the whole impious race, except eight persons 1 Pet. iii. 20.

Were these eight persons freed from the general flood? They peopled a new world with a succession as wicked as that which inhabited the old world, and which was drowned in the flood. They conspired together against God, and left to future ages a monument of their insolent pride, a tower, the top of which they said, should reach to heaven, Gen. xi. 4.

Were these sons of presumption dispersed? Their depravity and their idolatry they carried with them and with both they infected all the places of their exile. Except Abraham, his family, and a small number of believers, nobody worshipped or knew the true God.

Were the descendants of this patriarch multiplied into a nation, and loaden with the distinguishing blessings of God? They distinguished themselves also by their excesses. Under the most august legislation, and against the clearest evidence, they adopted notions, the most absurd, and perpetrated crimes the most unjust. They carried the tabernacle of Moloch in the wilderness; they proposed the stoning of Moses and Aaron; they preferred the slavery of Egypt before the liberty of the sons of God.

Were these people conducted by a train of miracles to the land of promise? The blessings, that God bestowed so liberally on them, they generally turned into weapons of war against their benefactor. They shook off the gentle government of that God, who had chosen them for his subjects, for the sake of submitting to the iron rods of such tyrants as those, who reigned over neighboring nations. Did God exceed their requests; did he give them princes, who were willing to support religion? They

rebelled against them; they made a scandalous schism, and rendered that supreme worship to images, which was due to none but the Supreme God.

2. The people, of whom we have been speaking, lived before the time of Jesus Christ: but, I am to shew you, in the second place, a whole community, enlightened by the gospel, retaining the same principle, which was the chief cause of the infidelity of the Jews; I mean a blind submission to ecclesiastical rulers.

The Jewish doctors, who were contemporary with Jesus Christ, assumed a sovereign power over the people's minds; and the Rabbies, who have succeeded them, have done their utmost to maintain, and to extend it. Hence the superb titles, Wise man, Father, Prince, King, yea God. Hence the absolute tyranny of decisions of what is true, and what is false; what is venial, and what is unpardonable. Hence the seditious maxims of those of them, who affirm that they, who violate their canons, are worthy of death, Hence those blasphemous declarations, which say, that they have a right of giving what gloss they please to the law, should it be even against the law itself; on condition, however, of their affirming, that they were assisted by, I know not what, supernatural aid, which they call Bath-col, that is, the daughter of a voice.

Now, my brethren, when an ecclesiastic, hath arrived at a desire of domination over the minds of the people, and when the people are sunk so low as to suffer their ecclesiastics to exercise such a dominion, there is no opinion too fantastic, no prepossession too absurd, no doctrine too monstrous, to become an article of faith. It has been often objected against us, that to allow every individual the liberty of examining religion for himself is to open a door to heresy. But if ever recrimination were

just, it is proper here. To give fallible men the power of finally determining matters of faith, is to throw open flood-gates to the most palpable errors. Thou eternal truth! Thou sovereign teacher of the church! Thou high priest of the new covenant! Thou alone hast a right to claim a tacit submission of reason, an implicit obedience of faith. And thou, sacred book! Thou authentic gift of heaven! When my faith, and my religion are in question, thou art the only tribunal, at which I stand! But as for the doctrine of blind submission, I repeat it again, it will conduct us to the most palpable errors.

With the help of implicit faith, I could prove that a priest hath the power of deposing a king, and of transmitting the supreme power to a tyrant.

With this principle, I could prove that a frail man can call down the Saviour of the world at his will, place him on an altar, or confine him in a box.

With this principle, I could prove that what my smell takes for bread is not bread; and what my eyes take for bread is not bread; and what my taste takes for bread is not bread; and so on.

With this principle, I could prove that a body, which is all in one place, is at the same time all in another place; all at Rome and Constantinople; yea more, all entire in one host, and all entire, in another host; yea more astonishing still, all entire in one host, and all entire in ten thousand hosts; yea more amazing still, all entire in ten thousand hosts, and all entire in each part of these ten thousand hosts; all entire in the first particle, all entire in the second, and so on without number or end.

With this principle, I could prove, that a penitent is obliged to tell me all the secrets of his heart and that, if he conceals any of its recesses from me, he is, on that very account, excluded from all the privileges of penitence.

With this principle, I could prove, that money given to the church delivereth souls from purgatory; and that, according to the Bishop of Meaux, always when the souls in that prison hear the sound of the sums which are given for their freedom, they fly towards heaven.

3. You have seen a whole community professing christianity, and yet not believing the doctrines of Christ, through the prevalence of the same principle, which rendered the ancient Jews infidels. We proceed to shew you something more extraordinary still; a multitude of christians, instructed in the truths of the gospel, freed by the light of the reformation from the darkness, with which superstition had covered the gospel; and yet seducing themselves like the ancient Jews, because their unworthy passions have rendered their seduction necessary.

Recal, my dear fellow-countrymen, the happy days in which you were allowed to make an open profession of your religion in the place of your nativity. Amidst repeated provocations of the divine patience, which, at last, drew down the anger of God on our unhappy churches, there was one virtue, it must be owned, that shone with peculiar glory, I mean zeal for public worship. Whether mankind have in general more attachment to the exterior than to the inward part of divine worship; or whether the continual fear of the extinction of that light, which we enjoyed, contributed to render it sacred to us; or whatever were the cause, our ancient zeal for the public exterior worship of our religion may be equalled: but it can never be exceeded.

Ye happy inhabitants of these provinces! We are ready to yield to you the pre-eminence in all other virtues: This only we dispute with you. The

singing of a psalm was enough to fire that vivacity; which is essential to our nation. Neither distance of place, nor inclemency of weather, could dispense with our attendance on a religious exercise. Long and wearisome journies, through frosts and snows, we took to come at those churches, which were allowed us for public worship. Communiondays were triumphant days, which all were determined to share. Our churches were washed with penitential tears: and when, on days of fasting and prayer, a preacher desired to excite extraordinary emotions of grief he was sure to succeed, if he cried: God will take away his candlestick from yous God will deprive you of the churches, in which ye form only vain designs of conversion.

The

Suppose, amidst a large concourse of people, assembled to celebrate a solemn feast, a preacher of falshood had assembled a pulpit of truth, and had affirmed these propositions. "External worship, is not essential to salvation. They, who diminish their revenues, or renounce the pleasures of life, for the sake of liberty of conscience, do not rightly understand the spirit of christianity. Lord's supper ought not to be neglected, when it can be administered without peril: but we ought not to expose ourselves to danger for the sake of a sacrament, which at most is only a seal of the covenant, but not the covenant itself." In what light would such a preacher have been considered? The whole congregation would unanimously have cried, Away with him! Away with him! Numb. XXV. Many a Phineas, many an Eleazar would have been instantly animated with an impetuosity of fervor and zeal, which it would have been necessary to restrain.

O God! What are become of sentiments so pious, and so worthy of Christianity! This article is #

VOL. II