gan; the last will be after this world shall end; the middle part is before us now. There is no secret in either of these parts; but there are incomprehensible mysteries connected with each of them. In regard to the first, it is impossible to be supposed, by a man who knows any thing of God, that the christian religion came into the world without the Creator's knowing that such an event would take place; and it is impossible for such a man to imagine that, after the present life, there will be no distinction made between the righteous and the wicked. There is no mystery in these general principles; but we may render them extremely perplexed by rashly agitating questions connected with them.

In regard to Christianity in this present life, every thing in it is exceeding plain. Is the character of Jesus Christ a secret? Did ever any body take him for an idle gentleman, a cruel tyrant, a deceitful tradesman, a man of gross ignorance and turbulent passions? On the contrary, is it not perfectly clear that he was the person foretold by the prophets of his country, who should come, himself perfectly wise and good, to instruct mankind in the knowledge and worship of God? Is the character of Scripture a secret? Is it not perfectly clear, that it is a wise and good book, full of information on all the subjects that concern religion and morality? Is it a secret that we are mortal and must die; or that we are depraved, and apt to live in the omission of duty and the practice of sin; or that a life of sin is connected with a course of misery, for pursuing which we deserve blame? Is it a secret whether God takes notice of the actions of men, or whether he will forgive a penitent, and punish the impenitent? In a word, is the character of God a secret in the christian religion; and is it a mystery whether he be an object worthy of our adoration and imitation? Were I obliged to give a short account of the Christian Religion, I would not say it is a revelation of the decrees of God, or a revelation of the resurrection of the dead, or a revelation of the mercy of God to a repenting sinner through the merit of Jesus Christ; for though each of these be true, yet all these are only parts of his ways; but I would call Christianity a revelation, or a making known of the true and

real character of God; and I would affirm of the whole, and of each component part, that it was so made known as to be free from all mystery in regard to the truth of the facts, and yet so connected as to contain mysteries beyond the comprehension of finite minds. I would affirm further, that our religion is confined to the belief and practice of only what is revealed, and that every thing untold is a matter of conjecture, and no part of pięty towards God, and benevolence to mankind.

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Take heart, then, my good brethren; you may understand, practise, and enjoy all this rich gift of God to man, just as you enjoy the light of the day, and refreshment by rest at night. Let no one say, I was born in poverty, have had no learning, I have no friends, my days are spent in labour, and I have no prospect except that of drawing my last breath where I drew my first. All this may be true; but all this will not prevent your knowing, and practising, and enjoying the Christian Religion, the founder of which had not, what the birds of the air have," where to lay his head."

When I say all may understand it, I mean, if their own depravity does not prevent it. Plainly, you cannot know it if you do not attend to it; nor can you know it though you do attend, if you do not attend to Christianity itself, and not to something else put instead of it. Let me explain myself.

One says, I cannot understand the nature and force of religion; and pray, is there any thing wonderful in your ignorance? Consider, you never read the Scriptures; you never ask any body to read them to you; you hate and persecute good men; you seldom enter a place of worship; you keep wicked company like yourself; you are often seen in the practice of enormous crimes. Are you the man to complain, "I cannot understand religion ?” It would be a mystery indeed, if a man who never-turned his attention to a subject, should know any thing certain about it. We have no such mystery in all the christian religion. Christians do not live like you.

Another says, I am a very sober man, go constantly to a place of worship, and I cannot comprehend the christian religion. All this is very true; you are a sober, decent

character, and regular in your attendance on public worship; but recollect, I am speaking not of your body, but of your mind. Now, it is a fact, abroad or at home, in the church or in the barn, your attention is always taken up with other things, and so taken up as to leave no room for "the things which belong unto your everlasting peace." Sometimes your corn, sometimes your cattle, sometimes taxes and rates, and sometimes your rent and your servants' wages; but, at all times, to live in the present world, engrosses all your attention. You, you resemble yon child fast asleep, without knowing it, in the arms of a parent. "God besets you behind and before, and lays his hand upon you. It is he that watereth the ridges of your corn, and settleth the furrows thereof; he maketh the earth soft with showers; he clothes thy pastures with flocks, and crowns the year with his goodness. It is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, and multiplieth thy herds and thy flocks, and thy silver and thy gold, and all that thou hast." And you, inattentive man! you cannot comprehend that you are under an obligation to know and do the will of this generous benefactor. What does Christianity require of you but to love and serve this God? If you do not serve him, it is because you do not love him; if you do not love him, it is because you do not know him; and if you do not know him, it is not for want of evidence, but attention.

It is not only to you that I affirm this connexion between attention and knowledge; for if this barn were filled with statesmen and scholars, generals and kings, I should be allowed to say to one, Sir, you understand intrigue; to another, Sir, you understand war, to besiege a town, and rout an army; to a third, Sir, you understand law, and every branch of the office of a conservator of the peace; to another, Sir, you understand languages and arts and sciences; and you all understand all these, because you have studied them; but here are two things which you have not studied, and which therefore you do not know; the one, how to plough, and sow, and reap, and thresh an acre of wheat; and the other how to live holily in this world, so as to live happily in the world to come. you not convinced, my good brethren, that the same circumstance, which prevents those gentlemen from knowing how to perform the work that you perform every day

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with pleasure, prevents you from knowing the practice and the pleasure of true Christianity? In both cases the subject hath not been attended to.

I go further, and venture to affirm, if religion could be understood without attention, it would be a misfortune; a misfortune depriving us of many advantages and leading us to commit many crimes. The ease with which we acquired knowledge would sink the value of it, and "darkness would have communion with light."

As attention is absolutely necessary, so it is equally necessary that attention should be fixed upon the christian religion itself, and nothing else. We hear often of the mysteries of religion; let us not forget that there are mysteries of iniquity. Ignorance, covetousness, tyranny, especially tyranny over conscience, all wrap themselves in mystery; but if we incorporate any of these mysteries with the christian religion, and attend to them, instead of distinguishing and attending to pure Christianity, we may attend and study, but we shall never know; we shall be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, and deliverances of the apostle Paul, were fully known, and diligently followed by common Christians; but who ever knew the doctrine of transubstantiation, or that of the infallibility of a frail, sinful man? Who of us, uninspired men, knows the feelings of a person under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost? In vain we pursue such mysteries as these; the stronger the attention, the greater the mortification of not being able to succeed. If one place religion in impulses, another in new revelations, a third in a state of perfection, a fourth in discoveries and enjoyments inconsistent with our present state, and not set before us in the christian religion, they may well be filled with doubts and fears, and spend life in complaining of the crooked and dreary paths of religion. If, on the contrary, we attend only to what is revealed, to believe. only what is reported with sufficient evidence, to practise only what is commanded by the undoubted voice of God; if we seek only such pleasures and distinctions as we are taught in scripture to expect; in a word, if we would acquaint ourselves only with God,

and be at peace one with another, thereby good should come unto us.

When I said, all of you might understand Christianity, I meant, there was nothing in Christianity but what might be understood if it were properly attended to, and nothing in the natural condition of any individual (I do not say his moral state), to prevent his attending to it. There is no capacity so mean, no creature so forlorn, as to be beyond the reach of the benefits conferred upon men by Jesus Christ. You are a babe; in his gospel there is "milk for babes;" truths adapted to nourish and cherish a little, feeble mind. You are poor; "the poor have the gospel preached to them;" the glad tidings of a Redeemer, and all his benefits. You are unlearned; but the "highway of holiness" is so plain, that the "way-faring man, though a fool, shall not err therein." You are so bashful, and so unused to company, that you are necessarily deprived of the pleasure of the company and conversation of good men; but you have better company than that of good men; and you, you poor shepherd, you will behold the heavens, the work of the fingers of your God; you will consider the moon and the stars, and the Saviour and the heaven which he hath ordained, till you cry out, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?" And upon these subjects "the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak eloquently!" The Christian religion enlarges and ennobles the mind, purifies and refines the heart, and adorns the life; and a Christian labourer, exercising his own understanding, is a more beautiful sight than an unjust judge in all the pomp of his office.

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Let us finish, by remarking the reasons that should induce you to apply to religious knowledge. There are reasons in God-reasons in the christian religion-reasons in the world—and reasons in yourselves; and if all these reasons be not sufficient to prevail with you to love and serve God, reason will require but one thing more, that is, 66 your everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, to punish them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."