burn the flesh of beasts, and watch the flight of birds? Could we submit to reason again whether God is harmony or number, whether he is the soul of man, or the whole world? Could you say with one set of atheists, that there is no God, or with another, that he never thinks of man ?—Will you tremble with the vulgar at the fables of Tartarus? or comfort yourself with the learned few, that after death there is neither sorrow nor joy? Are we prepared to study the will of Heaven in the entrails of beasts to be scourged by the lash of dismal superstition, or to sink into the cold despondence of universal doubt? To know what this season has brought, we should remember what it has found! We should bring before our eyes all the horrors and follies of the ancient world, and thus learn by comparison and reflection the magnitude of those blessings for which we have on this day returned thanks to the great Author of our being.

To this day we owe, not only the certainty of another, but the enjoyment of the present world;- for if the blessings of Christianity terminated here, they would at least teach us good morals, and leave us under those obligations which we owe to a wise maker of temporary laws, we should owe to it all that system of sound morals which so wisely arranges our clashing interests, and harmonises our conflicting passions.

The greatest of all blessings which the Gospel confers is, that it makes the great business of immortality sure! Before the coming of Christ many men contended that the soul was immortal: they wrote upon it beautifully; they argued upon it subtly; they showed the foolish consequences which result from the contrary supposition; they showed that the notion of the soul's immortality falls in exactly with that benevolence and wisdom displayed in all the other works of God; they made of it an elevated theme, and an impressing system, but they were not sure of it! The wisest among them sometimes

doubted, their clearest reasoners had their moments of gloom and despondence. Doubt is always painful, certainty cheerful and pleasant; but to doubt whether we shall ever rise again after death, to be sure that we shall rise again; -to hear it from God! to see it in miracles! Who does not see what he has escaped?— who does not feel what he has gained? — who does not feel how imperfect human condition was before a revelation? how perfect, how tranquil, how composed that revelation hath made it?

As the amelioration of human affairs is commonly effected by designs conceived at a great distance of time, and by long trains of action, we are always surprised in history, by those sudden revolutions which outstrip the ordinary current of human affairs, and condense in a few hours the events of as many years. History presents us with the examples of some men who have laid themselves down as condemned criminals, or as mean slaves, and who before the morning's light have been placed upon the throne of some great empire, the arbiters of life and death. A single victory has sometimes exalted a nation from despair to boundless conquest, and universal dominion. All these subordinate revolutions we have read of, in the wide and varied annals of mankind: - but Christianity is the only sudden event which has ameliorated the whole earth! The day past, there was no Saviour, no immortality, no redemption, no life after this life! - To-day the will of God is done; Jesus draws the first breath of life, and the soul of man becomes an everlasting spirit! — This corruptible put on incorruption, this mortal put on immortality;-more was done for the happiness of man than if God had sent us many thousand sages, and had multiplied upon the earth wise makers of laws, and potent discoverers of the secrets of nature; -more, than if he had chased away all storm and tempest from our fields, and made them doubly fruitful for our use; -more than if he had

guarded our bodies from disease, and breathed into them. a never-failing health and strength: therefore let me call upon you to remember, that you are now present at this great anniversary of human happiness; and if the memory of benevolent kings and of the great benefactors of mankind is consecrated by public gratitude, if the example of such men has any tendency to make us good, if their benevolence has any influence to make us thankful,- if for these reasons such institutions are honourable and wise, consider now, I pray you, much more who that Being is, whom we are met to praise, what that example is, which we are exhorted to imitate, and how boundless those mercies are, for which it is our duty to be thankful! - Therefore with prayer in the temple, with charity out of the temple, with solemn resolutions at the altar, with purer hearts, and better lives when we have left the altar, let us offer up our gratitude to Almighty God for this highest act of his mercy and of his love!

SERMON XIX.

LIVING PEACEABLY WITH ALL MEN.

ROMANS, xii. 18.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all

men.

THE holy apostle conveys to us a precept in this text, which our blessed Saviour had often before repeated. He exhorts us to live peaceably with all men ; but he adds, "if it be possible," as much as in us lies, intimating that there may be occasions in human life where there are principles of much higher consideration than the preservation of peace. That there are times when it is not possible to preserve that peaceable demeanour which, in the ordinary current of human affairs, is the greatest ornament of a Christian.

As it is a very difficult and delicate line of action, to live in a state of hostility with other men, and still not to transgress the Gospel of Christ, it must be of considerable importance to reflect how this can be done, and to settle both the causes of difference and dispute between Christians, which are lawful, and the manner in which it is lawful to conduct them; for the rule is not merely to live at peace, but to live at peace, if it be possible, and as much as in us lies: to live at peace if we do not pay too high a price for peace; to live at peace, if the sacrifice of all truth and justice are not the price of tranquillity; to live at peace, if our duty to God and

man do not make the love of peace criminal indolence and contemptible pusillanimity.

First, to obey the command of the Gospel, we must properly understand it, - we must obey it in its most comprehensive sense. Live in peace with all men, not merely for to-day or to-morrow, but for the greatest time in which peace can be procured, the road to which often lies only through present contention, and immediate display of firmness and spirit; for immediate tranquillity may often be obtained at a greater price than it is worth the sacrifice of all future tranquillity. Patience may provoke fresh insult, submission may bring on further and greater injuries, supine inattention to abuses and injustice may render them so enormous and intolerable, that, instead of being touched with a finger, they must be broken with a rod of iron: so that a disciple of Christ, and a very true disciple of Christ, may still find himself in the midst of contention, not forgetting the law of his Master, but understanding it thoroughly, obeying it comprehensively, pursuing those principles, which upon the whole place the peace and the order of the world upon the most firm and immovable foundation. It is not the coward that loves peace - it is not the sluggard that loves Christian peace-it is not the man who fears to encounter a little hatred, or a little blame, who promotes peace in Christ. It is he who aims at keeping up in the world that spirit by which peace is rendered permanent who is always ready to combat injustice, to spread himself out against violence, to defend rights, to detect abuses. These are they who are the real disciples of peace, whom cruelty fears at whom wickedness trembles, whom mad ambition respects; by whose labours the world is safe; by whose firmness the great barriers of life are held up.

Acquiescence in evil of any kind, can be no part of that love of peace which is prescribed by the Gospel; that which we so often call the love of peace, is the love