sands of worlds. His countenance is turned upward, to teach him that he is not, like other animals, limited to the earth, but looks forward to brighter scenes of existence beyond the skies. Did this erect, orderly and beautiful constitution of the human body spring up out of the earth? Undoubtedly not. The earth itself is an inactive body of matter; and we have proved already that that which has no motion cannot produce any thing. Man did not, could not, (as has been vainly and idly supposed, by some) have been formed by the fortuitous concurrence of atoms; for we behold the most exact order in the construction of the hubody.

Creation then is certainly the prerogative of a self-existent, uncaused being. Arrangements and disposals may be made by finite creatures, but they cannot create; it is impossible that they should give life. Neither can we, without the greatest absur dity, admit that we were formed by mere accident. If so, why do we never see men formed so in the present day? Why do we never see the clods of the earth brighten into human flesh, and the dust under our feet crawl into animal life, and intelligence? When we consider the boundless desires and inconceivable ac tivity of the soul of man, we can refer his origin to nothing but God. How astonishing are the reasoning faculties of man; of comparing, arranging, and connecting his ideas! How wonderful the powers of imagination! We in a moment can transport ourselves to the most distant parts of the universe. We fly back to the creation, and live the lives of all antiquity. Yea, higher, we surmount the limits of time, and sail along the vast range of eternity. These astonishing powers, could have originated only from a God of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power.

Let us close this subject and for a moment behold our earth. The diversification of its surface into land and water, islands and lakes, springs and rivers, hills and valleys, mountains and plains. We are entertained with an agreeable variety without being disgusted by a tedious uniformity. Every thing appears to be admirably formed for our profit and delight. There the valley's are clothed in smiling green, and the plains are bending with corn. Here is the gentle hill to delight the eye, beyond which, slowly rising, swells the huge mountain and heaves itself up into the skies. Why this pleasing, vast deformity of nature? Undoubtedly for the benefit of man. From the mountains descend streams to fertalize the plains below and cover them with wealth and beauty. The earth not only produces every thing necessary to support our bodies, but to remedy our diseases and gratify our senses.

We cannot but acknowledge, that it must be a God of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, who covers the earth in its seasons with such a pleasing variety of fruits and flowers, who gives them their delightful fragrance, and paints them with such exquisite colours. Do not these things indicate a cause infinitely superior to any finite being? Can we behold these things without admiring the goodness of that God, reverencing his power, and adoring his wisdom in so happily accommodating our external circumstances, to our situation and internal constitution? I was about to close this part of the subject, when the grandeur of the rolling ocean ushered into my mind, its immense burden of waters, such configuration of particles as render it moveable by the least pressure, and at the same time so strong as to support the heaviest weights. Who spread out this vast highway of all the nations under heaven? Who gave it its motion, and confined it within its bounds? It would require but little more motion to disorder the whole world! A very small incitement on the tide would drown whole kingdoms. Who restrains the proud waves, when the tempest lifts them to the clouds? and measures the great waters and subjects them to invariable laws? That great Being, who placed the sand for the bounds thereof, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, can they not pass over. With good reason then may we say, that from the things that are made, are clearly seen eternal power and wisdom. Then let us consider this great Being is every where present. He exists all around us. He is not, as we are apt to imagine, at a great distance. Wherever we turn, his image meets our view. We see him in the earth, in the ocean, in the air, in the sun, moon, and stars. We feel him in ourselves. He is always working around us; he performs the greatest operations, produces the noblest effects, discovers himself in a thousand different ways, and yet the real God remains unseen. All parts of creation are equally under his inspection. Though he warms the breast of the highest angel, yet he breathes life into the meanest insect on earth. He lives through all his works, supporting all by the word of his power. He shines in the verdure that clothes the plains, in the lilly that delights the vale, and in the forest that waves on the mountain. He supports the slender reed that trembles in the breeze, and the sturdy oak that defies the tempest. His presence cheers the inanimate creation. Far in the wilderness, where human eye never seen, where savage feet never trod, there he bids the blooming forest smile, and the blushing rose open its leaves to the morning sun. There he causes the feathered inhabitants to whistle their wild notes to the listening

trees and echoing mountains. There nature lives in all her wild wantonness. There the ravished eye hurrying from scene to scene, is lost in one vast blush of beauty. From the dark stream that rolls through the forest, the silver-scaled fish leap up, and dumbly mean the praise of God. Though man remains silent, yet God will have praise.

The belief of the existence of a God is not a point of mere speculation. It is of inconceivable importance to our present, as well as future felicity. But while we believe that there is a God, we should be extremely careful to ascertain, with as much accuracy as possible, what is his real nature. The most prominent features of this are exhibited in that incomprehensible display of wisdom, power, and goodness, made in the works of creation. A virtuous man stands in a relation to God which is peculiarly delightful. The divine perfections are all engaged in his defence. He feels powerful in God's power, wise in his wisdom, good in his goodness. The vicious man on the contrary, stands in a relation to God, which is of all things the most dreadful. He is unwilling to know that God has sufficient wisdom to search out all his wickedness, sufficient goodness to the universe to determine to punish that wickedness, and sufficient power to execute that determination. A firm belief in the existence of God, will heighten all the enjoyments of life, and, by conforming our hearts to his will, will secure the approbation of a good conscience and inspire us with the hopes of blessed immortality. Let us behold Him, let us wonder, let us praise and adore. These things will make us happy; and these alone will make us happy.

I shall soon proceed to give a brief account of the different sects of Christians, the cause of these differences, and the manner and country in which they took their rise; and as there is such a diversity of opinions among Christians, I will make a few observations before I commence on their creeds; "and he that hath ears to hear let him hear." (Mark iv. 23.) These words were spoken by our Saviour. We often read of his sayings, and there is no sentence which he so frequently repeated as this. This alone should powerfully recommend the Gospel to us; for there is implied the authority of the speaker; and who can advance claims on our attention equally numerous and powerful with his? He entered into the synagogue, and taught, "And they were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." He possessed every thing from which a teacher could derive influence. He had all the authority that can be derived from knowledge. Religion was the subject he came to teach; he knew the whole, and the

whole perfectly. With all the ease of intelligence, he speaks of things which would swallow us up; they were familiar to him. He speaks of God without any embarrassment. He is in the bosom of the Father. Heaven he speaks of without any emotions of wonder; it was his Father's house. He mentions the treachery of Judas without any surprise; he knew from the beginning who would betray him. Nothing in the behaviour of his enemies, or of his friends, nothing in the denial of Peter, or the dispersion of his disciples, astonished him; he knew what was in man. He was fully acquainted with the capacity and disposition of his hearers. He knew how much they were able to bear; when it was necessary to produce evidence, or to leave in obscurity; how to touch by suitable motives all the hidden springs. of action; and by appropriate illustration to remove prejudices, dissolve doubts, and satisfy desires concealed in the minds of the owners; who finding the secrets of the heart made manifest, were filled with admiration, and exclaimed "never man spake like this man." Both his subject and his audience were completely under his management. He had all the authority which is to be derived from unimpeachable rectitude. This gives a speaker peculiar firmness and force. A consciousness of vice, or even imperfection, has a tendancy to make men partial or timid.And where is the teacher, who is sensible of no imperfections; who exemplifies universally those high instructions he delivers? He alone could say which of you convinces me of sin? It debased none of his actions, it mixed with none of his motives. His tempers were all heavenly; his example embodied and enlivened every doctrine he preached. In him were none of those omissions which call for the proverb, "physician, heal thyself." He spake, fearless of the reproach of his hearers, and unchecked by the reflections of his own conscience. He had all the authority flowing from miracles, and wounds. Think of a speaker, who could call forth the powers of heaven and earth; and establish his doctrine by their testimony; who could end his discourse and say, all this is true; witness ye winds and waves-and they cease their raging. Witness ye blind-and they receive their sight. Witness ye dead-and Lazarus comes forth. "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher sent from God, for no man can do these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him."

Consider his uncontrolable dominion. There is no place where his voice does not reign. He causes the most insensible creature to hear it. In the original creation he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. He appointeth the moon for seasons, and the sun knoweth her going down. The day is his, and the night also is his: he has made summer and

winter; and when he calls for them, they never refuse to come, even the unruly sea acquiesces in his mandate; "hitherto shalt thou come, and no further; and here shalt thy proud waves be stayed." The earth obeys the laws which he impressed upon it. Obeyed by all creatures he approaches man and expects submission? Will we be the only rebels in the universe. Unlike all other beings, would we swerve from our station and renounce our allegiance? Harder than the rocks, and more senseless than the dead, will we refuse to hear his voice?

Let us next consider the dignity of his character. Where the word of a king is, there is power, and who may say unto him what doest thou? The most magnificent titles are not too glo rious to discriminate the Son of God. "He had on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." Was Isaiah mistaken when he said of the "Child born, and the Son given, the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Councellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Did he himself exceed his personal claims when he said, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." And does he not stand in relations the most intimate and affecting? He made us, placed us so high in the scale of being, and endued our nature with reason and immortality. He sustains us. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." His are all our possessions, and if there be a day or an hour in which he is regardless of us, we should be allowed to be inattentive to him. His demands are founded in the sun which shines upon us, in the friends we enjoy, in the bread which nourishes us, and above all in the salvation we need. He addresses us from the garden and the cross, and shall his voice be unheard? Shall such an authority be despised? Will we stand with Pharaoh and impiously ask, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Why, He in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all thy ways, He who remembered thee in thy low estate; He who gave his life a ransom for us; He is thy master, and shall servants disobey the orders of a master? He is thy teacher, and shall disciples disobey and refuse the instructions of their teacher? He is thy benefactor; and have loving kindness and tender mercies no claims? Wonderful beyond degree: "Thus saith the Lord," should bring forth a listening world; fathers and children, princes and people, the wise and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, but none appears. He speaks, and we are regardless of a speaker clothed with every kind of authority, who also speaks in our behalf, for our welfare, and whose language is, "hear and your souls shall live."