of Montanus, the contradictions of the Manicheans? Follow every age; as, in order to prove the juft, it is necef fary that there be herefies. You will find that in every age the church hath always been miferably rent with them.

Recal to your remembrance the fad diffentions of only the paft age. Since the feparation of our brethren, what a monstrous variety in their doctrine! What endless fects fprung from only one fect! What numberless particular affemblies in one fame fchifm! O faith! O gift of God! O divine torch, which comes to clear up darkness, how neceffary art thou to man! O infallible rule, fent from heaven, and given in truft to the church of Jefus Christ, always the fame in all ages, always independent of places, of times, of nations, and of interests, how requifite it is that thou ferved as a check upon the eternal fluctuations of the human mind! O pillar of fire, at the fame time so obfcure and fo luminous, of what importance it is that thou always conducted the camp of the Lord, the tabernacle and the tents of Ifrael, through all the perils of the desert, the rocks, the temptations and the dark and unknown paths of this life!

For you, my brethren, what inftruction fhould we draw from this difcourfe, and what should I fay to you in con. cluding? You say that you have faith; fhew your faith by your works. What shall it avail you to have believed, if your manners have belied your belief? The gospel is yet more the religion of the heart than of the mind. That faith which makes Chriftians is not a fimple fubmiffion of the reason; it is a pious tenderness of the foul; it is a continual longing to become like unto Jefus Chrift; it is an indefatigable application in rooting out from ourselves whatever may be inimical to a life of faith. There is an

unbelief

unbelief of the heart, equally dangerous to falvation as that of the mind. A man who obftinately refuses belief, after all the proofs of religion, is a monfter, whom we contemplate with horror; but a Chriftian who believes, yet lives as though he believed not, is a madman, whose folly compaffeth comprehenfion: the one procures his own condemnation, like a man defperate; the other, like an indolent one, who tranquilly allows himself to be carried down by the waves, and thinks that he is thereby faving himself. Make your faith then certain, my brethren, by your good works; and if you fhudder at the fole name of an impious perfon, have the fame horror at yourselves, seeing we are taught by faith, that the destiny of the wicked Chriftian fhall not be different from his, and that his lot fhall be the fame as that of the unbeliever. Live conformably to what you believe. Such is the faith of the righteous, and the only one to which the eternal promises have been made.

SERMON

SERMON VII.

DOUBTS UPON RELIGION.

JOHN vii. 27.

Howbeit we know this man, whence he is; but when Chrift cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.

SUCH is the grand pretext oppofed by the unbelief of the Jews to the doctrine and to the miniftry of Jefus Chrift; doubts upon the truth of his miffion. We know who thou art, and whence thou comeft, faid they to him; but the Chrift whom we expect, when he cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. It is far from clear, then, that thou art the Meffiah promised to our fathers; perhaps it is an evil spirit which, through thee, operates these wonders before our eyes, and imposes upon the credulity of the vulgar; fo many deceivers have already appeared in Judea, who, giving themselves out for the Great Prophet who is to come, have feduced the people, and at laft drawn down upon themselves the punishment due to their impofture. Keep us no longer in doubt: if thou be the Chrift, tell us plainly, and in fuch a way as that room fhall no longer be left either for doubt or for mistake.

I would not dare to fay this here, my brethren, were the language of doubts upon faith not become fo common VOL. II.

A a

now

now among us, that precaution is needless in undertaking to confute it: behold the almoft univerfal pretext employed in the world to authorise a life altogether criminal. We every where meet with finners who coolly tell us, that they would be converted were they well affured that all we tell them of religion were true; that perhaps there is nothing after this life; that they have doubts and difficulties upon our mysteries, to which they can find no fatisfactory anfwer; that, after all, the whole appears very uncertain; and that, before engaging to follow all the rigid maxims of the gospel, it would be proper to be well affured that our toils fhall not be loft.

Now, my intention at present is not to overthrow unbelief by the grand proofs which establish the truth of the Chriftian faith: fetting afide that elsewhere we have alrea dy established them, it is a fubje&t far too extensive for a discourse, and often beyond even the capacity of the majority of those who liften to us; it is frequently paying too much deference to the frivolous objections of those who give themselves out as free-thinkers in the world to employ the gravity of our miniftry in refuting and overthrowing them.

We must take a fhorter and more eafy way, therefore, at prefent. My defign is not to enter into, the foundation of the proofs which render teftimony to the truth of faith; I mean only to expofe the falfity of unbelief: I mean to prove that the greateft part of thofe who call themselves unbelievers, are not fo; that almost all thofe finners who vaunt, and are continually alledging to us their doubts, as the only obstacle to their conversion, have actually none; and that, of all the pretexts employed as an excufe for not changing their life, that of doubts upon religion,

now

now the most common, is the leaft true and the least fincere.

.. It appears furprising at firft that I should undertake to prove to those who believe to have doubts upon religion, and are continually objecting them to us, that they have actually none: nevertheless, with a proper knowledge of men, and, above all, with a proper attention to the character of those who make a boast of doubting, nothing is more eafy than this conviction. I fay to their character, in which are always to be found licentioufnefs, ignorance, and vanity; and fuch are the three ufual fources of their doubts they give the credit of them to unbelief, which has fcarcely a fhare in them.

1ftly, It is licentiousness which proposes, without daring to believe them. Firft reflection.

2dly, It is ignorance which adopts, without comprehending them. Second reflection.

Laftly, It is vanity which boafts, without being able to fucceed in drawing any resource from them. Laft reflec tion.

That is to fay, that the greatest part of those who call themselves unbelievers, are licentious enough to wish to be fo; too ignorant to be so in reality; and, nevertheless, fufficiently vain to wifh to appear fo. Let us unfold these three reflections, now become fo important among us; and let us overthrow licentioufnefs rather than unbelief, by laying it open to itself.

PART

1