and temper of each.

IV.

In the days of the DISC. patriarchs, and of the Ifraelites, it was the worship of the material elements, or powers of nature, in the place of Him who made them, accompanied with every kind of impurity. Such was the religion of the revolted nations, and fuch the rites with which it was celebrated. Yet fuch a religion, and fuch rites, the people of God, for many ages, notwithstanding all that he did for them, and faid to them, strange as it may appear to us at prefent, were ever ready to adopt and embrace. They apoftatifed to idolatry, with the divine glory blazing before their eyes, on the top of Sinai. Nor could the wifeft and greatest of their princes afterwards efcape the contagion. This corruption, which the Babylonish captivity, like a well applied caustic, served to eat out, and to do away, was fucceeded by a disease of another kind, but one that stuck to them, till it destroyed them; a mistake as to the nature of their œconomy; a confidence in externals; a deep hypocrify; a spirit wholly fecularized;

an

DISC. an ambition to have all the kingdoms of

IV.

the world subject to Jerufalem, and the wealth and glory of them centered there. "The defire of the flesh, the defire of the

eyes, and the pride of life," were chosen in oppofition to the celeftial fruits of love and obedience, humility and charity, faith and holiness, produced among them by Jefus Chrift, the Tree of immortality. They 66 put forth the hand, and tafted." But foon the exterminating angel difpoffeffed them of their Paradise, and they died the death.

Since the afcenfion of Chrift, the heathen world has been converted to the Gofpel, and that defert has become the garden of the Lord. But in this garden alfo-is there no Tree of Death? no fpecious fruit held forth to entice the unwife to perdition? What is the doctrine, which, in fome parts of Christendom, gives adoration to beings that are not God; or that, which, in others, denies it to Him who is fo? What is the scheme, that afferts the

non

IV.

non-neceffity of a Divine Revelation, claim- DISC. ing to man the right, and attributing to him the power of making a religion for himself, and prefcribing to his Maker the terms of his own acceptance? What is the atheistical policy, which excludes the Creator from the care of his works, and his Providence from the kingdoms of the earth? What is that fyftem of paganifm revived under the name and notion of philofophy, as oppofed to Christianity, and every thing that is called Religion, by which either the Deity is materialized, or matter deified? What is that unbounded licen

tioufnefs in principles and manners, daily growing more and more into vogue, and fhamelessly, by some of the new philofophers, defended in form? What is the luxury, the fplendor, the extravagance, the diffipation, the abandoned profligacy, and ungodliness of the age?

Behold the flourishing ftate of the fatal Tree! View the extent of it's branches, and the abundance of it's fruit, in thefe

VOL. I.

I

latter

IV.

DISC. latter days! But remember, that, stillthe end is Death; to a nation, excifion; to individuals, without repentance and faith, deftruction everlasting from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall defcend into his garden to make inquifition, and call offenders to their final account. Be not ye therefore deceived and feduced, however the temptation may feem "fair to the fight, and good for "food;" however" defirable" it may be reprefented" to make you wife." "to Take your direction, through life, from the word of God, and be not prevailed upon to falfify and tranfgrefs it. The conflict may be fharp, but it will be foon over; bear up refolutely under it; and for your confolation and encouragement in the hour of trial, when strongly folicited to taste the Tree of Death, liften to that ftrength-conferring voice, which crieth from the eternal throne, in words that will bear a repetition "To him that overcometh will I

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give to eat of the Tree of Life, which "is in the midst of the Paradife of God."

DISCOURSE V.

THE PRINCE OF PEACE.

ZECHARIAH IX.

9, 10.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; fhout, O daughter of Jerufalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is juft, and having falvation, lowly and riding upon an afs, and upon a colt the foal of an afs. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horfe from Jerufalem, and the battle bow fhall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and bis dominion fhall be from fea even unto fea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.

T

V.

HIS prophecy was delivered by DISC. Zechariah, five hundred beyears fore the advent of Chrift. And St. Mat