A person so ungrateful, as not to discover any gratitude to God, when he bestows temporal blessings on him, can scarcely be found. We praise God, when he delivers us from any pub- 2. The gratitude of upright men is real. lic calamity, or from any domestic adversity; The praise of the Lord becomes them, because, when he recovers us from dangerous illness; while they praise God for his benefits, they when he raises us up an unexpected friend, or a live to the glory of their benefactor. Every protector, who assists us; when he sends us some gift of God furnishes us with both a motive prosperity, which renders life more easy. In and a mean of obedience to him. It is an exsuch cases as these, we render a homage to God, cess of ingratitude to make a contrary use of that cannot be refused without ingratitude. his gifts, and to turn the benefits that we receive against the benefactor from whom we receive them. What gifts are they by which

trol. Behold him filling the whole universe with his presence. Behold him in the palace of his glory, inhabiting the praises of the blessed, surrounded by thousand thousands, and by ten thousand times ten thousand angels, who excel in strength, and who delight to fly at the first signal of his will. Thou human soul! contemplate this object, and recover thy reason. What art thou? What was thine origin? What is thine end? Thou diminutive atom! great only in thine own eyes; behold thyself in thy true point of view. Dust! ashes! putrefaction! glorious only at the tribunal of thine own pride; divest thyself of the tawdry grandeur in which thou lovest to array thyself. Thou vapour! thou dream! Thou exhalation of the earth! evaporating in the air, and having no other consistence than what thine own imagination gives thee: behold thy vanity and nothingness. Yet this dream, this exhalation, this vapour, this dust and ashes and putrefaction, this diminutive creature, is an object of the eternal care and love of its God. For thee, contemptible creature! the Lord stretched out the heavens: for thee he laid the foundation of the earth: let us say more, for thee, contemptible creature! God formed the plan of redemption. What could determine the great Jehovah to communicate himself, in such a tender and intimate manner, to so contemptible a creature as man? His goodness, his goodness alone.

God has not distinguished us? Thee he has distinguished by a penetrating genius, which renders the highest objects, the deepest mysteries, accessible to thee. Wo be to thee! if thou employ this gift to invent arguments against the truths of religion, and to find out sophisms that befriend infidelity. An upright man devotes this gift to the service of his benefactor; he avails himself of his genius, to discover the folly of skeptical sophisms, and to demonstrate the truth of religion. On thee he has bestowed an astonishing memory. Wo be to thee! if thou use it to retain the pernicious maxims of the world. An upright man dedicates this gift to his benefactor; he employs his memory in retaining the excellent lessons of equity, charity and patience, which the Holy Spirit has taught him in the Scriptures. To thee he has given an authoritative elocution, to which every hearer is forced to bow. Wo be to thee! if thou apply this rare talent to seduce the minds, and to deprave the hearts of mankind. An upright man devotes this blessing to the service of his benefactor; he uses his eloquence to free the minds of men from error, and their lives from vice. Towards thee God has exercised a patience, which seems contrary to his usual rules of conduct towards sinners, and by which he has abounded towards thee in forbearance and long-suffering. Wo be to thee! if thou turn this blessing to an opportunity of violating the commands of God; if thine obstinacy run parallel with his patience, and if, Although a sense of our meanness should "because sentence against an evil work is not not terrify and confound us, yet it should exexecuted speedily," " thy heart be fully set include arrogance, and excite lowly sentiments. thee to do evil," Eccl. viii. 11. An upright man devotes this blessing to his benefactor's service. From the patience of God he derives motives of repentance. How easily might this article be enlarged! how fruitful in instruction would it be on this solemnity! But we proceed. 3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble; because an upright man, by publishing the gifts of God's grace, divests himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the goodness of him from whom they came. Far from us be a profane mixture of the real grandeurs of the Creator with the fanciful grandeurs of creatures! Far be those praises, in which he who offers them always finds, in his own excellence, the motives that induced the Lord to bestow his benefits on him!

Two reflections always exalt the gifts of God in the eyes of an upright man: a reflection on his meanness, and a reflection on his unworthiness; and it is with this comeliness of humility, if I may venture to call it so, that I wish to engage you to praise God for the blessings of this day.

1. Meditate on your meanness. Contrast yourselves with God, who gives himself to you to-day in such a tender manner. How soon is the capacity of man absorbed in the works and attributes of God! Conceive, if thou be capable, the grandeur of a Being, who "made the heavens by his word, and all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth." Think, if thou be capable of thinking, of the glory of a Being, who existed from all eternity, whose understanding is infinite, and whose power is irresistible, whose will is above con

Re

But what will our humility be, if we estimate the gifts of God's grace by an idea of our unworthiness? Let each recollect the mortifying history of his own life. Remember, thou! thy fiery youth, in which, forgetting all the principles, that thy pious parents had taught thee, thou didst acknowledge no law but thine own passionate and capricious will. Remember, thou! that period, in which thy heart being infatuated with one object, and wholly employed about it, thou didst make it thine idol, and didst sacrifice to it thine honour, thy duty, thy God. Recollect, thou! the cruel use, that for many years thou didst make of thy credit, thy riches, thy rank, when, being devoured with self-love, thou wast insensible to the voice of the widow and the orphan, and to a number of distressed people, who solicited relief. member thou! that fatal hour, the recollection of which ought to make thy "head waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears," Jer. ix. 1; that fatal hour, in which, God having put thee into the fiery trial of persecution, thou couldst not abide the proof. Like Peter, thou didst not know a disgraced Redeemer; thou didst cowardly abandon a persecuted church, and was just on the point of abjuring thy religion. Let each of us so consider himself as he seems in the eyes of a holy God. A criminal worthy of the most rigorous punishments! Let each of us say to himself, notwithstanding all this, it is I, guilty I, I, whose sins are more in number than the hairs on my head; it is I, who have been admitted this morning into the house of God; it is I, who have been invited this morning to that mystical repast, which sovereign wisdom itself prepared; it is I, who

have been encouraged against the just fears,
which the remembrance of my sins had excited,
and have heard the voice of God, proclaiming
in my conscience, "Fear not thou worm Ja-
cob," Isa. xli. 14. It is I, who have been
"abundantly satisfied with the fatness of the
house" of God, and have "drunk of the river
of his pleasures," Ps. xxxvi. 8. What inclines
God to indulge me in this manner? Goodness
only! O surpassing and inconceivable goodness!
thou shalt for ever be the object of my medi-
tation and gratitude! "How excellent is thy
loving-kindness, O God!" ver. 7. These are
the sentiments that ought to animate our praise
to-day. Such "
praise is comely for the up-
right."

Finally, the gratitude of an upright man is noble and magnanimous. The praise of God well becomes the mouth of an upright man, because he takes the love of God to him for a pattern of his behaviour to his fellow creatures. St. Paul has very emphatically expressed the happy change which the gospel produces in true Christians. "We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18. Some commentators, instead of reading "we all beholding as in a glass," as the expression is rendered in our translation, render the words, "We all becoming mirrors." I will not undertake to prove that this is the meaning of the term: it is certainly the sense of the apostle. He means to inform us, that the impression, which the evangelical display of the perfections of God makes on the souls of believers, engraves them on their minds, and renders them like mirrors, that reflect the rays, and the objects which are placed opposite to them, and represent their images. "They behold the glory of the Lord with open face. They are changed from glory to glory into the same image, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." I wish, my brethren, that the impression, which was made on you by the generosity and magnanimity of God, who loaded you this morning with his gracious benefits, may transform you to-day "into the same image from glory to glory." I would animate you with this, the most noble, the most sublime, the most comfortable, way of praising God,

What gave you so much peace and pleasure this morning, in what God did for you? Was it the pardon of your sins? Imitate it; pardon |

* The idea of reflecting, while one contemplates, the attributes of God, is a very fine thought, and fully expressive of the benevolent effects which Christianity produces in its disciples: but Mr. Saurin, whose business as a Christian minister was not with the fine, but the true, only meant, by what he had said above, that it was agreeable to the general design of the apostle. Erasmus was the first who translated St. Paul's term xTOT PICOμSVOL in speculo representantes. Beza renders it, in speculo intuentes, and the French bibles have it, nous contemplons comme en un miroir. Our author was delighted with the ingenuity of Erasmus, however, he could not accede to his translation, because, 1. He could meet with no Greek author, cotemporary with St. Paul, who had used the term in the sense of Erasmus. 2. Because he could not perceive any connexion between that signification and the phrase with open face. He abode therefore by the usual reading. See Serm. Tom. ix. S. viii. My idea of an object pleases me, therefore it is a true idea of it, is contemptible logic: yet how many pretended articles of religion have arisen from this way of reasoning

your brethren. Was it his past forbearance
with you? Imitate it; moderate that impatience
which the ingratitude of your brethren excites
in your minds. Was it that spirit of commu-
nication, which disposed a God, who is all-
sufficient to his own happiness, to go out of
himself, as it were, and to communicate his
felicity to creatures? Imitate it; go out of
those entrenchments of prosperity in which ye
lodge, and impart your benefits to your breth-
ren. Was it the continual watchfulness of
God for the salvation of your souls? Imitate
it; exert yourselves for the salvation of the
souls of your brethren; suffer not those who
are united to you by all the ties of nature, so-
ciety and religion, to perish through your luke-
warmness and negligence. While ye trium-
phantly exclaim, on this solemn festival, "Let
us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our sal-
vation," Ps. xcv. 1; remember your persecuted
brethren, to whom God refuses this pleasure;
remember "the ways of Zion," that ", mourn
because none come to the solemn feast," Lam.
i. 4.

My brethren, how pleasing is a Christian festival! How comfortable the institution, to which we were this morning called! But, I remember here a saying of Jesus Christ to his apostles, "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd," John x. 16. Alas! we also have sheep in another fold. When shall we have the comfort of bringing them into this? Ye divided families who are present in this assembly, when will ye be united? Ye children of the reformation! whom the misfortunes of the times have torn from us? ye dear parts of ourselves! when will ye come to us? When will ye be re-gathered to the flock of the great "Shepherd and Bishop of our souls" When will ye shed in our assemblies tears of repentance, for having lived so long without a church, without sacraments, without public worship? When will ye shed tears of joy for having recovered these advantages?

Great God! Thou great "God who hidest thyself!" is it to extinguish, or to inflame our zeal, that thou delayest the happy period? Are our hopes suspended or confounded? God grant, my dear brethren, that the praise, which we render to the Lord for all his benefits, may obtain their continuance and increase! And God grant, while he gives us our "lives for a prey," Jer. xxi. 9, that those of our brethren may be given us also! To him be honour and glory for ever! Amen.

SERMON XIV.

THE PRICE OF TRUTH.

PROVERBS Xxiii. 23.
Buy the Truth.

"WHAT is truth?" John xviii. 38. This question Pilate formerly put to Jesus Christ, and there are two things, my brethren, in the Scripture account of this circumstance very surprising. It seems strange that Jesus Christ

should not answer Pilate's question; and it seems equally strange that Pilate should not repeat the question till he procured an answer from Jesus Christ. One principal design of the Son of God, in becoming incarnate, was to dissipate the clouds with which the enemy of mankind had obscured the truth; to free it from the numberless errors with which the spirit of falsehood had adulterated it among the miserable posterity of Adam; and to make the fluctuating conjectures of reason subside to the demonstrative evidence of revelation. Jesus Christ himself had just before said, "to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth," ver. 37; yet, here is a man lying in the dismal night of paganism; a man born in "darkness, having no hope, and being without God in the world," Eph. v. 8; and ii. 12; here is a man, who, from the bottom of that abyss in which he lies, implores the rays of that "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," John i. 9; and asks Jesus Christ, 'What is truth?" and Jesus Christ refused to assist his inquiry, he does not even condescend to answer this wise and interesting question. Is not this very astonishing? Is not this a kind of miracle?

content with the putting of these questions, do we refuse that assiduous application of the mind, that close attention of thought, which the answers to our questions would require! How often are we in pain, lest the light of the truth, that is shining around us, should force us to discover some objects, of which we choose to be ignorant! Jesus Christ, therefore, often leaves us to wander in our own miserable dark conjectures. Hence so many prejudices, hence so many erroneous opinions of religion and morality, hence so many dangerous delusions, which we cherish, even while they divert our attention from the great end, to which we ought to direct all our thoughts, designs, and views.

I would fain show you the road to truth today, my brethren; open to you the path that leads to it; and by motives taken from the grand advantages that attend the knowledge of it, animate you to walk in it.

I. We will examine what it costs to know truth.

II. What truth is worth.

Our text is, "buy the truth;" and the title of our sermon shall be, The Christian's Logic. Doubtless the greatest design that an immortal mind can revolve, is that of knowing truth But if Jesus Christ's silence be surprising, one's self: and the design, which is next to is it not equally astonishing that Pilate should the former in importance, and which surpasnot repeat the question, and endeavour to per- ses it in difficulty, is that of imparting it to suade Jesus Christ to give him an answer. A others. But if a love of truth; if a desire of man, who had discovered the true grounds of imparting it to a people, whom I bear always the hatred of the Jews; a man, who knew that on my heart; if ardent prayers to the God of the virtues of the illustrious convict had occa- truth; if these dispositions can obtain the sided their accusations against him; a man, knowledge of truth, and the power of impartwho could not be ignorant of the fame of his ing it, we may venture to hope, that we shall miracles; a man, who was obliged, as it were, not preach in vain. May God himself crown to become the apologist of the supposed cul- our hopes with success! prit before him, and to use this plea, "I find in him no fault at all;" which condemned the pleader, while it justified him for whose sake the plea was made; this man only glances at an opportunity of knowing the truth. He asks, "What is truth?" But it does not much signify to him, whether Jesus Christ answer the question or not. Is not this very astonishing? Is not this also a kind of miracle?

I. We are to inquire for the road that leads to truth; or, to use the ideas of the text, we are to tell you what it costs to know truth.

Before we enter on this inquiry, it is necessary to determine what we mean by truth. If there be an equivocal word in the world, either in regard to human sciences, or in regard to religion, it is this word truth. But, not to enter into a metaphysical dissertation on the different ideas that are affixed to the term, we will content ourselves with indicating the ideas which we affix to it here.

My brethren, one of these wonders is the cause of the other, and, if you consider them in connexion, your astonishment will cease. On the one hand, Jesus Christ did not answer Pilate's question, because he saw plainly, that his iniquitous judge had not such an ardent love of truth, such a spirit of disinterestedness and vehement zeal, as truth deserved. On the other, Pilate, who perhaps might have liked well enough to have known truth, if a simple wish could have obtained it, gave up the desire at the first silence of Jesus Christ. He did not think truth deserved to be inquired after twice. The conduct of Jesus Christ to Pilate, and the conduct of Pilate to Jesus Christ, is repeated every day. Our assiduity at church, our attention to the voice of the servants of God, our attachment to the sacred books in which truth is deposited; all these dispositions, and all these steps in our conduct, are, in a manner, so many repetitions of Pilate's ques-tween an object and our idea of it. tion, "What is truth?" What is moral truth? What is the doctrinal truth of a future state, of judgment, of heaven, of hell? But how often,

Truth ought not to be considered here as subsisting in a subject, independently of the reflections of an intelligence that considers it. I do not affirm that there is not a truth in every object which subsists, whether we attend to it or not: but I say, that in these phrases, to search truth, to love truth, to buy truth, the term is relative, and expresses a harmony between the object and the mind that considers it, a conformity between the object and the idea we have of it. To search after truth, is to endeavour to obtain adequate ideas of the object of our reflections; and to buy truth, is to make all the sacrifices which are necessary for the obtaining of such ideas as are proportional to the objects of which our notions are the images. By truth, then, we mean, an agreement be

But we may extend our meditation a little farther. The term truth, taken in the sense we have now given it, is one of those abstract

But neither this universal truth, nor the disposition of mind which conducts us to it, can be acquired without labour and sacrifice. They must be bought. "Buy the truth." And, to confine myself to some distinct ideas, universal truth, or the disposition of mind, which leads to it, requires the sacrifice of dissipation; the sacrifice of indolence; the sacrifice of precipitancy of judgment; the sacrifice of prejudice; the sacrifice of obstinacy; the sacrifice of curiosity; the sacrifice of the passions. We comprise the matter in seven precepts. 1. Be attentive,

terms, the precise meaning of which can never | deserves the greatest application of our minds be ascertained, without determining the object and hearts; and with this disposition we shall to which it is attributed. There is a truth in make immense advances in the science of every art and science. There is a truth in the salvation. art of rising in the world; a certain choice of means; a certain dexterous application of circumstances; a certain promptitude at seizing an opportunity. The courtier buys this truth, by his assiduity at court, by his continual attention to the looks, the features, the gestures, the will, the whimsies of his prince. The merchant buys this truth at the expense of his rest and his health; sometimes at the expense of his life, and often at that of his conscience and his salvation. In like manner, there is a truth in the sciences. A mathematician racks his invention, spends whole nights and days, suspends the most lawful pleasures, and the most natural inclinations, to find the solution of a problem in a relation of figures, in a combination of numbers. These are not the truths which the Wise Man exhorts us to buy. They have their value, I own, but how seldom are they worth what they cost to obtain!

What then is Solomon's idea? Does he mean only the truths of religion, and the science of salvation? There, certainly, that which is truth by excellence may be found; nor can it be bought too dear. I do not think, however, that it would comprehend the precise meaning of the Wise Man to understand by truth here the science of salvation alone. His expression is vague, it comprehends all truths, it offers to the mind a general idea, the idea of universal truth. "Buy the truth."

But what is this general idea of truth? What is universal truth? Does Solomon mean, that we should aim to obtain adequate ideas of all beings, that we should try to acquire the perfection of all arts, that we should comprehend the mysteries of all sciences? Who is equal to this undertaking?

It seems to me, my brethren, that when he exhorts us here to "buy the truth," in this vague and indeterminate sense, he means to excite us to endeavour to acquire that happy disposition of mind which makes us give to every question, that is proposed to us, the time and attention which it deserves: to each proof its evidence; to each difficulty its weight; to every good its real value. He means to inspire us with that accuracy of discernment, that equity of judgment, which would enable us to consider a demonstration as demonstrative, and a probability as probable only, what is worthy of a great application as worthy of a great application, what deserves only a moderate love as worthy of only a moderate love, and what deserves an infinite esteem as of an infinite esteem; and so on. This, I think, my brethren, is the disposition of mind with which Solomon means to inspire us. This, if I may be allowed to say so, is an aptness to universal truth. With this disposition, we may go as far in the attainment of particular truths as the measure of the talents, which we have received of God, and the various circumstances, in which Providence has placed us, will allow. Especially, by this disposition, we shall be convinced of this principle, to which Solomon's grand design was to conduct us; that the science of salvation is that, which, of all others,

2. Do not be discouraged at labour.
3. Suspend your judgment.
4. Let prejudice yield to reason.
5. Be teachable.

6. Restrain your avidity of knowing.
7. In order to edify your mind, subdue your
heart.

This is the price at which God has put up this universal truth, and the disposition that leads to it. If you cannot resolve on making all these sacrifices, you may, perhaps, arrive at some particular truth: but you can never obtain universal truth. You may, perhaps, become famous mathematicians, or geometricians, judicious critics, or celebrated officers; but you can never become real disciples of truth.

1. The sacrifice of dissipation is the first price we must pay for the truth. Be attentive is the first precept, which we must obey, if ve would know it. A modern philosopher has carried, I think, this precept too far. He pretends, that the mind of man is united to two very different beings: first to the portion of matter, which constitutes his body, and next, to God, to eternal wisdom, to universal reason. He pretends, that, as the emotions which are excited in our brain, are the cause of our sentiments, effects of the union of the soul to the body; so attention is the occasional cause of our knowledge, and of our ideas, effects of the union of our mind to God, to eternal wisdom, to universal reason. The system of this philosopher on this subject has been, long since, denominated a philosophical romance. It includes, however, the necessity, and the advantage, of attention, which is of the last importance. Dissipation is a turn of mind, which makes us divide our mind among various objects, at a time when we ought to fix it wholly on one. Attention is the opposite disposition, which collects, and fixes our ideas on one object. Two reflections will be sufficient to prove that truth is unattainable without the sacrifice of dissipation, and the application of a close attention.

The first reflection is taken from the nature of the human mind, which is finite, and contracted within a narrow sphere. We have only a portion of genius. If, while we are examining a compound proposition, we do not proportion our attention to the extent of the proposition, we shall see it only in part, and we shall fall into error. The most absurd propositions * Malbranche in his Search after Truth. Book iii. chap. 6.