absolute disposal of an inexhaustible fund of duration.

The delaying of conversion would afford another subject proper to show the miserable art of the greatest part of mankind of shutting their eyes against the clearest truths, and of hardening themselves against the most poweriful motives. Have not all casuists, even they who are the most opposite to each other on all other articles, agreed in this? Have they not unanimously endeavoured to free us from this miserable prepossession, that God will judge us, not according to the manner in which we live, but according to the manner in which we die? Have they not agreed in representing to us the inability of dying people to meditate with any degree of application; and, in a manner, the impossibility of being entirely renewed on a dying bed; and yet, do not the greatest numsi ber of Christians, even of those whose piety seems the most genuine, defer a great part of the work of their salvation to a dying hour? If you think I colour the corruption of the age too strongly, answer me one question: Whence proceeds our usual fear of sudden death? Since the last stages of life are in general the most fatiguing; since the reliefs, that are applied then are so disgustful; since parting adieus are so exquisitely painful; since slow agonies of death are so intolerable; why do we not consider sudden death as the most desirable of all advantages? Why is it not the constant object of our wishes? Why does a sudden death terrify a whole city? Is it not because our consciences tell us, that there remains a great deal to be done on our death-beds; and that we have deferred that work to the last period of life, which we ought to have performed in the days of vigour and health? Let us enter into these discussions, and we shall find that it does not belong to us, of all people, to exclaim against the obstinacy and infidelity of the Jews.

I have run this disagreeable parallel, I own, with great reluctance. However, the inference from the whole, I think, is very plain. The multitude ought to be no rule to us. We ought rather to imitate the example of one good Christian, than that of a multitude of idiots, who furiously rush into eternal misery. They, who rebel against the doctrine of Jesus Christ, are idiots: they who submit to them, are wise men. If the first class exceed the last, beyond all comparison in number, they ought to have no influence over our lives. If the smallest be the wisest class, we are bound to imitate them. Thus Jesus Christ reasons: 'Whereunto shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the market place, and calling one to another, and saying, we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread, nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her children," Luke vii. 31, &c.

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There were but very few of the Jews, who entered into the spirit of the gospel; as, I own, there are but few of those called Chris

tians, who enter into it; but they are the wise and rational part of mankind. Jesus Christ himself has determined it. "Wisdom is justified of ALL her children." This is not the opinion of a declaimer; this is the axiom of a philosopher, that carries its proof and demonstration with it.

Who were those Jews, who resisted the powerful exhortations of Jesus Christ, and the clear evidence of his miracles? They were idiots, who imagined God would suffer all the laws of nature to be interrupted to favour falsehood, and to authorize an impostor: idiots, who thought Satan would oppose himself, and would lend his power to a man whose doctrine had no other end than the subversion of his empire; idiots, who annihilated prophecy under a pretence of giving it a sublime meaning; idiots, who knew not the true interest of mankind; who could not perceive, that to put riches and grandeurs into the possession of men, whose dispositions, like theirs, were unrenewed, was to put daggers and death into madmen's hands; idiots, who for a great number of years had lightnings flashing in their eyes, and thunders roaring in their ears; but who coolly endeavoured to shut their eyes, and to stop their ears, till the tempest struck them dead, and reduced them to ashes.

What is the character of a modern infidel, who prefers a system of irreligion before the system of Christianity? He is an idiot; a man who voluntarily shuts his eyes against evidence and truth; a man who, under pretence that all cannot be explained to him, determines to deny what can: a man who cannot digest the difficulties of religion, but can digest those of skepticism: a man who cannot conceive how the world should owe its existence to a Supreme Being, but can easily conceive how it was formed by chance. On the contrary, what is the character of a believer? He is a wise man, a child of wisdom; a man who acknowledges the imperfections of his nature: a man who, knowing by experience the inferiority and uncertainty of his own conjectures, applies to revelation: a man who, distrusting his own reason, yields it up to the direction of an infallible Being, and is thus enabled, in some sense, to see with the eyes of God himself.

What is the character of a man who refuses to obey this saying of Jesus Christ, "No man can serve two masters?" Matt. vi. 24. He is an idiot; he is a man who, by endeavouring to unite the joys of heaven with the pleasures of the world, deprives himself of the happiness of both: he is a man, who is always agitated between two opposite parties, that makes his soul a seat of war, where virtue and vice are in continual fight. On the contrary, what is the character of a man who obeys this saying of Jesus Christ? He is a man who after he has applied all the attention of which he is capable, to distinguish the good from the bad, renounces the last, and embraces the first: a man who, having felt the force of virtuous motives, does not suffer himself to be imposed on by sensual sophisms: a man, who judges of truth and error by those infallible marks which characterize both; and not by a circulation of the blood, a flow, or dejection, of animal spirits, and by other similar motives, which, if I may

be allowed to say so, make the whole course of the logic, and the whole stock of the erudition, of the children of this world.

What is the character of the man who refuses to obey this command of Jesus Christ, "Lay not up treasures upon earth; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?" Matt. vi. 19-21. He is a man who fixes his hopes on a sinking world; a man who forgets that death will spoil him of all his treasures; a man who is blind to the shortness of his life; a man who is insensible to the burden of old age, even while it weighs him down; who never saw the wrinkles that disfigure his countenance; a man who is deaf to the voice of universal nature, to the living, the dying, and the dead, who in concert cry, Remember thou art mortal! On the contrary, what is the character of him who obeys this command of Jesus Christ? It is wisdom. The man is one who elevates his hopes above the ruins of a sinking world; a man who clings to the rock of ages; who builds his house on that rock, who sends all his riches before him into eternity; who makes God, the great God, the depository of his happiness; a man, who is the same in every turn of times, because no variation can deprive him of the happiness which he has chosen.

And what are the men who resist our ministry, who hear our sermons, as if they were simple amusements; who, when they depart from their places of worship, return to the dissipations and vices from which they came; who, after they have fasted, and prayed, and received the communion, are always as worldly, always as proud, always as revengeful, always as ready to calumniate, as before? They are really idiots, who know not the days of their visitation; who "despise the riches of the forbearance of God, not knowing that his goodness leadeth to repentance," Rom. ii. 4; they are idiots, who felicitate themselves to-day with worldly pursuits, which to-morrow, will tear their souls asunder on a death-bed, and the sorrowful remembrance of which will torment them through the boundless ages of eternity. And those auditors, who are attentive to our doctrines, and obedient to our precepts; those auditors, who thankfully receive the wise, and patiently bear with the weak in our ministry: what are they? They are wise men, who refer our ministry to its true meaning, who nourish their souls with the truths, and daily advance in practising the virtues of their calling.

How much does a contrast of these characters display the glory of Christianity? Is this religion less the work of wisdom, because idiots reject it? Doth not the honour of a small number of wise disciples indemnify us for all the attacks that a crowd of extravagant people make on it? And were you to choose a pattern for yourselves to-day, my brethren, which of the two examples would make the deepest impressions on you? Would you choose to imitate a small number of wise men, or a multitude of fools? To be reproached for preciseness and singularity is a very powerful temptation, and piety will often expose us to it. What! every body else goes into company; and would you distinguish yourself by living always shut up at home? How! every body allows one part of the day to gaming and pastime; and

would you render yourself remarkable by devoting every moment of the day to religion? What! nobody in the world requires above a day or two to prepare for the sacrament; and would you distinguish yourself by employing whole weeks in preparing for that ceremony? Yes, I would live a singular kind of life! Yes, I would distinguish myself! Yes, though all the Pharisees, though all the doctors of the law, though all the whole synagogue, should unite in rejecting Jesus Christ; I would devote myself to him! World! thou shalt not be my judge. World! it is not thou, who shalt decide what is shameful, and what is glorious. Provided I have the children of wisdom for my companions, angels for my witnesses, my Jesus for my guide, my God for my rewarder, and heaven for my recompense, all the rest signify but little to me! May God inspire us with these sentiments! Amen.

SERMON XIX.

CHRISTIANITY NOT SEDITIOUS.

LUKE Xxiii. 5.

He stirreth up the people.

NEVER was a charge more unjustly brought, never was a charge more fully and nobly retorted, than that of Ahab against Elijah. Elijah was raised up to resist the torrent of corruption and idolatry which overflowed the kingdom of Israel. God, who had appointed him to an office so painful and important, had richly imparted to him the gifts necessary to discharge it: so that when the Scriptures would give us a just notion of the herald of the Messiah, it says, "He shall go in the spirit and power of Elias," Luke i. 17. Sublimity in his ideas, energy in his expressions, grandeur in his sentiments, glory in his miracles, all contributed to elevate this prophet to the highest rank among them who have managed the sword of the spirit with reputation and success. This extraordinary man appears before Ahab, who insults him with this insolent language, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" 1 Kings xviii. 17. Was ever a charge more unjustly brought. Elijah is not terrified with this language. Neither the majesty nor the madness of Ahab, neither the rage of Jezebel nor the remembrance of so many prophets of the true God sacrificed to false gods, nothing terrifies him, nothing affects him. "I have not troubled Israel," replies he; "but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim,' ver. 13. Was ever charge retorted with more magnanimity and courage?

My brethren, I invite you to day to contemplate men more unjust than Ahab, and I invite you to contemplate one more magnanimous than Elijah. Jesus Christ undertook a work, that all the prophets,-what am I saying? he undertook a work which all the angels of hea ven united would have undertaken in vain.He came to reconcile heaven and earth. God, who sent him into the world in this grand business, communicated "the Spirit without mea sure to him," John iii. 34. Jesus Christ dedi

accordingly, they called him a Nazarene. They afterward gave the same despicable name to his disciples. St. Jerome tells us, that in his time they anathematised Christians under the name of Nazarenes. We see also in the book of Acts, that Christians were called Galileans; and by this name they are known in heathen writers.

Let us return. Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great, the same whom John the Baptist reproved for keeping Herodias, his brother Philip's wife) reigned in Galilee, under the title of Tetrarch, when Jesus Christ was cited before Pilate. This was what engaged the Roman governor to send him to this prince. Whether Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, descended from heathen parents, as some affirm; whether he were of Jewish extraction, as others say; or whether he were an Idumean, according to the general opinion, is not very material. It is very certain, that if this prince were not sincerely of the religion of Moses, he pretended to be so; and, as the law required all heads of families to celebrate four grand festivals in the year at the capital of Judea, he had come up to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, at which time the Lord Jesus underwent his passion.

The reputation of our Saviour had reached this prince. The gospel tells us the absurd notion that he had entertained of him. He thought him John the Baptist, whom he had sacrificed, with as much cowardice as cruelty, to the revenge of Herodias. His notion was founded on an opinion of the Jews, who thought, that many prophets, particularly they who had sealed their doctrine with their blood, would rise again at the coming of the Messiah. Herod was glad of an opportunity of informing himself in this article. He flattered himself, that if he should not see such a singular object as a man raised from the dead, at least Jesus Christ would not refuse to conciliate his esteem, by gratifying his curiosity, and by performing some extraordinary work in his presence. But should Providence interrupt the ordinary course of nature to amuse a profane court? Jesus Christ not only would not prostitute his miraculous gifts before Herod, he would not even deign to answer him.

A very little attention to the genius of the great will be sufficient to convince us, that the silence of Jesus Christ, and his refusal to condescend to the caprice of Herod, must naturally expose him to the contempt of this prince, and to that of his courtiers. Accordingly, we are told, that they "set him at nought, and mocked him, and sent him back again to Pilate." Some have inquired a reason why Herod put on him "a white garment;"* and some

* Our author follows the reading of the French Bible, Revestu d'un vestement blanc; our translation reads it,

Arrayed in a gorgeous robe; and the original word

λaugav signifies both. A white garment was a gorgeous, a splendid garment, because priests and kings wore white garments. See Esther viii. 15; 2 Chron. v. 12. The heavenly visions, which are recorded in Scripture, and which were intended for the more easy apprehension and instruction of those who were honoured with them, preserve an analogy in their imagery between themselves and the known objects of real life. Hence God, Christ, angels, and the spirits of the just, are represented as clothed in white, Dan. vii. 9; Luke ix. 29; Acts i. 10, and Rev. iii. 4. Herod's design in arraying Christ in white is not

learned men have thought he intended thereby to attest his innocence; and this opinion seems to agree with what Pilate said to the Jews, Neither "I nor Herod have found any fault in this man, touching those things whereof accuse him." But they who advance this opinion, ought to prove, that the Jews or the Romans, did put white garments on persons whom they acquitted. I own, though I have taken some pains to look for this custom in the writings of antiquity, I have not been able to find it: however, it doth not follow, that others may not discover it. Nor is it any clearer, in my opinion, that the design of those, who put this habit on Jesus Christ, was the same with that of the soldiers, who put a reed in the form of a sceptre into his hand, to insult him be cause he said he was a king. I would follow the rule here which seems to me the most sure; that is, I would suspend my judgment on a subject that cannot be explained

I add but one word more, before I come to the principal object of our meditation. The evangelist remarks, that the circumstances, which he related, I mean the artful address of Pilate to Herod, in sending a culprit of his jurisdiction to his bar; and the similar artifice of Herod to Pilate in sending him back again, occasioned their reconciliation. What could induce them to differ? The sacred history doth not inform us; and we can only conjecture. We are told, that some subjects of Herod Antipas, who probably had made an insurrection against the Romans, had been punished at Jerusalem during the passover by Pilate, Luke xiii. 1, who had mixed their blood with that of the sacri fices, which they intended to offer to God at the feast. But the Scripture does not say, whether this affair occasioned the difference that subsisted between the tetrarch of the Jews and the Roman governor. In general, it was natural for these two men to be at enmity.On the one hand, the yoke, which the Romans had put on all the nations of the earth, was sufficient to excite the impatience of all, except the natives of Rome; and to stir them up to perplex and to counteract the governors, whom they set over the countries which they had invaded. On the other, it must be acknowledged, that they, who are deputed to govern conquered provinces, and, for a time, to represent the sovereign there, very seldom discharge their offices with mildness and equity. They are instantly infatuated with that shadow of roy alty to which they have not been accustomed; and hence come pride and insolence. They imagine, they ought to push their fortune, by making the most of a rank from which they must presently descend; and hence come injustice and extortion. The reconciliation of Herod and Pilate is more surprising than their discord. ts. We will direct all your remaining attention to the We hasten to more important subjects.

known; and whether we ought, with Casaubon, in the following words to find a mystery in it, we will not pretend to say. "Cum igitur vestis candida, apud veteres, regia pariter et sacerdotalis esset; quis mysterio factum a providentia divina non agnoscat; quod verus rex, verus sacerdos, a suis irrisoribus candida veste amicitur? Fuit, quidem, istorum animus pessimus: sed hoc veritatis signi ficationem mysticam, neque hic. neque in crucis titulo lædebat." Exerc. in Bar. Annal. S. 73, E. 16.

"the

In what respects this charge is false: and in what respects it is true.

II. From the nature of those troubles which Jesus Christ, and his ministers, excite, I would derive an apology for Christianity in general, and for a gospel ministry in particular; and prove that the troubling of society ought not obe imputed to those who preach the docrine of Christ; but to those who hear it.

III. As we are now between two days of soemn devotion, between a fast, which we have observed a few days ago, and a communion, hat we shall receive a few days hence: I shall nfer from the subject a few rules, by which ou may know, whether you have kept the irst of these solemnities, or whether you will pproach the last with suitable dispositions. Dur text, you see, my brethren, will supply with abundant matter for the remaining art of this exercise.

1. One distinction will explain our first artile, and will show us in what respects religion loes not disturb society, and in what respects t does. We must distinguish what religion sin itself from the effects which it produces hrough the dispositions of those to whom it is reached. In regard to the first, Jesus Christ "the Prince of Peace." This idea the prophets, this idea the angels, who announced his coming, gave of him: "Unto us a child is porn, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name hall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace:" this is what the prophets aid of him, Isa. ix. 6. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good-will towards men!" Luke ii. 14. This was the exclamation of the heavenly host, when they appeared to the shepherds. Jesus Christ perfectly answers these descriptions.

Consider the kingdom of this divine Saviour, and you will find, all the maxims are peace, all tend to unity and concord: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another," John xiii. 34. Peace is the inheritance he left to his disciples: peace "I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," chap. xiv. 27. Peace between God and man; being justified by faith we have peace with God," Rom. 1; he has reconciled "all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross," Col. i. 20. Peace between Jews and Gentiles; "for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh," Eph. ii. 14, 17. Peace in the society of the first disciples; for "all that believed were together, and had all things common," Acts ii. 44. Peace in the conscience; for without Jesus Christ trouble and terror surround us. Heaven is armed

But, if religion, considered in itself, breathes only peace, it actually occasions trouble in society; through the dispositions of those to whom it is preached. According to the general dispositions of mankind, the religion of Jesus Christ must necessarily disgust; and therefore disturb, schools, courts, churches, and families; stirring up one minister against another minister, a confessor against a tyrant, a pastor against a people, a father against his family.

1. Schools. There were two celebrated schools in the days of Jesus Christ, the Pagan school, and the Jewish school. The Pagan schools were fountain of errors. They taught erroneous opinions of God, whose excellence they pretended to represent by figures of men, animals, and devils. They taught erroneous opinions of man, of whose origin, obligations, and end, they were totally ignorant. They taught erroneous opinions of morality, which they had adjusted not according to the dictates of conscience, but agreeably to the suggestions of their own vicious hearts.

The Jewish schools, originally directed by a heavenly light, had not fallen into errors so gross: but they were not exempt; they had even embraced some capital mistakes. The fundamental article of the Jewish religion, that on which depended all their hopes and all their joys, I mean the doctrine of the Messiah, was precisely that of which they had entertained the most false ideas. They represented to themselves a Messiah of flesh and blood, one adapted to the relish of human passions. They authorized the most criminal remissness, and violated the most inviolable rights of religion and nature. Revenge, in their opinion, was inseparable from man. cupiscence was perfectly consistent with purity of heart. Perjury changed its nature, when it was accompanied with certain douceurs. Divorce was a prevention of discord, and one of the domestic rights of a married person.

Con

The Christian religion appears in the world, and in it other ideas of God, of man, of virtue, of the expected Messiah; other notions of concupiscence and revenge, of perjury, and of all the principal points of religion, and morality. Christianity appears in the world. The Lord of the universe is no longer associated with other beings of the same kind. He is no longer an incestuous being, no more a parricide an adulterer. He is a being alone in his essence, independent in his authority, just in his laws, wise in his purposes and irresistible in his performances. Philosophy is folly. Epicurus proves himself an idiot destitute of reason and intelligence, by not discovering the characters of intelligence and reason, that shine throughout all the universe, and by attributing