of all that had been foretold, after the consummation of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, the exaltation of his name, the manifestation of his gifts, the calling of his people, the destruction of idols, the conversion of Caesars, and the agreement of the universe, still doubt, and take upon themselves to confute and to overthrow what the toils of the apostolic men, the blood of so many martyrs, the prodigies of so many servants of Jesus Christ, the writings of so many great men, the austerities of so many holy anchorites, and the religion of seventeen hundred years, have so universally and so divinely established in the minds of almost all people.
For, my brethren, amid all the triumphs of faith, children of unbelief still privately spring up among us, whom God hath delivered up to the vanity of their own thoughts, and who blaspheme what they know not; impious men, who change, as the apostle says, the grace of our God into wantonness, defile their flesh, contemn all rule, blaspheme majesty, corrupt all their ways like the animals not gifted with reason, and are set apart to serve one day as an example of the awful judgments of God upon men.
Now, if, among so many believers assembled here through religion, any soul of this description should happen to be, allow me, you, my brethren, who preserve with respect the sacred doctrine which you have received from your ancestors and from your pastors, to seize this opportunity either of undeceiving them or of confuting their incredulity. Allow me for once to do here what the first pastors of the church so often did before their assembled people, that is to say, to take upon myself the defence of the religion of Jesus Christ against unbelief; and, before entering into the particulars of your duties during this long term, allow me to begin by laying the first foundations of faith. It is so consoling for those who believe to find how reasonable their submission is, and to be convinced that faith, which is apparently the rock of reason, is, however, its only consolation, guide, and refuge!
Here, then, is my whole design. The unbeliever refuses submission to the revealed truths, either through a vain affectation of reason, or through a false sentiment of pride, or through an illplaced love of independence.
Now, I mean at present to show, that the submission which the unbeliever refuses, through a vain affectation of reason, is the most prudent use which he can make even of reason: that the submission which he refuses through a false sentiment of pride, is the most glorious step of it: and, lastly, that the submission which he rejects through an ill-placed love of independence, is the most indispensable sacrifice of it. And from thence I shall draw the three great characters of religion: — it is reasonable, it is glorious, it is necessary.
O my Saviour, eternal author and finisher of our faith, defend thyself, thy doctrine. Suffer not that thy cross, by which the universe hath been submitted to thee, be still the folly and the scandal of proud minds. Once more triumph at present, through the secret wonders of thy grace, over that same unbelief which thou for-
