to find ourselves cleansed as we go, that is, to receive with indifference our daily bread, and take the blessings of his bounty as if they were his due; we shall return to give glory to God, to meditate upon the ways of his providence, upon his constant but always miraculous interference, to thank him for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; then shall we be truly cleansed from our leprosythen only shall our faith make us whole.

SERMON XIX.

PSALM, ii. VER. 1.

Why do the Heathen so furiously rage together, and why do the People imagine a vain thing?

To what period of the world, since the fall of man, would this exclamation of the royal Psalmist be misapplied? Where shall we look for that enviable state of tranquillity (unless in the fabulous annals of a golden age), exempt from the fury of the heathen and the madness of the people? Alas! the whole history of mankind, from the first formation of civil society, presents to our view an almost un

interrupted series of dissentions, foreign and domestic; of individuals destroyed, and kingdoms desolated; and whoever studies that eventful page with serious attention, will find too much cause to lament, that, in all ages, the heathen have furiously raged together, and the people imagined a vain thing.

If we look back to the causes of these wars and tumults that have engendered such havoc amongst the sons of men, in all probability we shall trace their origin nearly to the same source. Then too, the aspiring mind of man, grasping at more knowledge than it was formed to acquire, vainly attempting to fathom the impenetrable depths of Providence; the unsearchable ways of God, scattered the seeds of dissention among the followers of that holy religion, which was sent from Heaven to give "glory to God, on earth 66 peace and good-will towards men."

and finally

No sooner had Christianity beamed its sacred rays over the face of the earth, than its doctrines were perverted to the ignoble purpose of enslaving the understanding, and fettering the human mind in the shackles of superstition; thus kindling the flames of discord, separating man from man. But it was reserved for the present age, the age of reason, as it is called, to take up arms against religion itself. Now, indeed, do the kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed.

In this crisis of general corruption, with what weapons shall we oppose the progress of Infidelity, or how shall we avert the fury of the heathen, and the madness of the people? "Put on," says the apostle, "the whole armour of God, that ye may "be able to stand against the wiles of the "Devil-the breast-plate of righteous