ON SERMON X. THE EVIDENCE WHICH ARISES FROM THE GENESIS Xxii. 15, 16, 17, 18. "And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of Heaven the “second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord (for "because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, "thy only son,) That, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multi"plying I will multiply thee, as the stars of Heaven, and as the “sand on the sea shore. "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." THESE were the words of the messenger of Heaven to the patriarch Abraham, nearly four thousand years ago, when he was chosen as the father of a peculiar race, and as the founder of a select institution. In the words, though spoken so long ago, we have an interest of the deepest kind. The faith into which we have been baptized, dates itself from the dawn of the world. And while nature has been changing in every age, and the vices and follies of man filling the page of general history with tears and with blood, there is yet One book which tells us of nobler things, and which contains the record of a more steady administration. When the dispersion of mankind naturally gave rise to new systems, both of opinion and of policy; when the great family of man became necessarily separated into private interests, and divided by national passions;-when the exertions of human genius, ever following, and never leading, the opinions of the world, were gradually estranging men from each other, and, from the first principles of their common nature; there arose at that time, in the beneficence of God, among the "children of "Abraham," a new system of communication of the Father of nature with his infant children,-a system supported by the only evidence which could have effect upon the minds of barbarous people ;-a system which incorporated in itself the noblest truths which the human mind can know, in the same hours when all the rest of the world had fallen below them;-a system, still farther, which looked to futurity, which, imperfect in itself, promised always something greater,-which could only be accomplished by the dissemination of light and truth to the whole world; and which proved to mankind the moral government of one Father throughout the varying scenes of time, and the fitness of this paternal government, to the progressive improvement of the human race. Upon the subject of this magnificent, though only introductory dispensation, I lately offered you, my younger brethren, a few observations. I wished to shew you, that, to the evidence of a preliminary revelation, no other religion than that of the Gospel has any pretension;-that the truth of this previous dispensation is proved to us by its nature, by its peculiarities, and by its accomplishment ;—that there thus belongs to our faith an evidence, not only peculiar to it, but which is supported by the history of nature itself;—that it corresponds to all our conceptions of the conduct of the Father of nature to his children; and that it corresponds equally to the actual progress that has taken place among mankind, and to all that the history of the world has shewn us of this progress I am, in the present hour, my brethren, to solicit your attention to another view of your religion. We have arrived at the accomplishment of the prophecies of so many ages;—we have seen (and we have lately gratefully commemorated) the birth of the longpromised Saviour and Legislator of the world. I am now to request you to sit, in imagination, beside the humble cradle of this mysterious infant; and (while you listen to the dark sayings of old, and hear the voice of the angels who announced his birth, in words which no human imagination could frame) to implore you to carry your eye into futurity;-to observe, whether the mighty promises which then were given, have been accomplished; and whether the apparent son of Joseph of Nazareth has, or has not, become the mighty Legislator of the human race? 1. From such a position, you will see, in the first place, that all these prophecies have been, in a certain measure, accomplished;-that the religion of the Gospel has found its way throughout every difficulty which opposed it ;—that, unsupported at first by genius, unaided by learning, and altogether unprotected by power, it yet, by its own inherent evidence, has subdued gradually every institu tion, either of classick refinement, or of barbarian policy that it is at this hour the religion of every people who are wise, or great, or progressive among mankind; and that the mark of civilization and capacity in all the nations who at this moment inhabit the earth, is precisely that of their being, or not yet being, the disciples of the Christian faith. 2. You will see, in the next place, that wherever the Gospel has spread, it has been efficient in raising the human race to greater exaltation of mind, and greater capacity even of present happiness, than all the records of former ages could shew. Upon this subject, there is no need of reasoning. We have only to spread before us the map of the ancient world; to remember their institutions, their doctrines, their manners; we have only, with a similar view, to examine the map of the modern world under the reign of other religions and other systems. From this useful but melancholy survey, why is it, that all Christian countries are so far above all that meets our eye, in the geography of nature?—why are their laws more equal, their manners more pure, their knowledge more wide, their comprehensions more exalted? To these questions the answer is in their religion;—in the lofty but simple aspect which it affords of man and of his duties;-in the exaltation which it gives to all its powers, when he sees" life " and immortality presented to him by the Gospel." I am well aware, that the character of individuals, and of nations who call themselves Christian, is yet far below the design of Providence. But while the vices and the follies of men are for ever retarding the merciful will of their author, the retrospect of eighteen hundred years must shew us, that there is a design carrying on in the present hour, which man can never defeat; and that the misery of men or of nations, is not because they are, but because they are not Christians. 66 3. You will see, in the last place, my brethren, that the prophecies which the Gospel records; in particular, long before its arrival among mankind, the wondrous prophecy to Abraham, “ that, in his "generation, all the nations of the earth should final"ly be blessed," is now in the career of its accomplishment. While we look back to the history of eighteen hundred years, we are entitled to judge, in some measure, with regard to the future; and those truths which, through so many centuries, have prevailed alike over the wise, and over the barbarous, which have brought within their pale, the voluntary submission of human kind, we are justified in believing to be the great truths of which man was in want, and which, therefore, are finally to prevail while human nature remains the same. Of the future, however, we must ever conjecture darkly; and of the mighty conclusion of so many centuries of prophecy, when the human race are to terminate "in one fold," and under the guardianship "of one shepherd," we, in the present hour, must remain unconscious. But there is another evidence, my brethren, (in my apprehension still greater,) which we all feel, and which, in itself, is the real and |