ble, what is his real nature. The most prominent features of this are exhibited in that incomprehensible display of wisdom, power, and goodness, made in the works of creation. A virtuous man stands in a relation to God which is peculiary delightful. The divine perfections are all engaged in his defence. He feels powerful in God's power, wise in his wisdom, good in his goodness.

The vitious man, on the contrary, stands in a relation to God, which is of all things the most dreadful. He is unwilling to know that God has sufficient wisdom to search out all his wickedness, sufficient goodness to the universe to determine to punish that wickedness, and sufficient power to execute that determination. A firm belief in the existence of God will heighten all the enjoyments of life, and, by conforming our hearts to his will, will secure the approbation of a good conscience, and inspire us with the hopes of a blessed immortality.

you sur

Never be tempted to disbelieve the existence of God, when every thing around you proclaims it in a language too plain not to be understood. Never cast your eyes on creation without having your souls expanded with this sentiment," There is a God.” When vey this globe of earth, with all its appendages; when you behold it inhabited by numberless ranks of creatures, all moving in their proper spheres, all verging to their proper ends, all animated by the same great source of life, all supported at the same great bounteous table: when you behold not only the earth, but the ocean and the air, swarming with living creatures, all happy in their situation; when you behold yonder sun darting an effulgent blaze of glory over the heayens, garnishing mighty worlds, and waking ten thousand songs of praise; when you behold unnumbered systems diffused through vast immensity, clothed in splendour, and rolling in majesty; when you behold these things, your affections will rise above all the vanities of time; your full souls will struggle with ecstasy;

and your reason, passions, and feelings, all united, will rush up to the skies, with a devout acknowledgment of the existence, power, wisdom, and goodness of God.

Let us behold him, let us wonder, let us praise and adore. These things will make us happy. They will wean us from vice, and attach us to virtue. As a belief of the existence of God is a fundamental point of salvation, he who denies it runs the greatest conceivable hazard. He resigns the satisfaction of a good conscience, quits the hopes of a happy immortality, and exposes himself to destruction. All this for what? for the shortlived pleasures of a riotous, dissolute life. How wretched, when he finds his atheistical confidence totally disappointed! Instead of his beloved sleep and insensibility, with which he so fondly flattered himself he will find himself still existing after death, removed to a strange place; he will then find that there is a God, who will not suffer his rational creatures to fall into annihilation as a refuge from the just punishment of their crimes; he will find himself doomed to drag on a wretched train of existence in unavailing woe and lamentation. Alas! how astonished will he be to find himself plunged in the abyss of ruin and desperation! God forbid that any of us should act so unwisely as to disbelieve, when every thing around us proclaims his existence!

THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

EXTRACT OF AN ORATION DELIVERED AT RHODE-
ISLAND COLLEGE, 1796.

GUIDED

UIDED by reason, man has travelled through the abstruse regions of the philosophic world. He has originated rules by which he can direct the ship through the pathless ocean, and measure the comet's flight over the fields of unlimited space. He has established society and government. He can aggregate the profusions of every climate, and every season. He can meliorate the severity, and remedy the imperfections,

of nature herself. All these things he can perform by the assistance of reason.

By imagination, man seems to verge towards creative power. Aided by this, he can perform all the wonders of sculpture and painting. He can almost make the marble speak. He can almost make the brook murmur down the painted landscape. Often, on the pinions of imagination, he soars aloft where the eye has never travelled; where other stars glitter on the mantle of night, and a more effulgent sun lights up the blushes of morning. Flying from world to world, he gazes on all the glories of creation; or, lighting on the distant margin of the universe, darts the eye of fancy over the mighty void, where power creative never yet has energized; where existence still sleeps in the wide abyss of possibility.

By imagination he can travel back to the source of time; converse with the successive generations of men, and kindle into emulation while he surveys the monumental trophies of ancient art and glory. He can sail down the stream of time until he loses "sight of stars and sun, by wandering into those retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and the earth shall be no more."

To these unequivocal characteristics cf greatness in man, let us adduce the testimony of nature herself. Surrounding creation subserves the wants and proalaims the dignity of man. For him day and night visit the world. For him the seasons walk their splendid round. For him the earth teems with riches, and the heavens smile with beneficence.

All creation is accurately adjusted to his capacity for bliss. He tastes the dainties of festivity, breathes the perfumes of morning, revels on the charms of melody, and regales his eye with all the painted beauties of vision. Whatever can please, whatever can charm, whatever can expand the soul with ecstasy of bliss, allures and solicits his attention. All things beautiful, all things grand, all things sublime, appear in native loveliness, and proffer men the richest pleasures of fruition.

INFERNAL CONFERENCE.

Satan. FRIENDS, and confederates, welcome!

for this proof

Of your affiance, thanks. On every call,
Whether we need your counsel or your arms,
Joyful I see your ready zeal displays
Virtues, which hell itself cannot corrupt.
I mean not to declaim: the occasion told
Speaks its own import, and the tine's despatch
All waste of words forbids. God's Son on earth
Christ, the reveal'd Messias, how t' oppose
Is now the question; by what force, or power;
(Temptations have been tried, I name not them;)
Or dark conspiracy, we may pull down

This Sun of Righteousness from his bright sphere,
Declare, who can. I pause for a reply.

Baal. Why thus on me, as I were worthy; me,
Lost being like yourselves; as I alone
Could compass this high argument; on me,
Least in your sapient conclave; why you point
These scrutinizing looks, I muse; and, aw'd
By this your expectation, fain would shrink
From the great task to silence, had you not
O'er these poor faculties such full control,
As to put by all pleas, and call them forth
In heaven or earth, or hell's profound abyss,
Yours in all uses, present at all hours.
Our kingly chief hath told us we are met
To combat Christ on earth. Be't so! We yet
May try our fortune in another field;

Worse fortune than in heaven befel our arms
Worse downfal than to hell, we cannot prove.
But with the scene our action too must change;
How? to what warfare? Circumvention, fraud,
Seduction; these are earthly weapons; these
As man to man opposes, so must we

To Christ incarnate. There be some, who cry,
S

Hence with such dastard arts! War, open war!
I honor such bold counsellors, and yield
All that I can, my praise: till one be found,
One that may rival God's own Son in
power,
And miracle to miracle oppose,

More than my praise I cannot; my assent

I will not give; 'twere madness. And how war
With God? what arms may we employ 'gainst him,
Whose very prophets can call down heaven's fires
Upon our priests and altars? For myself,
What powers I had I shall not soon forget;
What have left I know, and for your use
Shall husband as I may, not vainly risk
Where they must surely fail. The Jews pretend
That Christ colludes with Beelzebub; the Jews
As far mistake my nature as my name.
The fallacy, O peers, confutes itself,
Forg'do disparage Christ, not honor me.
Oh! that I had his wonder-working powers;
I'm not that fool to turn them on myself:
No, my brave friends, I've yet too much to lose.
Therefore no more of Beelzebub and Christ;
No league, no compact can we hold together.
What then ensues? Despair! Perish the thought!
The brave renounce it, and the wise prevent;
You are both wise and brave. Our leader says
Temptations have been tried, and tried in vain,
Himself the tempter. Who will tread that ground
Where he was foil'd? For Adam a mere toy,
An apple serv'd; Christ is not brib'd by worlds:
So much the second Man exceeds the first
In strength and glory. But though Christ himself
Will not be tempted, those who hear him may:
Jews may be urg'd to envy, to revenge,
To murder: a rebellious race of old!

Wist ye not what a train this preacher hath,
What followers, what disciples? These are men,
Mere men, fráil sons of Adam, born in sin.
Here is our hope. I leave it to your thoughts,