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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 scepticism; 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 acknowledgeth 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 refuseth 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 make 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 hath applied all the attention of which he is capable, to distinguish the good from the bad, renounceth the last, and embraceth the first: a man who, having felt the force of virtuous motives, doth not suffer himself to be imposed on by sensual sophisms: a man, who judgeth of truth and error by those infallible

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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.

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What is the character of the man who refuseth 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 fixeth 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 buildeth his house on that Rock; who sendeth all his riches before him into eternity; who maketh God, the great God, the depositary 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 hath 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 pla

ces 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 for "bearance 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 at tentive to our doctrines, and obedient to our precepts; those auditors, who thankfully receive the wise, and patiently bear with the weak, in our min→ istry: 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 doth 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 croud 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 sin

gularity 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 pastine; 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 t; 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 VI.

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 saith, 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 remem

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