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To this may be added, an erroneous notion, that the heing baptized, is inconsistent with a state os flavery. To undeceive them in this particular, which had too much weight, it seemed a proper Rep, is the opinion of his majesty's attorney and solicitor-generat could be procured. This opinion they charitably sent over, signed with their own hands ;which was accordingly printed in Rhode-Isand, and dispersed throughout the plantations. I heartily wim it may produce the intended esset'. It must be o ned, oui resormed planters, with respect to the natives and the naves, might learn nona those of the church of Rome, how it is their interest and duty to bellave. Both Frenta and Spaniatas have intermar-ried with Indians, to the great strength, securi ty and increase of their colonies. They take care to instruet both them and their negroes, in the popim religion, to the reproach of those who prosese a better. They have also bimops and seminaries sor clergy; and it is not seund that their colonies are Worse subjecis, or depend lese on their mother country, on that
it to others. The missionaries employed by this venerable society havedone, and continue to do, good service, in bringing those planters to a serious sense of religion, which, it is hoped, will in time cxtend to others. I lpeali it knowingly, that the ministers of the gospei, in those provinces hich go by the na me of New-England, seni and supported at the expence of this society, have, by their sobriely of manners, discreet bellavio ur, and a competent degree of useful knowledge, shewn themselves VOI. . II. N n n Worthy
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worthy the choice of thola who sent them , and particularly in living ona more friendly Dot with their brethren of the separation who, on their Pari, were also very much come off Dom that narrownesi os spirit, whichformerly hept them at suci, an una micabie distance frona us. And as thereis reason to apprehend, that part of America could not have been thus distingui med, and provided With lach a number of proper persons, is onelials of them had not been supplied out of the dissenting seminaries of the country, who, in proportion as they atta in to more liberal improvements of learn in g, a re observed to quit their prejudice to ards an episcopalchurch ; Ι verily thinli it might increasse the number of such useful men, is provision were made to defray their charges in coming hither to receive holy orders ; passing and repassing the ocean, and tarrying the necessarytime in London, requiring an expence that many are not able to bear. Itwould also he an encouragement to the mission aries in generat, and probably produce good essedis, is the alio ance of certain mission aries were augmented, in proportion to the services they had done, and the timethey had spent in their misson. These hinis I venture to suggest, as notunusesul in an age, Whe in ali human encoura gements are found more necessary, than at the first propagation of the gospei. But they are, Mithali due defcrence and respect, submitted to the judgment of this venerable audience.
Aster ali, it is hardly to be expected, that se long as infidelity prevatis at home, the christian religion mould thrive and Bourim in Our colonies abroad. Manliind, it must be owned, test to themsolves, a re se muchbewildered and benighted, with respect to the origin of that evit whichthey seel, and stom whicli they are at a lo1s a boui the means of heingsreed; that the doctrines of the lapsed state of man, his reconciliation by Christ, and regeneration by the Spirit, may rea nably be hoped to findan east admission, as bringing with them light and com fori, into a mindnot hardened by impenitency, nor sere-closed by pride, nor blased by prejudice.
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prejudice. But, such is the vanity of man, that no prejudice operates more powersutly than that in favour os famion ; and no fas hions are somuch followed by our colonies, as those of the mollier country, whichthey osten adopi in their modes of living, to their great inconvenience, Without allowing for the disparily of circumstance or climate. This fame
seme of our wealthy plantations; uneducated men being more api totread in the steps of libertines and men os famion, than to modet them selves by the laws and institutions of their mother country, or the lives and professions of the virtuous and religious part of it.
But this is not ali , while those abroad are lese disposed to receive, semeat home are, perhaps, lesi disposed to propagate the gospei, from the fame cause. It is to be seared, I say, that the prevalling torrent of infidelity whicli staggers the faith of seme, may cool the eteal and damp the spiritos others, who, judging from the event and succese of those who impugn the church of Christ, may possibiy entertain seme scrupte or sur-mise, Whether it may not he, for the present at least, abandoned by Providence, and that human care must ineffectualty interpose, tili it mali
please God, Fet Once more to Dale not the earib onθ, but also the beavens. This pol ni hath been touched besere, but deserves farther consideration: to the end, that the peculiar impiety of a profane age, may not be a barto those very endea uours, which itself renders more necessary, and calis
Whatever men may thirali, the arm of the Lord is not mortene l. Inali this prevalency of atheism and irreligion, there is no advantage gain-ed by the powers of darkness, either against God, or godly men, but onlyagainst their own wretched partisens. The christian dispensation is a dispensation of grace and favour. Τhe christian church a society of menint illed to this grace, on performing certain conditions. Is this societyN n n et is
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is dimini med, as those who re main true members of it suster no losi tolliemselves, so God loseth no right, sussereth no detriment, sorgoeth nogood; his grace resisted or unisu itful, being no more tost to him, thanthe light of the sun mining on desert places, or among people who mut
Besides, this excess, this unstem med torrent of profanen ess, may possi-bly, in the conclusion, deseat itself, confirm What it meant to extirpate, and instead os destroying, prove a means of preserving our religion; theevit fruits and essedis thereos being notorious and Bagrant, and so sensi ly seli, as in ali lihelthood to be able to open the eyes, and rou se theattention of those, who may be blind and deaf to every other argumentand consideration. Or, who knows but the christian church corrupted
by prosperi ty, is to be restored and purifled by adversi ty t which may prove ser ought we can teli, as salutary in future, as it hath been in pastages. Many insolent and presumptuous sees have set them selves against the church of God; whose hook nevertheless may be in their nostriis, and his bridie in their lips, managing and governing, even their rage and folly, to the fulsilling of his own wi se purposes; and who may not fati in the end, to deal by them as he did by the king of A stria, when he had performed his ποὐ upon Sion and Gon Ierusalem, punissing theis siout Lartand high Ao s. This presumptuous conqueror was, without knowing it, a tΟol or instrument in the hands of that God whom he blasphemed. O Amrian, the rod of mine anger i I Nili send him agains an spocriticulnasion, and agains the seopse V m π tb Nili I give him a charge to tale the spoli, und to tale the pro, and to tread them domn lite the mire of thesreeis. Howbeit he meaneth not so, netther doth his heari uini so, but is is in his heari to destrost and cui ost nations not a se .
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Thus much at least is evident: it is no new th in g, that great enormities mouid produce great humiliations, and these again nobie viriues, which have osten reco vered both single men, and whole states, Cuen in anatural and civit sense. And is the captivities, dis restes, and de lations of the Jewissi Church, have occasioned their return to God, and rCin saled them in his favour ; nay, is it was actualty foretoid, whene verthey lay under the curse of God, at the mercy of their enem ies, peeledand stat tered in a fore ign land , that neverthelest iapon their calling his Covenant to mind, and returning to him, the Lord their God Gould turn theis captivio, and bave compasion Uon them. I say, is things were so, Why may we not in rea n hope for something analogous thereio, in be-half of the christian church. It cannot be dented, that there was a great
analogy bet ween the Jewim institutions, and the doctrines of the gospel: sor instance, between the Paschal Lamb, and the Lamb os God sta infrom the foundation of the world; between the Egyptian bondage, and that os sin ; the earthly Canaan, and the heavenly; the fessaly circumcision, and the spiritual. In these and many other particulars, the analogyseems so plain, that it can hardly be disputed. To be convinced that thelaw of Moses, and the Jewim oeconomy were figures and madows of the evangelicat, we need only look in to the epist te to the Hebre f. May wenot there re, in puri ance of this fame analogy, suppose a similar treat-ment of the Jewim and christian church ΤLet us then see, on what term s the former stood with God, in orderto disco ver what the lalter may rea nably expecti The solemn denunta
Deut. XXX. 3. ' Deut. xxviii. I. r Ver. 22, 23.
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corruption os manners, made way sor the Mahometan in the east, and the papal dominion in the west; even so here at home in the last century, a weali reliance upon human politios and power on the one hand, andenthusiastic rage on the other, together With carnal mindednesi on both, gave occasion to introduce atheism and infidelity. Is the temporat state, and out ard form of the Jewish church was, upon their desection, over- turned by invaders; in like manner, when christians are no longer go-Verned by the light of cvangelicat truth, when we resist the Spirit of God, are Me not to expect, that the heamen above Gill be as bras, that the divine grace Will no longer smower down on Our obdurate hearis, that ourchurch and prosession will be blasted by licentious scorners, those madmen, Who in spori salter frebranssi, arro and death P As ali this is nomore than we may rea nably suppose will ensue upon our bachniding, se We may, with equat reason, hope it will be remedied upon our re- turn to GOd.
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From what hath been aid it solio S, that in order to propagate thegospei abroad, it is necessary we do it at home, and extend our charity to domestic in fideis, is we would converi or preveni soreign ones. So that a view of the declining state of religion here at homo, of thos e thingsthat produced this deciension, and of the proper methods to repair it, is naturalty connected with the subject of this discour . I mali there rebeg your patience, While I just mention a se rema rhs or hinis, too ob
hut too litile visibie in their essects, to mahe one thini. they are, by ali, much attended to. Some, preferring potnis notional or ritual to the love of God and man, consider the national church only as it stands opposed to other christiansocieties. These generalty have a geat without knowledge, and the essects are sui table to the cause; they reatly huri fiat they seem to espouse. Others more solicito us about the discovery of truth, than the practice of hol iness, employ thenaseives, rather to spy out errors in the church, thanen rce iis precepis. These, it is to be seared, postpone the great interests of religion to potnis os test concern, in any eyes but their O n. But surely they would do weli to consider, that an humble, though con-
sed or indistinct Lith in the hond of chari ty, and productive of good
Works, is much more evangelicat than any accurate disputing and con celled knowledge. A church whicli contains the fundamentais, and nothing subversive of those fundamentais, is not to be set at naught by any particular member; because it may not, in every potnt, perhaps, correspond with his ideas, nonot, though he is lare of being in the right. Probably there ne ver was,or will be, an estabit med church in this worid, without visi hie marks of
humanity upon it. St. Paul supposeth, that ' on the foundation of yesus
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. and triviai, wrong or superstitious, whicli indeed is a natural consequence of the wealinest and ignorance of man. But where that living undation is rightly laid in the mind, there will not fati to grow and spring Dom thence those virtves and graces, whicli are the genuine effects and tokens of true faith, and whicli are by no means inconsistent withe very error in theory, or e very needlesi rite in Wormip. The christi an religion was calculated for the bulla of mankind, and there re cannot rea nably be supposed to consist in subile and nice notions. Froni the time that divini ty was considered as a science, and human reasion enthroned in the sanctuary of God, the hearis of iis professors stem to have been lesis under the influence of grace. From that time have grown many unchristian dissentions and controversies, of men
rupi min is and desistite os truth. Doubilest, the mali ing religion a notionat thing, hath been os infinite disser vice. And whereas iis holy mysteries are rather to be received with humili ty of faith, than desined and mea red by the accuracy of human reason ; ali attempts of this hin d howe ver weli intended, have visibly Diled in the event; and instead os reconciling in fideis, have, by creating disputes and heais among the professors of christiani ty, gi ven no sinali ad vantage to iis enem ies. To conclude, i f we proportioned our geat to the importance of things: if we could love men whose opinions we do not approve: is Wre lineis the worid more, and liked ii iesi: is we had a diae sense of the divine perfection and our own desedis: is our chies study was the wisdom Domubove, described by St. Paul: and is, in order to ali this, that were done
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in places of education, whicli cannot so weli be done out of them : I say, is these steps were talien at home, while proper measu res are carrying onabroad, the one Would very much sorward or facilitate the other. As itis not meant, so it must not he understood, that foretgn attempis mould wait for domestic success, but only that it is to be wished they may cooperate. Certainly is a just and rational, a genuine and sincere, a warmand vigorous pie ty, animaled the mollier-country, the influence thereos would seon reach our soreign plantations, and extend throughout their horders. We mould on see religion mine sortii with neis lustre and force, to the conveision of infideis, both at home and abroad, and to