would be prefumption in me to expect either that God would grant me time to accomplish so arduous a work, or that you would have perfeverance to bear with me to the conclufion. I must here, therefore close my labors, at leaft in this place; and must now, for the last time, implore you to think and to meditate again and again on the important and interesting truths which have been unfolded to you in the course of thefe Lectures, and to form them into principles of action, and rules of conduct, for the regulation and direction of the remaining part of your lives.

In the hiftory of our Lord, as given by St. Matthew, of which I have detailed the most effential parts, fuch a fcere has been presented to your obfervation, as cannot but have excited fenfations of a very serious and very awful nature in your minds. You cannot but have feen that the divine Author of our religion, is beyond comparison, the moft extraordinary and most important perfonage, that ever appeared on this habitable globe. His birth, his life, his doctrines, his precepts, his miracles, his fufferings, his death, his refurrection, his afcenfion, are all without a parallel in the hiftory of mankind. He called himself the Son of God, the Meffiah predicted in the prophets, the great Redeemer and Deliverer of mankind, promifed in the facred writings, through fucceffive ages, almost from the foundation of the world. He fupported these great characters with uniformity, with confiftence, and with dignity, throughout the whole courfe of his ministry. The work he undertook was the greatest and most astonifhing that can be conceived, and fuch as before never entered into the imagination of man. an. It was nothing lefs than the converfion of a whole world from the groffeft ignorance, the most abandoned wickedness, and the most fottifh idolatry, to the knowledge of the true God, to a pure and holy religion, and to faith in him, who wAS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. He proved himself to have a commiffion from heaven, for those great purpo fes, by fuch demonstrations of divine wisdom, power, and goodness, as it is impoffible for any fair and ingenuous, and unprejudiced mind to refift. Of all this you have feen abundant inftances in the course of these Lectures:

and when all these circumftances are collected into one point of view, they prefent fuch a body of evidence, as muft overpower by its weight all the trivial difficulties and objections that the wit of man can raise against the divine authority of the Gospel.

Confider in the first place, the tranfcendent excellence of our Lord's character, fo infinitely beyond that of every other moral teacher; the gentleness, the calmnefs, the compofure, the dignity, the integrity, the fpotlefs fanctity of his manners, fo utterly inconfiftent with every idea of enthusiasm or impofture; the compaffion, the kindness, the tenderness he expreffed for the whole human race, even for the worst of finners, and the bitterest of his enemies; the perfect command he had over his own paffions; the temper he preferved under the feverest provocations; the pa tience, the meekness with which he endured the cruellest infults, and the groffest indignities; the fortitude he difplayed under the most excruciating torments; the fublimity and importance of his doctrines; the confummate wisdom and purity of his moral precepts, far exceeding the natural powers of a man born in the humblest situation, and in a remote and obfcure corner of the world, without learning, education, languages, or books. Confider further the minute defcription of all the most material circumftances of his birth, life, fufferings, death, and refurrection, given by the ancient prophets many hundred years before he was born, and exactly fulfilled in him, and him only; the many aftonishing miracles wrought by him in the open face of day, before thoufands of fpectators, the reality of which is proved by multitudes of the most unexceptionable witneffes, who fealed their teftimony with their blood, and was even acknowledged by the earliest. and most inveterate enemies of the Gofpel. Above all, confider those two most remarkable occurrences in the hiftory of our Lord, which have been particularly enlarged upon in thefe Lectures, and are alone fufficient to establish the divinity of his perfon and of his religion; I mean his wonderful prediction of the deftruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, with every minute circumstance attending it; and that aftonifhing and well authenticated miracle of his refurrection from the grave, which was in the last

Lecture fet before you: and when you lay all these things together, and weigh them deliberately and impartially, your minds must be formed in a very peculiar manner indeed, if they are not most thoroughly impreffed with faith in the Son of God, and the Gofpel which he taught.

Taking it then for granted, that you firmly believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God, that of course they contain those heavenly doctrines and rules of life by which you are to be guided here and faved hereafter; that the prefent feene is nothing more than a state of trial and probation for another world; that all mankind must rise from the grave, and stand before the judgment feat of Christ, to receive from his lips their final doom; and that there is

NO OTHER NAME GIVEN UNDER HEAVEN BY WHICH YOU CAN BE SAVED, BUT THAT OF JESUS ONLY; no other poffible way of escaping the punishments, or obtaining the rewards of the Chriftian covenant, but faith in Christ, reliance on his merits, and an earnest endeavor to practise every virtue and fulfil every duty prescribed in his Gofpel; taking it for granted that you believe all these things to be true, let me then ask you, what is the courfe of life which every wife man, which every man of common fenfe, must feel himself irresistibly called upon to purfue? Is it poffible, that with fuch awful, fuch divine truths as thefe, deeply impressed upon your fouls, you can allow yourselves to be fo entirely occupied with the various purfuits of this life, as to exclude, I will not fay all thought (for that is impoffible) but all serious folicitude concerning your future and eternal destiny? Are there any delights that this world has to offer, that can compenfate for the lofs of heaven? Some of you have perhaps run your career of power, of 1 pleafure, of gaiety, of luxury, of glory, and of fame, and can tell the true amount, the real value of thefe enjoyments. Say then honeftly, whether any one of them has anfwered your expectations: whether they have left your minds perfectly content and fatisfied; whether they have proved fo folid, fo durable, fo perfect, as to be worth pur-chafing at the expence of eternal happiness? I will venture to abide by your answer. Truft then to your own experience, and be no longer the dupes of illufions which have fo long milled you. And if you have any feeling, any

pity for the young, the thoughtless, and the inexperienced, let them profit by the inftructions, the falutary leffons you are fo well qualified to give them; let your warning voice restrain them from rufhing headlong into thofe errors, into which you have perhaps been unfortunately betrayed: Tell them (for you know it to be true,) that whatever flattering profpects the world may prefent to their ardent imaginations at their first entrance into life, there is no folid ground for permanent comfort and content of mind, but a confcientious discharge of their duty to God and man, an anxious endeavor to recommend themfelves to the favor of the Almighty, and a hope of pardon and acceptance through the merits of their Redeemer. These alone can fmooth the path of life and the bed of death; these alone can bring a man peace at the laftTM

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Reflections fuch as thefe muft, in all times, and underall circumstances, operate moft powerfully on every con fiderate mind; but they receive tenfold weight from the peculiar complexion of the prefent period, and the awfur fituation into which, by the difpenfations of Providence, we are now caft. Never fince the world began were such tremendous proofs held up to the obfervation of mankind, of the flender and precarious tenure on which we hold every thing that we deem most valuable in the prefent life, as have been of late presented to our view. Look around: you for a moment; confider what has been paffing on the continent of Europe for the laft ten years, and then fay what is there left for you in this world worthy of your attention, on the poffeffion of which, for any length of time, you can with any degree of fecurity rely? You must have been very inattentive obfervers indeed, not to have perceived: that all the great objects of human withes, rank, power,' honor, dignity, fame, riches, pleafures, gaieties, all the pomp, and pride, and fplendor, and luxury of life, may, when you leaft think of it, contrary to all expectation and all probability, be fwept away from you in one moment, and you yourselves thrown as it were a miferable wreck on fome defert fhore, not only without the elegancies and the comforts, but even without the common neceffaries of life. That this is no imaginary reprefentation you all know too well; you fee too many melancholy proofs of it in thofe

unfortunate exiles, who have taken refuge in this country; many of whom have experienced, in the utmost extent, the very calamities I have been here defcribing; and who, but a few years ago, had as little reafon to expect such a dreadful reverfe of fortune as any one who now hears me.

It is true, indeed, that hitherto we have been moft wonderfully preferved by a kind Providence from thofe miferies that have defolated the rest of Europe, and haves maintained a noble, though a bitter conflict, during ma ny years, for our religion, our liberty, our independance, our unrivalled constitution, and every thing that is dear and valuable to man. But it must at the fame time be admitted, that we are ftill in a moft critical and doubt": ful fituation, and that our final fuccefs must principally depend on that to which we have a thousand times owed our prefervation, the favor and protection of heaven

The rapid the astonishing, the unexampled viciffitudes which have repeatedly taken place during the whole of this arduous contest, most clearly fhew, that there is fome thing in it more than common, fomething out of the or dinary course of human affairs, fomething which baffles all conjecture and all calculation, and which all the wif dom of man cannot comprehend or control. What then is this fomething, what is this fecret and invifible agent which fo evidently over-rules every important event in the prefent convulfed ftate of the world, and fo frequently confounds the best conferted projects and designs? Is it fate, is it neceffity, is it chance, is it fortune? Thefe, alas! we all know, are mere names, are mere unmeaning words, by which we express our total ignorance of the true caufe. That cause can be nothing else than the hand of that omnipotent Being, who firft created and ftill preferves the univerfe; who is "the governor among the nations, and ruleth unto the ends of the earth." To make him then our friend is of the very last importance; and it highly behoves us to confider, whether we have hitherto taken the right way to make him fo. The an fwer to this question is, I fear, to be found in the unfavor able afpect of affairs abroad, and the fevere diftreffes arifing from unpropitious seasons at home, which too plainly