that is, the nature and excellence of the religion itself, confirm the belief of his divine mission. There is no where to be found information so interesting and important; sentiments respecting God and religion so sublime and just, as in the Scriptures of the New Testament. They inculcate the doctrine of one Almighty Being, infinite in power, wisdom, justice, mercy, goodness, and truth; the Creator, the Governor, and the Preserver of the world. They teach us that we are to worship this Almighty Being "in spirit and in truth;" that the love of God is to be the motive, and his will the rule of all our actions. They teach us to approach him as our reconciled God and Father, through Jesus Christ; and for this purpose supply us with a form of prayer dictated by our Lord himself; which as a model of calm and rational devotion; for its conciseness, clearness, and suitableness to every condition; for the weight, the solemnity, and the real importance of its petitions, is, and will for ever be without an equal or a rival. They teach us, moreover, what we all feel to be true, that man is fallen from original righteousness;

that the human heart is weak and corrupt; but that through the atonement and mediation of Christ we may all be restored to the favour of God, be assisted by the influence of his Spirit, and be put into a capacity of being happy for ever. They assure us that the soul perishes not with the body; that all mankind shall rise from the grave and be judged according to their works; that is, according to their faith in and obedience to that dispensation under which they had lived.

These, my brethren, are great and interesting and momentous truths, either wholly unknown, or but very imperfectly known to the world before the coming of Christ: and it has been well observed, that they render the meanest peasant in a Christian country far better acquainted with the nature of the Supreme Being, and the relation in which we stand to him, than were any of the greatest sages of antiquity.

Equally excellent and superior to all other rules of life are the moral precepts of the gospel. Our blessed Lord laid down two

M

leading principles for our conduct, love to God, and love to mankind; and thence deduced, as occasions offered and incidents occurred, all the principal duties towards God, our neighbour, and ourselves. With respect to God, we are commanded to love, to fear, to worship, and to obey him; to act continually under a consciousness of his presence; to do all things to his glory; to resign ourselves wholly to his will; and to submit with patience, resignation and cheerfulness to all his dispensations. With regard to our neighbour, we are to exercise the duties of charity, justice, integrity and truth; we are to love him as ourselves, and to do unto all men as we would they should do unto us: a rule that no person can mistake; one that comprehends the sum and substance of all social duty. As to those duties which respect ourselves, we are commanded to keep ourselves unpolluted by the world; to be temperate in all things; to keep under the body, and bring it under subjection; to preserve an absolute command over all our passions; to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the

present world, that our light may so shine before men that we may glorify our Father which is in heaven.

These are some of the general directions given for our conduct in the various situations and relations of life. More particular injunctions are to be found in various parts of Scripture. The distinguishing excellence, however, of the gospel morality, and that which gives it an infinite superiority over all other moral instructions whatever is this, that it places the check to licentiousness where it ought to be, namely, on the heart. That it regulates not merely the outward conduct, but extends to the inward affections and inclinations; that it scrutinizes the motive, discountenancing all ostentation, forbidding us to covet the praise of men, and prescribing practicable rules for the relative duties of life. It commands us to be, as it were, lights in the world, and examples of good to all; to injure no man; rather to suffer wrong than to seek revenge; to return good for evil; to love our enemies; to forgive others as we hope to be forgiven; to raise our thoughts and views above the present life, and

to fix them principally on that which is to

come.

The more, my brethren, we examine and reflect upon this subject, the more convincing will be the argument arising from it. Where shall we look for a religion so worthy of God, so calculated to promote his glory, and the good of man? Let us more particularly apply this argument. A religion that came from heaven must naturally be expected to furnish the most elevated and glorious conceptions of the attributes of the Supreme Being; and thus we have seen does the Christian religion. A religion that came from heaven should furnish incentives to the sublimest virtue and the strongest motives to avoid sin: its promises and threatnings should be respectively of the most inviting and alarming kind; and such are the promises and threatnings of the gospel. A religion that came from heaven, that is formed for being universal, should develope the great principles of social union; should explain and enforce all the relative duties; should soften, and civilize, and reform the human character; should perfect every sentiment