lutely denied, that God governed the world at all. Others supposed, that an imperfect and limited providence, parted into shares among all the Gods, was exercised, within their respective limits, by them all; but more extensively by the being, whom they considered as supreme, than by the rest. In this su perintendence of earthly objects they were considered as often opposing each other, and as engaged, at times, in mutual abuse, and violent contentions. The providence, actually exerted, some Philosophers supposed to be confined to Heaven, and in no respect concerned with the affairs of men. Those, who believ ed providence to be extended to this world, with very few exceptions considered it as employed about its great and general concerns only; and denied, wholly, its interference with those of individuals. Some of them, indeed, imagined, that the Gods were sometimes curious about individuals; and suspected, that they might, in some instances, superintend the great affairs of great and distinguished men. But almost all of them appear to have supposed, that the allotments of mankind are parcelled out, and that the good and evil, which they experience, are determined, by fortune, necessity, chance, or fate.

Moral good almost every one of them considered as produced by every man for himself; and not at all by the Gods. Cicero, speaking in the person of Cotta, says, "The gifts of fortune are to be asked of God; but a man is to expect wisdom only from himself:" and this he declares to be the judgment of all mankind. "Who," he asks, "ever gave thanks to the Gods for being a good man?" Accordingly, many of the ancient Philosophers considered the wise man as being independent of the gods; and, in some respects, even as their superior.

Their views concerning the origin of evil were idle, and indefensible. Some of them supposed it to be derived from pollu tion, acquired in a pre-existing state: a scheme demanding the same explanation, as its existence in the present state. Others attributed it to the connection of the soul with the body: suppos. ing matter to be the seat of moral turpitude. Others ascribed it to the evil deity; who, as they imagined, had sufficient power to bring it into existence, in spite of the good one.

Equally delusive and unfounded were their apprehensions

concerning the manner of expiating sin, and cleansing the soul from its pollution. Socrates, with a vigour of investigation unprecedented, and unrivalled, in the annals of Philosophy, advanced so far, as to doubt whether it were possible for God to forgive sin. Generally, they taught that the safest way was for all men to adopt the religious system of their Ancestors, and to rely on the established modes of expiation. These were sacrifices, oblations, prayers, penance, processions, pilgrimages, and ablutions. Their ideas of reformation seem rarely to have extended so far, and never farther, than common sobriety and decency of manners. Virtue, in the proper and evangelical sense, they plainly did not understand. Some of them, as I have heretofore observed, declared ambition, or the love of glory, to be virtue; some the external observance of their religious ritual. Some placed it in imbibing one, and some in adopting another, scheme of Philosophy, or what they were pleased to call wisdom. Some supposed it to consist in courage. Others believed it to be that Amor patriæ, which prompted the inhabitants of one country to carry fire and sword, death and desolation, into another.

Their views concerning the Worship of God were wonderfully gross. Almost universally they supported the existing worship. This, as you know, was composed of a multitude of unmeaning superstitions, of human sacrifices, making voluntary incisions in the flesh of the worshippers, the ravings of a temporary phrenzy, and the practice of unlimited pollution.

The Morals of these men were even more unsound, than their religion. A great part of them permitted fraud, falsehood, war undertaken for conquest or glory, profaneness, anger, revenge, filial impiety, parental unkindness, unlimited lewdness, unlimited pride, ambition, and suicide. Of all these doctrines, taken together, it is to be observed, that they never made a single good man; nor would they, if they were now to be embraced with the whole heart, and to control absolutely the whole life, constitute the subject of them a virtuous or praise-worthy being,

Concerning a future state their conceptions were deplorably lame. A multitude of them denied such a state. The Stoics,

and Epicureans, who encountered Paul at Athens, mocked him; and styled him a babbler, because he preached to them Jesus, and the avadradis, or future state. Of those, who did not deny it, some doubted; others conjectured; and others, still, faintly and waveringly believed it. The views, which they formed concerning it, particularly concerning its enjoyments, were very gross. Generally, the rewards, which they assigned to the virtuous, were the gratifications, usually coveted in the present life, stripped of the inconveniences, which attend them here. Pleasant fields, and fine weather, songs and garlands, nectar and ambrosia were the entertainments of their Elysium. As they knew not what virtue was, it is not wonderful, that they could not devise proper enjoyments for the virtuous.

How immense is the distance between these things, and the system of religious truth, which you have here been taught from the Scriptures. Here, as the foundation, on which the system is erected, you find exhibited the self-existent, eternal, immutable, almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent, JEHOVAH; infinitely wise, just, good, merciful, faithful, and true; the Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Ruler, of the universe; by whose command all things came into existence; by whose hand all are preserved, governed, and blessed; to whom all Intelligent creatures are accountable; and by whom all will be judged according to their works. The Law, by which this glorious Being rules the creatures, whom he has made, you have seen to be perfect; divinely excellent in its nature, and infinitely desirable in its design. You have seen man, originally possessed of spotless purity, apostatizing from his Maker in the very same manner, in which

daily apostatize; coveting natural good, which he could not lawfully possess; and, forgetful, for a time, of his duty to God, yielding himself up to the wish for the prohibited enjoyment. Condemned for this transgression by the sentence of the law which he had broken, it became impossible for him to be justified by his own works, or to be restored to the favour of Him, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. In this situation, you have seen the Son of God descend from Heaven; become a substitute for man; expiate his sins on the cross; and, re-ascending to Heaven, intercede for his deliverance. The way for his

justification is thus completely opened. But man, too obstinate a sinner to embrace even these means of life, would be ruined, if he were left here. Accordingly, you have seen THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH enter this world on the professed design of renewing the soul, and infusing into it a disposition to return to God and its duty. The change you have seen to be essential; the very change which he needed to experience; an actual renovation; a resumption of the character, which he had lost. By the same Divine Guardian he is conducted, also, through the manifold dangers, and difficulties, which in this world continually arrest even Christians themselves: and under this conduct, he is enabled, notwithstanding all his ignorance and folly, temptations and enemies, to persist in the progress, which he has happily begun, and finally to obtain the promised reward.

You have heard the Law of God explained throughout all its most important precepts; and have seen it require every human duty, and forbid every human transgression, in thought, word, and action. You have seen the heart exhibited as the seat of both sin and holiness. The nature of that holiness, the virtue of the Scriptures, the moral character on which the omniscient Eye looks with complacency, has been presented to you as consisting in supreme love to God, and universal good-will to mankind; as the energy of the soul, employed wholly in glorifying God, and doing good. The nature of sin, its opposite, has been explained to you as consisting in a disposition to pursue, supremely and exclusively, a private, separate interest, opposed to God, and hostile to his Intelligent creation.

The Inability of man to obey this law, the subject of such extensive altercation, has been exhibited to you as consisting merely in the disposition, or inclination, of the mind; and the Means of renewing our ability to obey, have been shown to be Repentance towards God, and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; the rational, the indispensable, the only possible, means of this restoration. The Means, also, of obtaining these attributes, com monly called the means of grace, have, it is believed, been set before you in such a light, together with the character, and duties, of those, by whom they are to be used, and of those, by whom they are to be administered, as to show their reality, divine appoint

ment, and indispensable subserviency to the great design of salvation.

Finally, you have been taught the Nature of Death, as an important part of the great Providential system; its immediate Consequences in the intermediate state of the soul; the Resurrec tion; the Judgment; the miserable end of the Wicked, and the glory of the Righteous, beyond the grave.

The schemes of Infidel Philosophy concerning these great subjects I have elsewhere exhibited; and have not time to repeat them here. It will be sufficient for the present occasion to observe, that they have added nothing, which is material, to what was taught by the Ancient Philosophers, beside what they have borrowed from the Scriptures. They have not, indeed, in many instances been Polytheists; and the Bible has compelled them to speak more decently concerning the Creator; though, I think, with less appearance of reverence, than many of their Predecessors. But their religion, and morals, so far as they have proceeded from their own minds, have not been a whit more rational, more pure, or less deserving of severe animadversion, although perhaps somewhat more speciously taught, than those of the ancients.

Compare now the systems, which I have summarily spread before you. How obvious, how universal, how incomprehensible, is the difference between them! They set out, with JEHOVAH at the head of one; and Jupiter, accompanied by the herd of Heathen gods and goddesses, at the head of the other. The distance between these two objects of contemplation is kept up, so far as the nature of the several subjects is susceptible of it, throughout every succeeding part of the respective schemes. The character, the works, the Law, the government, the worship, are in the one case, those of Jehovah; the Builder of the universe, the Infinite Ruler; the Judge of the quick and the dead; and the final Rewarder of the Righteous and the wicked. In the other, they are those of Jupiter; the son of Saturn; the brother of Neptune and Pluto; and the husband of Juno, his sister; born in the island of Crete; dethroning his Father; sharing his empire with his brothers; the Father of a numerous race of gods and men; controled by fate; sustaining his own life by