then defecrated and prophaned, and destined foon to be destroyed. You deift, you free-thinker, you minute philofopher, you unbeliever of whatever name, however inveterate the prejudices or abandoned the habits with which you labour, we can trust you with this important question, "Which of you convinceth me of fin?” Which of you can impeach the morality of the Gospel? One advantage you must allow us to enjoy over you in the great utility of its precepts and examples, which contribute fo much to the happiness and enjoyment of civil life. And to this advantage refulting from the " Charity" of the gofpel, which, we know," will never fail," we will join another of equal or fuperior moment to our happinefs, derived from the " Hope" we have in believing, which throws a beam of perpetual comfort over the mind, which cheers and enlivens every fcene of life; although our faith fhould be a dream, from which, when we pass into the fleep of death, we are never to awake. For this virtuous, this happy dream, which foftens all our cares, alleviates all our pains, animates all our joys, whilft we are paffing through this vale of tears and forrows, permit us to look up to the divine founder of that faith, with affections of gratitude and love. Such a founder you do not allow. Suffer us, then, to offer them up to God and to his Providence for fo great a bleffing. But fome of you deny that God, and more of you his Providence, convinced that if you admit of them, they will too powerfully imply the reft. If you will, then, take from us every real fource of trust and comfort, allow us to look up to heaven and to thank our stars, for the many and great advantages, even in this deplorable ftate of things, which, by embracing the Gospel, we enjoy above you. But confider, seriously confider, if what you fo much deride, fhould eventually prove no dream, how superabundant then will be our joy and confolation! and how dismal will be your mortification and condemnation! But "thanks be to God who hath given "us" not only the advantage, but the "victory," over you and the world, even the victory of our Faith," through our "Lord Jefus Chrift;" which is, indeed, no 66 dream, dream, but a virtuous, a pious, and a reasonable conviction, built on fubftantial grounds, and to be crowned with fure enjoyment. The truths which it embraces are fo divinely authorised; the evidences by which they are attested are so well authenticated; they are accompanied by fo many concurrent circumftances and credible qualifications, the perfonal knowledge, the honefty, the number, the confiftency, of the witneffes, men who had neither intereft nor ability to forge fuch a great and interefting falfehood, in the very fcene, and almost at the time of action, when all men had the immediate power to difprove it; they are tranfmitted through fo many different and opposite channels, and come attested by so many collateral authorities, as to raise in every mind that is rational and truly candid, a conviction, though not fo palpable, yet as indubitable, as the strongest evidence: infomuch" that, if the Gospel be hid, it is "hid from them that are loft; in whom the "God of this world hath blinded the minds "of them that believe not, left the light of "the glorious Gospel of Chrift should shine " unto them "." ✓ 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. The The prejudice of habit, the pride of science, or the impertinence of curiofity, may make fome men diffatisfied, unless they can climb up to the confines of demonftration, for the proof of every question. We esteem it, on the contrary, not only the privilege, but the honour, of every fair and rational enquirer, willingly to embrace and thankfully to acquiefce in fuch evidence and grounds of affent, as are fufficient; more particularly in fuch, as are naturally adapted to the kind of truth in question; and most especially in fuch, as are accommodated to the nature of the fubject". Better and fairer can in no cafe be required and with fuch the Christian Religion is abundantly supplied. God hath rèvealed himself as he thought beft for his own glory and our good; and, if ye cannot believe him, because he has not given you exactly that degree of light, which your own wayward fancy may require, but of which things do not admit," he will not be mocked," ye muft take the blame upon yourselves and all the affistance which we can give you, is to pray, that "He who commanded the light VOL. II. w See Hurd's Serm. Vol, vi. to 1 "to fhine out of darknefs, may fhine in your 66 "hearts, to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of "Jefus Chrift *." "The kingdom of God is within you*,” was the answer of our Lord to the interrogating Jews, implying that it has its origin in the heart. To represent this fundamental truth to the full view of his difciples, "Jefus "took a child and fet him in the midft, and faid, unless ye be converted and become as "little children, ye fhall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And, to illuftrate it ftill farther, he employs the two parables of the feed, and the feed of mustard. By the former he fignifies, that at first it is small, and that its increase will depend upon the goodnefs of the foil, which is to be prepared and cleanfed from the weeds of vice, and that, in fuch a foil, it will make gradual advances from one stage to another, producing, "first, the "blade, next the ftem, then the ear, and, σε laftly, the full corn in the ear:” And, by * 2 Cor. iv. 6. y Luke xvii. 21. z Matt. xiii. 3. &c. a Matt. xiii. 31. Mark iv. 28. the |