selves but little religion, are yet ashamed of a cause which has been rendered familiar to the lowest and most illiterate; and accordingly, the ingenious writers of the present day seldom venture to indulge in any liberties with revelation, which, at no distant period, was one of the common topics upon which fashionable ridicule was displayed. The better description of men among those whose religious opinions were then unfortunate ly perverted, have now, I am persuaded, no feeling of vanity in their emancipation from what they once supposed to be mere vulgar opinion, but would very willingly return again to the simple creed of their fathers.

In this state of things, my brethren, it is unnecessary, I apprehend, to make elaborate replies to the cavils and the calumnies of the unbeliever. It is almost sufficient, without making the sup

position that systematic and professed infidelity has ever existed in the world, to state, with clearness and simplicity, the grounds upon which Christian faith is founded, and except, perhaps, among a few young persons whose minds are caught with the free aspect of sceptical opinions, or among some individuals of corrupt lives, we shall find men, for the most part, rather willing to be convinced of religious truth, than carried away by any prejudice against it. The effect, however, of the spirit of infidelity which prevailed so long, has been, I believe, to render them, but too often, little acquainted with the real nature and grounds of the Gospel. They rather think it true, and wish it to be true; but they do not see very well what are the reasons for belief, and often do not know what it is they are to believe. To meet this state of the public mind, all controversy ought,

as much as possible, to be avoided; the most simple and natural views only of revealed truth, to be adduced; its importance to be made sensible to the feelings of every individual, and brought home to "men's business and bosoms."

While the world, in general, have thus, perhaps, become in some degree unacquainted with the true nature of religion, in consequence of the long triumph of infidelity, there have arisen, probably from the same source, two other peculiarities of very opposite characters. Many men, shocked with the open deformity of profaneness, have formed to themselves a system of Christianity which seems to wage war with all our most natural feelings. Seizing upon certain views of Scripture, to which they confine their whole attention, they seem to think that man, as he comes out of the hands of na ture, is solely detestable and wicked;

that none of our affections or principles of conduct are at all to be approved of, unless they can stand the test of their peculiar dogmas; and, forgetting that the Gospel is a religion of liberty, they narrow and depress all the vigour of the human understanding, and throw a melancholy cloud over all the images of faith. As long as this spirit prevails, (and it seems to be making no inconsiderable progress,) Religion cannot be hailed as the friend and companion of man,—as his affectionate guide through the dangers and snares of his way; but she will rather seem to be the cruel task-mistress, who drives him forward with her unrelenting lash. With the view, therefore, of fixing religion upon a right basis, nothing is of more importance than to point out those aspects of the Gospel which are animating and ennobling to human na ture; and, surely, it is impossible to study

with attention, and without some unfor tunate bias, the mild and unaffected tenor of the sacred history, and not, at the same time, to see that the utmost purity is consistent with the most entire absence of austerity; and that it is much less in severe doctrine, than in holy, gentle, and charitable affections, that the true spirit of Christianity consists.

There is yet, my brethren, another peculiarity of a very different kind, which has no small influence on the character of religion in the present age. While, from a horror at licentiousness and infidelity, one description of men have thus entrenched themselves among the darkest and most thorny doctrines that have ever been engrafted on the Christian system-others have thought, that the only way of rendering Revelation acceptable to men of enlightened and liberal views, was to strip it of every