countenance to truth and errour at the same time. A church founded upon the authority of human laws, and retaining many of the errours of the church of Rome, and one that is formed upon the authority. of Christ alone and the simple discipline of the New Testament, cannot be subjects of approbation to the same persons; nor can they continue to countenance both, without incurring the imputation of an indifference to truth.

Thirdly, those show indifference to Christian truth, who take no active measures to propagate it in the world, or to defend it against those by whom it is attacked. This head may appear to coincide with the preceding; but it differs from it, in as much as what was there required was only an open profession of the truth, and here it is proposed that something more should be done. There are many who will give a silent testimony in favour of truth, but excuse themselves from any further exertions. These are, however, necessary, if we expect that it should ever prevail in the world. Truth has always stronger arguments in it's favour than errour. Were the friends of truth, therefore, to set them before the world in their true light, it could not fail to triumph in the end over it's antagonists. The contest must ever be unequal between truth and errour, where equal zeal and talents are employed on each side. But if the advocates of errour be active and zealous, while those of truth are indifferent, truth cannot long maintain it's ground,

However, to support truth in the way here required often exposes men to much odium and to every species of ill usage. Voluntarily to encounter these evils is more than the zeal of many is prepared for; who, therefore, shrink from their duty, and leave the cause without defence. The particular mode, which each individual ought to adopt for defending and propagating the truth, must depend upon his circumstances. Some are best able to do this by writing in it's defence, some by their eloquence in speaking, and others by supporting and encouraging those who are thus engaged; and every man has it in his power to contribute something to this purpose, which if he neglect to do, he is chargeable with indifference.

The apostles of Christ were illustrious examples of that zeal for the truth, which I am here recommending. They travelled to every part of the known world in order to communicate the knowledge of the Gospel of truth, and encountered every species of hardship in accomplishing this important work. Had it not been for their exertions, Christianity would not have spread so widely as it did. When errours arose in the different churches which they established, they immediately wrote letters to them to correct their mistakes. Thus Paul, when the Jews attempted to impose the yoke of their law upon the neck of the Gentiles, wrote several epistles to guard Christians against this corruption of the Gospel, and to assure them, that they were entitled

to the priviléges of the Christian church by faith in Christ, without being circumcised. This was the ground of the enmity of his countrymen against him, and caused him at length to be sent a prisoner to Rome, where he suffered death. The apostle John manifested a like zeal against those, who in his time maintained, that Jesus suffered only in appearance and not in reality. The efforts of both were successful. These controversies, which so much agi. tated the Christian church in early times, have long been laid asleep; and had other Christians in following ages imitated the example of these apostles, the Christian world would not have been overrun with errour.

Some persons, indeed, too much shocked at the comparatively light evils, which have arisen from this degree of zeal for the truth, have called the rage of proselytism, the curse of the world; but when I look at the religion of the heathens, which is a corruption partly of natural and partly of revealed religion; when I look at the church of Rome, a corruption of the simple religion of Jesus, and consider the causes from which these numerous evils have arisen, I am disposed to reverse the maxim, and to say, that an indifference to truth has been the curse of the world, and that, while it continues, genuine Christianity, and (what is necessarily connected with it) the perfection and happiness of the human race, never can prevail.

The subject we have been considering I thought

not unsuitable to an occasion, on which we commemorate the death of that illustrious personage, who declared, that it was the great object of his mission to bear witness to the truth, who published it to the world without reserve and without fear, and who at last laid down his life in it's defence. The benefits we derive from his services and sufferings are great beyond calculation; and though other truths may not be of equal value with those which he hereby established, yet all truths deserve our attention in proportion to their importance.