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tles, he assures them that the providence of God would continually superintend and watch over them.

"Are not two sparrows, says he, sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father; but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."*

Here we have that most important and comfortable doctrine of a particular Providence plainly and clearly laid down.

That he who erected the immense and magnificent fabrick of the universe will continue to regard and to preserve the work of his own hands, and maintain what is called the general order of nature, and the ordinary course of human affairs, is so consonant to reason and common sense, that few even of the pagans who believ ed the being of a God, entertained any doubt of this general superintendence of the Deity over the worlds he has created, and the inhabitants he has placed in them. But when we descend from this comprehensive view of things to the several constituent parts of the general system, and to every individual of every species of animated beings dispersed throughout the whole; when we reflect how very inconsiderable a place this globe that we inhabit holds amongst the celestial bo dies, how very small a portion it occupies of unbounded space, and how infinitely minute and insignificant every human creature must appear in the vast mass of created beings, we can hardly think it possible that the care of the Supreme Being should extend to ourselves; we cannot help fearing that we shall be lost and overlooked in the immensity of creation, and that we are objects far too small and minute to fall within the sphere of our Maker's observation. The more we reason on this subject, the more ground we shall find for these apprehensions; and there is nothing, I will venture to say, in the whole compass of what is called natural religion or modern philosophy, that can in the

Matth. x. 29, 30, 31.

smallest degree tend to allay or to remove these natural, these unavoidable misgivings of the human mind.

Here then is one of those many instances in which we can have no certainty, no solid ground for the sole of our foot to stand upon, but in the Gospel of Christ. Our reason, though sent out ever so often in search of a resting place, returns to us, like Noah's dove, when the waters covered the earth, without any token of comfort. It is scripture only which in this important point can give rest unto our souls. There we are assured that every individual being, even the least and most contemptible, even the sparrow that is sold for less than a farthing, is under the eye of the Almighty; that so far from man being too inconsiderable for the notice of his Maker, the minutest parts of his body, the very hairs of his head, are all numbered. These very strong instances are plainly chosen on purpose to quiet all our fears, and to banish from our minds every idea of our being too small and insignificant for the care and protection of the Almighty.

This most consolatory doctrine of a particular Providence, of a providence which watches over every individual of the human race, places the Christian in a situation totally different from that of every one who disbelieves revelation. The latter must conceive himself under no other government but that of chance or fortune, and of course must consider the whole happiness of his life as exposed every moment to the mercy of the next accident that may befal him. The true believer on the contrary has the most perfect conviction that he is constantly under the protection of an almighty and merciful God, in whom he lives, and moves, and has his being; "whose eyes are over the righteous, and whose ears are open to their prayers;" that therefore if be lives, so as to merit the approbation of his heavenly Father, he has every reason to hope for such a degree of happiness, even here, as the imperfection of human nature will admit; and he is certain that nothing dreadful can befal him without the knowledge and permission of his great Protector, who will even in that case support

him under it, and render it ultimately conducive to his good.

The next passage in this chapter to which I shall direct your attention, is that very remarkable one which has furnished the enemies of Christianity with so much pretence for obloquy and invective against the Gospel, and has been the source of no small uneasiness and dismay to some of its warmest friends. The passage I mean is this; "Think not," says our Lord, "I am come to send peace on earth, I came not to send peace but a sword; for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be those of his own household."*

What shall we say now (exclaims the infidel) to this extraordinary declaration? Here we have the Author of the Christian religion himself openly and explicitly avowing that he came to send a sword upon earth, to dissolve all the tender endearing ties of domestic affection, to set the nearest relations at variance, and to arm them with inextinguishable rage and rancour against each other.

But can this be really the sense of our Saviour's words? Can HE mean to denounce war and destruction to the human species? HE whose whole religion breathes nothing but peace, gentleness, kindness, and compas. sion, to every human being; who made charity or the love of man the great characteristic mark of his religion: who expressly forbade his disciples "to call down fire from heaven" on those who had insulted them; who in this very chapter commanded them “to be harmless as doves; and declared that he came not to destoy men's lives, but to save them?" It is evidently impossible that the author of such precepts and such professions could mean literally to spread ruin and desolation over the earth. What then was his meaning? It was to obviate an error into which the apostles would be very apt to fall, and which probably our Saviour saw rising in their minds. You tell us

*Matth. x. 34-36.

Matth. x. 16. Luke ix. 56.

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(they perhaps said within themselves) you tell us that we shall be persecuted, tormented, and put to death, and that, even by those who are most nearly connected with us. But how is this possible? How can all this happen under your protection, under the reign of the Messiah, THE PRINCE OF PEACE, under whom we have always been given to expect tranquility, repose, and happiness? To this supposed reasoning our Saviour answers; You are mistaken in your idea of that peace, which I, your Messiah, am to give you. It is not immediate temporal peace, but peace, in a spiritual sense, peace in your own minds, and peace with God. Ultimately indeed I shall establish peace in every sense of the word, and "shall make wars to cease in all the world; but at present, and indeed for many years to come, I shall not bring peace but a sword upon earth. The promulgation of my religion will be productive of much dissension, cruelty, and persecution, not only to you, but to all those who for many ages afterwards shall preach the Gospel in purity and truth.— The true cause of this will be the wickedness and the ferocious passions of men; but the occasion and the pretence for it will be the holy religion which you are to promulgate. In this sense, and in this only, it is that I may be said to bring a sword upon earth; but they who really bring it, are the open enemies or pretended friends of the Gospel.

Still it is said by the adversaries of our faith, that however these words may be interpreted, the fact is, that Christians themselves have brought a sword, and a most destructive sword, upon earth; that they have persecuted one another with inconceivable rancour and fury; and that their dissensions have produced more bloodshed, misery, and desolation, among mankind, than all the other wars of contending nations put together.

To this I answer in the first place, that the charge as here stated is not true. It is not true that wars of religion have been more frequent and more sanguinary than

* Psalm xlvi. 9.

any others. On the contrary, it may be proved in the clearest manner, from the most authentic facts, that by far the greatest number of wars, as well as the longest, most extensive, and most destructive, have been owing to causes purely political, and those too sometimes of the most trivial nature. And if we can allow men to harass and destroy one another for a mere point of honour, or a few acres of land, why should we think it strange to see them defending, with the same heat and bitterness, what they conceive to be the most essential requisite to happiness both here and hereafter?

2dly. I must observe, that a very large part of those animosities, wars, and massacres, which have been usually stiled religious, and with the entire guilt of which Christianity, has been very unjustly loaded, have been altogether, or at least in a great measure, owing to causes of a very different nature; to the ambition, the resentment, the avarice, the rapacity of princes and of conquerors, who assumed the mask of religion to veil their real purposes, and who pretended to fight in the cause of God and his church, when they had in reality nothing else in view than to advance their power or extend their dominions. All history is full of instances of this kind.

3diy. It should be remembered, that the wildest excesses of religious persecution did not take place till the world was overrun with barbarity, ignorance, bigotry, and superstition; till military ideas predominated in every thing, in the form of government, in the temper of the laws, in the tenure of lands, in the administration of justice itself; and, till the Scriptures were shut up in a foreign tongue, and were therefore unknown to the people. It was not therefore from the Gospel, but from a total ignorance of the Gospel, from a total perversion of its true temper, genius, and spirit, that these excesses and enormities arose.

4thly. That this is the real truth of the case appears demonstrably from this circumstance, that when after the reformation the Scriptures were translated into the several vernacular languages of Europe, and the real

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