prejudices; it compelled them to search, and to inquire into the truth; it required of the converts to the Christian religion a change of conduct and of principles; submission to consequences the most serious, and the most deterring; to loss and danger, to insult, to outrage, to persecution, and destruction. That such a story should be false, or that being false it should make its way without victory or force over such a portion of the habitable globe, does appear quite impossible to explain; yet such is the Christian story!-and under such difficulties and under such opposition did it spread and prevail. This is a summary of those arguments by which the history of Christianity is proved, and upon these I will take the liberty to offer a few short observations. Of what a revelation discloses, the most material question to ask is this- Was it of importance to mankind to know this, or to be better assured of it? But when we turn our eyes to the great Christian doctrine of the Resurrection, who can doubt what answer should be given to such a question? What is of importance in this short feverish moment of existence if the doctrine of another life is not of importance? He who gives us just grounds for believing that we are to live again, that the day of account and retribution must come-he who tells us this, gives us a blessing which blesses all other blessings, while it inspires higher feelings than their united energy can impart. Other articles of the Christian faith, although of infinite importance when placed beside any other topic of human inquiry, are only the adjuncts and circumstances of this; they are, however, quite worthy of the original to which we ascribe them. The morality of the religion, whether taken from the precepts or the example of the Founder, or from the lessons of its primitive teachers, is in all its parts wise and pure; not adapted to vulgar prejudices, not flattering popular notions, not excusing established practices, but calculated by the matter of its instruction to promote happiness, and in the form to produce impression. Upon the greatest, therefore, of all possible occasions it pleased the Deity to vouchsafe a miraculous attestation. Having done that for the Christian Faith, which alone could fix its authority in the beginning, he committed its future progress to the natural means of human communication, and to the influence of those causes by which human conduct and human affairs are governed. In fact (and remember this), let the constant observation of contrivance and design fix in our minds the belief of a God, and all is easy with regard to the evidence of the Christian religion. Upon such a supposition how can it be improbable that there should be a future state? or why should any reasoning man imagine it to be improbable that we should be made acquainted with it? for a future state rectifies every thing; because if we are made at the last state happy or miserable, according to our wants, it matters little by what rule our stations are determined here. This hypothesis solves all those objections to the Divine Goodness which the promiscuous distribution of good and evil is apt on so many occasions to create. This one Truth changes the nature of things! -gives order to confusion, and makes the natural and moral world alike. Thus then we may see that a future state, and the revelation of a future state, are not only perfectly consistent with the attributes of God, but when it is more, when it alone removes appearances of injustice in the present distribution of good and evil - when a strong body of historical evidence, confirmed by every inward symptom of truth, gives us every reason to believe that such a revelation has been made, it is no longer for us to inquire how this gift of eternal life can be given-how the dead are raised up, and with what manner of body they shall come. In the resources of Creative Wisdom expedients cannot be wanting to carry into effect what God wills; either a new influence will descend upon the world to rouse extinguished consciousness, or secret provision is already made for conducting us through the necessary changes of being to those final distinctions of happiness and misery, the dread of which compels the wicked man to cling to this world, and the hope of which enables the righteous man to endure it. Thus I have given what appears to me an useful and important epitome of that reasoning by which the authenticity of our Faith is put beyond all fair and reasonable doubt. There are not two methods of reasoningone for common, and one for sacred subjects. Let a studious and reflecting man apply the same train of reasoning to the history of our Saviour which he would do to any other history, and I think it hardly possible he should not arrive at those conclusions I have endeavoured to establish. I have selected this train of reasoning with some care from the best writers in defence of Christianity, because it is always right that a man should be able to render a reason of the faith that is within him, because good men are sometimes apt to doubt and to despond, and because the enemies of religion are always actively pressing forward. I earnestly beg of you to meditate on what I have said, to rouse yourselves to further inquiries in the history of our blessed religion, till your faith becomes too firm to be chilled by doubt, and too well grounded in learning and in argument to be assailed by sophistry. SERMON V. ON THE RECEIVING OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT. This LUKE, Xxii. 20. cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. THE causes which diminish the frequency of attendance upon the Holy Communion, are negligence or fear, a supineness to every institution of religion, or an overscrupulous dread of the danger of partaking unworthily. The latter feeling has its origin most probably in the strong language used by St. Paul on this subject: "Let a man examine himself before he eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Now it is plain that this denunciation of St. Paul can never affect those communicants, who, coming to the altar with good intentions of amendment, do at any future period yield themselves up to temptation, for, as every lapse into sin (though a grievous offence in the sight of God), is not otherwise irredeemable, it ought not surely to be rendered so by the act of communion, for then those who approach this table are in a much worse condition than those who do not. The food of God destroys us, and the cup of kindness is changed to the cup of death. before I approach to that altar I have hopes that my Saviour will be merciful to the future sins and infirmities of my life, shall I approach it only to abandon those If hopes? Shall I meekly kneel on my knees to pray for my own destruction? Shall I be doomed to everlasting torments because I have endeavoured to sanctify my vow to God by these blessed elements? and shall you rest in the bosom of Abraham because you have never cared enough for righteousness to seek any aid for your frailty, or vow any vow for your salvation? But it is obvious this interpretation of St. Paul's meaning cannot be for a moment supported. The breach of a good resolution must be separately and distinctly atoned for, but the good resolution itself is an act of piety; and if sincere, and thoroughly influencing the intentions at the time it is made, is that which gives us our just title to a participation in this sacred institution. The unworthy partakers alluded to by St. Paul are those who (though they are in the habitual commission of grievous sins) approach the table of the Lord without the smallest intention of amending their lives- who outwardly comply with the highest act of religion, while their inward minds are degraded to the lowest state of sensuality—who consider the communion not as a period whence holy desires originate, just works proceed, and good purposes begin, but as a ceremony which renders every bad purpose more lawful, and every impious work more decent-who deem so lowly of the Lord their Saviour, that they worship him with the symbols of bread and wine, and not with the justice and the mercy which that bread and wine should teachwho are so fast bound in the chains of sin that they cannot lift up against it the faintest resolve, or the weakest idea of resistance:- such men are not meet partakers of these holy mysteries; they must not pollute that table which can never sanctify them. The Gospel asks not for perfect purity—it does not require that a mortal man should covenant for unerring rectitude in future, but it must have some signs of repentance, however faint, and some promise of better things, however |