urge, that in his ignorance he fell? Out of his own mouth shall he be judged. For, behold, the Deist is called rational, and resteth in reason, and maketh his boast of philosophy, and is confident that he himself, being instructed out of the perfection of nature's law, is a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, and an instructor of the foolish Christian. How then shall he escape, if, professing to approve only the things that are more excellent, it shall be found, as it will be, that the word of God has been blasphemed in the world through his presumption?

Ye see, then, that there can be no such thing as the innocence of intellectual error in religion. It is in thoughts as it is in deeds. "If thou thinkest well, thou shalt be accepted, but if thou thinkest not well, sin lieth at the door." Before we can go wrong, whether in opinion or act, we must have turned ourselves from the means of grace, and perverted, or abused, the faculties and opportunities with which we have been blessed. Every unbeliever may not be a wicked man in the deeds of his hands, but before he can have deviated from the truth, he must have sinfully yielded to some intellectual passion of our nature to the lust of curiosity, or the pride of discovery, or the vanity of singularity, or the covetousness of human praise or he must have

been wanting in the meekness of true wisdom, the humility of true science, or the virtue of dependence upon God. Beware, then, my brethren, lest this also happen to some of you, which is written" Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Watch more especially, my younger brethren, over the progress of your studies with unwearied caution and with a godly jealousy, lest by any means ye fall into the snare of the devil, and grow vain in your imaginations, and your understanding become darkened to the apprehension of the excellence of God's revealed truth. If ye so give up yourselves to the practice of rigid demonstration, that ye become disqualified for appreciating the force of moral evidence—ye sin. If ye so altogether study abstract or erudite truth that ye care not for moral and for practical; or if by any partial or exclusive pursuit of the learning of any particular age, or nation, or subject, you imbibe the prejudices of a sect or a science, and are incapacitated for just and general and impartial views-ye sin. If in an earnestness after frivolous, or unimportant, or earthly knowledge, ye lose your relish for graver and divine; if by an anxiety for the graceful accomplishments of the world that is, you neglect the preparation for that which is to come; if you forget the qualities which recommend man to his Maker, in the insignificant acquisitions of mere curiosity

or elegance; if in indolence ye so dissipate and blunt your faculties, as to grow incapable of tasting the power and the wisdom of the Gospel; or if by any course of study or discipline of the mind, however excellent and useful it may be in itself, ye fall away from the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, -ye are sinful still, and shall give an account of your intellectual wickedness before the judgmentseat of Christ. I say not that all unbelievers are equally guilty before God, neither do I presume to measure the several degrees of their evil and their punishment. But this I do say, in justice, that, if God be merciful and powerful enough to give wisdom liberally to them that ask it of him in faith and nothing wavering, then none who err can be without their guilt. This I say in justice, and this also I add in mercy, that the least guilty would appear to be those who have never been instructed in the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel, nor been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

And, Oh, my Fathers, what a contemplation does this present to us, to whom the instruction of others is committed under God, if, because we have neglected to give them the knowledge of the rudiments of Christian wisdom, they fall into the error and condemnation of disobedience or disbelief. They, indeed, shall have their own burthen

of woe to bear, but we too shall accompany them to the shades of darkness, and have opened for ourselves a fountain of never-failing tears. For, if the despisers themselves shall behold, and wonder, and perish, of how much sorer punishment, think you, shall not we be counted worthy, if by our neglect or folly we have made them so. Seriously and solemnly then, let us put the question to our hearts, and ask our consciences, whether we are or are not guilty as concerning this thingwhether we have or have not directed our endeavours to promote to the utmost of our power the cause of that religion by which so many of us live here, and by which we must all of us live hereafter? If with sincerity the answer be returned, I fear that we shall scarce be able to rise up altogether unpolluted with blame. As individual instructors, I trust we have little to lay to our charge as neglecting to give encouragement to the knowledge and practice of piety; and in the government of those particular Colleges over which we preside, or in which we participate, I know that much has been done to carry the mind and the heart to the studies which lead unto everlasting blessedness. But have we consented or refused to set the public seal of our University, as a body, to religious pursuits? Have we or have we not given a public testimony to the world of the attention with which we cultivate, and the reverence with which we

regard those spiritual things, for whose propagation and improvement our privileges were granted, and our rights conferred? Is it, or is it not possible, that one most ignorant in all the necessary erudition of a Christian may yet receive uncensured the highest of the honours we bestow, whilst one most deeply imbued in the principles of sacred science may pass away unpraised from the trial? If these things be so-if neither the rudiments of our holy faith, nor even the language in which its records are written, form any portion of our public and authorized examinations for degrees; if neither reward nor disgrace attend our knowledge or ignorance of the pages of the Gospel at that period at which our proficiency is finally tried-be it yours to judge how far, as a public and most important body, we can be said to encourage the studies of religion, or give a pledge to our country that we are fulfilling the duty for which we exist—the duty of raising the national character upon the basis of the national faith, and building up the rising generation upon the immutable foundation of Jesus Christ.

I urge not these considerations in ignorance of the sacrifices which some, perhaps erroneously, may suppose that it will be necessary to make in other things, in order to introduce so essential and extensive a subject of inquiry with