SERMON worship, treat all the peculiarities of the

gospel with a great deal of indifference; as in no degree effential to a good life here, or to our eternal falvation hereafter. We hear nothing of the doctrines of faith, of the incarnation, of the atonement, of the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit; those corner-ftones of our religion; those doctrines by which alone a Christian can have any poffible hope. A modern Chrif

tian seems to know but little of a Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift: he talks of justice and mercy, but he forgets that there is no genuine Christian morality but what is the fruit of faith; and no works acceptable to God, but what are offered through the merits and mediation of Jefus Christ. Were the Apostle St. Paul to come among us, and find Christianity changed into a fyftem of juftification by works, he would join in the lamentation of Mary Magdalene:

Magdalene: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him."

But this is not all, we find a THIRD evidence of the decrease of religion in this, that after having resolved the whole of the gofpel into morality, we proceed to refolve the whole of morality into a few virtues. I must again make use of an expreffive word, we have garbled the morality of the gospel to our own immediate purpose; we have not made our practice fubfervient to Christian virtue, but Christian virtue fubfervient to our practice. Thus charity and beneficence are the virtues most accordant with what is called a liberal fpirit, and best fall in with the gaiety and levity of the age; and, therefore, charity and beneficence are fuppofed to constitute an amiable character, and a good Christian. These virtues, or rathera counterfeit fpecies of them,

may

SERMON

1.

1

SERMON
I.,

may

be exercised while we neglect the weighty calls of justice, foberness, temperance, and chastity. But, my brethren, let us not deceive ourselves; if we are captivated with the beauty of one description of virtues, and yet difregard another of equal authority, fuch a partial obedience only increases our condemnation, because it shews that we have a capacity for all virtue, which we wilfully neglect: or, if we select for our practice one set of virtues, merely because they are accordant with our own difpofitions; a virtue practifed on fuch felfish principles, that moment lofes its whole value in the of God;

eye and if it is of ufe to our fellow creatures, it is nevertheless very little more than good arising out of evil. When our lives are in general relaxed, it certainly impeaches the veracity of the few virtues we poffefs: in a more particular manner, it attaches

the

.1,

the virtues of charity and beneficence of SERMON which we so exultingly boast; for there can be no true charity which grows not out of Christian faith and Christian hope. That heart, which is warmed with the flame of genuine charity and beneficence, has caught a spark from the Divinity; it is in bleffed union with its God, and must glow with the fervours of piety and devotion.

These are all the evidences of the de

crease of religion which I shall at present infift upon. And, unhappy is it for man kind, that fuch a diminution of that, which is their beft fecurity for comfort and happiness here, has taken place in the world. High as may be the value of morality, we find that, alone, it is very infufficient to secure the authority of prin ciple. Mankind fet loofe from religious obligations we fee, in numberless inftances, forget the grand duties of juftice in their

dealings

SERMON dealings with each other, of juftice to

I.

their families, and juftice to themselves. We fee them, by extravagance and difhonest conduct, running headlong to ruin: and then, having no fears of a judgment to come, having no restraints of Chriftianity to check them, when they are no longer fit to live in this world, they plunge themselves by their own hand into that dark, unfathomable gulph of which they have no certain notions. This is one of the confequences of the decay of religion, which we fee every day encreasing amongst us, to a most alarming degree. ⠀

To conclude: When Mary looked into the tomb, and faw not her Mafter there, fle wept. Would to God that every man would look into his own heart, and if he find not his Saviour there, that he would weep over the deferted fepulchre! And may the goodness of God revive amongst us

the