never been taught of God: and errors creeping into the church in this way are productive of very serious consequences, frequently leading such to apostatize from the truth altogether, and often are a great trouble and perplexity to the true church of Christ. So it is now; and. so it has been, more or less, in all ages, as the apostle Paul speaks to his beloved son Timothy: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine; for the time will come (and truly is now come) when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables," 2 Tim. iv. 2-4. Here the apostle is speaking of such as began in a profession of the truth, but in process of time embraced errors, and then left the truth to follow them, and at last settled in fables, in really nonsensical things, as opposite to the truth as light is to darkness; and such go from bad to worse, till at last, if grace prevent not, they go into outer and everlasting darkness. When once the devil has got a person to believe his lies as truths, he will follow him up, and give him such views upon the subject, that his disciples, who are fond of novelty, soon begin to be lifted up with pride; and he will

so fill them with energy and zeal in the new cause, that they will compass sea and land to make proselytes, and soon rise above all the teachers whom God sends: then they begin gradually to withdraw from the public means of God's appointment, after attending where their fancy had led them, being taken with every novice that can speak fluently and soundly. Some, again, when they withdraw from public worship, stop at home, under a notion that they profit more in private. Others, again, grow so fast, that they are soon seen in a pulpit, preaching any thing, and almost every thing, except the truth as it is in Christ, and the experience that accompanies salvation. This in our times is a parallel to what Paul tells us of the destructive effects of an error in his time, against which he cautions Timothy, as also against those who assert it: "And their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some," 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18. And I wish here to observe that there is always something plausible when the devil is about to send forth his errors, as may be seen in the present instance; for the foundation of this error lies in the scriptures, which makes it easier to be received. I will point it out to you: 66 Jesus,

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when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost; and, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, (and now mind) and the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, (to make it a truth fully manifest that he was the resurrection and the life,) and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many," Matt. xxvii. 50-53. With this the devil assailed Hymeneus and Philetus, who were left to embrace this lie as a truth; and, as it was something new, they were (no doubt) much elated at the discovery; and, the resurrection at that time (Acts xvii. 32,). being a doctrine not generally believed, this lie of Satan was received the more readily. - He suggested to them that there never would be any other resurrection than that which took place when Christ arose: this they believed, and began to propagate it with success; for some, who had before made a profession of the truth, embraced the doctrine, and so fell away from the true profession of Christ; for this plausible leaven worked like a canker, slow, but sure, and "overthrew the faith of some." But we generally perceive that errors first obtain with mere hypocritical professors, as the word says, "Because they received not the

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love of the truth that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. And again: "For there must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest," 1 Cor. xi. 19; and consult Rev. xii. 15, 16.

You see the plausibility in Satan's lie about the resurrection being past, when so many bodies of saints arose at Christ's resurrection; and just so it is in the error about which we are discoursing. It bears, upon the face of it, some appearance of truth, because Christ assumed a real human nature, which died upon

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the cross was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief all his days—and, as the bodies of all the human race die in consequence of sin, and because they are mortal, how natural it is for Satan to suggest that, as the Saviour's body died, it must also be mortal. And this trap of the adversary has taken with many, who are elated with the error, and filled with zeal to propagate it. And, Mr. V-ll having asserted it as a part of the confession of his faith, so (to be like priest like people) his church and followers have, I am told, embraced the lie as a truth, simply because he hath said it, and set up the idol in every place where he goes to preach; whereby he overthrows the faith of

some, to manifest their faith as standing in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God. Being caught in the trap, they are necessarily left to trust in a mortal sacrifice; but a mortal sacrifice is a corrupt one, and makes Christ to be a lamb slain with blemish! But, blessed be God, the true faith, with which he favours his people, rejects such an unavailing sacrifice, and believes in the sacrifice of Christ, as a pure and holy sacrifice, free from all mortality; believes in him as a Lamb slain without blemish; and, as "the Lord smelled a sweet savour" of rest in Noah's sacrifice, (Gen. viii. 21) so just the same in Christ's, because it was holy and everlastingly efficacious. Meditate then upon this passage, for it is sweet to the believing soul, as it was to God himself. "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour," Eph. v. What has a mortal sacrifice to do here?

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Nothing at all.

Let this idol then, together with all others, be cast to the moles and to the bats, (Isa. ii. 20) and never more be heard of in the church of God, nor among them that believe and live as becometh the true saints of God. What a blessed thing it is to be preserved from error, and to be led into the truth by the Holy Spirit