sembly, who were once afar off, are now brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God.

But though all this hath happened, according to the scriptures, much is yet required to their complete fulfillment. Many families of the earth are still unblest: These too are reserved for the trophies of Emanuel's grace, and are to be subjected to his authority, by the same means which he hath ever employed in converting sinners— the gospel of his cross: three topics of discourse, not less appropriate to the design of our meeting, than plainly suggested by the text: For in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

I. Many families of the earth are yet unblest. They are described as destitute of spiritual and saving knowledge; an idea obviously conveyed by the figures of a VAIL and a COVERING-Darkness, thick darkness, enshrouds their minds, and conceals from them those facts and principles which it most interests them to know and to improve.

Of the nations thus under a vail we reckon four classes:

1. The families which adhere to the man of sin: Enticed by his lying wonders, and given up

to strong delusions, they have deviated into the paths of apostasy; they are under the vail of anti-christian error.

2. The families of rejected Israel: Having disowned their Messiah when he came, and being disqualified, by judicial blindness, for discerning the real sense of their scriptures, which testify of him; the vail upon their hearts is the vail of obstinate unbelief.

3. The families which embrace the doctrines of Mahommed: Turned aside after fables, and amusing themselves with the belief of lying vanities, they are under the vail of gross imposture.

4. The families which are usually called Pagan: With no other instruction than the glimmerings of natural reason, and the refracted rays of distant tradition, they are covered with the vail of deplorable ignorance.

All these are characterized in the text. But our attention is invited more immediately to those who are without any scriptural revelation. Though true of all, it is of them pre-eminently true, that they are under the double vail of a benighted understanding, and an erring conscience.

God is the source of intellectual light, for he alone is perfect reason. Wisdom in natural things is his gift; much more that wisdom which is spiritual and divine. Loss of ability to discover the chief good, was at once the just reward, and the

native consequence of revolt. For as all spiritual light in the creature beams from the effulgence of the Godhead, whenever sin had intercepted the communion of man with his Maker, the day which shone around him vanished; the gloom of the pit thickened on his soul; and from that accursed hour to this, unless illumined from above, he hath wandered out of the way, and his feet have stumbled upon the dark mountains. Does the assertion need proof? Proofs innumerable are furnished by the unhappy heathen. Of the very God who breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, on whose bounty they are continual pensioners, and at whose tribunal they must shortly stand, they are fatally ignorant. The heavens may declare his glory, and the firmament show forth his handy work; but the Pagans, unaccustomed to decipher their language, and to study their lessons, do not thence derive, in fact, just and clear perceptions even of his eternal power and Godhead; far less of his moral character; less still can they learn that he is the only satisfying portion of rational beings; and least of all, that he is accessible to the rebellious. Those general notices of his being which have prevailed in all countries and at all times, have never sufficed to direct men aright in their inquiries after him; nor do they now prevent the most foolish,

the most extravagant, the most abominable conceptions of his nature, and of his operations.

Mistake in the first principles of religion and of morals, must generate uncertainty in all the subordinate principles of both. The rule of obedience is, therefore, at best, a subject of conjecture. What is the genius, measure, and manner of acceptable worship? What are the relative duties of society? Wherein they come short? and What shall be the fruit of transgression? few of the heathen ask, and none can tell. Yet they are under a law of righteousness which saith, the soul that sinneth shall die. The origin of their wants and woes they are unable to explore. To the demerit and wages of sin they are utter strangers. The consequences of death they are equally unprepared to meet, or to estimate. All beyond the grave is impenetrable obscurity. Their notions of immortality are less a speculation than a dream. When called hence, they plunge into the world of spirits, unconscious of their destiny; and, till that consummation of sorrows, they grope, at a venture, after the path of life; but grope, alas! in vain; having the understanding darkened; being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

Of this intellectual darkness the inseparable companion is an erring conscience.

To

Although light in the understanding does not, of course, imply moral excellence, yet, without the former, there can be none of the latter. this it is necessary not only that there be a law of morals, but that it be obeyed from a regard to the authority of the lawgiver. Both the lawgiver and the law must, therefore, be known, or conscience will inevitably go astray. The general sentiment of right and wrong, though sufficient, if violated, to leave men without excuse, will by no means conduct to the proper discharge of duty. The fact is notorious, and a glance at the heathen world will descry a thousand monuments of it. To those who have the advantage of revelation, no truths appear more simple and luminous, than that there is but one God, and that he only is entitled to religious homage. Yet how dubious, on these points, were the most celebrated heathen philosophers! how embarrassed their research! how conjectural their opinion! And of that spiritual devotedness which is the life of real religion, they had as little knowledge as the sons of modern unbelief. If from them we turn to the mass of their cotemporaries, or to those who are now in a similar condition, we are startled and shocked to see them worship and serve the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. One poor idolater bows to the host of heaven; another trembles before an evil