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

t6sermons.juft difccrnment will expeft, that we alone fhall betotally exempted from the mfluence of thefe caufeswhich tend to flacking the profeiTion of religion : butI will be bold to afBrm, that the prefent clergy ofScotland, in general, are as unblemifhed in their lives,have as much purity and regularity of manners, andare poflefled of as wide an extent of knowledge ofthings human and divine, as any equal number ofchurch-men of like fortunes iirthe known world: nay,I will farther fay, that there are many of them, who,in point of ability, are no ways inferior to thofe whoare eminent in the other learned profeffions in the nation.Their regularity in preaching, and diligence intheir other minifterial labours, arc well known ; andif itwill give any eafe and quiet to the complainers, Ibelieve I can aflure them, that, at the diftance of acentury hereafter, the prefent generation of miniftersthefewill be juft as much eileemed and regretted asnow are who have lived a hundred years before them."A prophet (it is faid) has not honour in his own country,"and he may alfo mifs of itTo all the above caufes,in his own time.the operation of which isfo vifible and fo certain, we may fubjoin, that thereare perhaps fome who are wickedly active to promoteimpiety ; who labour, by their loofe and worldlyfpeeches, to pufn forward the irreiigion of the age.Are there really fome " prefumptuous and felf-willed,who drive to beguile unliable iouls, and feek to turnaway men from the faith," fey queftioning the certainty,and vilifying the importance of divine revelation ?are there fome, wlio, having their hearts entirely feton this world, call upon others to neglect religion,and to purfue riches and honours as the chief or theonly portion of man ? are there fome voluptuous perfons,who are bufy to exterminate all fenfe and proielhonof religion, to leffen the horror of vice, to irritatethe paliions of men, and " to allure, through theiufls of the flcfn, through muich wantonnefs^ thofe