ners in their treatment of mankind. Blessed is be who walketh not in the counfel of the ungodly, nor ftandeth in the way of finners, nor fitteth in the feat of the fcornful. Bleffed is the man who is guarded against the counfel of infidels-who fhuns the company, avoids the crimes, and escapes the doom of the diffolute and the fcoffer.

Firft, Beware of the counfel and fociety of those who admit not the principles of religion, revealed or natural.

The human mind has naturally an impreffion of a Deity and moral Governour, of accountableness and future retributions. All nations and ages have concurred in thefe general fentiments: They are the bafis of all laws; the fupport of all authority, and of all confidence among men. Without the admiffion of them, human fociety could not exift. What then could ever have induced any mortal to doubt, to deny this original, univerfal fenfe of morality and religion? Not want of evidence; but either a wifh that it may be untrue; or the vanity of being thought wifer than the reft of mankind? Through this vanity, fome, to whom God hath given a fuperiour genius, have bent their whole attention to find arguments againft religion. Through the pride of talents, puffed up with vain imaginations, they will not feek after God. They feek deep to exclude his providence from the government of the world, and to explode his exiftence. Many a fpeculative man has been caught in his own fubtility: Exercifing himself in things too high for him, he has purfued a groundlefs theory much further than he contemplated at firft; and at length fixed in total fcepticism. No other refult could be expected from the facrifice of practical principles to vain fpeculations. Confiding in his own wisdom, man difowns human liberty and agency, and refolves every thing into fatality or chance. Every avenue being clofed, at which useful truth might enter the mind,

he co-operates with the grand deceiver and apoftate in the work of delufion. Men most resemble Lucifer, when they take deliberate counsel against the Almighty, and would bring him to their feet.

Are the difbelievers of revelation advocates for natural religion? This certainly obligeth them to call upon God, to fet him before them, and study to approve themselves unto him. But they caft of fear, and reStrain prayer: They defpife God and his government; and fay, by their neglect of his worship, Depart from us. Christianity has been confirmed by proofs as clear as the works of nature which proclaim the glory of God. Works of a like kind fhew that Jefus was fent of God. His refurrection fupports the Chriftian fabric: It was proved to the conviction and confufion of his foes, who wanted not means or ability, and fpared not endeavours, to prevent or detect fraud in a matter of fuch moment. It was a fact which might compare with the creation of the world-a fact as fully ascertained as any event attefted by experience. The immediate witneffes of it could not have been deceived; nor could they have testified it, had they not believed it. Their declaration of the fact is not, however, the whole proof upon which our faith refts: It was corroborated by the miraculous gifts with which they were endowed; to which gifts the promife, which Jefus addreffed to them, refers: The works which I do, fhall ye do; and greater. The Holy Ghoft fent down from heaven, immediately imparting to unlearned men the knowledge of all languages, was a difplay of divinity, which the world had never before witneffed: On the day of its first exhibition, before a great affembly of the foes of Chriftianity, collected from all parts, it made three thousand of them converts to a crucified Saviour; even the Saviour whom they themselves had crucified not two months before their converfion. If Chrift rose from the dead, why should a general refurrection be thought incredible? The infidel denies

both because some circumstances are not explained, which no reflecting man, unperverted by fyftem, would expect to have explained. He demands in particular, How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come? If the manner in which this great event fhall take place, if the form and properties of the refurrection body, are not made known, he will not believe. Yet uniform experience, upon which much reliance is placed, exhibits what is equally inexplicable-the revivifcence of feed, grafs and plants-the renovation of the face of the earth, after the deadness of winter. Why is not this difputed? It is as inexplicable as the reftitution of the human body from the duft.

The counsel of the ungodly against religion is open or fecret. It is open, when, in their converfation or writings, they directly attack the principles of religion when they produce their caufe, and bring forth their strong reafons againft it-confident that they are the men, and that wisdom fhall die with them. They find it easier to pull down than to build up. If they can deftroy our faith, they are not concerned to fubftitute any thing in its room; but content to set the human mind free from all principle. Inftead of a fair and candid examination of the external and internal evidence for religion, they apply their whole mental ftrength to the statement of fubtil and fpecious objections. Did they take comparable pains to confider the arguments for religion, as they do to argue ingeniously against it, they would believe. But they must offer incense to their own talents, at the expence of faith and a good confcience. If fuch philofophers as Newton and Locke, men who investigated every fubject of their contemplation with profound attention and difcernment, were the friends and ornaments of Chrif tianity, and wrote elaborately in its defence, no man need account it a difhonour to his understanding to believe and profefs the gofpel. To be fure we may

not take it for granted, that infidelity is a mark of fuperior understanding-that the counsel of the infidel is wife and safe.

But his counsel against religion is often fecret, and giv en under the guife of friendship. Inftead of directly affailing its authority, he aims to undermine and fap the foundation, by corrupting and perverting its doctrine: Its friends may be on their guard against the open foe; but not against the artful and infidious, who profefs an efteem of the gospel with no other view than to gain advantage against it. A great part of the writers on infidelity are wolves in fheep's clothing. The falfe teachers in the apoftolic age did more to obftruct the gospel than its open foes. They made divifions in the church, and perverted its members. They imitated their mafter in the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Beware left any man fpoil you through philofophy and vain deceit. "not carried about with divers and ftrange doctrines. "Try the spirits whether they be of God. Walk not " in the counsel of the ungodly," whether their counfel be an open or fecret attack upon the principles of piety, the doctrine according to godlinefs. Boldly withstand the open foe, and watch against the lurking

one.

"Be

In the next place, Shun the openly immoral. Stand not in the way of finners. Thefe, if not fpeculative, are practical unbelievers. Though they may profefs the gofpel, they in works deny it. If it be true, they muft either reform, or be miserable: "For therein " is the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteouf"nefs and ungodlinefs of men, who hold the truth "in unrighteoufnefs." The plea, GRACE, GRACE, cannot be admitted to fave from wrath any who continue in fin. Eternal life is a reward promised only to those who have their fruit unto holiness. The grace which brings falvation, teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts, and live a fober, righteous and godly life, looking for the bleffed hope. The way of

finners is the broad way to deftruction, however they may flatter themselves in their own eyes. They may indulge a falfe hope. They may build upon the fand. Comparing their own character and the terms of the gofpel, they have nought to expect but indignation and wrath, unless repentance intervene. If then they will not be perfuaded to forfake their fins, they must wifh the gofpel to be false; and from wifhing, they may be led to believe it falfe. Refolved to pursue the way which feemeth right in their own eyes, how can they know or believe the truth? Having pleasure in unrighteousness, the light within becomes darkness. They call evil good, and good evil. They are given over to delufions. Senfual affections naturally lead to infidelity; or, to what is equivalent, opinions deftructive of faith and found doctrine. Fools fay in their hearts, No God, no future punishment. The reafon is, "They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity." Bad morals corrupt men's principles, and bad principles their morals. Through want of faith, they depart from the living God. And while they are far from him, and are wandering further, they preclude themselves from the means of faith. Thofe foon lofe their morals, who become indifferent to, or give up religious principles.

Were the morals of our Saviour and his example followed, happy would it be for the world. Those who deny his miffion, and caft opprobrium upon his character, do what they can to take away the reftraints on the lufts and paffions of men; encourage forgetfulness of God, of providence and a future life; and to fanction the Epicurean fyftem, Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.

Sinners, refolved to walk in the way of their heart, will either be unmindful of, or indifferent to, or inclined to doubt, fuch moral principles as check their favourite purfuit. The profane, intemperate and unclean, the avaricious and unjuft, did they verily admit