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Pharisees reproached him that his disciples did not fast as often as their disciples, or as the disciples of John the Baptist, his reply is, "Can ye make the children of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them: but the day shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days:" clearly pointing out a future age of the church, when fasting would be a proper and expedient institution. Fasting is, likewise, confirmed by our Saviour's sermon on the mount, though not as a stated, yet as an occasional duty of christians, that through these means, they might strengthen their sense of dependance upon divine Providence, and humble their souls before the afflicting hand of God. This is a slight sketch of that scriptural practice, and those scriptural authorities upon which the institution of fasting depends. It has, in itself, this peculiar good, that it provokes attention, by interrupting ordinary habits; the flow of business, and pleasure, is on a sudden stopt; the world is thrown into gloom, and a certain solemnity of thought obtruded upon those whose outward senses

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must be influenced, before their inward hearts can be moved. The people of Ni neveh believed in God, and proclaimed d fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the lowest ; and the king arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes, and cried night and day unto God.

The object, then, of this day, is to confess our sins, and to repent of them; and, consequently, the object of the ministers of the gospel, on this day, is to state what those sins are, what are their consequences, and how they may be avoided.

Sins may be considered under a two fold division; those which individuals always commit, which are the consequence of our fallen state, and inseparable from our frail nature; and those which are the result of any particular depravity, existing in a greater degree at this time, than at any other time, or in this country, than among any other people.

With respect to the first class of sins,

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though the utmost degree of exertion, of which we are capable, can never carry us to the perfection which the gospel requires, or make us worthy of the mercy which it holds forth, still it is right to remind mankind of those imperfections, inherent ins their nature, lest they should relax from the exertions of which they are really capa ble; to shew, to the best of human creatures, that they are still miserable sinners, checks that arrogance which is so apt to rise up in our hearts; compels us to turn our minds away from the imperfect examples of goodness, we can meet with here, and to lift them up to that image of purity, which makes our goodness more energetic, more prolific, and more permanent to put us out of conceit with our own exertions, preserves that feeling of dependance upon an higher power, which is the preservation of our present, and the pledge of our future happiness. If our Saviour had told us, as human philosophers have told us, that good men were glorious, and dignified; if he had dwelt perpetually upon the grandeur, and importance of virtue; upon what cheap, and easy terms would men have been con

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tented with themselves;-how soon would these notions of their own dignity have broken that chain, which reaches from the heart of man to the throne of God.The gospel now says there are eternal rewards, and there are eternal punishments; to gain the one, and to avoid the other, you must do good; but you must add to that goodness the deepest humility, and the firmest dependance upon the help of God. You must not look backward upon what you have done, but forward upon what you

have to do. You must consider not the little difference between you, and the rest

of your species, but the immeasurable interval between you, and the highest purity; and you must gather from these reflections, that humility of righteousness which will make you desirous of doing more, by making you dissatisfied with what you have done. All this good naturally follows from the doctrine of man's fallen nature; from the profound humility which the gospel enjoins to him; and from the impossibility under which we are now so wisely placed, of claiming any merit from our actions, except through the mercy, and mediation, of Christ.

Quitting this subject, and coming now to that part of our conduct which is variable, to that small, and contracted sphere, in which it is allotted to us to do better, or do worse, I shall begin with the subject of religion; and here the great evil to deplore, and the afflicting circumstance which cannot but be noticed by every true friend of the orthodox church, is that prodigious increase of sectaries, of all ranks, and descriptions, which are daily springing up in this kingdom, and falling off from the mother church ;-these men seem to think that the spirit of religion consists in a certain fervid irritability of mind; and that agitation, and eagerness,, are the most acceptable sacrifices which they can make to their Creator; the calm address of the established church is, in their estimation, a species of impiety; and, before he prays to the God of Heaven and earth, an human being must lash himself up into wildness, and enthusiasm.

Another unfortunate peculiarity of these seceders from the established church is, that they are always straining at gnats,