edging them. Of course, no plea of ignorance can be urged in our behalf. We shall be left without excuse. We shall be condemned out of our own mouths.

If we would avoid this fate, our future conduct must correspond with our present services; our gratitude must be practical, and our praises unceasing. And ought they not to be so? If the perfections and works of God ever deserve our praises, do they not always deserve them? Is he not, yesterday, to-day, and forever, the same? If his favors deserve any return, do they not deserve a constant return? Are they not new every morning; and can we hope to discharge, in one day, a debt which we have, during the whole year, been contracting, and which hourly increases?

Should the thankfulness, which our fellow-citizens this day express, prove to be of the spurious, transient kind described above, they will be peculiarly inexcusable; for the dispensations of providence, as they respect our political interests, are admirably suited to excite, not a momentary burst, but a continual flow of grateful affection. God's mercies have descended upon us, not in a sudden torrent, but in a gentle and constant shower. If we have not, like some other nations, been recently freed from the pressure of overwhelming evils, it is because that from all such evils, we have, for many years, been graciously preserved. But this circumstance rather increases than diminishes our obligations to the great Disposer of events. The mariner who finds the sea tempestuous; who is often in imminent danger of shipwreck; and who, after despairing of life, is brought in safety to the desired haven, may feel, and ought to feel, strong emotions of thankfulness. But has he more real cause for gratitude, than one whose voyage is uninterruptedly pleasant and prosperous; and who experiences no striking interpositions of providence in his favor, because none were necessary? Such, in a degree unexampled in this age of storms and convulsions, has been our political voyage; a circumstance which surely calls for gratitude, as uninterrupted as our prosperity. Permit me to add that whatever difference of opinion may have existed, respecting the expediency of our separation from the parent state; no one will deny, that, since this event has taken place, we are under great obligations to Him, whose watchful care prevented the evils which might have ensued; and rendered the dreaded shock of separation so gentle, that it was scareolu fala

In fine, who have cause for continual thankfulness, if we have not? From what nation of the earth may God justly expect a constant tribute of gratitude or praise, if not from this. Go through the world, my hearers; visit every nation; compare its situation with our own; and on your return you will be constrained to cry :-He hath not dealt so with any people; Surely the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage. Go, and urge other nations to praise God; and, if they know what you enjoy, they will reply;"Give us your lot, and our praises shall be unceasing." Shall our expressions of gratitude cease then, with this day; cease even before its close; cease as soon as we leave the sanctuary? Shall all God's wondrous works be so soon forgotten, and this, like our former days of thanksgiving, only close one year of sin, and begin another? Shall we write our history, or constrain God to write it, in the words of our text; and make the character of the perverse, ungrateful Israelites, who justly perished in their sins, forever our own? Rather let this day witness your assumption of another, an opposite character. Rather let the thanksgivings of this day never end, till they are swallowed up in the praises of eternity. Not only now say, but through life continue to say;-Unto thee, O Lord, do we give thanks. Unto thee do we give thanks; for that thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare.

NOTE. This Sermon was preached at the Annual Thanksgiving in 1820, — the year, in which was consummated the separation of Maine from Massachusetts.

THE CONDITION OF MEN WITHOUT THE BIBLE, OR WITH THE BIBLE PROVED TO BE FALSE.

If the dead rise not, then. is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also, which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.—1 CORINTHIANS xv. 16—18.

It is often pretended, by those who receive not the truth as it is in Jesus, that all the religious errors and mistakes, which prevail among Christian nations, are occasioned by the want of some infallible living teacher, to whom men might apply for instruction, in all doubtful cases; and from whose decisions there should be no appeal. But to suppose that errors and differences of opinion respecting religion are occasioned by this, is a mistake. This is evident from the fact, that while the apostles, who were inspired and infallible teachers, remained on earth, errors and mistakes prevailed among professing Christiaus no less than they do now.. Some, for instance, were found in the Corinthian church who denied the resurrection of the dead. With a view to convince them that this opinion was erroneous, St. Paul here mentions some of the fatal consequences which would result from its being true. If the dead rise not, says he, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then also they that have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

My friends, the mode of reasoning, which St. Paul here adopts with respect to one important doctrine of revelation, I wish to adopt with respect to the whole of revelation. I wish to show you what would be our situation without the Bible; what would be the consequence, if it could be proved that the Bible is not a revelation from God. This, I suspect, is a subject to which you have not sufficiently attended. I suspect that some of you, who secretly hope, or at least wish, that the Bible may prove false, are not aware what would be the consequences, could your wishes be gratified. I suspect that others, who feel convinced of its truth, are not sufficiently sensible of the worth of such a revelation, and, of course, are not sufficiently grateful for it. Favor me then with your attention, while I attempt to show what would be our situation without the Bible; what the consequences of its being proved to be false.

I. If we had no Bible, or if the Bible could be proved to be false, we should be entirely ignorant of the origin of our race, and of the world which we inhabit. I need not remind you, that this is the only book which even pretends to give us any authentic or satisfactory information on this subject. Indeed it is evident from the nature of things, that nothing can be known by us respecting the formation of the world, except it be communicated by revelation; since no human being could then be alive to witness that event, or to transmit to us any information respecting it. Nor could the first individuals of our race know any thing of the cause to which they were indebted for their existence, unless a knowledge of it were communicated to them by immediate revelation. Nay more, not only all the knowledge we have of the origin of the world, but all the information which we possess respecting the history of mankind for many ages, is contained in the Bible. No uninspired history, on which the smallest reliance can be placed, prefends to relate any event which occurred more than three thousand years ago, unless we except the history of Josephus, a Jewish writer, whose information was evidently derived from the Scriptures. If then we renounce the Scriptures, we must be content to remain in total ignorance of the origin of the world, of its inhabitants, and of every thing respecting them which occurred more than three thousand years ago. If it be said, that reason, unenlightened by revelation, might have inferred that the world and its inhab

itants must have had a Creator, I answer, it is true that, if the minds of men had not been blinded by sin, they might have discovered this truth; but it is certain that they never did discover it. On the contrary, whenever they have attempted, as they often have done, to account for the existence of the world and its inhabitants, they have run into the grossest and most ridiculous absurdities.

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For instance, one of the most acute philosophical authors of antiquity, writing on this subject, informs us, that an infinite number of atoms had existed from all eternity; that, some how or other these atoms were put in motion, and that while moving about they happened to come together and form a world, out of which plants, animals and men spontaneously sprung up. perhaps some will say, these were the sentiments of men in the early and ignorant ages of the world. Since reason has been more cultivated, and learning has increased, men know better than to believe such absurdities. We will reply to this remark, by giving you a modern theory respecting the formation of the world; a theory, which has been invented, published and defended within a few years, by some of the most learned philosophers of the age. According to this theory, the sun had either existed from all eternity, or was formed, nobody knows how, and a comet made and put in motion in a similar way, passing by the sun, struck off a large piece of it by a blow of its tail, and by the same blow communicated to the piece thus struck off, a rotary motion, which caused it to revolve till it acquired a globular form. All this happened many millions of years ago, and during this period, the new-made world, being made to revolve round the sun, collected all the particles of dust which came in its way, till it had acquired soil sufficient to support plants, animals and men, which sprung up upon it, one after the other. In a similar way, all other planets were formed. As to the moon, that was once a part of this world, and was blown out of it by a tremendous volcano, whose fires are now quenched. Indeed, others suppose that this world and all the planets were, in a similar manner, blown out of the sun. Such, my hearers, are the theories of those whom the world styles philosophers; such the absurdities into which grave and learned men are left to fall, when they renounce the Scriptures. And if we renounce the Scriptures, what can we do better than adopt some of these