desolation, as the polished fragments of the great city of the desert, are scattered over the burning sands of Syria. And I feel that while I am attempting, in this humble manner, to discharge the offices of a christian minister, I am at the same time performing one of the most sacred duties of a citizen-contributing, according to my feeble ability, to perpetuate the institutions of my country.

But while I forbear to enter into the interesting subjects, at which we have just glanced, there is one particular topic, which I cannot wholly pass over. The pure gospel of Jesus Christ affords the only security for the preservation of the dearest right of a freeman, his religious liberty.

Human legislators may make laws for the "security of religious freedom," and they may repeal them. For myself, if the majority of the people of the United States were decidedly anti-christian, I could not rely on the law of the land to protect my life and person, while pursuing what I do now believe to be a course of christian duty. If, for very shame, the constitution should remain unaltered, public sentiment would not enforce that part of it, which guaranties my christian liberty. We see enough of the bitterness of infidelity, we hear enough of its "deep" curses, to assure us, that its prevalence would speedily tear down our altars, and desecrate our churches. It was in no remote period of the world, nor was it among a savage and ignorant people, that Infidelity, with the malignity of a fiend, adjudged the ministers of religion, without trial or defence,

to death on the lamp-post. Its spirit is unaltered. And even now, when restrained by law, and by public sentiment enforcing that law, we can hear its growl, like that of a tiger in a cage. The very freedom of speech, which it owes to the influence of christianity on this nation, is employed in calumniating the Bible, and traducing all who believe its sacred truths. Christians have tokens enough to show them what they may expect, if Infidelity should gain the ascendancy.

It would be easy to trace, in ten thousand ways, the influences of the gospel in securing liberty of religion. It clearly enough denies to man any authority over the conscience. It makes religion a personal concern, and teaches every one, that he is to give account for himself to his Maker. It comes to every individual, and plainly tells him what he is to believe and to do, that he may be saved, and solemnly charges him to judge of the doctrine of every religious teacher, by the plain truths, which are continually before him. And while it thus informs the conscience, and makes man feel the inexpressible value of religious freedom, it wakens up a spirit, which human authority cannot put down-which human power cannot subdue-which rises in its strength against the whole apparatus of tyranny, and looks undaunted on the stake and the wheel, the faggot and the fire. Since men first felt that they had a right to freedom of conscience, they who have maintained this right at every peril, amidst all reproaches and sufferings, have been devoted, evangelical christians. Philosophical

statesmen, borrowing without acknowledgment, their thoughts from pious christians, have reasoned well respecting the abstract right, when, in perfect security, they have had nothing to interrupt the course of their meditations: but they were christians, who offered themselves willingly to the sword, and gave their bodies to the flames, that they might thus seal their testimony to the truth, that there is no lord of conscience, but the eternal Sovereign of the universe. If any doubt of these facts, let them tell us where, in all the world, has religion been free, while the gospel has been unknown, or kept back from the people. In every other case, the miserable and oppressed people have thought, that the religion of the state was good enough for them.

I have thus shown that the gospel, by its adaptation to all climates, all ages, all conditions of human life, and to all the faculties of the human mind, dispenses blessings, which can be bestowed in no other way, through every department of human life; and that it EXCELS IN GLORY, because, from its very nature, it is unchangeable, and confers its benefits without measure, and without end, to all who are willing to receive them. Its great design is to pardon, to sanctify, and to save sinners. It finds them in guilt and misery; takes them "out of the horrible pit and the miry clay;" places them in the king's highway of holiness; and scatters its blessings all along the path, by which it conducts them to heaven.

But, after all, the gospel is a system but partially known to us. Our faculties are feeble; and this dark world is between us and that glorious orb of light. I am just holding up my little spy glass for you to look through and you see-O! do you not see, all round the dim edge of this globe, the breakings over, and the streamings of a light, which shows what is behind? The brief hour of this eclipse will, however, soon, very soon, pass away; and then a flood of glory will pour on you, and your fellow-christians around you. All will be transformed into the same image. And when that great multitude, which no man can number, gathered out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, shall stand before the throne, and before the Lamb; and when he shall be glorified in his saints, and be admired in all that believe; when cherubim and seraphim shall crowd around to learn new wonders concerning their Lord, and the sinner's Saviour, and shall behold them reflecting his light, resplendent in his image-then, and not till then, shall we form some adequate conception of the glory of the gospel.

DISCOURSE X.

THE PROVINCE OF REASON IN MATTERS OF RELIGION.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.-Let my cry come before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word.Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes;-give me understanding, and I shall keep thy word.-PSALM. cxix. 105. 169. 33, 34.

THE pious king of Israel is here presented before us, as conscious of his own ignorance, and desirous of receiving divine instruction. Though he was possessed of high mental endowments, and though, compared with others, he was distinguished for his acquisitions in spiritual knowledge; he yet felt himself to be a mere learner, and devoutly applied to God as his teacher.

I shall consider this example of David as casting light on the important subject, which has been assigned to me for the present occasion; namely, the province of reason in matters of religion. If it was suitable for