1

SERMON I.

ON THE DECREASE OF RELIGION. A

St. JOHN, chap. XX. part of ver. 13.

They have taken away my Lord; and I know not where they bave laid him.

We have now.commenced that folemn Preached

at the

feafon, which the church hath in its wif- Afylum,

A

dom fet apart for a more efpecial enquiry into the state of our fpiritual concerns, and which it hath accompanied with fuitable holy exercises and ordinances. This, with every other mark of church difcipline and Christian profeffion, is now reduced to a mere empty name. It is a change, however, in the hiftory of re

February

26, 1792.

기

1

SERMON ligion, which every good man must very

1.

deeply deplore. Externals are not only evidences of the existence of internals,

but, in our present grofs and imperfect

cay

ftate, they are alfo neceffary aids and afsistances to their prefervation. The deof rites and ceremonies is not merely the forerunner of the decay of religion in the heart, of which they are the vehicles; but it is a fign that the inward devotion is already extinct.

An outward profeffion of Christianity, tv and a compliance with the institutions of our church, are not only very generally laid afide, but, by a great many, are most prophanely ridiculed, It is impossible that the warmeft advocates of the new philofophy fhould contend, that the times are bettered by this dereliction of the appearances and decorums of religion. Whoever looks into the world, with a thinking mind, Jasigil

mind, muft fee that the most facred obli-
gations of christianity, and the pure and
fublime morality of the gospel, are frit-
tered away with the outward demonftra-
tion of faith in its doctrines, and the ob-
fervance of its ordinances. It becomes,
therefore, the indifpenfible duty of the
minifters of God, who are appointed to
uphold his religion in the world, to point
out to mankind the error of their ways,

and to endeavour to lead them back into
the paths of Chriftian truth.

In compliance with this dictate of
my
confcience, in obedience to this commif-
fion from our Lord Jefus Chrift, whofe
fervant I am, I fhall employ your atten-
tion, during the few Sundays of this holy
season, on the real state of religion amongst
us. In doing this, I fhall pursue the
method of a late Author, to whom the
Christian world is highly indebted, and
whose

B 2

SERMON whofe modefty has concealed his name,

1.

while his benevolence has made a valu

able attempt to open the eyes of his de

luded fellow-creatures.

The words, which I have felected for my text, are the lamentation of Mary Magdalene over the empty fepulchre of her crucified Mafter. On the prefent oce cafion, I apply them metaphorically to the prefent afpect of his religion. Were an Apostle to defcend from Heaven, from the participation of his Master's beatification, an Apoftle who had caught the divine truths, the holy precepts from that Mafter's lips, who had, under the guidance of his inspiration, penned those facred pages which form the only rule of belief and practice; were he to fee how this religion, this holy word of truth, has been garbled by mankind for their own purposes, I fay, he would not know the Gofpel; he would

think