was ever doubted; and so solemn, that such a man must be scarcely less astonished that it does not control all human measures relating to this subject.

Mankind never attempt to resist the circuit of the seasons; to force water up hill; to control the clouds, the winds, or the waves. They never attempt to plough the rocks, to level the mountains, or to dry up the rivers. Why do they not attempt these things? It will be answered, “Because they are plain impossibilities." If Christianity be the work of God, it will be equally impossible to prevent it from taking its own course, and from spreading as fast and as far as he pleases. Men can no more resist the hand of God in one case than in any other; in the moral, than in the physical world; in opposing the operations of his Spirit, than in controlling the winds and the waves. With respect to all these things, and to all alike, the language of this Great Being is, "I work, and "who shall let it? My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." How delirious then must be every expectation of success in undertaking to resist Christianity, if the Gospel be true.

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From these observations it is unanswerably evident, that all efforts of this nature must be foolish in the extreme, because they are so easily and so certainly seen to be fruitless. But this is not all. For, in the

Fourth place, This opposition to Christianity is in the highest degree dangerous, "lest haply ye be found fighting against God." Such was the solemn warning of the distinguished man, who spoke in the text to the Jewish Sanhedrim,—a warning published in the Scriptures, that it might be addressed to all other persons of the same dispositions to whom the Bible should come, and that it might by them be beneficially applied to themselves.

The dangerous nature of this conduct may in some measure be learned from the following considerations:--

In the first place,

Every person who opposes the commencement or the progress of religion in others, hardens his own heart.

All the hatred and contempt which he indulges in this case,

VOL. I.

will rest ultimately upon the religion of the Gospel. He may flatter himself with many ingenious contrivances, that his hostility is directed only against enthusiasm, extravagance, and superstition, and thus may endeavour to find justification for his conduct. But he will learn in the end, and, if he would honestly examine his heart one hour, he would now learn, that his hatred and his contempt are both pointed against Christianity itself, and not against its counterfeits. It is hardly necessary to observe, that contempt and hatred often indulged, become, like all other passions, habitual, and of course powerful and obstinate. The enemies of Christianity, in all preceding ages, have become regularly more and more hostile by all the successive exercises of their enmity. We read their history, and are amazed to see their hatred of men who had done them no wrong, their unreasonableness, their cruelty, their renunciation of all human feelings, their adamantine hardness of heart, and the infernal pleasure with which they satiated themselves on the deplorable sufferings of unoffending Christians. Let us not be deceived. These men originally had hearts as susceptible as ours. Their obduracy was the result of their conduct. They themselves rendered their hatred of religion thus intense; they shut their own bowels against sympathy and tenderness.

No emotion so soon, so easily, or so insensibly produces hardness of heart as contempt. He who hates religion, may cease to hate it; but who will ever become, who will ever think of becoming, what he despises? Contempt, whatever may be the person or thing towards which it is directed, always flatters us with a strong sense of our own superiority in wisdom and goodness. To persuade us from indulging an emotion so gratifying to our pride, is a Herculean, and ordinarily a hopeless task. Accordingly, the wisdom of God exclaims at the sight of these men, "How long will scorners 66 delight in scorning, and fools hate knowledge ?”

In this manner the opposers of religion remove themselves far from it." Hearken unto me," says God, "ye stout heart"ed, who are far from righteousness." They hate it, they despise it more and more, and thus make their situation con

tinually more and more dangerous, until it becomes desperate. How melancholy an employment is this for a being who is advancing daily towards the final judgment !

Second, Every person of this character daily provokes the anger of God against himself.

the

If the Gospel is true, the establishment of the religion which it unfolds is the chief end of all the works of God in this lower world. Christ himself says, that he " came to seek and to save that which was lost." "There is joy in heaven," says same glorious person, "over one sinner that repenteth, more "than over ninety and nine who need no repentance." Christ died, that sinners might become religious, The Spirit of grace came into the world to sanctify sinners, that they might be come religious. When sinners become religious, all heaven rejoices.

Can it then be believed, that God can regard persons who wantonly oppose religion in others, and endeavour, with hatred and contempt, with slander and ridicule, to prevent them from becoming religious, in any other manner than with indignation and abhorrence. The Jews, notwithstanding their enor mous guilt in crucifying their Saviour, would plainly have escaped the destruction which overwhelmed their nation, if they had embraced the religion of the Gospel. This we know, because such of them who did embrace it actually escaped. Their rejection of Christianity, therefore, and the hostility with which they opposed its progress, became the immediate cause of those wonderful miseries which befel their nation; of that tremendous ruin, which our Saviour styles such as was not from the beginning of time, no, nor ever shall be. Who that reads the history of this unparalleled event, and considers the influence which enmity to religion had in producing it, can fail to tremble at the thought of being found in the same ranks with those miserable workers of iniquity?

There is, however, a consideration still more awful, if any thing can be more awful, than either of these which have been mentioned. When the Pharisees charged our Saviour with casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons; after refuting this infatuated as well as impious suggestion, he sub

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joined to his arguments this terrible monition, Wherefore, "I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy "Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven "him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it "shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in "the world to come."

The sin specified in these declarations, is obviously singled out as being alone in the list of human crimes, and as plainly standing far aloof from every other. "All manner of sin and "of blasphemy," says the Judge of the quick and the dead, "shall be forgiven unto men; but whosoever speaketh against "the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this "world, neither in the world, to come." All other sins are pardonable; this lies beyond the reach even of infinite mercy.

It is the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost to sanctify men, or, in other words, to awaken, convince, and renew the soul, that is, to communicate to it the religion of the Gospel. To resist the commencement and the progress of religion in our fellow-men, is therefore to resist the agency of the Holy Ghost in his peculiar office. To speak evil of the commencement and progress of religion in the soul is to speak evil of the Holy Ghost, of his peculiar agency, of his appropriate character, of the great purpose for which he came into the world. Of all purposes this is the most benevolent, the most glorious, the most god-like. It is no other than to rescue an immense multitude of the human race from endless sin and death, and to raise them to immortal life and holiness. Compared with it, the creation of the whole material system is nothing. God here is seen in his most honourable and most amiable character, and is eminently jealous for his glory, and regards all opposition made to him, while engaged in this most benevolent employment, with peculiar abhorrence.

I will not say, I do not feel that it can warrantably be said, neither do I believe that every degree of opposition to this workof the divine Spirit amounts to the unpardonable sin; but

that this sin is found somewhere in the progress of such resistance, and in some degree or other of this evil speaking, I see no reason to doubt. What is there which can be called speaking against the Holy Ghost, if speaking against his peculiar, appropriate, official agency is not of this nature? The reason why this crime cannot be forgiven seems to be, that it is attacking and insulting God when coming out to man on the kindest of all designs, with forgiveness, sanctification, and eternal life in his hands; presenting himself in a character singularly amiable and glorious, and demanding of mankind their highest adoration, gratitude, and praise.

At the same time it is doing the greatest injury in our power, nay, the greatest of all possible injuries to our fellow-men. It is to fix them in obstinate and hopeless sin. It is to help them onward to perdition. It is to preclude them from the attainment of holiness. It is to rob them of an interest in the mercy of God. It is to shut them out of heaven. Compared with these things, what is it to plunder them of their estates by fraud, or of their lives by murder?

Let every person, then, who finds in himself the least disposition to enter upon this employment, tremble, lest he be found fighting against God. Let him shudder, lest he should even now be advancing, lest he should already have far advanced, towards the perpetration of that sin for which there is no forgiveness. Let him remember that his progress in this dreadful course may be real, rapid, and yet imperceptible to himself. Sinners are rarely sensible of the growth of their evil habits, and never of the rapidity with which they grow, nor of the guilt which they themselves incur by indulging them, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. But neither the guilt, nor the danger are on this account the less real, or the less to be dreaded. How would the most stout-hearted person in this assembly tremble, if assured that the sentence of final condemnation was already passed upon him, and that his perdition was sealed on this side of the grave.

At the same time, let those who are awakened to solemn consideration concerning the things which belong to their peace, and have begun to remember that they have souls which must