gestion to the test, consider how you would yourself have been affected if you had heard him in his daily teaching. Could you have been with the disciples of John, when they requested an interview with him, and have "abode with him that day”—what a day, (may we suppose,) what an epoch would it have been in your life? Does any one believe that he could have come away from such an interview, with the great and solemn Teacher, supremely anxious to acquire property, to gain an office, or to invent a new pleasure? Does any one believe that wealth and rank and fashion would then be the brightest things in his estimation? How would these things fade away in our sight! and the things of another world; the things that belong to the soul, and to the judgment, and to an endless being would fill and absorb our thoughts. And how would he, who knew what was in man; how would he, on such an occasion detect the state of our hearts, spread before us our secret and forgotten sins, exhibit in its odious forms every evil temper and unworthy desire; and as he talked with us, how would he hold up to our view, the standard of awful purity till we were ashamed and humbled to the dust! In what living colors would he describe the sin of ingratitude, so little thought of the neglect of prayer, so common!With what overwhelming views would he represent the vanity of our worldly wishes, the folly of our worldly anxieties, and summing up all that is glorious and all that is tremendous in the prospect of immortality, and contrasting it with the vanity of every thing earthly, how would he have compelled conviction, as he exclaimed, one thing is needful!—seek first and principally the kingdom of heaven!-what shall it profit you, if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

My friends, these instructions are serious. It would be easy to go over the whole New Testament, and trace every where the same character. I have time, only to select a single instance, and that shall be as I have proposed, an example. If we expect to be saved, we probably expect to be saved as others have been. There is no easier way to heaven, than prophets and saints have trod. Now if there has ever been a saint, a christian, who might pause in the way and take his rest, who had reason to be satisfied with himself and sure of his future happiness, it probably was Paul. And yet Paul recognizes the fearful possibility, "lest I myself be a cast-away." And with all his attainments we find him saying, with the ev

ident feelings of an anxious man, "if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead." And again, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Who will venture to be held exempt from an anxiety, which this holy Apostle so deeply felt for himself?

The propriety and necessity of religious solicitude has now been argued, in the first place, from the nature and reason of the case; in other words, from the principles of the mind, from the analogy of earthly pursuits, from the infinite worth of a religious character, and the extreme difficulty of acquiring it: and in the second place, from the evident and universal tenor of the New Testament.

Did the time permit, I would offer some considerations on the use and regulation of this state of mind. They would be briefly these to note the declaration of the Apostle--" work out your own salvation," and to observe the necessity of personal effort, and at the same time to seek divine aid, since he has added, "for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do;" to be perfectly rational, while deeply earnest in this matter; and above all not lightly to dismiss, but sacredly to cherish these anxieties. There are epochs in the history of the mind as well as of nations. There is a harvest season in the moral as well as the material creation. Whenever you are anxious about your religious welfare, and every one is so at times, you know not how much of the great futurity depends on this state of mind. Strive, at such a moment, would the moral teacher say, strive as if it were perdition to fail. Open and deliberate crime has its victims. But religious indifference it is that destroys its millions. The only antidote, the only redeeming power, is religious solicitude. If you have any portion of it now, if you feel any tenderness of spirit, any solemn anxiety, any gracious fear; Oh! look upon this state of mind as the kindest visitation of heaven to you; cherish it; cling to it; and never let it go till it has fulfilled the work of its commission. Death will soon teach us, and eternity will reveal, that we have not done too much nor indulged too many anxieties, for the immortal part of our nature. God grant that it may reveal also that we have not labored in vain! AMEN.

SERMON II.

BY REV. DR. BANCROFT, oF WORCESTER, MASS.

THE OFFICE OF REASON IN THE CONCERNS OF RELIGION.

ISAIAH i. 18.-Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord.

THIS is the language of the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel. Addressing his countrymen in the name of Jehovah, he had remonstrated with them against a religious dependence on ceremonial observances, while they cherished impure affections, and persisted in vicious practices. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord.The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with.-When you make many prayers, I will not hear. Wash ye, make ye clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow." This requisition being complied with, God condescends to reason with his children on the propriety of his forgiving their offences, and to give an assurance that he will grant them pardon and favour. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool."

From this emphatical appeal by the mouth of Isaiah, and from the general language of the bible it is evident, that God deals with men as rational, moral, accountable beings; and that his administrations approve themselves to the natural dictates of the human mind. In the Old and New Testament we are invited to examine the dispensations of God with the children of men, and judge of the wisdom, rectitude and benevolence manifested by them.

My purpose at this time is to consider the office of reason in the concerns of religion. We have often heard reason decried. Carnal reason has almost become a proverbial phrase; and a particular system of Christian doctrine has been charged with the error of being too rational. The laborious endeavors of learned theologians to explain the true meaning of the sacred pages, have sometimes been denominated attempts to exalt human reason above the authority of revelation. No warrant

can be found in our scriptures for these allegations; on the contrary, we are bound deliberately to examine the grounds of moral duty, that we may act rationally. Serious reflection must convince every man, that without the exercise of reason no religious act can be performed.

1. Reason renders men capable of religion, and every office to which they are called in this high concern, whether it relate to doctrine or precept, to faith or practice, is a rational exercise.

A belief of the being, attributes and government of God, which is the foundation of both natural and revealed religion, results from the proper exercise of reason. By an examination of the works of nature and the course of events, amidst which men live and move and act, they are established in the opinion, that things around them cannot be self existent or eternal, but must have had a beginning; and the marks of design and unity in the material system, and the benevolent tendency of all operations and events in the kingdom of nature teach men, that the creator and governor of the world is wise, and powerful and good. Confirmed in the belief of the wise and beneficent superintendence of Deity over the creatures of his power, men are qualified to judge of the evidence, which supports any scheme, that claims the authority of a revelation of the divine will and purpose.

Unless men are previously established in the belief that the creator and ruler of the world is a perfect being, on what evidence could they admit any pretended system of revelation? On what principles could they be assured, that it was not a scheme of deception and abuse? Persuaded of the rectitude and goodness, as well as the wisdom and power of the supreme governor of the world, men may give credence to the Heavenly messenger, who shows the seal of this great and good Architect and Governor stamped on his commission.

The attentive reader of the New Testament will perceive a difference in the address of the apostles, to Jew and Gentile, founded on this principle, when laboring to convert them to the Christian faith.-The Jews had through a long period been favoured with a divine dispensation which revealed the character and government of God; and they were confirmed in the belief of his existence, his unity, and universal supremacy: with their countrymen, therefore, the apostles reasoned from their own sacred books, and proved, that Jesus was the Mesiah, whose advent Moses and all the prophets had predicted,

and whom God had promised as the Redeemer of Israel. This they did, that the Jews might be convinced, that God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the Fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto them by his son.-When preaching to pagans, who were destitute of worthy apprehensions of the attributes of the presiding Divinity, and were enslaved by idolatry, and darkened by superstition, the apostles first stated the proof of the existence and perfections of the one living and true God, the Creator and Governor of the world, and then proceeded to show, that the works of Jesus, and the miracles, which they themselves in his name wrought, bore such resemblance to the works of creation as to prove, that the maker of the world had commissioned Jesus to reveal his will to mankind, and had thereby laid a sure foundation for faith in his mission, and confidence in his promises. Thus St. Paul to the Athenians, "As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God.' Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from any one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead:"

When established in the belief that Jesus Christ had given satisfactory proof of a divine commission, men were prepared to examine his communications, and judge, whether the doctrines he taught and the precepts he inculcated comported with