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 attefted are fo 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 so many different and oppofite 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 evidenceinfomuch 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 aje "the glorious Gofpel of Chrift fhould thine "unto them "." 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. The The prejudice of habit, the pride of science, or the impertinence of curiofity, may make some 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 Chriftian Religion is abundantly supplied. God hath revealed 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 must take the blame upon yourselves: and all the affiftance which we can give you, is to pray, that “He who commanded the light VOL. II. See Hurd's Serm. Vol. vi. to "to fhine out of darkness, may shine in your "hearts, to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jefus Chrift *." 66 66 "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 midst, and faid, unless ye be converted and become as "little children, ye fhall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And, to illustrate 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 goodness 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, laftly, the full corn in the ear":" And, by x 2 Cor. iv. 6. a Matt. xiii. 31. y Luke xvii. 21. z Matt. xiii. 3. &c. Mark iv. 28. the 66 the latter he fignifies, that, however small at firft, it will become at laft the great and reigning principle of the human mind. Thus "the path of the juft," in the courts and offices of religion, "is as a fhining light, "which," by a perpetual increase of faith, and by a perpetual supply of virtue, “fhineth more and more unto the perfect day." For the admiffion, as well as for the fruition, of the truths of a religion which is pure and undefiled, the requifite qualification is that of purity and renovation of heart, expreffed in scripture by the figure of being born again or from above: Accordingly the great Apostle of the Gentiles admonithes the Ephefians" to 66 put on the new man, which after God is "created in righteousness and true holi"nefs;" and his Roman converts, 66 not 66 to be conformed to this world, but to be "transformed in the renewing of their mind. "that they may be able to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect work of "God". 66 In confecrating his labours at the temple of religion, whilft he cultivates Truth with his Prov. iv. 18. 4 Eph. iv. 24. • Rom. xii. 2. T 2 Under 1 Understanding, let the child of Wisdom nourish Charity in his heart, as the first and most effential ingredient of a found and faving dufly Faith; fully reflecting on the predictive admonition of the laft great prophet" He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: he "that is filthy, let him be filthy ftill: he "that is righteous, let him be righteous still "he that is holy, let him be holy ftill!" FROM this logical view of the province of THEOLOGY, in its Principle, in its Reafoning, and in its Truth, the student in Divinity will entertain an awful fenfe of the dignity, as well as of the difficulty, of that science, which leaves behind all terreftrial- things, and opens his prospect into future and difembodied fcenes. With the humility, which becomes his present state, he will feel himfelf to be only in the infancy of his existence, and that his knowledge is proportioned to the immaturity of his age. In refpect of the manhood of his being, he only thinks and understands as a child; and, in this school of terreftrial difcipline in which he is training f Rev. xxii. II. for |