adly Of meanness. They act the philofopher and the wit, while, in fecret, they are the most sneaking, the most diffolute, the most abandoned, and the weakest of finners, the veriest slaves of every paffion unworthy of modesty, and even of reafon.

3dly Of deceit and impofition. They act a borrowed character; they give themselves out for what they are not; and, while fo loudly exclaiming against the godly, and treating them as impoftors and hypocrites, they are themfelves the very cheat they decry, and the hypocrite of impiety and free-thinking.

4thly, Of oftentation and wretched vanity. They act the hero, while inwardly trembling; for, on the firft fignal of death, they betray more cowardice than even the commoneft of the people: they make a fhow of openly infulting that God whom they ftill inwardly dread, and even hope to render favourable one day to themselves: a character of childishness and buffoonery, which the world itself hath always confidered as the lowest, the vileft, and the moft rifible of all characters.

5thly, Of temerity. Without erudition or knowledge, they dare to fet up as deciders upon what they are totally ignorant; to condemn the greatest characters of every age; and to decide upon important points to which they have never given, and, indeed, to which they are incapable of giving, a fingle moment of ferious attention: an indecency of character which can accord only with men who have nothing more to lofe on the fide of honour.

6thly, Of folly. They pride themselves in appearing without religion; that is to fay, without character, morals,

probity,

probity, fear of God and of man, and capable of every thing excepting virtue and innocence.

7thly, Of fuperftition. We have seen these pretended free-thinkers, who refufe to confult the oracles of the holy prophets, confulting conjurors; admitting in men that knowledge of futurity which they refufe to God; giving into every childish credulity, while rifing up against the majesty of faith; expecting their aggrandizement and fortune from a deceitful oracle, and unwilling to hope their falvation from the oracles of our holy books; and, in a word, ridiculously believing in demons, while they make a boast of disbelieving a God.

Laftly, What, in my opinion, is moft deplorable in these characters is, that they are in a fituation which precludes almost every hope of salvation. For an actual unbeliever, if fuch there be, may, in a moment, be stricken of God, and overwhelmed, as it were, under the weight of that glory and majefly which he unknowingly had blasphemed: the eyes of this unfortunate wretch may still be opened by the Lord in his mercy; he may make his light to fhine through his darkness, and reveal that truth which he refifts only because he knows it not: he has ftill resources, fuch as perhaps rectitude, confiftency, principles, (of error and illufion I confefs, but fill they are principles :) he will be equally warm for his God when known, as he was his enemy when unknown. But the unbelievers, of whom I fpeak, have fcarcely a way left of returning to God; they infult the Lord whom they know; they blas pheme that religion which they still preserve in their heart ; they refift the impreffions of confcience which ftill inwardly efpouses the cause of faith against themselves; in vain does the light of God shine upon their heart, it ferves only

to

to render more inexcufeable the treachery of their impiety.. Were they, faith Jefus Chrift, absolutely blind, they would be worthy of pity, and their fin would be less: but at present they see; and confequently the guilt of their irreligion is blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft, which dwelleth for ever upon their head.

Let us repair then, my brethren, by our refpect for the religion of our fathers; by a continual gratitude towards the Lord, who hath permitted us to be born in the way of falvation, into which fo many nations have not as yet been deemed worthy to enter; let us repair, I fay, the fcandal. of unbelief fo common in this age, fo countenanced among us, and which, become more bold through the number and quality of its partifans, no longer hides its head, but openly fhews itself, and braves, as it were, the religion of the prince, and the zeal of the paftors. Let us have in horror those impious and despicable men, who pride themselves in turning into ridicule the majesty of the religion they profefs: let us fly them as monsters unworthy to live, not only among believers, but even among thofe connected together by honour, probity, and reafon; far from applauding their impious difcourfes, let us cover them with fhame by that contempt which they merit. It is fo low and fo mean, even according to the world, to dishonour that religion in which one lives; it is fo beautiful, and there is fo much real dignity in making a pride of respecting and of defending it, even with an air of authority and of indignation, against the filly fpeeches which attack it. By despifing unbelief, let us deprive it of the deplorable glory it feeks; from the moment they are defpifed unbelievers will be rare among us; and the fame vanity which forms their doubts will foon annihilate or conceal them, when it fhall be a difgrace among us to appear

impious,

3

impious, and a glory to be a believer. It is thus that the fcandal fhall be done away, and that altogether we shall glorify the Lord in the same faith, and in the expectation of the eternal promises. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

EVIDENCE OF THE LAW OF GOD.

J

JOHN viii. 46.

And If I Jay the truth, why do ye not believe me?

ESUS Chrift had hitherto confuted the incredulity of the Jews by his works and his miracles; at present, he recalls them to the judgment of their own confcience and to the evidence of the truth, which, in spite of themselves, rendered teftimony to his doctrine and to his miniftry. Nevertheless, as they shut their eyes against the evidence of his miracles, in accufing him of operating them through the miniftry of devils, fo they likewife harden themselves against the evidence of his doctrine and of his miffion, fo clearly foretold in the scriptures, by alledging pretended obscurities, which rendered them, in their eyes, ftill doubtful and fufpicious.

For, my brethren, however evident may be the truth, that is to fay, the law of God, whether in our heart, where it is written in fhining and ineffaceable characters, or in the rules which Jesus Christ hath left to us; we would always, either that our confcience fee nothing in it but what our paffions fee, or that these rules be not fo explicit but VOL. II. what

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