66

tands. Paul, and the Missionaries who were prepared under his immediate inspection, accomplished much in this benevolent work; they were followed in it by others of a similar spirit; and thus the standard of the cross became unfurled, not only in Greece, and Italy, and Spain, and Gaul, but in more distant England, the land of our ancestors.-England thereforc, which was then a land of darkness and of the shadow of death," and which was literally "full of the habitations of cruelty," Missionaries were honored as the instruments of enlightening and reclaiming. Not by tortures and punishments, but by the saving, humanizing influence of the gospel, they quenched the fires, and overturned the altars, and destroyed the groves of the murderous Druids, and rescued those from whom we derived our being, and in effect saved us, from all the horrors of heathenism, here and hereafter.-How great then our indebtedness to the work of Missions? How great our indebtedness to the gospel of peace?

I proceed, thirdly, to consider and enforce some of the duties which the preceding review is fitted to impress upon us. And,

1. It becomes us to adore the sovereign grace of God, as manifested in the circumstances of our existence. Why was our lot cast in this favoured period of the world, and in this highly favoured portion of it? Why were we not doomed to an age of bondage and darkness, an age of Druidical superstition and cruelty? Why were we not left to worship the oaks ef our forests, or the work of our own hands; and to the forlorn hope of appeasing by human sacrifices the dreaded wrath of imaginary gods? Why were we not consigned, with others who have lived before us, to a state of barbarism, without Bibles, without

ordinances, destitute alike of rational enjoyments in this world, and a hope of glory beyond the grave? Are we better than our fathers? Who then has made us to differ from them? And why are we thus highly and happily distinguished ?—We can solve questions like these, my brethren, only by referring them to the sovereign pleasure and the sovereign grace of God. It hath pleased him to distinguish us from all the generations which have been before us, by loading us with greater mercies, and putting into our hands a richer price to get wisdom. May we have hearts to adore his sovereign grace, and to render again according to the blessings we have received. We should remember too that our responsibility increases with our privileges; and that if, after what has been done for us, we fail of the grace of life, our doom in the other world must be peculiarly dreadful. It must in that case be more tolerable for our poor pagan ancestors-yea, "more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment," than for us.

2. We see from what has been said, that we ought very highly to value the gospel.-Compare Old England, or New, at the present time, with what they were previous to their being visited with the light of the gospel; and how great, how happy the change! Instead of unmeaning ceremonies and barbarous, murderous rites; the God of heaven is worshipped in the way of his own appointment; the consolations of the gospel are felt; and its Divine Institutions are known and observed. Instead of terror and bondage in this life, despair in death, and darkness and wretchedness beyond the tomb; the pleasure of the infinite Creator is revealed and understood, and by all who truly seek him, his love

and favor are enjoyed. Learning too has taken the place of ignorance; wealth of poverty; social refinement of barbarian rudeness; rational liberty of lawless domination; and, in short, all the charities and joys of Christian society, of the multiform horrors of untutored heathenism. The change which has been produced is so obvious and great, that its reality cannot for a moment be questioned.-But what, my friends, has done it? To what, as a leading cause, may this change be traced? I hazard nothing in asserting that it is the gospel. The religious change of which I have spoken has been produced directly by the gospel; and the change in other things has been effected by Christian influence. Without the gospel, we had lived and died in all the wretchedness of our pagan fathers. Without the gospel, this world had been destitute of every thing spiritually desirable, and had been little if at all better than the world below. How deeply then we are indebted to the gospel. And how highly we should value it. Whatever else we underrate and despise, let us cling, my brethren, to our Christian privileges, as being necessarily connected with every thing desirable in this life, and the foundation of all our hopes for the life to come.

3. In view of what has been said, we should learn our great obligations to the cause of Missions.-It is not uncommon for persons in this enlightened age and country, to despise and oppose the cause of Missions. They represent the Missionary work as needless and useless, and omit no opportunity of embarrassing and reproaching it. But what had been the condition even of such persons themselves, had it not been for the work of missions? And what had now been the condition of the world, had it not been for this work? The gospel was once confined to Palestine,

Suppose no pains had
Or, in other words,

and to a small part of the Jewish nation. Suppose it never had extended farther. been taken to extend it farther. suppose nothing had ever been done in the work of Missions. What had been the present deplorable condition of the nations? What had been the situation of our race, in time and for eternity?-We have seen that our ancestors were brought to a knowledge of Christianity, by the labor of Missionaries. Suppose then that this labor had been withheld, and our fathers had been left to their idols, their Druids, and their murderous rites. What, in that case, had been the situation of us, their children, at the present hour? O my brethren, how much we are indebted, and how deeply we ought to feel our obligations, to the cause of Missions? Those who oppose this cause are opposing that, without which themselves had been savages and heathens-without which the fairest, happiest portions of our globe had now been filled with idols, and covered with pollution and blood.

4. If we are thus deeply indebted to the cause of Missions, then we are under strong obligations to support this cause. If the gospel has done so much for us, we should be engaged to extend its blessings to others. Every consideration which could have induced Christians more than a thousand years ago to send the gospel to our heathen fathers, and thus snatch them and us from the horrors of a bloody and idolatrous superstition, are now urging us to send the same gospel, and perform the same friendly office, to those who dwell in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death. Indeed, considerations more powerful are urging us to this duty, growing out of the clearer light, and the superior facilities and privileges which we now enjoy. And on the other hand, every

objection which can be arrayed against the cause of Missions now, might with equal if not greater propriety have been insisted on then. If it be objected, for instance, that the work of Missions is great and expensive; so it was then : Nor had Christians then perhaps an hundredth part of the ability to bear this expence, which they have at present. Or if it be objected, that we have heathens enough among our selves; the same remark, in a stricter sense, and to a much greater extent, was true then. Or if it be objected farther, that Christ can take care of his cause, and spread his gospel, without human aid; so he could then. But if objections like these had prevailed with Christians formerly, and prevented them from sending the gospel to the benighted abodes of our Pagan ancestors; what had become of them-and what had become of us ?-Our indebtedness to Missions is certainly a powerful reason, and one suited to come home to every bosom, why we should lay aside all vain excuses and objections, and engage in the work of spreading the gospel, with perseverance and zeal.

The remarks which have been made shew how reasonable and important it is, that all who possess the gospel should embrace it without delay. It is a price put into our hands to get wisdom; but unless we have hearts to improve it, it can do us no permanent good. So far from this, it must, as a slighted abused privilege, become a means indirectly of increasing our guilt, and aggravating our eternal doom. "He that chastiseth the heathen," who have not the word of life; will he not with a sorer hand correct and punish us, if we reject this heavenly word and go down to death? Let us then be spiritually