blessed, surrounded by thousand thousands, and by ten thousand times ten thousand angels, who excel in strength, and who delight to fly at the first signal of his will. Thou human soul! contemplate this object, and recover thy reason. What art thou? What was thine origin? What is thine end? Thou diminutive atom! great only in thine own eyes; behold thyself in thy true point of view. Dust! ashes! putrefaction! glorious only at the tribunal of thine own pride; divest thyself of the tawdry grandeur in which thou lovest to array thyself. Thou vapour! thou dream! Thou exhalation of the earth! evaporating in the air, and having no other consistence than what thine own imagination gives thee: behold thy vanity and nothingness. Yet this dream, this exhalation, this vapour, this dust and ashes and putrefaction, this diminutive creature, is an object of the eternal care and love of its God. For thee, contemptible creature! the Lord stretched out the heavens: for thee he laid the founda. tion of the earth: let us say more, for thee, contemptible creature! God formed the plan of redemption. What could determine the great Jehovah to communicate himself, in such a tender and intimate manner, to so contemptible a creature as man? His good

factor from whom we receive them. What glory of a Being, who existed from all eternigifts are they by which God has not distin- ty, whose understanding is infinite, and whose guished us? Thee he has distinguished power is irresistible, whose will is above conby a penetrating genius, which renders trol. Behold him filling the whole universe the highest objects, the deepest myste- with his presence. Behold him in the palace ries, accessible to thee. Wo be to thee! if of his glory, inhabiting the praises of the thou employ this gift to invent arguments against the truths of religion, and to find out sophisms that befriend infidelity. An upright man devotes this gift to the service of his benefactor; he avails himself of his genius, to discover the folly of skeptical sophisms, and to demonstrate the truth of religion. On thee he has bestowed an astonishing memory. Wo be to thee! if thou use it to retain the pernicious maxims of the world. An upright man dedicates this gift to his benefactor; he employs his memory in retaining the excellent lessons of equity, charity and patience, which the Holy Spirit has taught him in the Scriptures. To thee he has given an authoritative elocution, to which every hearer is forced to bow. Wo be to thee! if thou apply this rare talent to seduce the minds, and to deprave the hearts, of mankind. An upright man devotes this blessing to the service of his benefactor; he uses his eloquence to free, the minds of men from error, and their lives from vice. Towards thee God has exercised a patience, which seems contrary to his usual rules of conduct towards sinners, and by which he has abounded towards thee in forbearance and longsuffering. Wo be to thee! if thou turn this blessing to an opportunity of violating the commands of God; if thine obstinacy run paral-ness, his goodness alone. lel with his patience, and if, 'because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, thy heart be fully set in thee to do evil, Eccl. viii. 11. An upright man devotes this blessing to his benefactor's service. From the patience of God he derives motives of repentance. How easily might this article be enlarged! how fruitful in instruction would it be on this solemnity! But we proceed. 3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble; because an upright man, by publishing the gifts of God's grace, divests himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the goodness of him from whom they came. Far from us be a profane mixture of the real grandeurs of the Creator with the fanciful grandeurs of creatures! Far be those praises, in which he who offers them always finds, in his own excellence, the motives that induced the Lord to bestow his benefits on him!

Two reflections always exalt the gifts of God in the eyes of an upright man: a reflection on his meanness, and a reflection on his unworthiness; and it is with this comeliness of humility, if I may venture to call it so, that I wish to engage you to praise God for the blessings of this day.

1. Meditate on your meanness. Contrast yourselves with God, who gives himself to you to-day in such a tender manner. How soon is the capacity of man absorbed in the works and attributes of God! Conceive, if thou be capable, the grandeur of a Being, who made the heavens by his word, and all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth.' Think, if thou be capable of thinking, of the

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Although a sense of our meanness should not terrify and confound us, yet it should exclude arrogance, and excite lowly sentiments. But what will our humility be, if we estimate the gifts of God's grace by an idea of our unworthiness? Let each recollect the mortifying history of his own life. Remember, thou! thy [fiery youth, in which, forgetting all the principles, that thy pious parents had taught thee, thou didst acknowledge no law but thine own passionate and capricious will. Remember, thou! that period, in which thy heart being infatuated with one object, and wholly employed about it, thou didst make it thine idol, and didst sacrifice to it thine honour, thy duty, thy God. Recollect, thou! the cruel use, that for many years thou didst make of thy credit, thy riches, thy rank, when, being devoured with self-love, thou wast insensible to the voice of the widow and the orphan, and to a number of distressed people, who solicited relief. Remember thou! that fatal hour, the recollection of which ought to make thy head waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears,' Jer. ix. 1; that fatal hour, in which, God having put thee into the fiery trial of persecution, thou couldst not abide the proof. Like Peter, thou didst not know a disgraced Redeemer; thou didst cowardly abandon a persecuted church, and wast just on the point of abjuring thy religion. Let each of us so consider himself as he seems in the eyes of a holy God. A criminal worthy of the most rigorous punishments! Let each of us say to himself, notwithstanding all this, it is I, guilty I, I, whose sins are more in number than the

thyself!' is it to extinguish, or to inflame our Great God! Thou great God who hidest bibles have it, nous contemplons comme en un miroir. Our author was delighted with the ingenuity of Eras- zeal, that thou delayest the happy period? mus, however, he could not accede to his translation, Are our hopes suspended or confounded? because, 1. He could meet with no Greek author, cotemporary with St. Paul, who, had used the term in which we render to the Lord for all his beneGod grant, my dear brethren, that the praise, the sense of Erasmus. 2. Because he could not perceive any connexion between that signification and fits, may obtain their continuance and inthe phrase with open face. He abode therefore by the crease! And God grant, while he gives us usual reading. See Serm. Tom, ix, S. viii. My idea of our lives for a prey,' Jer. xxi. 9, that those of an object pleases ine, therefore it is a true idea of it, is contemptible logic: yet how many pretended arti- our brethren may be given us also! To him sles of religion have arisen from this way of reasoning! be honour and glory for ever! Amen.

'WHAT is truth? John xviii. 38. This question Pilate formerly put to Jesus Christ, and there are two things, my brethren, in the Scripture account of this circumstance very surprising. It seems strange that Jesus Christ should not answer Pilate's question; and it seems equally strange that Pilate should not repeat the question till he procured an answer from Jesus Christ. One principal design of the Son of God, in becoming incarnate, was to dissipate the clouds with which the enemy of mankind had obscured the truth; to free it from the numberless errors with which the spirit of falsehood had adulterated it among the miserable posterity of Adam; and to make the fluctuating conjectures of reason subside to the demonstrative evidence of revelation. Jesus Christ himself had just before said, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,' ver. 37; yet, here is a man lying in the dismal night of paganism; a man born in darkness, having no hope, and being without God in the world,' Eph. v. 8; and ii. 12; here is a man, who, from the bottom of that abyss in which he lies, implores the rays of that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' John i. 9; and asks Jesus Christ, "What is truth?' and Jesus Christ refused to assist his inquiry, he does not even condescend to answer this wise and interesting question. Is not this very astonishing Is not this a kind of mirac ?

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that his iniquitous judge had not such an ardent love of truth, such a spirit of disinterestedness and vehement zeal, as truth deserved. On the other, Pilate, who perhaps might have liked well enough to have known truth, if a simple wish could have obtained it, gave up the desire at the first silence of Jesus Christ. He did not think truth deserved to be inquired after twice.

The conduct of Jesus Christ to Pilate, and the conduct of Pilate to Jesus Christ, is repeated every day. Our assiduity at church, our attention to the voice of the servants of God, our attachment to the sacred books in which truth is deposited; all these dispositions, and all these steps in our conduct, are, in a manner, so many repetitions of Pilate's question, What is truth? What is moral truth? What is the doctrinal truth of a future state, of judgment, of heaven, of hell? But how often, content with the putting of these questions, do we refuse that assiduous application of the mind, that close attention of thought, which the answers to our questions would require! How often are we in pain, lest the light of the truth, that is shining around us, should force us to discover some objects, of which we choose to be ignorant! Jesus Christ, therefore, often leaves us to wander in our own miserable dark conjectures. Hence so many prejudices, hence so many erroneous opinions of religion and morality, hence so many dangerous delusions, which we cherish, even while they divert our attention from the great end, to which we ought to direct all our thoughts, designs, and views.

I would fain show you the road to truth today, my brethren; open to you the path that leads to it; and by motives taken from the grand advantages that attend the knowledge of it, animate you to walk in it.

I. We will examine what it costs to know truth.

But if Jesus Christ's silence be surprising, is it not equally astonishing that Pilate should not repeat the question, and endeavour to persuade Jesus Christ to give him an answer. A man, who had discovered the true grounds of the hatred of the Jews; a man, who knew that the virtues of the illustrious convict had occasioned their accusations against him; a man, who could not be ignorant of the fame of his miracles; a man, who was obliged, as it were, to become the apologist of the supposed culprit before him, and to use this Our text is, buy the truth;' and the title plea, I find in him no fault at all; which of our sermon shall be, The Christian's Logic. condemned the pleader, while it justified him Doubtless the greatest design that an immorfor whose sake the plea was made; this man tal mind can revolve, is that of knowing truth only glances at an opportunity of knowing one's self: and the design, which is next to the truth. He asks, What is truth? But the former in importance, and which surit does not much signify to him, whether Je-passes it in difficulty, is that of imparting it sus Christ answer the question or not. Is not this very astonishing? Is not this also a kind of miracle?

My brethren, one of these wonders is the cause of the other, and, if you consider them in connexion, your astonishment will cease. On the one hand, Jesus Christ did not answer Pilate's question, because he saw plainly,

II. What truth is worth,

to others. But if a love of truth; if a desire of imparting it to a people, whom I bear always on my heart; if ardent prayers to the God of truth; if these dispositions can obtain the knowledge of truth, and the power of im parting it, we may venture to hope, that we shall not preach in vain. May God himself crown our hopes with success!

I. We are to inquire for the road that leads, all beings, that we should try to acquire the to truth; or, to use the ideas of the text, perfection of all arts, that we should compre we are to tell you what it costs to know truth. hend the mysteries of all sciences? Who is Before we enter on this inquiry, it is neces- equal to this undertaking? sary to determine what we mean by truth. If there be an equivocal word in the world, either in regard to human sciences, or in regard to religion, it is this word truth. But, not to enter into a metaphysical dissertation on the different ideas that are affixed to the term, we will content ourselves with indicat-time and attention which it deserves: to each ing the ideas which we affix to it here.

What then is Solomon's idea? Does he mean only the truths of religion, and the science of salvation? There, certainly, that which is truth by excellence may be found; nor can it be bought too dear. I do not think, however, that it would comprehend the precise meaning of the Wise Man to understand by truth here the science of salvation alone. His expression is vague, it comprehends all truths, it offers to the mind a general idea, the idea of universal truth. Buy the truth. truth. But what is this general idea of truth? 1. The sacrifice of dissipation is the first What is universal truth? Does Solomon mean, price we must pay for the truth. Be attentive that we should aim to obtain adequate ideas of is the first precept, which we must obey, if

piety, which we form in our closets? How is it, that demonstrations expire when sermons end, and that all we have felt in the church ceases to affect us when we go out of the gate? Is there, then, nothing sure in the nature of beings? Is truth nothing but an exterior denomination, as the schools term it, nothing but a creature of reason, a manner of conceiving? Does our mind change its nature, as circumstances change the appearance of things? Does that, which was true in our closets, in our churches, in a calm of our pas sions, become false when the passions are excited, when the church doors are shut, and the world appears? God forbid! It is because, in the first circumstances, we are all taken up with studying the truth; whereas health, the world, the passions, disperse (so to speak) our attention, and by dissipating, weaken it.

we would know it. A modern philosopher* with the world subverts all the systems of has carried, I think, this precept too far. He pretends, that the mind of man is united to two very different beings: first to the portion of matter, which constitutes his body, and next, to God, to eternal wisdom, to universal reason. He pretends, that, as the emotions, which are excited in our brain, are the cause of our sentiments, effects of the union of the soul to the body; so attention is the occasional cause of our knowledge, and of our ideas, effects of the union of our mind to God, to eternal wisdom, to universal reason. The system of this philosopher on this subject has been, long since, denominated a philosophical romance. It includes, however, the necessity, and the advantage, of attention, which is of the last importance. Dissipation is a turn of mind, which makes us divide our mind among various objects, at a time when we ought to fix it wholly on one. Attention is the opposite disposition, which collects, and fixes our ideas on one object. Two reflections will be sufficient to prove that truth is unattainable without the sacrifice of dissipation, and the application of a close attention.

The first reflection is taken from the nature of the human mind, which is finite, and contracted within a narrow sphere. We have only a portion of genius. If, while we are examining a compound proposition, we do not proportion our attention to the extent of the proposition, we shall see it only in part, and we shall fall into error. The most absurd propositions have some motives of credibility. If we consider only two motives of credibility, in a subject which has two degrees of probability, and if we consider three degrees of probability in a subject which has only four, this last will appear more credible to us than the first.

The second reflection is taken from experience. Every one who has made the trial, knows that things have appeared to him true or false, probable or certain, according to the dissipation which divided, or the attention which fixed, his mind in the examination. Whence is it, that on certain days of retirement, recollection, and meditation, piety seems to be the only object worthy of our at tachment, and, with a mind fully convinced, we say, 'My portion, O Lord is to keep thy words? Ps. cxix. 57. Whence is it, that, in hearing a sermon, in which the address of the preacher forces our attention in a manner in spite of ourselves, we exclaim, as Israel of old did, All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do? Exod. xix. 8. Whence is it, that on a death-bed, we freely acknowledge the solidity of the instructions that have been given us on the emptiness of worldly possessions and readily join our voices to all those that cry, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, and vexation of spirit? Eccl. i. 2. Whence is it, on the contrary, that in the gayety of youth, and in the vigour of health, the same objects appear to us substantial and solid which seem void and vexatious when we come to die? How comes it to pass, that a commerce

I add farther, Dissipation is one ordinary source, not only of errors in judgment, but also of criminal actions in practice. We declaim, perhaps too much, against the malice of mankind. Perhaps men may not be so wicked as we imagine. When we can obtain their attention to certain truths, we find them affected with them; we find their hearts accessible to motives of equity, gratitude, and love. If men seem averse to these virtues, it is sometimes because they are taken up with a circle of temporal objects; it is because their attention is divided, and dissipated among them; it is because the hurry of the world incessantly defeats them. Ignorance and error are inseparable from dissipation. Be attentive, then, is the first precept wo give you. The sacrifice of dissipation, then, is necessary, in order to our arrival at the knowledge of truth.

But, if truth can be obtained only by observing this precept, and by making this sa crifice, let us ingenuously own, truth is put up at a price, and at a great price. The expression of the Wise Man is just, the truth must be bought. Buy the truth.' Our minds, averse from recollection and attention, love to rove from object to object; they particularly avoid those objects which are intellectual, and which have nothing to engage the senses, of which kind are the truths of religion. The majesty of an invisible God, who hideth himself,' cannot captivate them; and as they are usually employed about earthly things, so terrestrial ideas generally involve them. Satan, who knows that a believer, studious of the truth, is the most formidable enemy to his empire, strives to divert him from it. As soon as Abraham prepares his offering, the birds of prey interrupt his sacrifice: a disciple of truth drives such birds away. Among various objects, amidst numerous dissipations, in spite of opposite ideas, which resist and combat one another, he gathers up his attention, and unreservedly turns his soul to the study of truth.

2. The second sacrifice is that of indolence, or slothfulness of mind; and, Be not dis couraged at labour is the second precept, which must be observed if you would obtain the knowledge of truth. This article is con nected with the preceding. The sacrifice of dissipation cannot be made, without making