But I will own to you, that I must be better satisfied concerning the principles on which you bottom your cause ere I can agree to take a command amongst you." "And can you doubt of our principles," answered Burley, "since we have stated them to be the reformation both of church and state, the rebuilding of the decayed sanctuary, the gathering of the dispersed saints, and the destruction of the man of sin ?" "I will own frankly, Mr Balfour," replied Morton, "much of this sort of language, which, I observe, is so powerful with others, is entirely lost on me.

It is proper you should be aware of this before we commune further together." (The young clergyman here groaned deeply.) "I distress you, sir," said Morton; "but, perhaps, it is because you will not hear me out.
I revere the Scriptures as deeply as you or any Christian can do.

I look into them with humble hope of extracting a rule of conduct and a law of salvation.

But I expect to find this by an examination of their general tenor, and of the spirit which they uniformly breathe, and not by wresting particular passages from their context, or by the application of Scriptural phrases to circumstances and events with which they have often very slender relation." The young divine seemed shocked and thunderstruck with this declaration, and was about to remonstrate.
"Hush, Ephraim!" said Burley, "remember he is but as a babe in swaddling clothes .-- Listen to me, Morton.

I will speak to thee in the worldly language of that carnal reason, which is, for the present, thy blind and imperfect guide.