upon thee ? No : but that) blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance (of this promise) : let us plead together : " de- clare thou (thine affiance in it), that thou may est be justified11." Verily, it seems incredible that God, that God whom we have so offended, should address us in such terms as these. But these are the very words of God, addressed even to the most rebellious of the human race. Apply them, then, to your own souls, my Brethren, and seek now the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Then shall you, notwithstanding all your past wickedness, find favour with God, and " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son shall cleanse you from all sin."]
h Isai. xliii. 22 — 26.
Jer. ii. 12, 13. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no ivater.
RELIGION may be considered as of two kinds, theoretical and practical. In the term theoretical, I include every thing that is necessary to prove the truth of Christianity : and under the term practical, whatever is required of those who embrace it. To understand the theoretical part, is desirable ; to per- form the practical is necessary. The two kinds, however are not necessarily united : the theoretical may exist where the practical is disregarded ; and the practical may exist, where the theoretical is un- known. Thousands of pious persons have neither leisure nor talent for collating manuscripts, or for weighing the evidences that may be adduced in favour of particular hypotheses : and to say that these cannot be religious, because they are wanting in critical acumen, would be as absurd as to say that a man cannot be honest, because he has not sufficient knowledge of the laws to be a judge. The unlettered Christian assumes the truth of Christianity ; and he finds it true by its effects. And such persons may