The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

;!SlSRMONS. 11feme of the ancient fathers were fo weak, as to inftituterites, and fports, and feftivals, very like thofewhich had been long in ufe, to prevail on the idolatrousand ftupid people, to renounce heathenifm, andembrace the gofpel.The religion, eftablifhed and taught in this church,has, r believe, lefs of human invention, and lefs mixtureof fuperftition, than perhaps any other eftablifhment; and yet fomething, fnnilar to what I have juftmentioned, has, I fear, been formerly pra£lifed ; Imean, a ftudying not always to deliver the ideas offcripture, pure and unmixed, but to accommodatethem to the wiflies and expedlation of the hearers.What pity that there fhpuld be any occafion to do thisor that any teacher fhould ftrive thus " to pleafe men !"What pity is it, that preaching the gofpel of Chrift,in its native fimplicity, fhpuld make men diilike it,and forfake it ! and yet this is fometimes the fact.The doctrines of the gofpel are fublime, interefting,and comfortable ; the pureft morality is founded uponthem, and recommended by them. If this morality isexplained ; if the vices, fo often condemned in thenew teftament, are infilled on and expofed ; if youdefcend to particulars, and fhow, that fwearing, perjury,covetoufnefs, lying, fraud, injuftice,oppreilion,pride, intemperance, and debauchery, are inconfii^entwith the Chriftian character ; if you enjoin, as ourgreat Mailer has commanded, the necelfity of devotion,of juftice, of reftitution, of truth, of meeknefs,of temperance, of felf-denial, of brotherly-love andcharity,the people yawn and hear you with difgullthey go away, and like not to return to hear fuch doctrine.The theatre is thronged to, by the power of an artful,a bewitching, and dangerous adulation.It is faidto be a picture of the paflions, and vices, and folliesof men : but to get a crowded houfe, the painters areforced to condemn the. vices which the audience have