112 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [17S4 



Whatever proceeds from it will bear his Image and Superscription. He 

 will know it as his own, and openly acknowledge it as such, before 

 Men and Angels, at the last day. 



This Fruit of Love is what St. Paul everywhere holds up for the trial 

 of our Faith and Spirits — "The Fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy, 

 Peace, Long-Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Temperance, 

 and the like." All other marks of the Soundness of our Faith, except 

 these Gospel-marks, namely, the Fruits of the Spirit, are only a danger- 

 ous ministration of fuel for inflammable tempers, or of despair to those 

 of a contrary frame. 



Come we now to his immediate subject. He continues : 



Why need I spend more of your time in applying the doctrine of my 

 Text to the present occasion of our meeting? — an occasion (I will only 

 add) on which if you could be indulged to hear the voice of an Apostle 

 or Angel from God, he would preach to you Love and Unity. 



Consider that you are members of a Church, which is acknowledged 

 by all the Christian World to teach the doctrine of the Gospel, and to 

 hold fast the Form of sound Words, the Faith once delivered to the 

 Saints — a Church which has given to the world a long and illustrious 

 list of eminent Divines, pious Preachers, and even glorious Confessors 

 and Martyrs for the Truth, as it is in Jesus. 



But in this country at present, such is her state that she calls for the 

 pious assistance and united support of all her true Sons, and of the 

 friends of Christianity in general. Besides a famine of the preached 

 word, her sound Doctrines are deserted by many, who "turn away 

 their ears from the Truth," as taught by her, and heap to themselves 



Teachers as described in the Text Too many more are spoiled 



or staggered in their Faith by what is called the Free and Philosophic, 

 but more truly, the loose and libertine principles of the present day.* 

 Many others, from a selfish and niggardly spirit, or from a dissipation 

 of their substance in luxury and intemperance, will not, or cannot, 

 yield the mite which is necessary for supporting the Ordinances of 

 Religion. Thus they become ashamed to appear in the place of God's 

 Worship, leaving the burden of all upon a fev/, whose conscience and 

 the awful dread of an account to be given hereafter, will not suffer them 

 to desert their Master's Gospel, to renounce their Baptism, and trample 

 under foot the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they are sanctified. 



Hence religion mourns, and the houses and altars of God, erected by 

 the piety of our Forefathers, are deserted and running into ruin. The 

 tempests beat and the winds howl through the shattered roofs and moul- 



* Even in 1784 tlie pernicious infidelity of the French Revolution was beginning to 

 show itself.— II. W. S. 



