perpetration of crimes, but it cannot raise in his bosom the love of any virtue; it may force man to screen his enormities under the veil of hypocrisy, but in doing so, it kills every estimable principle in his heart, and sinks him to the lowest depth of moral humiliation,

It may perhaps, be affirmed, that civilization can supply the place of Religion, and assume the guidance of human actions. The age in which we live has decided that point, and put the question to rest, I trust, for ever. It has been reserved for our days, and for our instruction, to see how civilized men can act when withdrawn from the salutary restraint and benignant influence of Religion. They have acted. The voice of unutterable confusion has echoed back their deeds. The groan of universal carnage has ascended to the throne of the Deity. They have borne fearful testimony to the value of Religion-they have raised as evidence to its necessity, monuments that never will be erased from the mind of man. The lesson was an awful one, heaven grant we may profit by it. But I do not rest on the follies or the miseries of the present day, when I assert the dependance of human happiness on Religion; I am borne out in the truth of that assertion by history in every age, and by man in all the varieties of his condition. When we trace the cheerless map of man in those portions of the world where the voice of the Evangelist has not yet been heard, what prospect offers itself to our attention? We see the earth covered over by countless hordes of Savages, dark, unsocial and hostile, without God, without hope, without humanity, rotting away generation after generation like the vegetables on which they feed, or the beast with whom they assort.

Passing from this humiliating view of our species, and directing our attention to those regions where the light of christianity has dawned upon man, we see him softened, humanized, enlightened, and lest any doubt should exist respecting the cause of his improvement, we discover social happiness and national prosperity, growing with the growth of Religion & declining with its fall. Thus we find those countries which first received the advantages of christianity, adorned by every virtue, improved by every art, illumined by every science; holding on a bright and unblemished course through long succession of ages, till pride, corruption and ingratitude rendered them unworthy of the Gospel, and provoked the Almighty to withdraw its light from them. Sad reverse! A long night of misery, ignorance and barbarity, has since overspread these devoted countries, and fallen from the high character he had borrowed from Religion, man has sunk into a state of abasement, little raised above the brute that perishes. Europe offered a refuge to the exiled remnant of eastern greatness and Religion, and Europe was amply rewarded for her hospitality. The track of the barbarian was blotted from her soil, the torch of science blazed through all her nations; man rose and flourished in every quality that assimilates him to the Deity, in reason, in piety, in virtue. The blessings of Heaven were not merely ministered with liberality, they were scattered with profusion; but the fountain from which these blessings flowed on the nations of Europe, has been dried up by the folly and impiety of its inhabitants. They have loaded the Gospel of Christ with dishonour. They have broken the chain that bound them to the Deity, and they have sunk the dupes and victims of a proud, shallow, presumptuous philosophy. The storm of Almighty ven

geance has burst over their heads, but from the cen tre of its devastation, the angel of wisdom has proclaimed this great instruction to the world; they who are false to their God will be traitors to their country-the bosom, which has felt the withering touch of infidelity, will not be the foremost to shield the sacred rights of society-the heart which is inspired by the genuine spirit of Christianity, will prove in the day of trial, the abode of patriotism, of honour, of every quality that enobles man. These are not the visionary ravings of a heated fancy, they are the unanswerable deductions of experience. They are truths incorporated in the history of Europe, and written in imperishable characters on its soil. And can the diffusion of such a Religion as this among our fellow-creatures, be deemed a thing of indifference? The man that could hazard such an opinion, is neither intelligent, nor humane. He is equally a stranger to the motives that create rectitude in the human breast, and to that power which lifts man to a greatness above his nature; for these motives and that power can be found only in christianity. The general diffusion of that blessed Religion, is therefore a general benefit conferred on man; the best security for virtue, the only security for happiness; hence I re-assert that the object of this day's meeting is important, as it goes to spread that invaluable blessing through our country.

The advantages conferred on mankind by the christian dispensation cannot be fairly estimated by any partial view of that wondrous work. We adore the victim whom love conducted to Calvary. We venerate that power which could arrest the uplifted arm of God's avenging justice. We would appreciate that B

blood which has appeased the wrath of Heaven, and washed away the stain of human delinquency. We bless the goodness which cheered a benighted world with the joyous tidings of its deliverance; and the business of this day, calls on us, in a special manner, to admire the provident arrangement which perpetuates to mankind the benefit of this great sacrifice, by a regular system of spiritual government, deriving its institution from Christ, and relying on the truth of his promises for the certainty of its continuance. In this matchless production of mercy and wisdom, nothing has been left to the folly of human speculation, nothing has been surrendered to the wickedness of human passion, nothing to the workings of human vanity. The constitution of this government has been formed, the combination of all its parts has been arranged by the unerring wisdom of God. Its object is specially defined, the perfection of the Saints and the edification of the body of Christ. The duties of its chief officers distinctly pointed out-to yield fearless testimony to the faith revealed by Christ; to guard with anxious solicitude and feed with wholesome doctrine the flock of their heavenly master; to maintain order, peace, and discipline, in those portions of Christ's church committed to their guidance, and to hold themselves and their people united to the first of christian Pastors, to whom appertains plenitude of Apostolical power and pre-eminent ecclesiastical jurisdiction. To this spiritual government Christ has promised a duration co-extensive with time; "behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world:" and the lapse of eighteen centuries argues a stability which must attract the notice and fix the attention even of the unbelieving. During that period every human. institution has repeatedly changed; the best establish

ed empires have been broken up in their foundation; governments which the folly of human wisdom had deemed almost imperishable, have passed away, and scarcely left their name with the historian; but the spiritual government of Christ's church, has come down to us, unaltered, unbroken, unimpaired," resting upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone."

The gradation of order and subordination of pow er in the christian priesthood are clearly designated in scripture, but the solemnity of this day limits my observations and your attention, to the first order of christian ministers, the successors of the Apostles. The just claim of Bishops to that rank and that succession, is warranted by every description of authority respected among christians: by scripture, by tradition, by the universal practice of the christian church, from the days of the Apostles, to those in which we live. In the acts of the Apostles, St. Paul delivers this solemn admonition to the episcopal order. "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you Bishops to rule the church of God." In the Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, we find the latter after his appointmen tas Bishop of Ephesus, invested with all the essential attributes of Apostolical authority, empowered to command and teach those under his care, to see that no doctrine was preached but such as had been delivered by our Lord and his Apostles, to commit the office of instruction to faithful and qualified men, and to select for the sacred ministry, subjects of blameless manners, of steady faith, and approved discretion.

We find the same authority exercised in the churches of Crete by Titus, whom St. Paul had constituted