in his modes of thinking and expression,to want very little of Christ,-and, in reality, to be unfriendly to pure evangelical doctrines. It seems dangerous to say that good can come out of evil: but I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I assert, that after God has shown us our own vileness, we shall be more humble than before; our views of truth will be more simple and unassuming; we shall bow more cordially to the authority of Scripture; we shall be less disposed to question and to make difficulties. The logic of the heart will refine and warm that of the head; we rise above the schools into a higher stratum of thought, among ideas too mighty for the wand of the philosophic sorcerer; too massy for the quadrant of the geometrician. The light of faith can alone assist us now, and the golden reed which measures the temple of God!

Thus you will see in very old persons, as it regards things natural: They become more

simple; they want to be quiet; caballistic reasonings are not for them; they smile on their juniors, and say,These things may be appropriate to you, and useful, but not to us; we have no longer any taste for them. And why?-Because the aged mind has long seen that subtilties are futile: that they depend on the dexterity of the disputants, and have nothing in common with truth, which is mássy, simple, and sublime.

Thus it is in things spiritual. When by deep changes of soul-sorrows and joys, we acquire a larger experience, we seem to have become older: and like him who said, " Homo sùm unius libri:" I am a man of one book: or, one book is enough for me that is, the Bible: by which I mean not literally, that simplicity of spiritual taste excludes all books and all ideas but one: but that it renders every thing comparatively uninteresting to us, but Christ and his cross; that it comes accompanied with such a glow as makes the Gospel delightful, bringing with it its own evidence, and making us to abhor those mental snares, which have caught and seduced thousands from the simplicity that is in Christ.

This is one of the crying evils of the present day: an attempt to accommodate the Gospel to men of fashion, and, as they think themselves-of taste. And see how God contemns and dishonours such statements. He who attempts to set forth the Gospel of Christ in metaphysical reasonings, acts

more inconsistently than the man who publishes it to the poor in Latin; or, if in English, only in an unintelligible paraphrase: and I may add too, that the wit who hopes to restrain the spread of Calvinistic principles by cool and philosophic sarcasms, is like the fool who should attempt to bind with cobwebs the limbs of an infant giant.

It seems absurd to suppose that labyrinthian' syllogisms can be necessary either in the statement or defence of divine truth. It is a light that beams from the throne; from the far-off glories of God; it is too impetuous to wait for the sluggish footsteps of the casuist: besides which, it appeals to a sense he has not: falling supernaturally upon powers that are not peculiar to genius and education, though assisting and aggrandizing both.

3. Alacrity in the use of means. As these were comparatively slighted before, and as a consequent loss of comfort ensued, so now they will be highly prized. How does the sick man rejoice to leave his chamber of gloom, and walk abroad once more in the sweet and vernal air, where the meadow's flowery verge, and the balmy hay-field, with the wind-shaken copse, fling out under the blue sky a thousand perfumes, beneath the allrenovating sun!-where the song of feathered happiness on the branches, and the grateful lowing of the cattle on the adjacent hills, seem more