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with a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge?" Have not thousands of persecuted saints expressed similar sentiments? Do you stand in need of solicitations to this duty? Jesus uttered them on the cross:-He conjures you by the blood which he shed for your redemption. Do you look for a reward? The Eternal opens to you the treasures of his munificence and glory. Are you to be actuated by menaces? The Sovereign Judge lights up the flames of hell to consume the dissentions and malice of mortals.

To conclude: My brethren, all that God requires of us is the sacrifice of a sentiment which it is in our power to control. What is it that you apprehend? Are the remarks of men more to be dreaded than the anger of God? What is it you seek? Is it reputation or fortune? How empty the first, how imaginary a good, if the soul be finally condemned for the guilty means of obtaining it? And as to the goods of fortune, they are ever making to them. selves wings and flying away, while eternity remains unchangeable. Yield, therefore, my brethren, and strive to apply this Christian to making your election sure. Be reconciled to grace your enemies, and you will become the friends of God.

X.

CONCLUSION OF A SERMON

Preached at Boston, before the Massachusetts Society for Pro. moting Christian Knowledge, November 27th, 1811, by the Rev. Eliphalet Pearson, LL. D.

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If the readers of this very sensible, spirited, and devout discourse, can, in any degree, be pleased and edified, as the Editors were in perusing it, they will not regret the insertion of its concluding paragraphs in their Journal.

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BUT some persons may perhaps be ready to say, such exertions were doubtless necessary in the infancy of Christianity, and may be proper now with respect to Heathen nations; but what is the occasion for special exertions in a country, where the Gospel has been long embraced? What need of Societies for promoting Christian knowledge among ourselves? To such queries it might be replied, that in our own country there are many individuals, nay families, that are destitute of the Bible, and many thousands, that scarcely own another religious book. But the evil, which called for a special remedy, is more alarming, and of wider extent. Had not the cause of divine truth, during the last half century, been attacked in a manner systematick, insidious, and successful, beyond former example; the Society, now present, had

not existed. But, when men of the first talents and erudition had filled Europe with their immoral, deistick, and atheistick productions; when a conspiracy against all religion was in extensive operation; whose watchword was, " crush the wretch," meaning Christ, and standing motto, "strike, but conceal the hand;" when, by order of the Convention of a nation, with which we were in close alliance, the following, with other blasphemous sentiments, were printed and circulated; "Man, when free, wants no other divinity than himself; reason dethrones both the kings of the earth, and the king of heaven; no monarchy above, if we wish to preserve our republick below;" when, (such was the ascendency acquired by the conspirators over a great nation,) twenty-four thousand Christian priests, many of them protestants, had been sacrificed to their malice; when the many hundred secret societies, formed for the express purpose of abolishing Christianity, had extended their baneful influence, not only through Europe, but into America; when it was a well known fact, that many thousands of deistical treatises were in rapid circulation among us; and, when it was likewise a solemn fact, that the writings of Mirabeau, Boulanger, and other atheists of the boldest front, were not only imported into this country, but, I blush to say it, translated into English by native Americans, and by publick advertisements exposed to sale and free circulation among us; could facts, like these, be realized by Christians without alarm? especially, when the effects of these systematick efforts, open and secret, had · become visible in the change produced in the morals and religion of many of our citizens? What was to be done? An antidote was necessary to counteract this moral poison. By books of almost every description had this poison, variously prepared, been circulated through the community. Books therefore appeared the proper vehicle for conveying the only remedy, the truth, as it is in Jesus. But to such a labour, however delightful, no individual was competent. Hence the necessity; hence the origin of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Hence also the first object of this Society is "a charitable distribution of the best religious books and tracts; as Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters, and such books of human composition, as are calculated to establish the truth, and to preserve the essential doctrines of the Gospel, as professed by our pious ancestors."

Hence it is obvious, that the great object of this Society is not the propagation of Christianity among idolaters, but the preservation and promotion of it among professed Christians; not so much in distant places, as among ourselves. Not however that, in prosecution of this design, the Society is confined to the distribution of books. The Constitution provides that, when ability shall permit and circumstances require it, charity schools and pious missionaries shall be supported in new towns and plantations, "for the express purpose of instructing and establishing the young and ignorant in the truth of the Gospel, and in the great doctrines and duties of our holy religion."

This statement, my brethren, of the origin and object of our Society, is now made, not merely for the satisfaction of others, but to excite within our own breasts renewed ardour in the prosecution of our enterprise. "In the fear of God and love of man we have solemnly associated ourselves for the benevolent purpose of promoting evangelical truth and piety." We are styled a Society for promoting Christian knowledge. This, as we have seen, was Paul's object and employment. By him are we taught, what the Gospel is, and what are its most essential and powerful doctrines. With him let us "determine to make known nothing, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Can we propose to ourselves a better model? If not, then let us imbibe his zeal, and shape our exertions from his example. Though he was pre-eminently the apostle of the Gentiles, "his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was, that they might be saved. For his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, he had great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart." To them also, like his Divine Master, he first addressed the Gospel. In imitation of such divine patriotism, let us exert every nerve, that our own countrymen may embrace the truth, and be saved by the crucified Jesus. They are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. While, therefore, we rejoice, that the glad tidings of salvation are wafted to nations, perishing for lack of vision, let us not forget that millions, nearer home, are in danger of perishing in the midst of vision; and of receiving a doom, com, pared with which that of the Heathen would seem light. Let this solemn thought awaken all our sensibilities, and rouse us to redoubled action.

My beloved brethren, will ye permit a word of exhortation? While, then, we are professedly engaged in promoting the truth, let us also exhibit the spirit of Jesus. The cause of Christ can never be advanced by any thing, that savours of persecution, severity, or unkindness. Let our brethren, whom we may think in errour, share our candour, love, and prayers. If there is in man a native aversion to the humbling truths of the Gospel, let us not by a proud or censorious spirit increase that aversion. To be received in love, the truth must be communicated in love. Man may be attracted, but cannot be provoked, to embrace the Gospel. If then we wish others to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth; let us" put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering." Let it be apparent from our temper and conduct, that our religion was learnt in the school of the meek and lowly Jesus. This dovelike spirit will do much to disarm prejudice and silence opposition.While we cheerfully unite our endeavours to those of others for sending the Gospel to the ends of the earth; be ours the additional happiness of inducing many in our own land to "cease from those instructions, which cause to err from the words of knowledge;" remembering, for our encouragement, that "he, who converteth a sinner from the errour of his way, shall save a soul from death." But let us also remember that no exertions for others, not even the VOL. INo. II.

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most successful, can save our own souls. Let it therefore be our first, our constant concern, while labouring to make Christ known to others, to know him ourselves; to know him crucified; to experience, with increasing gratitude and delight, that he is in us, in our view and in each of our hearts, "the wisdom of God and the power of God." Nothing will so well qualify us for our work; nothing so sweetly and powerfully excite us to spread abroad the savour of his name.

My Christian hearers, while we rejoice with you, that so much has been done by Bible and Missionary Societies for propagating the Gospel among Pagan nations, you will not, after what has been said, censure our concern for the promotion of it among ourselves. It is the glory of the present age, that, notwithstanding the ravages of infidelity and ambition, more extensive and successful exertions perhaps have been made for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom within the last fifteen years, than in so many preceding centuries. May this truly apostolick spirit be increased, and with it the means of supporting pious missionaries! May the day be accelerated, when the Bible shall be read, when Christ crucified shall be proclaimed, and Jehovah adored, in every language and by every nation under Heaven! But, while we pray for the dark places of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty; let us not forget, that regions long since enlightened by the Sun of righteousness, are overspread with much errour, sin, and guilt. As Christians, we pity the stupidity of the benighted Hindoo, bowing down to his idol of wood. We lament the immolation of female victims on the funeral pile. We are shocked at the impurities and bloody rites, by which he seeks the favour of his deity. But he does this ignorantly. It is the religion of his fathers, of his country. He never abused the light of revelation; he never denied the Son of God; never trod under foot the blood of the covenant. The times and the sins of such ignorance, we have reason to hope, God winketh at. But to those, who sin wilfully, after they have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no sacrifice for sins. Of the Jews Christ once said, "If I had not come, and spoken to them, they had not had sin." What reason then have we to tremble for those in this land of meridian light, who either neglect, pervert, or oppose his Gospel! What will be the fierceness of that indignation, which shall devour his adversaries! O ye compassionate friends of our race, whose feelings are wounded by the polluted rites and cruel superstitions of idol worship, have pity upon those, who, though they know God, yet worship him not, as God; upon the many thousands among ourselves, who refuse to be washed from their sins in the Saviour's blood. Are your souls tortured by the recital of a rational being voluntarily crushed by the car of the modern Moloch? Remember that there is one sight more distressing; it is that of a Gospel sinner falling into the hands of the living God. From this catastrophe may the good Lord deliver us, and may he open our hearts to contribute for the deliverance of others!

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

FOR THE THEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

OF OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GOD, AS FOUNDED IN REASON.

AT the bare mention of the word God, when accompanied with

suitable reverence, all our faculties are awakened and lost in astonishment which no language can express; the mind makes an effort to conceive of that incomprehensible intelligence, of that substance which has neither body, nor colour, and to mount up to that Power, which is absolutely inaccessible. GoD!! What wonders, what perfections, what grandeur are comprised in this word! The ocean, compared to him, is but a drop of water; the whole earth, but a grain of sand; the sun is but a spark, and all mankind as if they were not. He wills, and a creation springs forth from nothing; he speaks, and it sinks into dust; his residence is in the deep abyss, as well as in the highest Heavens; and while he is nothing that we behold, he actuates all things by his presence. The rocks hear his voice, and the winds are his ministers; all the elements acknowledge him, and death itself submits to his control. Without any origin to himself, he is the source of all being; though immovable, he shakes the foundations of the earth; though immutable, he changes the face of the universe. It is he who

fashions the bones and muscles of the unborn infant, and will again reanimate them, after they shall have mouldered for ages in the tomb. Sovereign Dispenser of health and sickness, he afflicts and heals at his pleasure; by the rupture of a fibre, he overthrows the most vigorous constitution, and arrests in a moment, the calculations of ambition. From the minutest insect to the massy elephant, all animated nature proclaims his power, and every pulsation of every heart pays grateful homage to his wisdom and goodness? But what, alas! are all these efforts of human language: what but the dazzling pomp of barren phraseology, unless God himself deign to enlighten our souls, and stoop to the weakness of our imperfect conceptions. Alas! without this merciful condescension, we only lavish our incense upon fading flowers, upon the heavenly luminaries subject to gradual extinction; upon animals destitute of sentiment and consciousness. In a word, we go forth from ourselves in search of that God who dwells within us, and is the real principle of our life and existence.

Such is the stupidity of the atheist, such the folly of the libertine; swayed by the delusions of a perverted judgment and corrupt heart, they disavow the Divinity that stirs within them; they forget, when writing, or speaking to his dishonour, that he gives

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