the body is dissolved, he still shall live a conscious being And, if he has an existence, this may as well be miserable as happy. If chance has subjected him to some misery in this state, perhaps it will handle him more rudely in the next. There is no knowing, what contingence or necessity may do; and no provision can be made against the caprice of the one, or the tyranny of the other.

The man, then, who disbelieves the existence and providence of a God, and the difference between moral good and evil, must be in a most gloomy and dismal state. His way is darkness. He has no security in any line of conduct, and he cannot conjecture what is before him in the confusion of events. Every thing bodes danger and threatens misery. There is no being to whom he - can repair for help-no sanctuary to which he can retreat for safety. Even virtue is confounded, and prudence is nonplussed. Do what he will, he lies at the mercy of wild and wanton chance, or of cruel and inexorable fate. His forethought is blind, caution is useless, and prayer is vain. There is no security of good, nor remedy for evil. All around him is darkness, and all before him is horror.

Say now, Is this a desirable state ?-A state for which a wise man would exchange the comforts of religion?

What peace and satisfaction can a mortal feel without a persuasion, that there is a wise, just and good Being, who made and governs the world, and that this Being is his friend?-That there is a way to obtain the protection and secure the favour of this Being, and that he has found and chosen the way?

With this persuasion he may possess a cheerful serenity amidst all the vicissitudes of life; for to the virtuous, God is a present help in trouble, and all things will he turn to their advantage. "God is

our refuge and strength," says the Psalmist; "therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, and though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.'

A wise and thinking man, as he regards his own peace and happiness, will endeavour fully to understand what religion is, and on what ground it stands; what it requires him to be, and forbids him to do; what hopes and what fears it proposes, as motives to duty. When he has learnt what religion is, it will be his next concern to comply with its design and secure its blessings. And next to this, it will be his care to know his own character and condition, and to judge whether he may safely appropriate the promises of religion, or is still exposed to. its threatenings.

Consider then, what beings you are. You have a rank assigned you in the intelligent creation. Look around, and behold plain evidences of the exist ence and government of a Deity. Realize your dependence on him and accountableness to him. Reflect on your important situation. You are on trial for eternal happiness. How precious then is every hour! Think of your advantages. To you God has committed his sacred oracles. Here, under a consciousness of your guilt, you may find hope and comfort. Here you may learn, that God is merciful to forgive the penitent, and to support their virtuous resolutions

that his salvation is dispensed to sinners, through the righteousness of his son, and that it is unto all, and upon all them who believe in this Saviour, and there is no difference. Here also you learn, that if you sin presumptuously, after you have received the knowledge of the truth; if you do despite to the Spirit of grace, and trample on the blood of the Redeemer, there remains no more sacrifice for sin.

Go now, fall down before God in the exercise of humble faith and deep repentance; renounce every sin, and yield yourselves to him, to serve him in newness of life. Cultivate in your hearts the temper which the gospel requires. Repel with indignation every attack on your faith and virtue. Indulge no sentiments which tend to corrupt the manners.-Make improvements in knowledge, and abound in every good work.

The zealous practice of religion, is the best guard against errour in doctrine, and defection from the truth. Maintain a good conscience, and you will not make shipwreck of the faith. Shun the way of the wicked; for this is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble. Walk in the path of the just; for this is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

VOL. II.

SERMON XI.

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A Paralytic healed on the Faith of Others.

MARK, ii. 5.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the Palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

By the preaching and miracles of Jesus

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Christ in Capernaum, his fame was much celebrated in that city and in the country around; so that wherever he went, as soon as the people knew where he was, they crowded around him; some to hear his doctrines, and some to receive cures for themselves or their friends.

At the time of the transaction referred to in the text, he was in a private house in this city, whither, it seems, he had retired for refreshment and rest. The people hearing that he was there, gathered together in such multitudes, that there was no room to receive them, not even about the door. And while he was preaching the word to them, probably from an upper chamber in the house, there came four men, bringing on a bed, a poor helpless patient, with a design to lay him before Jesus; hoping, that, moved at the sight of such a miserable object, he

would exert for his relief that healing power, with which he was endued. When they drew near the house, they found such a throng within and around it, that they could not come to him through the door: They therefore ascended to the roof of the house, (for the Jewish houses, being flat roofed, had stairs without) and there opened a passage so wide, as to let down the paralytic, with his bed, into the chamber, where Jesus was. "And he, seeing their faith, said to the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

The great pains, which they took in this case, discovered their full belief of Christ's power and mercy to heal this unhappy man. Jesus could as easily have healed him at a distance; but that the miracle might be as publick as possible, he suspended the exercise of his healing power, till they had let the man down before him through the roof. For his miracles were designed, not merely for the benefit of the particular persons, who were the immediate subjects of them; but rather for the general benefit of mankind in establishing the truth of his gospel.

The phrase used to express the sick man's release from his infirmity is, Thy sins be forgiven thee. That it is not a remission of the moral guilt of sin, which is here intended, is evident, because it was granted upon the faith of others. Whether the paralytic himself believed, or not, it is not said-be this as it may; yet his faith was not the special reason of his being healed, but the faith of those who brought him. As the design of the miracle was to make a publick display of Christ's divine power, so their faith, and not the faith of the patient himself, gave occasion for the exercise of this power in healing him; for it was their faith which brought the patient before him in this conspicuous manner. The remission of moral guilt is granted only on personal faith and penitence. In the following