to their proper appointment or pushes them from it, what more capacitates or incapacitates them for communion and fellowship with the fupreme being. Thus will our reflections upon God be at the fame time reflections upon religion, which connects us with the deity, informs us of his difpofitions towards us, and infpires us with fuch difpofitions towards him as fuit our relations to the author and preferver of our lives. Thus fhall we learn by reflection, to blend religion with all things, and shall alleviate to us every trouble, render whatever is pleasant still more pleasing, and all important concerns still more important. We shall learn to be, to do, to enjoy, to suffer, to fear, to hope all things in reference to God and faith in him; to combine most diversely and intimately these ideas with all others; and thus will the whole tenour of our life be one continued of fice of divine worship, and religion our infeparable companion, guide, comforter, counsellor along its dubious paths.

SERMON IX.

Reflections on Chrift and Christianity, on Virtue and Vice, on the Worth of Objects, on Happiness and Mifery, on the moral Quality of our Heart and Life, on Mortality and Immortality.

OD, thy throne is effulgent with pure, un, clouded light, but to our fight clouds and thick darkness are round about thee: thy neceffary and immutable nature is infcrutable; thy glorious attributes prefent to our view an abyfs, in which all our capacities are loft. In profoundest humility we adore thee, the Incomprehenfible, and awfully admire thy majefty and grandeur, which furpafs our conceptions. But immenfe as is the distance between thee, the Eternal and Infinite, and us frail tenants of the duft, yet thou haft revealed to us as much of thyself and thy decrees, as is fuitable to our present state and needful to our compofure and happiness. All nature bears witness to the perfection of its author and father; all creatures proclaim thy fovereignty; the universe is full of thy

glory.

glory. Everywhere we are encompassed by the clearest proofs of thy unbounded, all comprising intellect, thy confummate power, thy tenderness and love.- And how much, o God, have thy holy revelations enlarged the borders of our knowledge! What light, what comfort, what incentive to good, what hope and affurance haft thou not granted us therein! We now know thee with authentic certainty, as he who is effential love, who grants forgiveness to the failing and erroneous and mercy to the wretched; we know thee as a God, who pardons fins, and fhews the tenderness of a father to those that fear him with a childlike awe. Now we know the path of communication with thee and to blifsful immortality. God, what obligations we are under from all those perceptions to worship thee with the most profound humility, to love thee above all things, and to render the most prompt and joyful obedience to all thy laws! What criminal ingratitude should we be guilty of, in not following the fhining light which thou haft vouchfafed us; in not worthily employing the advantages which we poffefs over fuch numbers of mankind, in forgetting thee, our benefactor and father, and refusing thee due homage and obedience! Preserve us, o God of all mercy, from this fcandalous and criminal conduct. Grant, that our hearts and our behaviour may always accord with the confeffion of our mouths and with the perceptions of our understanding, and that the course of our lives may be more virtuous and

holy,

holy, the better we are acquainted with thee and thy defigns, our prefent and future deftination. Blefs to that end the miniftration of thy word to which we are now proceeding, and let it be acceptable to thee, through Jesus Christ, our lord, in whose name and words we farther addrefs thee, faying: Our father, &c.

I THESS. v. 21.

CH

Prove all things; hold faft that which is good.

HRIST and christianity form a third object of our reflection, which is every way worthy of it. And how much here has the reflecting man to confider, and how can he poffibly affert his title to be a rational chriftian, who does not frequently reflect upon it!

What is christianity? Who is the founder of it? In what relations do I ftand towards him? What is he to me? What am I to him? Wherein does christianity properly confift? What is its end and aim? What is the true spirit of it? What has it done in the world, what effect has it had on me? On what arguments does its divine authority reft? What makes it refpectable and amiable in the eyes of the intelligent and well difpofed man, the fincere friend of truth and virtue? What are its doctrines, its precepts, its promifes, its felicities?

With what

fentiments

fentiments does it infpire its genuine confeffors? What profpećts does it open to them? - Questions how momentous !

We fhould therefore, my dear hearers, frequently enter upon these or fimilar meditations: Has there ever lived upon earth a man who excelled Jefus in wisdom, in virtue, in charity, in magnanimity, in zeal for human happiness, or equalled him? Has the life of any man ever been so harmless, so holy, fo beneficial as his life? Did ever any philanthropist: facrifice himself fo voluntarily, fo deliberately, in a way fo remote from all fanaticifm and vanity, for his brethren, as he did? Has there ever been a History related by more credible witneffes in a more credible manner, and confirmed by stronger proofs, than the history of his life, of his fufferings, and his refurrection from the dead? How cogent are my motives then for receiving him as a teacher of truth, as an ambaffador of God, as the greatest benefactor tò mankind, for confidently trusting myself to him and his direction, and, inftructed by his counfels, attracted by his example, invigorated by his confolations, animated by the glorious profpects to which he would exalt my views, for pursuing after perfection and happiness along the road which he has gone before me! And in all these qualities what gratitude, what love, what fubmiffion, what obedience do I not owe him! Can I do less than regu late my life by his will, fince he died for me and for my brethren!

And