over the atrocious vices of former ages, we generally abhor the sins, and condemn the men who committed them. They appear monsters to us, and nature seems to have produced but a few. We seem to ourselves beings of another kind, and we can hardly suffer the question to be put, whether in the same circumstances we should not have pursued the saine conduct.

In this disposition we usually judge the ancient Jews. How could they rebel against those deliverers, whom God, if I may speak so, armed with his omnipotence to free them from the bondage of Egypt? How could they possibly practise gross idolatry on the banks of the red sea, which had just before been miraculously divided for their passage, and which had just before overwhelmed their enemies? While heaven was every instant lavishing miracles in their favor, how could they possibly place their abominable idols in the throne of the living God? How could their descendants resist the ministry of such men as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets, whose missions appeared so evidently divine?

In the same disposition we judge those Jews who heard the sermons, and who saw the miracles, of Jesus Christ. Their unbelief appears a greater prodigy than all the other prodigies, which we are told, they resisted. It seems a phænomenon, out of the ordinary course of nature. And we persuade ourselves that had we been in similar circumstances, we should have acted in a very dif ferent manner.

As I said before, my brethren, this sophistry is not new. When we reason thus in regard to those Jews, who lived in the time of Jesus Christ, we only repeat what they themselves said in regard to them, who lived in the times of the ancient pro

phets. Jesus Christ, reproacheth them with it in these emphatical words: Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, Matt. xxiii. 29, 30, 32. Let us not lightly pass over these words. I have read them as they are in the gospel of St. Matthew. St. Luke has them a little differently, Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres, chap. xi. 48. Both express the same thing. The Jews, who were contemporary with Christ, having no interest in the wickedness of their ancestors, considered it in the disposition of which we have been speaking, and were ashamed of it, and condemned it. They considered themselves in contrast with them, and gave themselves the preference. If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Jesus Christ undeceives them, and rends the vail, with which they covered the turpitude of their own hearts from themselves. He declares, if they had lived in the days of their fathers, they would have imitated their conduct; because, being in similar circumstances, they actually pursued similar methods. And he assures them, that, if they were judged by their fruits, their zeal in repairing the sepulchres, and in embellishing the monuments, of the prophets, proceeded less from a design to honor the memories of the holy men, than from a disposition to imbrue their own sacrilegious hands in their blood, as their ancestors had formerly done. The duty of my office, and the subject, which

providence calls me to-day to explain, oblige me to make an odious, but perhaps a too just applica tion of these words. When you hear of the unbelief of the Jews, you say, "If we had lived in the times of them, who heard the sermons of Jesus Christ, and who saw his miracles, we would not have been partakers with them in the parricide of the prophets." Alas! my brethren, how little do we know of ourselves! How easy it is to form projects of virtue and holiness, when nothing but the forming of them is in question; and when we are not called to practise and execute them! But what you my brethren! would you have believed in Jesus Christ? You would have believed in Jesus Christ, you would have followed Jesus Christ, would you?

Well then, realize the name of Jesus Christ. Suppose the Hague instead of Jerusalem. Suppose Jesus Christ in the place of one of those insignificant men, who preach the gospel to you. And suppose this congregation, instead of the Jews, to whom Jesus Christ preached, and in whose presence he wrought his miracles. You would have believed in Jesus Christ, would you? You would have followed Jesus Christ, would you?

What thou idle soul! thou, who art so indolent in every thing connected with religion, that thou sayest, we require too much, when we endeavor to persuade thee to examine the reasons, which retain thee in the profession of Christianity; when we exhort thee to consult thy pastors, and to read religious books! What! wouldst thou have renounced thine indifference and sloth, if thou hadst lived in the days of Jesus Christ? Would thy supine soul have aroused itself to examine the evidences of the divinity of his mission, to deve lope the sophisms, with which his enemies opposed

him, to assort the prophecies with the actions of his life, in order to determine their accomplishment in his person?

What thou vain soul! who always takest up the upper-hand in society, who art incessantly prating about thy birth, thine ancestors, thy rank! Thou who studiest to make thy dress, the tone of thy voice, thine air, thy gait, thine equipage, thy skeleton, thy carcase, thine all, proclaim thee a superior personage! Wouldst thou have joined thyself to the populace, who followed Jesus Christ; to the poor fishermen, and to the contemptible publicans, who composed the apostolic school; wouldst thou have followed this Jesus?

What! thou miser! who wallowest in silver and gold; thou, who dost idolize thy treasures, and makest thy heart, not a temple of the Holy Ghost, -but a temple of Mammon; thou, who art able to resist the exhortations and intreaties, the prayers and the tears of the servants of God; who art insensible to every form of address, which thy pastors take to move thee not to suffer to die for want of sustenance, whom? A poor miserable old man, who sinking under the pains and infirmities of old age, is surrounded with indigence, and even wants bread. Thou! who art so ungenerous, so unnatural, and so barbarous, that thou refusest the least relief to an object of misery so affecting; wouldst thou have believed in Jesus Christ? Wouldst thou have followed Jesus Christ? Thou! Wouldst thou have obeyed this command, Go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me? Matt. xix. 21.

Ah! Wo unto you, scribes, and pharisees, hypocrites! Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we

would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets: But with too much propriety may I apply to some of you the following words: Behold! I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, Matt. xxiii. 29, 34, 35. Yea, behold! God sends ministers unto you, who preach the same doctrine now that Jesus Christ preached in his day. Resist them, as the Jews resisted Jesus Christ; withstand their preaching, as the Jews withstood the preaching of Jesus Christ; ridicule them, as the Jews ridiculed Jesus Christ; call them gluttons and wine-bibbers, Matt. xi. 19. as the Jews called Jesus Christ; contemn the judgments which they denounce, as the Jews contemned the judgments which Jesus Christ foretold: till all the calamitous judgments which are due to the resistance that this nation hath made against the gospelministry from its beginning to this day, fall upon you. But cease to consider the infidelity and obstinacy of the Jews as an extraordinary phoenomenon. Do not infer from their not believing the miracles of Christ, that Jesus Christ wrought no miracles. Do not say, Religion hath but few disciples, therefore the grounds of religion are not very evident. For you are, the greatest part of you, a refutation of your own sophism. You are witnesses that there is a kind of infidelity and obstinacy, which resisteth the most powerful motives, the most plain demonstrations. And these public assemblies, this auditory, this concourse of people, all