he takes, till he reach at length the tomb; and there his light goes out all beyond is impenetrable darkness. All beyond is cheerless and disconsolate; all beyond is a land of desolation, where, in the language of holy Job, "no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth." Good God! my friends, what a dismal, horrid gloom, is this! And what renders it still more dismal and horrid, is the opposition which exists to the removal of it. For it is the folly of those, who have the misfortune to be involved in the darkness of infidelity, to imagine that they are walking all the while in noonday light; resembling, in this respect, their heathen predecessors, of whom St. Paul remarks, "that their foolish hearts were darkened, and that professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." (Rom. c. i. v. 21-22). And thus, as the sight of the blind man in the Gospel, would not have been restored, had he not applied to the heavenly physician who was passing by, and as he never would have applied to him, had he not been sensible of the reality of his blindness; so these wretched votaries of infidelity, not being conscious of that mental darkness in which they are enveloped, but conceiting themselves, on the contrary, to be the most enlightened of human beings, have no notion of suing for relief to that great source of divine illumination, that" enlighteneth every man who cometh into the world;" and consequently, they remain in their unhappy state. There are not any, I am convinced, of the spiritually blind

of this description among my present hearers; but, if unfortunately there were, the following is the language in which I would address them. Deluded children of incredulity, who, on your extravagant estimation of the natural force of your intellectual powers, reject as useless the aid of revelation, listen, I entreat you, to the few observations, which, as your well-wisher and friend, I am about to submit to your serious consideration. Think not, that it is my intention to depreciate in any manner the just value of human reason. I am sensible, on the contrary, of its intrinsic excellence; and am willing to acknowledge it to be the best prerogative of your being, the faculty which gives to man a decided superiority above every other species of the animated creation in this sublunary world, and in which consists beyond every other the resemblance which he bears to the Author of his existence. It enables him to carry his researches into the secrets of nature, and to make a variety of important discoveries. From the physical, it leads him into the metaphysical and moral world, furnishes him there with many subjects of curious speculation, and many wise maxims for the regulation of his conduct. And what is of incomparably greater consequence, it elevates his mind to that great Universal Cause, from whom all things proceed, and in whom " we live, move, and have our being.""-" For the invisible things of him," says the Apostle, the Apostle, "from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the

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things that are made, his eternal power also and divinity." (Rom. c. i. v. 20.) But here its office and commission end. It can go no farther. It can not proceed with you into those ulterior regions of the mysteries of God, which are replete, however, with objects in the knowledge of which you are deeply interested. It can not make you acquainted with the true state of your present condition, nor can it unfold to you your future destination. There is another guide, to whom the office of disclosing to you these important objects has been divinely committed; and whose secure direction reason itself admonishes you to follow. That guide is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that can instruct you in these supernatural truths. It is the Gospel alone, that can impart to you authentic intelligence of the end for which God has placed you in this temporary habitation, and of his farther designs in your regard. It is the Gospel alone, that can make known to you with certainty, your terms of acceptance with Him; which can point out to you the way of the divine commandments, in which it becomes you to pursue your course; which can prevent you from wandering into the devious paths of error, and of vice; and which can accurately teach you what it becomes you to believe, and what to practice, in order that you may obtain everlasting life. It is the Gospel alone, that can clear up every doubt, and disentangle every perplexity respecting the mysterious dispensations of

Providence, which are apt sometimes to arise in the best disposed minds. It is the Gospel alone, that can effectually support you in the most trying scenes of affliction and distress,-which can gladden the last moments of expiring life,—and which can cause you to descend with courage into the tomb,— by directing the attention of your departing spirit to that cheering prospect of a blissful immortality which lies open beyond it. Such, I say, my friends, are the highly momentous and satisfactory disclosures which the Gospel makes to those who commit themselves without hesitation to its unerring direction; and that you may with perfect security abandon yourselves to its guidance, without the slightest danger of being misled by it, you have the authority of reason itself to convince you. For reason itself presents you with a variety of strong and unanswerable proofs, by which the claim of the Gospel to your confidence is clearly established. Those proofs are, the completion of the prophecies which were fulfilled in the person of its Divine Author; the illustrious and well attested miracles which he performed, the sublimity of his doctrines, the purity of his moral precepts, the sanctity of his life; the rapid propagation, extensive diffusion, and unshaken stability, of his holy religion, in opposition to every possible means which human depravity, combined with infernal malice, could employ or devise for its extirpation from the earth. To which may be added, a vast. number of collateral proofs, and subordinate cir

cumstances, all concurring to form such a body of evidence as no other truth was ever able to boast. Surely, my friends, the whole of this collective evidence with which reason itself furnishes you, in support of the credit due to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, should be sufficient to induce you to take it for your guide, and to be directed by its dic

tates.

From the consideration of the condition of the professed infidel, I now proceed to the less deplorable indeed, but yet melancholy state of those, who, though the light of revelation be not completely shut out from their minds, are prevented nevertheless, by the false medium through which they look, and by the distempered state of their mental faculties, from receiving a true impression of the objects on which it shines. These persons, indeed, may be said to resemble more the blind man of whom St. Mark speaks, than him who is the subject of St. Luke's narrative in this day's Gospel; of the former of whom, when imperfectly cured, the Evangelist has given the following statement. And looking up, he said, I see men as trees walking." The situation of those who are at present under consideration, may, with propriety, be conceived in a spiritual sense, to be similar to his. Like the blind man who had imperfectly recovered his sight, they see not the objects presented to them by the light of revelation as -they really are. They are accustomed to look at them through the delusive medium of private

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