A LAY SERMON, &c. PSALM LXXVIII. v. 5, 6, 7. 5. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel; which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children. 6. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: 1. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God. IF our whole knowlege and information concerning the Bible had been confined to the one fact of its immediate derivation from God, we should still presume that it contained rules and assistances for all conditions of men under all circumstances; and therefore for communities no less than for individuals. The contents of every work must correspond to the character and designs of the work-master; and the inference in the present case is too obvious to be overlooked, too plain to be resisted. It requires, indeed, all the might of superstition to conceal from a man of common understanding the further truth, that the interment of such a treasure in a dead language must needs be contrary to the intentions of the gracious Donor. Apostacy itself dared not question the premise: and that the practical consequence did not follow, is conceivable only under a compleat system of delusion, which from the cradle to the death-bed ceases not to overawe the will by obscure fears, while it pre-occupies the senses by vivid imagery and ritual pantomime. But to such a scheme all forms of sophistry are native. The very excellence of the Giver has been made a reason for withholding the gift; nay the transcendent value of the gift itself assigned as the motive of its detention. We may be shocked at the presumption, but need not be surprized at the fact, that a jealous priesthood should have ventured to represent the applicability of the Bible to all the wants and occasions ef men as a wax-like pliability to all their funci and prepossessions. Faithful guardian Writ! they are constrained to make in order to guard it from profanation; d those, whom they have most defrauded, are the readiest to justify the fraud. For imposture, organized into a comprehensive and self-consistent whole, forms a world of its own, in which inversion becomes the order of nature. Let it not be forgotten, however, (and I recommend the fact to the especial attention of those among ourselves, who are disposed to rest contented with an implicit faith and passive acquiescence) that the Church of Superstition never ceased to avow the profoundest reverence for the Scriptures themselves, and what it forbids its vassals to ascertain, it not only permits, but commands them to take for granted. Whether, and to what extent, this suspension of the rational functions, this spiritual slumber, will be imputed as a sin to the souls who are still under chains of papal darkness, we are neither enabled or authorized to determine. It is enough for us to know that the land, in which we abide, has like another Goshen been severed from the plague, and that we have light in our dwellings. The road of salvation for us is a high road, and the wayfarers, though simple, need not err therein,' The Gospel lies open in the market-place, and on every window seat, so that (virtually, at least) the deaf may hear the words of the Book! It is preached at every turning, so that the blind may see them. (Isai. xxix. 18.) The circumstances then being so different, if the result should prove similar, we may be quite certain that we shall not be held guiltless. The ignorance, which may be the excuse of others, will be our crime. Our birth and denizenship in an enlightened and protestant land, will, with all our rights and franchises to boot, be brought in judgment against us, and stand first in the fearful list of blessings abused. The glories of our country will form the blazonry of our own impeachment, and the very name of Englishmen, which we are almost all of us too proud of, and scarcely any of us enough thankful for, will be annexed to that of Christians only to light up our shame, and aggravate our condemnation. I repeat, therefore, that the habitual unreflectingness, which in certain countries may be susceptible of more or less palliation in most instances, can in this country be deemed blameless in none. The humblest and least educated of our countrymen must have wilfully neglected the inestimable privileges, secured to all alike, if he has not himself found, |