1784] ^'^^'■- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. Ill 



image and superscription. He will know it as His own, and at the last 

 day openly acknowledge it as such before men and angels — This fruit 

 of Love is the mark which our Apostle everywhere gives for the trial of 

 faith and of spirits. The fruits of the spirit are "Love, Joy, Peace, 

 Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Temperance, and the 

 like.''" 



He thus speaks of the so-called " evangelical party," whom 

 Whitefield had raised up to disturb the peace of Zion ; part of which 

 apostatized into Methodists, and part of which, while abandoning 

 '(ki^ principles of the Church, still remain ostensibly within its pale. 



Too many, letting go their hold of the form of sound words, and 

 substituting, or mistaking, mere mechanical motions — the fervours of 

 heated imagination — for the true and active signs of Grace, those living 

 impulses of God on the soul, are often carried into the wildest extrava- 

 gances. Fetching the marks of their religion from the notions of 

 visionary or mystical men, instead of looking for them in the life and 

 Gospel of Christ, they set their passions to work, and at length 

 persuade or terrify themselves into all those experiences and feelings, 

 which pass, in their Creed, as the evidences of Salvation. 



Buoyed up by such strong delusions, they think " they have built 

 their mansions among the Stars, have ascended above the Moon, and 

 left the Sun under their feet;" while they are still but like their 

 Kindred Meteors which, having scarce mounted to the middle regions, 

 are precipitated downwards again by their own gross and earthly 

 particles ! A devotion worked up by fervour, whatever proceeds from 

 the mere force of animal spirits, is of the Earth, earthy ; in no manner 

 like to that true Spirit of Regeneration which is of the Lord from 

 Heaven, and begets the divine life in the souls of men. This true 

 celestial warmth will never be extinguished, being of an immortal 

 nature ; and when once vitally seated in the heart, it does not work by 

 fits and starts, but expands itself more and more, regulating, purifying 

 and exalting the whole inward man 1 



But he deals equally with the mere formal observers of religion. 



Although it is of great importance, that we adhere to the Form of 

 sound words, as our text directs us ; yet we must not halt at Forms, or 

 fundamental Principles and Doctrines ; but we must strive, with all our 

 might and zeal, through the grace given us, " to go on to Perfection." 

 Our Faith must not be a mere empty assent to the truth, but the Hold- 

 ing the Truth in Love. It is Love that shews our Faith to be genuine. 

 By this it must work, and by this only can God be well pleased. For 

 Love flowing from Faith is the Hand-writing of God on the heart. 



