procure the expiation of our sins, and to satisfy the divine justice.—It is to believe, that, three days after being placed in the tomb, He rose again gloriously from the dead. It is to believe that He ascended up into heaven, after having remained forty days upon the earth, for the purpose of giving his final instructions to his disciples. It is to believe, that, ten days after his ascension, He sent down his Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, from whose inspiration all that they have left for our instruction proceeded. It is to believe, that He is our King, our Saviour, our High Priest, our Redeemer; and that at the last day He will be our Judge.-It is to believe, that He is the beloved Son" of the Father, "in whom He is well pleased;" that "neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved."It is to believe, that He hath become, through the divine appointment, our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption;that "all the treasures of wisdom and of know ledge" which before were hid," are now found united together in Him. And here, My Brethren, observe well, that we make use of such expressions only as are taken from holy writ. We have no disposition to force upon your belief the dictates of men, the opinions of men, the systems of men. What need is there that man should speak, upon points respecting which the Spirit of God hath spoken? What need is there for man to offer explanations, respecting points upon which it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give no explanation? What need has man to form conjectures, where the Spirit of God has chosen to leave us in uncertainty and ignorance? To believe in Jesus Christ, is to adopt, according to the precept given us by our blessed Saviour, the humbleness and simplicity of a child; and in that disposition to read his Holy Word. There if we find mysteries, he asks not of us to search them out: If there are difficulties, he does not burden us with their solution: If there are some apparent contradictions and they are only apparent-he will reconcile them at the last day. To us it matters little we shall be, notwithstanding, disciples of Jesus Christ; we shall have, notwithstanding, fulfilled the first condition which he requires of us; if we receive with a full and entire faith all that we find in the Holy Scriptures, without the retrenchment of a single word, a single syllable, -a single letter. - Now, My Brethren, I ask, have we that full and entire belief in Jesus Christ, and in the writings of his Apostles?-Alas! when, swollen by tempests, the torrents rush with fury from the hills, and sweep away from the plains below their fertile harvests;-when some appalling conflagration destroys, in a few hours, those dwellings and monuments which men had reared at the cost of so much time and labour;-long after the waters have subsided,long after the flames have become extinct,you may perceive the desolate traces which those devouring scourges have left behind: And thus, not in vain has Infidelity of late walked arrogantly forth. She has poured forth, ther than blamed, should we fail in our object; more especially, if, conscious of the extent of our misfortune, we have abstained from every thing, whether in conduct or in discourse, which might have had the effect of poisoning other men's minds with our doubts and uncertainties: I will even add, that, should there, by possibility, exist a man so unhappily circumstanced (which, however, I find it hard to conceive,) God would assuredly come to his aid; and would finally cause such a light to shine into his soul, as would effectually banish all the obscurity of doubt. But when a man, instead of endeavouring to satisfy his doubts, has, on the contrary, suffered himself to peruse such works, and to lend an ear to the utterance of such principles and such pleasantries, as tend naturally to suggest or to strengthen them; when, in short, he has omitted every precaution that might have secured his heart and mind from this baleful contagion;-in such a case he is not to be pitied merely, but severely blamed, and most justly condemned. You, then, who have not that firm belief in the Son of God which might be expected of you, are you desirous to escape out of this state of condemnation? For the attainment of that end, three nearly infallible methods are offered to you. Of these the first is, to peruse some of those excellent productions, wherein men of competent learning have set forth the arguments and evidences, to which they have been indebted for the confirmation and fixedness of their own faith. Why should such reasons as have carried conviction into the minds of men of the best information, and the least disposed to take up with a too easy belief, fail to produce the same effect upon you? As the sun, at his rising, disperses in an instant the heavy vapours that shrouded the world, so will the perusal of these writings disperse every doubt from your minds, and convince you of their weakness and absurdity, and of the folly of those arguments, sophisms, and sarcasms, upon which your incredulity was grounded. But it may be that you have not the leisure nor the knowledge necessary for devoting |