treasures of divine justice, and who are as liberal of the judgments of God, as he is of his eternal mercy. No, my brethren, these are not the saints. who shall judge the world, 1 Cor. vi. 2. These are the wicked and slothful servants, who accuse their master of reaping where he hath not sown, Matt. xxv. 24. The blessed God, who is less inclined to punish than to pardon, will never impute to his creature the errors of an invincible ignorance. Without this consideration, I own, although I am confirmed in believing my religion by the clearest evidence, yet my conscience would be racked with continual fears, and the innumerable experiences I have had of the imperfection of my knowledge would fill me with horror and terror, even while in the sincerest manner I should apply my utmost attention to my salvation.

We affirm in the second place, that the fundamental truths of religion lie within the reach of people of the meanest capacities, if they will take the pains to examine them. This is one of the bases of our reformation. Happy protestants! (by the way) were you always to act consistently with your principles, if, either by an obstinate heresy, or by an orthodoxy to scholastic, you were not almost always falling into one of these two extremes, either in that of renouncing christianity, by explaining away its fundamental truths; or if I may venture to speak so, into that of sinking it by overloading it with the embarrassing disputes of the schools.

We say, then, that the fundamental points of christianity lie within the reach of the narrowest capacities. The christian religion teacheth us, that God created the world. Doth not this truth, which philosophy hath established on so many abstract and metaphysical proofs, demonstrate itself to our

minds, to our eyes, and to all our senses? Do not the innumerable objects. of sense, which surround us, most emphatically announce the existence and the glory of the Creator? The christian religion commandeth us to live holily. Doth not this truth also demonstrate itself? Is not the voice of conscience in concert with that of religion; doth it not give evidence in favor of the laws, which religion prescribes? The christian religion teacheth us, that Jesus Christ came into the world, that he lived among men,. that he died, that he rose again, that he gave the holy Spirit to the first heralds of the gospel; these are facts, and we maintain that these facts are supported by proofs so clear, and so easy, that men must be entirely destitute of every degree of impartial reason not to perceive their evidence.

Further. Take the controversies that now subsist among christians, and it will appear that a man of a very moderate degree of sense may distinguish truth from error on these articles. For, my brethren, we ought not to be intimidated either at the authority, or at the characters of those, who start difficulties. The greatest genuisses have often maintained the greatest absurdities. It hath been affirmed that there is no motion in nature. Some philosophers, and philosophers of fame, have ventured to maintain that there is no matter, and others have doubted of their own existence. If you determine to admit no propositions, that have been denied, or disputed, you will never admit any. Consider modern controversies with a cool impartiality; and you will acknowledge, that an ordinary capacity may discern the true from the false in the contested points. A man of an ordinary capacity, may easily perceive, in reading the holy scriptures, that the author of that book never

intended to teach us the worship of images, nor the invocation of saints, nor transubstantiation, nor purgatory. A modern capacity may conclude, that the scriptures, by attributing to Jesus Christ the names, the perfections, the works and the worship of God, mean to teach us that he is God. A moderate capacity is capable of discovering, that the same scriptures, by comparing us to the deaf, the blind, the dead, the things which are not, 1 Cor. i. 18. intend to teach us that we have. need of grace, and that it is impossible to be saved without its assistance. Men, who have not genius and penetration enough to comprehend these truths, would not be capable of determining whether the attestation of one sent from the dead were conclusive or demonstrative. But infidels are rarely found among people of the stupid class; their fault is, in general, the believing of too much, and not the crediting of too little. Let us pass, then, to the next article.

2. We have put into a second class negligent infidels, those, who refuse to believe, because they will not take the pains to examine. Let us prove the truth of the proposition in the text in regard to them, and let us shew that if they resist ordinary evidence, neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Careless people are extremely rash, if they require new proofs of the truth of christianity. If, indeed, they had made laborious searches; if they had weighed our arguments; if they had examined our systems; if, after all their inquiries, they had not been able to discover any thing satisfactory on the side of religion; if our gospel were destitute of proof; if, notwithstanding this defect, God would condemn them for not believing, and, instead of proposing new arguments, would insist on their

yielding to arguments, which neither persuaded the judgment, nor affected the heart; they would have reason to complain. But how astonishing is the injustice and ingratitude of mankind! God hath revealed himself to them in the most tender and affectionate manner. He hath announced those truths, in which they are the most deeply interested, a hell, a heaven, a solemn alternative of endless felicity, or eternal misery. He hath accompanied these truths with a thousand plain proofs, proofs of fact, proofs of reason, proofs of sentiment. He hath omitted nothing, that is adapted to the purposes of convincing and persuading us. Careless unbelievers will not deign to look at these arguments; they will not condescend to dig the field, in which God hath hid his treasure; they choose rather to wander after a thousand vain and useless objects, and to be a burden to themselves through the fatigues of idleness, than to confine themselves to the study of religion; and, at length, they complain that religion is obscure. They, who attest the truth to you, are venerable persons. They tell you, they have read, weighed, and, examined the matter, and they offer to explain, to prove, to demonstrate it to you. All this does not signify, you will not honor them with your attention. They exhort you, and assure you, that salvation, that your souls, that eternal felicity are articles of the utmost importance, and require a serious attention: It does not signify, none of these considerations move you; and, as we said just now, you choose rather to attach yourselves to trite and trifling affairs; you choose rather to spend your time in tedious and insipid talk; you choose rather to exhaust your strength in the insupportable languors of idleness, than to devote one year, one month, one day, of your lives to the examination

of religion: and after you have gone this perpetual round of negligence, you complain of God; it is he, who conducts you through vallies of darkness; it is he, who leads you into inextricable labyrinths of illusions and doubts! Ought the Deity, then, to regulate his œconomy by your caprices; ought he to humor your wild fancies, and to reveal himself exactly in the way, and punctually at the time, which you shall think proper to prescribe to him?

This is not all. It is certain, were God to grant persons of this character that indulgence, which the wicked rich man required; were God actually to evoke the dead from the other world to reveal what was doing there; it is very plain, they would receive no conviction, and the same fund of negligence, which prevents their adherence to religion now, would continue an invincible obstacle to their faith, even after it had been confirmed in a new and extraordinary manner. This is not a paradox, it is a demonstration. The apparition in question would require a chain of principles and consequences. It would be liable to a great number of 'difficulties, and difficulties greater than those, which are now objected against religion. It must be inquired first, whether he, who saw the apparition, were free from all disorder of mind when he saw it, or whether it were not the effect of a momentary insanity, or of a profound reverie. It must be examined further, whether the apparition really came from the other world, or whether it were not exhibited by the craft of some head of a party, like those which are seen in monasteries, like those, which were rumored about at the reformation to impose on the credulity of the populace: many instances of which may be seen in a treatise on spectres, written by one of our divines. On supposition that it were a dead person sent from the other world, it would be