and in defiance of all their fruitless assaults, it will continue to stand to the end of time, a lasting monument of the power, wisdom, and mercy of its Almighty Founder.

Had Christianity in its rise and progress met with every kind of protection and favor, and had the first propagators of it, been men of transcendent talents, still must it be allowed, that a revolution of so marvellous a nature, as that which I have described, in religion, manners, laws, customs, prejudices, opinions, sentiments, could not but be considered as highly wonderful. As, therefore, it was brought about in direct opposition to every obstacle which could possibly be thrown in its way, and that too by instruments naturally unqualified for so vast an undertaking, what conclusion are we to draw, unless it be this, that over it, that over the vast undertaking, presided an Almighty Being, invisible to the human eye, girding the weak with strength, removing obstacles from before them, and disposing all things with infinite wisdom, to the accomplishment of his own original design?

The religion then, my friends, to which you have been called, is indubitably divine. You are convinced it is so. Comfort yourselves, therefore, in a manner worthy of so sublime a calling. Let the consciousness of your dignity as Christians, as members of that august body of which Christ Jesus is the head, animate you to sustain with corres

ponding propriety so exalted a character. Let it fortify your resolution against the assaults of incredulity, and stimulate you to fight manfully the battles of the Lord. But let the ardour of your zeal in the cause of God be tempered at the same time with charity to your fellow-men. Listen to the admonition of St. Paul to the Corinthians upon this subject, who, after having addressed them in the following terms, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, do manfully and be strengthened,"immediately added, "let all your things be done with charity." (1 COR. c. XVI. v. 13, 14.) Let it not, moreover, be forgotten, that the Christian religion is not merely a system of speculative belief, but that it is also a grand scheme of practical morality; that although "without faith it is impossible to please God," yet, "faith without works is inanimate, dead, unavailing; that besides having your loins girt about with truth, you must also have on the breast-plate of justice." Suffer not the pride of corrupt nature to conceal from your view the true, though humiliating, prospect of your natural infirmity. Remember that you are men, weak men, constantly in danger of falling, and by your own strength unable again to rise. That the all-powerful arm of the Almighty is necessary to raise you up, and to support your feeble limbs; that his celestial aid is not to be obtained but by prayer; and that, therefore, you should have recourse to prayer in order to procure it. Pray then to him, that

strengthened by his supernatural succour, you may be enabled to discharge with fidelity all the various duties which religion enjoins, and thus be qualified to receive hereafter, through the infinite merits of his beloved son, that incomprehensible reward, which is promised to the observers of his holy law.

SERMON VIII.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

ON THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.

GOSPEL. St. Matthew, xx. v. 1-16. At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market-place idle, and he said to them, Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just; and they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he saith to them, Why stand you here all the day idle? They said to him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them, Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward, Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come, that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came,

they thought that they should receive more; and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying, These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way; I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.

By the kingdom of heaven mentioned in this day's Gospel, is to be understood the visible Church of God on earth, or that aggregate collection of

individuals, to whom supernatural communications of the designs and ordinances of God have at different periods been imparted from above. And the conduct of God in the government of that kingdom, is assimilated to that of a householder engaging labourers to work in his vineyard at various hours of the day, and paying them at the close of it their stipulated wages. "The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard." The persons alluded to in the Gospel who were engaged early in the morning, and at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, I conceive to have been the Jewish people, who by their early vocation to the service of God in the person of the Patriarch Abraham, who was the father of their race, and afterwards by the promulgation of the law on mount Sinai, by the disclosures, and promises made to them by their prophets, and finally by the preaching of Christ and his apostles, may be said to have been hired at the corresponding hours specified in the parable. "And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just; and they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did in like manner." By those who were engaged to work in the vineyard at the eleventh hour, I appre