those without I have to say, that it is well known there are many laws still unrepealed, which, if enforced, would authorise persecution in it's worst form, and that it is by no means certain, that they will never be revived. The great alarm which has been raised in the minds of many by the change which has been taking place in the opinions of men, and the external state of religion, may occasion the employment of force to stop their progress, and the adoption of measures for this purpose, which may now be viewed with horrour. Nor, while wicked passions remain in the hearts of men, will the world ever be secure from the return of this evil, either under the form of law or without the sanction

of it's authority. Our best security lies in inculcating continually a strong detestation of both the principle and the practice.

I shall now conclude with making two observa. tions.

I. That the ministers of the Gospel, notwithstanding the mild nature of their religion and so many express precepts of Scripture, have been the principal promoters of persecutions. Secondly, that we cannot take too much pains to banish persecuting principles from the world.

I. The ministers of the Gospel have been the principal promoters of persecution. This is a melancholy and surprising fact, which, for the honour of human nature, one would wish incapable of being proved; but it is supported by evidence too

plain to be denied. From men, whose minds were or ought to have been enlarged by education, whose business it was to study the Scriptures, and who may be supposed to have been best acquainted with the spirit of Christianity, one might justly have expected a different conduct; yet ecclesiastical history testifies but too plainly, that they have been as deeply engaged in persecuting measures, as if such measures had been expressly inculcated in the New Testament, and recommended by the practice of Christ and his apostles. Nor has this been the conduct of the ministers of one party or denomination of Christians only, but of all; of Calvin at Geneva, of Luther in Germany, of the Puritans as well as Conformists in England, and of the Presbyterians in Scotland. They have all countenanced persecution in their turns in a greater or less degree. "Some few there have been," says Dr. Chandler in the close of his history of persecution, some few there have been, who were of a different spirit, who not only abstained from persecuting counsels and measures themselves, but with great justice and freedom censured them in others. But as to your saints and fathers, your patriarchs and bishops, your councils and synods, together with the rabble of monks, they were most of them the advisers, abettors and practisers of persecution. They knew not how to brook opposition to their own opinions and power, branded all doctrines different from their own with the odious name of heresy, and used all their arts

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and influence to oppose and destroy those, who presumed to maintain them. And this they did with such unanimity and constancy, through a long suc cession of many ages, as would tempt a stander by to think, that a bishop or clergyman, and a perse cutor, were the same thing, or meant the self same individual character and office in the Christian church."

Upon this quotation I shall only remark, that where classes of men have so generally fallen into the same palpable errour, candour will lead us to suppose, that something in their situations has laid them under peculiar temptation to persecute. All counsels, therefore, which come from such quarters, tending to abridge religious liberty, ought always to be received with caution.

In the last place, we cannot take too much pains to deliver the world from persecuting principles and measures. It is to rid the world of a monster, which has devoured millions of the human race, and rendered miserable many millions more. The peace of human society is never secure while he exists. Unspeakable are our obligations to those, who broke the teeth of this monster; and greatly will mankind be indebted to those, under Providence, whoever they may be, by whom he shall receive his deathwound. That moment will be the beginning of a happy era in the Christian church. It will be the dawning of that fair day of universal peace and love, which the Scripture has taught us to expect under

the government of the Messiah, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the lion shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

1

SERMON XXXVI.

THE FUTURE EXISTENCE OF INFANTS ASSERTED

JOHN V, 28, 29.

Marvel not at this: for the Hoar is coming, in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice, 29. And shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the Resurrection of Life, and they that have done evil, unto the Resurrection of Damnation.

ONE of the most important advantages, which we derive from the Gospel of Christ, is the light which it throws upon the condition of man in the graye. The heathen world, before the coming of Christ, entertained some obscure notions respecting another life for the souls of the dead, and of rewards or punishments being appointed for men according to their different characters. Yet their expectations were founded upon tradition rather than argument. The resurrection of the dead, upon which alone the hope of a future life can be securely built, made no part of their system; and their conceptions respecting future happiness were extremely low and gross. The Sadducees, a considerable sect among the Jews, denied the doctrine of a re

* Printed in the year 1799, but never before published.