declared only, but enforced also by every species of argument that could address itself to your understanding, your con- science, or your will. I say not, that these things have been so fully manifested as they ought to have been, or might have been : because, if my own views had been more enlarged, and my own soul been more deeply impressed with these things, my Ministrations would no doubt have been more luminous and beneficial : But this I can say, that I have " not knowingly withheld any thing that could be profitable unto you ;" nor, according to the measure of light and grace given unto me, "have I shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God V In this respect therefore I may say, that, if at any time there have been darkness here, that darkness is past : and the true light shines among you, in such a degree, at least, as is suffi- cient to " guide all your feet into the way of peace."]
But can it be said that the darkness is passed away from the souls of all ?
[Would to God that my text were true in this extent also. Beloved Brethren, are not many of you still in the darkness, if not of Judaism itself, yet of the Judaizing teachers, who insisted on combining some obedience of their own Avith the merits of Christ ? Are not the beauty, and glory, and excel- lency of our holy religion so indistinctly seen by many amongst you, that it produces scarcely any effect upon your hearts and lives ? If we look at morals, are not your views ofthem also very imperfect ? Read our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and see whether your heart go along with it in all that it inculcates respecting patience, forbearance, meekness, forgiveness ? Read St. Paul's description of love in the 13th Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, and see whether that be the stand- ard at which you aim, and by which you estimate your attain- ments ? Have you any idea of your duty to your Brethren re- quiring, that, if it may subserve their spiritual and eternal in- terests, you should lay down your life for them ? I will not ask what speculative notions you may have of these things ; for in that respect your views may be correct enough : but what is your practice ? it is by that that your character must be tried: and, when tried by that, say whether you are not found altogether wanting. That there is great danger of self-de- ceit in reference to this matter, is clear from what the Apostle says in the very words follov/ing my text: " He that saith he is in the liokt and liateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. lle^^hat loveth his brother, abideth in the hght ; and there is none occasion of stumbling in him ; but he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath
blinded * Acts XX. 20, 27.