God; in which you have heard these triumphant fhouts in the church, Grace, grace unto it, Zech. iv. 7. A day in which you have been raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 6. A day, the pleafing remembrance of which will follow you to your death-bed, and will enable your pastors to open the gates of heaven to you, to commit your fouls into the hands of the Redeemer who ranfomed it, and fay to you, Remember, on fuch a day your fins were effaced; remember, on fuch a day Jefus Chrift difarmed death; remember, on fuch a day the gate of heaven was opened. to you.

Ó day! which the Lord hath made, let me for ever rejoice in thy light! O day of defigns, refolutions, and promifes, may I never forget thee! O day of confolation and grace, may a rich effufion of the peace of God on this auditory, preferve thy memorial through a thousand generations!

Receive this peace, my dear brethren. I fpread over you hands wafhed in the innocent blood of my Redeemer; and as our rifen Lord Jefus Chrift, when he appeared to his disciples, faid to them, Peace, peace be unto you; fo we, by his command, while we celebrate the memorable history of his refurrection, fay to you, "Peace, peace be unto you. As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Ifrael of God," John xx. 19, 21. Gal. vi. 16. To him be honor and glory -Amen.

for ever.

SERMON

THE ABSURDITY OF LIBERTYNISM AND INFIDELITY,

PSALM, xciv. 7, 8, 9, 10.

They say, The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye most brutish among the people and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He, that planted the ear, shall be not hear? He, that formed the eje, shall be not see ? He, that chastiseth the beatben, shall not be correct? He, that teacheth man knowledge, shall not be know?

INVECTIVE and reproach feldom proeeed from the mouth of a man, who loves truth and defends it. They are the ufual weapons of them, who plead a defperate caufe; who feel themselves hurt by a formidable adverfary; who have not the equity to yield, when they ought to yield; and who have no other part to take, than that of fupplying the want of folid realons. by odious names.

Yet, whatever charity we may have for erro neous people, it is difficult to fee, with modera tion, men obftinately maintaining fome errors, guiding their minds by the corruption of their hearts, and choofing rather to advance the mofer palpable abfurdities, than to give the leaft check to the most irregular paffions. Hear how the facred authors treat people of this character.. "My people is foolish, they have not known me; they are fottish children, they have no understanding. The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his master's crib; but Ifrael doth not, know, my people doth not confider. Ephraim is

like a filly dove without heart

O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you," Jer. iv. 22. Ifa. i. 3. Hof. vii. 1. Matt. iii. 7. and Gal. iii..).

Not to multiply examples, let it fuffice to remark, that, if ever there were men, who deferved fuch odious names, they are fuch as our prophet defcribes. Thofe abominable men F mean, who, in order to violate the laws of religion without remorse, maintain, that religion is a chimera; who break down all the bounds, which God hath fet to the wickedness of mankind, and who determine, to be obftinate infidels, that they may be peaceable libertines. The prophet, therefore, lays afide, in refpect to them, that charity, which a weak mind would merit, that errs only through the misfortune of a bad education, or the ftrait limits of a narrow capacity. "Oye most brutish among the people," fays he to them, "understand. Ye fools,* when will ye be wife?"

People of this fort, I intend to attack to-day.' Not that I promife myfelf much fuccefs with them, or entertain hopes of reclaiming them. Thefe are the fools, of whom Solomon fays,

though thou fhouldeft bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pefile, yet will not his foolishness depart from him," Prov. xxvii. 22. But I am endeavoring to prevent the progrefs of the evil, and to guard our youth against favorable impreffions of infidelity and libertinifm, whichhave already decoyed away too many of our young people, and to confirm you all in your attachment to your holy religion. Let us enter into the matter.

In the flyle of the facred authors, particularly in that of our prophet, to deny the existence of a God, the doctrine of Providence, and the effen tial difference between juft and unjuft, is one and

the

the fame thing. Compare the pfalm, out of which I have taken my text, with the fourteenth, with the fifty third, and particularly with the tenth, and you will perceive, that the prophet confounds them, who fay in their bearts, there is no God, with thofe, who fay, God hath forgotten; he bideth bis face, he will never see it, Pfal.

In effect, although the last of these doctrines may be maintained without admitting the first, yet the laft is no lefs effential to religion than the firft. And although a man may be a deift, and an epicurean, without being an atheift, yet, the fyftem of an atheist is no more odious to God than that of an epicurean, and that of a deift,

I fhall, therefore, make but one man of these different men, and, after the example of the prophet, I fhall attack him with the fame arms. In order to justify the titles, that he gives an infidel, I fhall attack,

I. His taste.
II. His policy.

III. His indocility.

IV. His logics, or to fpeak more properly, his way of reafoning.

V. His morality.

VI. His confcience.

VII. His politeness, and knowledge of the world.

In all these reflections, which I fhall proportion to the length of these exercises, I fhall pay more regard to the genius of our age than to that of the times of the prophet: and I fhall do this the rather, becaufe we cannot determine on what occafion the pfalm was compofed, of which the text is a part.

I. If you confider the taste, the difcernment and choice of the people, of whom the prophet Speaks, you will fee, he had a great right to denominate them most brutish and foolish. What

an

an excefs muft a man have attained, when he hates a religion, without which he canpot but be miferable! Who, of the happiest of mankind, doth not want the fuccour of religion? What difgraces at court! What mortifications in the army! What accidents in trade! What uncertainty in fcience! What bitterness in -pleafure! What injuries in reputation! What inconftancy in riches! What disappointments in projects! What infidelity in friendship! What viciffitudes in fortune Miferable man ! What will fupport thee under so many calamities? What miferable comforters are the paffions in thefe fad periods of life! How inadequate is philofophy itself, how improper is Zeno, how unequal are all his followers to the task of calming a poor mortal, when they tell him, Misfortunes are infeparable from human nature. No man fhould think himself exempt from any thing, that belongs to the condition of ~mankind. If maladies be violent, they will be fhort; if they be long, they will be tolerable, A fatal neceffity prevails over all mankind ~; complaints and regrets cannot change the order of things. A generous foul fhould be fuperior to all events, it should defpife a tyrant, defy for tune, and render itfelf infenfible to pain." Tolerable reflections in a book, plaufible arguments in a public auditory! But weak reflections vain arguments, in a bed of infirmity, while a man is fuffering the pain of the gout, or the ftone!

1

O how neceffary is religion to us in these fatal circumstances! It fpeaketh to us in a manner infinitely more proper to comfort us under our heaviest afflictions! Religion faith to you, "Out of the mouth of the Moft High proceedeth evil and good," Lam. iii. 38. He formeth light and createth darkness; he maketh peace, and createth evil," Ifa. xlv. 7. Shall