But when, instead of the submissive manners of a well-ordered Court, symptoms of insolence and insubordination are witnessed on every side,--then, the least and humblest takes leave, (time, and place, and occasion serving,) to speak out fearlessly on behalf of that which he loves with an unworthy, but a most undivided heart.--When Language impugns those Oracles which she was hired to decypher,--and pretends to doubt the Inspiration of that Book of which, confessedly, she barely understands the Grammar:--when History and Chronology cry out that the annals of Theology are false, and her record of Time a fable; that the Deluge, for instance, is an old wives' story, and the economy of times and seasons a human fabrication:--when Astronomical and Mechanical Science strut up to the Throne whereon sits the Ancient of Days,--prate to _Him_, (the first Author of Law,) about the "supremacy of Law,"--and tell Him to His face that His miracles are things impossible:--when Physiology insinuates that Mankind cannot be descended from one primæval pair; and that the lives of the Patriarchs cannot be such as they are recorded to have been:--when the pretender to Natural Philosophy gravely assures us that we ought not to pray for fair weather, because the weather depends _not_ upon "arbitrary changes in the will of GOD," _but_ upon laws as fixed and certain "as the laws of gravitation[381],"--which, mark you, Sirs, is no longer a dry verbal speculation, but is nothing less than an invasion of that inner chamber where you or I have retired to pour out the fulness of an aching heart, in prayer that GOD would prolong, if it may be, the life of the dearest thing we have on earth; and rudely to bid us rise from our knees and be silent, for that the health of Man depends not on the will of GOD, but on fixed physiological laws:--lastly, when the pretender to Geological skill denies the authenticity of the First Chapter of Genesis; which is to deny the Inspiration of all the rest; and therefore of the whole Bible;--and thus to rob Life's weary pilgrim of that rod and staff concerning which he has many a time exclaimed,--"they _comfort_ me!":--whenever, as now, such things are spoken and printed,--not in a corner, and by insignificant persons, and in ambiguous language,--but in plain English, by clergymen and scholars in authority, openly in the face of GOD'S sun;--then it is high time, even for the humblest and least among you,--if no man of mark will speak up, and speak out, for GOD'S Truth,--to deliver a plain message with that freedom which Englishmen hold to be a part of their birthright. It should breed no offence, I say, if the most unworthy of GOD'S servants, here, before you all,--before these younger men especially, who have been drawn hither by the fame of your piety and your learning,--and who have been entrusted to your guardianship through the precious years of early manhood, with a well-grounded confidence that you would give them to eat not only of the