The histories of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and 1 David, are well known, and ye recollect those parts of their lives to which we refer, without our detaining you in a repetition now.

velope this article now. How many of our people would felicitate themselves if we were to furnish them with pretences for imputing their unfruitfulness to those who cultivate them! But, if this article must not be developed, what grave remonstrances, what pressing exhortations, what fervent prayers, should it occasion! Let the heads of families consider the heinousness of their conduct in presuming to offer impure victims to the Lord, and in consecrating those children to the holy ministry, in whom they cannot but discover dispositions that render them unworthy of it. May ecclesiastical bodies never assemble for the election of pastors, without making profound reflections on the importance of the service in which they are engaged, and the greatness of the trust which the sovereign commits to them! May they never ordain without recollecting, that, to a certain degree, they will | be responsible for all the sad consequences of a faithless or a fruitless ministry! May they always prostrate themselves on these occasions before God, as the apostles in the same case did, and pray, "Lord, show whom thou hast chosen," Acts i. 24. May our rulers and magistrates be affected with the worth of those souls whom the pastors instruct; and may they unite all their piety, all their pity, and all their power, to procure holy men, who may adorn so eminent, so venerable a post!

The last cause of the incapacity of so many Christians for seeing the whole of religion in its connexion and harmony: the last cause of their taking it only by bits and shreds, is their love of sensual pleasure. We do not speak here of those gross pleasures at which hea thens would have blushed, and which are incompatible with Christianity. We attack pleasures more refined, maxims for which reasonable persons become sometimes apologists: persons who on more accounts than one, are worthy of being proposed as examples: persons who would seem to be "the salt of the earth," the flower of society, and whom we cannot justly accuse of not loving religion. How rational, how religious soever they appear in other cases, they make no scruple of passing a great part of their time in gaming, in public diversions, in a round of worldly amusements; in pleasures, which not only ap-a pear harmless, but, in some sort, suitable to their rank, and which seem criminal only to those who think it their duty not to float on the surface of religion, but to examine the whole that it requires of men, on whom God hath bestowed the inestimable favour of revealing it. We may presume, that if we show What has been said on the choice of pastors people of this sort, that this way of life is one still more particularly regards the election of of the principal obstacles to their progress in tutors, who are employed to form pastors them- religion, and prevents their knowing all its selves. Universities are public springs, whence beauties, and relishing all its delights, we shall rivulets flow into all the church. Place at the not speak without success. In order to this, head of these bodies sound philosophers, good pardon me if I conjure you to hear this article, divines, wise casuists, and they will become not only with attention, but with that imparseminaries of pastors after God's heart, who tiality which alone can enable you to know will form the minds, and regulate the morals, whether we utter our own speculations, or of the people, gently bowing them to the yoke preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Recollect of religion. On the contrary, place men of here that general notion of religion which we another character at the head of our universi- have laid down: it contains truths of specuties, and they will send out impoisoned minis-lation, and truths of practice. Such sensual ters, who will diffuse through the whole church the fatal venom which themselves have imbibed.

3. The third cause which we have assigned, of the infancy and novitiate of most Christians in religious knowledge, is the multitude of their secular affairs. Far be it from us to aim at inspiring you with superstitious maxims. We do not mean that they who fill eminent posts in society should give that time to devotion which the good of the community requires. We allow, that in some critical conjunctures, the time appointed for devotion must be yielded to business. There are some urgent occasions when it is more necessary to fight than to pray: there are times of important business in which the closet must be sacrificed to the cares of life, and second causes must be attended to, even when one would wish to be occupied only about the first. Yet, after all, the duty that we recommend is indispensable. Amidst the most turbulent solicitudes of life, a Christian desirous of being saved, will devote some time to his salvation. Some part of the day he will redeem from the world and society, to meditate on eternity. This was the practice of those eminent saints, whose lives are proposed as patterns to us.

pleasures as we have just now mentioned, form invincible obstacles to the knowledge of both.

I. To the knowledge of speculative truths. How is it possible for a man to obtain a complete system of the doctrines of the gospel, while he is a slave to sensual pleasures!

1. To obtain a complete system of the doctrines of the gospel, there must be a certain habit of thinking and meditating. In vain ye turn over whole volumes, in vain ye attend methodical sermons, in vain ye parade with bodies of divinity, ye can never comprehend the connexion of religious truths unless ye acquire a habit of arranging ideas, of laying down principles, of deducing consequences, in short, of forming systems yourselves. This habit cannot be acquired without exercise, it is unattainable without serious attention, and profound application. But how can people devoted to pleasure, acquire such a habit? Sensual pleasure is an inexhaustible source of dissipation: it dissipates in preparing, it dissipates in studying, it dissipates after the study is at an end.

2. To counterbalance the difficulty of meditation and study, there must be a relish for it. Those who make study a duty, or a trade, seldom make any great progress in knowledge;

at least a prodigious difference has always been | subverted, the name of God blasphemed: and observed between the proficiency of those who he must hear all these without daring to discostudy by inclination, and those who study by ver the sentiments of his heart, because, as I necessity. But nothing is more capable of dis- just now observed, patience and compliance gusting us with the spiritual pleasures of study animate that body to which he is attached by and meditation, than the love of sensual plea- such necessary and intimate ties. sures. We will not intrude into the closets of these persons. But is there not a prodigious difference between their application to study and their attention to pleasure? The one is a violence offered to themselves, the other a voluptuousness, after which they sigh. The one is an intolerable burden, eagerly shaken off as soon as the time appointed expires: the other is a delicious gratification, from which it is painful sto part, when nature exhausted can support it no longer, or troublesome duty demands a cessation. In the one, hours and moments are counted, and the happiest period is that which terminates the pursuit: but in the other, time glides away imperceptibly, and people wish for the power of prolonging the course of the day, and the duration of life.

To acquire a complete knowledge of religious truths, it is not enough to study them in the closet, in retirement and silence; we must converse with others who study them too. But the love of sensual pleasure indisposes us for such conversations. Slaves to sensual pleaisures have but little taste for those delicious societies, whose mutual bond is utility, in which impartial inquirers propose their doubts, raise their objections, communicate their discoveries, and reciprocally assist each other's edification: for, deprive those who love sensual b pleasures, of gaming and diversions, conversation instantly languishes, and converse is at an

end.

But, secondly, if the love of sensual pleasure raise such great obstacles to the knowledge of speculative truths, it raises incomparably greater still to the truths of practice. There are Some Scripture maxims which are never thought of by the persons in question, except it be to enervate and destroy them; at least, they make no part of their system of morality. In your system of morality, what becomes of this Scripture maxim, "evil communications corrupt good manners?" 1 Cor. xv. 33. Nothing forms connexions more intimate, and at the same time more extravagant, than an immoderate love of pleasure. Men who differ in manners, age, religion, birth, principles, educations, are all united by this bond. The passionate and the moderate, the generous and the avaricious, the young and the old, agree to exercise a mutual condescension and patience towards each other, because the same spirit actuates, and the same necessities haunt them; and because the love of pleasure, which animates them all, can only be gratified by the concurrence of each individual.

In your system of morality, what becomes of those maxims of Scripture, which say that we must "confess Jesus Christ before men," that "whosoever shall be ashamed of him before men, of him will he be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father?" Matt. x. 32. Mark viii. 38. A man who is engaged in the monstrous assembly which the love of pleasure forms, must hear religion disputed, the morality of the gospel attacked, good manners

In your system of morality, what becomes of those Scripture maxims, which threaten those with the greatest punishments who injure others? The love of sensual pleasure causes offences of the most odious kind; I mean, it be→ trays your partners in pleasure into vice. Ye game without avarice; but do ye not excite avarice in the minds of those who play with you? Ye do not injure your families; but do ye not occasion other men to injure theirs? Ye are guilty of no fraud; but do ye not tempt others to be fraudulent?

What becomes in your moral system of those. maxims of Scripture that require us to contribute to the excision of "all wicked doers from the city of the Lord," Psal. ci. 8; to discoun tenance those who commit a crime as well as to renounce it ourselves? The love of sensual pleasure makes us countenance people of the most irregular conduct, whose snares are the most dangerous, whose examples are the most fatal, whose conversations are the most pernicious to our children and to our families, to civil society and to the church of God.

In your system of morality, what becomes of those maxims of Scripture which expostulate with us, when the Lord chastiseth us, to "be afflicted and mourn, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God; to enter into our chambers, and shut the doors about us, to hide ourselves until the indignation be overpast; to examine ourselves before the decree bring forth; to prepare ourselves to meet our God, to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it," James iv. 9. 1 Pet. v. 6. Isa. xxvi. 20. Zeph. ii. 1, 2. Amos iv. 12. Micah vi. 9; to mourn in sackcloth and ashes; and while we feel present miseries, to remember those that are past, tremble for those that are yet to come, and endeavour, by extraordinary efforts, to avert the anger of heaven? The love of sensual pleasure turns away people's attention from all these maxims, and represents those who preach them, as wild visionaries or dry de claimers. The people of whom we speak, these pious people, these people who love their salvation, these people who pretend to the glory of being proposed for examples, can in times of the deepest distress, when the church is bathed in tears, while the arm of God is crushing our brethren and our allies, when the same terrible arm is lifted over us, when we are threatened with extreme miseries, when the scourges of God are at our gates, when there needs only the arrival of one ship, the blowing of one wind, the wafting of one blast, to convey pestilence and plague into our country; these people can O God! "open their eyes that they may see!" 2 Kings vi. 17, In your system of morality, what becomes of Scripture exhortations to "redeem the time, to know the time of our visitation, to do all that our hands find to do, because there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go?" The love of pleasure inclines mortals, who may die in a

few days, people who perhaps have only a few days to bid their last adieus, to embrace their families, to settle their temporal affairs, to examine the neglected parts of religion, to re-establish the injured reputation of a neighbour, in a word, to prepare themselves to appear before that terrible tribunal to which death cites them: the love of sensual pleasure inclines these poor creatures, who have so short a time to live, and so great a task to perform; the love of sensual pleasure inclines these people to waste a considerable part of this fleeting life in amusements, that obliterate both the shortness of life, and the necessity of death.

How often have we seen old age as greedy of pleasure as youth! how often have we seen people bowing under the weight of age, how often have we seen them, even when their trembling hands could scarcely hold the cards, or the dice, make their feeble efforts to game; and, when their decayed eyes were incapable of distinguishing the spots, assist nature by art, their natural sight with artificial glasses, and thus consecrate the remains, those precious remains, of life to gaming, which God had granted for repentance!

All these causes of the infancy and novitiate of Christians in regard to religion, unite in one, which in finishing this discourse, we cannot but lament, nor can we lament it too much. We do not understand our own religion: we are, most of us, incapable of perceiving the admirable order, the beautiful symmetry, of its component parts. Why? It is because we have so little zeal for our salvation; it is because we form such languid desires to be saved.

wilt thou have me to do?" Acts tx. 6.; Lord, what wilt thou have me to believe? Lord, what wilt thou have me to love? Lord, what inclinations wilt thou have me to oppose, to mortify, to sacrifice? To be willing to be saved in receiving, without exception, all the practical truths, which compose an essential part of that religion which God has given us: Ah! my brethren, how rare is this disposition among Christians!

Without this disposition, however, (and let us not be ingenious to deceive ourselves,) without this disposition there is no salvation. It implies a contradiction to say that God will save us in any other way: for, as it is contradictory to say that he will give to an equal number the qualities of an unequal number, or to bodies the properties of spirits, or to spirits the properties of bodies; so also is it a contradiction to say, that vice shall reap the rewards of virtue, that the highway to hell is the path to paradise.

So that nothing remains in concluding this discourse, but to ask you, what are your intentions? What designs have ye formed? What projects do ye resolve to pursue? What are your aims? Have ye any thing more precious than your souls? Can ye conceive a nobler hope than that of being saved? Can ye propose a more advantageous end than your own salvation? Can ye persuade yourselves that there is a greater felicity than the fruition of God? Will ye destroy yourselves? Do ye renounce those delightful hopes that are set before you in the gospel? And shall all the fruit of our ministry be to accuse and confound you before God?

time finishes and your eternity begins. And can we resist this idea? Alas! what hearts! what Christians! what a church!

Indeed I know, that, except some unnatural creatures, except some monsters, to whom this Young man, thou mayest live fifty or sixty discourse is not addressed, every body professes years: but at the expiration of those fifty or to desire to be saved, yea, to prefer salvation to sixty years, time finishes and eternity begins. whatever is most pompous in the universe, and People of mature age, your race is partly run; most pleasant in this life. But, when the at- ten, fifteen, or twenty years more, through the tainment of it in God's way is in question, in dissipations and employments inseparable from the only way that agrees with the holiness of your lives, will vanish with an inconceivable his nature to direct, and with our happiness to rapidity; and then, time finishes and eternity obey, what a number of people do we meet begins with you. And ye old people, a few with, whose desires vanish? I desire to be years, a few months, a few days more, and saved, says each to himself; I desire to be sav-behold your race is at an end; behold your ed, but not by such a religion as the gospel prescribes, such as Jesus Christ preached, such as the apostles and ministers of the gospel preach after him; but I desire to be saved by such a religion as I have conceived, such a one as gratifies my passions and caprices. I desire to be saved, but it is on condition, that, while I obey some of the precepts of Jesus Christ, he will dispense with my obedience of others. I desire to be saved: but not on condition of my correcting my prejudices, and submitting them to the precepts of Jesus Christ; but on condition that the precepts of Jesus Christ should yield to my prejudices. I desire to be saved: but on condition of retaining my prepossessions, the system that I have arranged, the way of life that I pursue, and intend to pursue till I

die.

To desire salvation in this manner is too common a disposition among Christians. But to desire salvation in saying to God, with a sincere desire of obeying his voice, "Lord, what!

Grant, Almighty God, that our prayers may supply the defect of our exhortation; may we derive from thy bosom of infinite mercies what we despair of obtaining from the insensibility of our hearers! O thou Author of religion, thou divine Spirit, from whom alone could proceed this beautiful system which thou hast condescended to reveal to us, impress it in all its parts on our minds. Pluck up every plant which thy good hand hath not planted. umph over all the obstacles that our sins oppose to thine empire. Shut the gulfs of hell. Open the gates of heaven. Save us, even in spite of ourselves. Amen.

Tri

To the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, dominion and power, for ever. Amen.

1

SERMON II.

THE ETERNITY OF GOD. Preached in the French Church at Rotterdam, on the first Lord's Day of the Year 1724.

2 PET. iii. 8.

Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

WE could not meditate on the words which you have heard, my brethren, without recollecting that miraculous cloud which conducted the Israelites through the desert. It was all luminous on one side, and all opake on the other. The Jews say that it was the throne, or the triumphal chariot, of that Angel who marched at the head of the camp of Israel; of that Angel whom they call the Prince of the world, the Schekinah, the presence of the divine Majesty, the Deity itself. It is not needful to examine this opinion. I do not know whether the pillar of a cloud were a throne of God, but it was a beautiful symbol of the Deity. What is the Deity in regard to us? If it be the most radiant of all light, it is at the same time the most covered with darkness. Let the greatest philosophers, let the most extraordinary geniuses, elevate their meditations, and take the loftiest flights of which they are capable, in order to penetrate into the nature of the divine essence, the stronger efforts they make to understand this fearful subject, the more will they be absorbed in it: the nigher they approach the rays of this sun, the more will they be dazzled with its lustre. But yet, let the feeblest and most confined genius seek instructions, in meditating on the divine grandeurs, to direct his faith, to regulate his conduct, and to sweeten the miseries that embitter this valley of tears; he shall happily experience what the prophet did: "does he look to him? he shall be lightened," "Ps. xxxiv. 5.

larly, if ye desire to consider them in regard to the influence which they ought to have on your conduct, ye will behold light issuing from every part, nor is there any one in this assembly who may not approach it with confidence. This has encouraged us to turn our attention to a subject, which at first sight, seems more likely to confound than to edify us.

St. Peter aims to rouse the piety of Christians by the idea of that great day wherein the world must be reduced to ashes, when the new heavens and a new earth shall appear to the children of God, Libertines regarded that day as a chimera. "Where (said they) is the promise of the Lord's coming: for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation?” 2 Pet. iii. 4, &c. The words of my text are an answer to this objection; an idea which we will presently explain, but which ye must, at least in a vague manner, retain all along, if ye mean to follow us in this discourse, in which we would wish to include all the different views of the apostle. In order to which three things are necessary.

I. We will examine our text in itself, and endeavour to establish this proposition, That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

II. We will prove what we have advanced; that is, that St. Peter's design in these words was to answer the objections of libertines against the doctrine of the conflagration of the world; and we will show you that they completely answer the purpose.

III. We will draw from this doctrine, secured against the objections of libertines, such motives to piety as the apostle presents us with.

In considering these words in this point of light, we will apply them to your present circumstances. The renewal of the year, properly understood, is only the anniversary of the vanity of our life, and thence the calls to detach yourselves from the world. And what can be more proper to produce such a detach ment than this reflection, that not only the years which we must pass on earth are consuming, but also that the years of the world's subsistence are already consumed in part, and that the time approaches, in which it must be delivered to the flames, and reduced to ashes?

Let us first consider the words of our text in themselves, and let us prove this proposition, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

God presents himself to your eyes to-day, as he once presented himself to the Israelites in that marvellous phenomenon. Light on one side, darkness on the other. "A thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years." Let the greatest philosophers, let those extraordinary beings in whose formation God seems to have united an angelic intelligence to a human body, let them preach in our stead, let them fully explain the words of my text. From what abysses of existence does the perfect Being derive that du- The notion which I have of God is my prinration, which alike overspreads the present, the ciple: the words of my text are the conse future, and the past? how conceive a continu-quence. If I establish the principle, the conation of existence without conceiving a succession of time? how conceive a succession of time, without conceiving that he who is subject to it acquires what he had not before? how affirm that he who acquires what he had not be fore, considers "a thousand years as one day, and one day as a thousand years?" So many questions, so many abysses, obscurities, darknesses, for poor mortals.

But if ye confine yourselves to a conviction of the truth of the words of my text; particu

See Rabbi Menachem in Parasch. Beschalec. Exod. ziv. 19. fol. 63. edit. de Venise 5283. S.

VOL. I.-7

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sequence will be incontestable. 1. Eternity.— 2. Perfect knowledge, and, in some sort, the sight and presence of all that has been, of all that is, and of all that shall be.-3. Supreme happiness: are three ideas which form my notion of the Deity: this is my principle. thousand years" then "are as one day, and one day as a thousand years with the Lord:" this is my consequence. Let us prove the truth of the principle, by justifying the notion which we form of the Deity.

1. God is an eternal being. This is not a chimera of my mind; it is a truth accompanied

though the eternal Being had never said of himself, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last," Rev. i. 8; yea, though the eter nal Being had never convinced me of his grandeur, by the works of his hands, if I had been all alone in the nature of beings, I should have. been forced to admit an eternal Being. And this proposition, "There is an eternal Being," naturally flows from those, I exist, and I am not the author of my own existence, for if I be not the author of my own existence, I owe it to another Being. That Being to whom Owe my existence, derives his from himself, or like me, owes it to another. If he exist of himself, behold the eternal Being whom I have been

with all the evidence of which a proposition is capable. I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least you seem to hear me. These are facts, the certainty of which all the philosophers in the world can never destroy. I am not able to new-mould myself, nor can I help the perception of truths, the knowledge of which (if I may be allowed to say so) is as essential to me as my own existence. It does not depend on me not to regard Pyrrho and Academus, those famous defenders of doubt and uncertainty, as fools who extinguished the light of common sense, or rather as impostors, who pronounced propositions with their mouths, the falsity of which it was impossible their minds should not perceive. I repeat it again, the most sub-seeking; if he derive his existence from anotle objections of all the philosophers in the world united, can never diminish in me that impression which the perception of my own existence makes on my mind, nor hinder my evidence of the truth of these propositions; I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least (for with the people whom I oppose, one must weigh each expression, and, in some sort, each syllable) at least I have the same impressions as if there were beings before my eyes who heard

me.*

If I am sure of my own existence, I am no less sure that I am not the author of it myself, and that I derive it from a superior Being. Were I altogether ignorant of the history of the world; if I had never heard that I was only "of yesterday," as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. xc. 4; if I know not that my parents, who were born like me, are dead; were I not assured that I should soon die; if I knew nothing of all this, yet I should not doubt whether I owed my existence to a superior Being. I can never convince myself that a creature so feeble as I am, a creature whose least desires meet with insurmountable obstacles, a creature who cannot add "one cubit to his stature,” Matt. v. 27, a creature who cannot prolong his own life one single instant, one who is forced to yield, willing or unwilling, to a greater power which cries to him, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return," Gen. iii. 19; I can never convince myself that such a creature existed from all eternity, much less that he owes his existence only to himself, and to the eminence of his own perfections. It is then sure that I exist: it is also certain that I am not the author of my own existence. This certainty is all I ask, I ask only these two propositions, I exist, I am not the author of my own existence, to convince me that there is an eternal Being. Yes, though a revelation emanating from the bosom of Omniscience had never given me this idea of the Divinity; though Moses had never pronounced this oracle, "before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting thou art God," Psalm xc. 2; though the four and twenty elders, who surround the throne of God, had never rendered homage to his eternity, or, prostrating before him, incessantly cried, "We give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, Rev. xi. 17; *Des Cartes reasoned in the same manner, and made Ego cogo, erga sum, I think, therefore, I am, the first axiom of his system.

J. S.

ther, I reason about him as about the former. Thus I ascend, thus I am constrained to ascend, till I arrive at that Being who exists of himself, and who has always so existed.

Let such of you, my brethren, as cannot follow this reasoning, blame only themselves. Let not such people say, These are abstruse and metaphysical reflections, which should never be brought into these assemblies. It is not fair that the incapacity of a small number, an incapacity caused by their voluntary attachment to sensible things, and (so to speak) by their criminal interment in matter; it is not right that this should retard the edification of a whole people, and prevent the proposing of the first principles of natural religion. Eternity enters then into the idea of the creative Being; and this is what we proposed to prove.

2. "Omniscience, intimate acquaintance, and, in a manner, the presence of all that is, of all that has been, of all that shall be," is the second idea which we form of the Deity. The more we meditate on the essence and self-existence of the eternal Being, the more are we convinced that omniscience necessa rily belongs to eternity; so that to have proved that God possesses the first of these attributes, is to have proved that he possesses the second. But, as I am certain, that a great number of my hearers would charge those reflections with obscurity, of which they are ignorant only through their own inattention, I will not undertake to prove, by a chain of propositions, that the eternal Being knows all things: that, as author of all, he knows the nature of all; that, knowing the nature of all, he knows what must result from all. It will be better to give you this subject ready digested in our Holy Scriptures, than to oblige you to collect it by your own meditation. Recall then on this article these expressions of the sacred writers: “O Lord, thou knowest all things," John xxi. 17.-"The heart is deceit ful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart and try the reins," Jer. xvii. 9, 10.—“Known unto him are all his works from the beginning," Acts xv. 18.-The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, Heb. iv. 12, &c. Some interpreters think, that by