scheme which may be followed, seeing it has been already followed.

To this point we shall direct the subsequent part of our discourse on the text we have read. We have divided it into three parts; distinguished duties....excellent models....and wise precautions. Of distinguished duties, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, we have treated in our first discourse. Of wise precautions, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset. us, we hope to treat in a succeeding sermon. Of excellent models, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, we shall speak today. Happy, if struck with so many heroic actions, you may be led to follow them, and to augment this cloud of witnesses, of whom the Holy Spirit himself has not disdained to make the eulogium. Happy, if we may say of you, as we now say of them, by faith they repelled the wisdom of this world; by faith they triumphed over the charms of concupiscence; by faith they endured the most cruel of tor. ments; by faith they conquered the celestial Jerusalem, which was the vast reward of all their conflicts. Amen.

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience the race which is set before us. What is this cloud, or multitude, of which the apostle speaks? The answer is not equivocal, they are the faithful enumerated in the preceding chapter. Of what were they witnesses? Of that important truth, with which he would impress the mind of the Hebrews, and which alone is capable of supporting the expectation of martyrdom, that God is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him; that how great soever the sacrifices may be we make for him, we shall be amply recompensed by his equity or love: the faithful have witnessed this; not only by their professions, but by their conduct; some by sacrifices

which cost the most to flesh and blood; some by abandoning their riches; others by devoting their lives. Happily, this eleventh chaper of the epistle to the Hebrews, is clearly known even to the less instructed of our hearers; this may supply our weakness, and the brevity of these exercises in making an analysis. We shall run over it, remarking whatever may most contribute to illustrate the subject.

The first thing which not a little surprises us, is, that Saint Paul has equally brought together, as models, men who seem to have been not only of very different, but of very opposite conduct. How could he class Samson, the victim of a prostitute; how could he class Rahab, of whom it is doubtful at least, whether she did not practise the most infamous of all professions; how could he put those two persons on a parallel with Joseph, who has been held up to all ages, not only as the model, but as the martyr for chastity? How could he place Jepthah, the oppressor of Ephraim, whom we deem worthy of censure for the most distinguished action of all his life; I would say the devotion of his only daughter, either to sacrifice or celibacy, a question not to be examined here; how could he class this man in a rank with Abraham, who was ready to immolate his son at the divine command; with Abraham, the most humane of conquerors, who made this magnanimous reply to the offers of an alliance he had received, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from thee a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich? Gen. xiv. 22, 23. How could he put Gideon, who availed himself of the spoils of Midian by the supernatural aids of Heaven, to make an ephod, and to turn away the Israelites from the worship of the true God, on a scale with Moses, who. chose affliction with the people of God, in preference.

to the pleasures of sin which are but for a season? Heb. xi. 25. I have too much reason to be convinced, that many of my hearers would wish to follow models of this description. I have too much reason to be convinced, that many would delight in faith like that of Samson, like that of Jepthah, like that of Gideon. Without adopting or rejecting the solutions usually given of this difficulty, here is what may be replied.

You should keep in view, the design of Saint Paul in placing this groupe of personages before the Hebrews. He would animate them with that faith, which as we expressed ourselves relying on the apostolic principles, with that faith which persuades us, that how great soever the sacrifices may be we make for God, we shall be rewarded by his equity, or love. Faith thus taken in its vaguest and most extended view, ought to be restricted to those particular circumstances in which it was exercised, and according to the particular kind of promises which it embraced, or, not losing sight of obedience, in regard to those particular kinds of sacrifice which he requires us to make. One man is called to march at the head of an oppressed nation and to emancipate his country. God promises to reward his courage with victory. The man believes, he fights, he conquers. The object of his faith in this particular circumstance, is the promise I have mentioned; I am right then in defining faith as Saint Paul when he says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Heb. xi. 1. It is that disposition of heart, in approaching God, which enables us to believe, that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith the man of whom I spoke obtained the victory.

But I will adduce the case of another, called to suffer martyrdom for religion. The particular objects of his faith in the case I have supposed, are the promises of salvation. I am right in defining faith

as it is defined by Saint Paul, when he says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is that disposition of mind which enables him in approaching God to believe that he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him. By faith the man of whom I speak obtained salvation. You perceive, I flatter myself, in the first case I have adduced, that if the general persuasion this man had, that God is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him, did not embrace for its object all the promises of salvation, nor induce him to make all the sacrifices his salvation required; he is worthy however of imitation in this instance, his faith hav ing embraced the particular promise which had been given him; and it is evident, if I know any thing of this man's life, that his faith having been sufficiently strong for a particular sacrifice I may presume what I cannot prove, it would have been adequate for every other sacrifice required by his salvation.

The doctrine discussed being considered, not only obviates the difficulty proposed, but satisfies the scruple which may be made concerning some of the saints proposed as patterns by Saint Paul.

Do you ask, why Saint Paul has arranged in the same class, and propose as equal models, personages so distinguished by vice? I answer, that whatever distance there might have been between the different personages, they are all worthy of imitation in regard to what is excellent in those instances to which the apostle refers.

But if you ask whether the faith which induced Samson, Jepthah, and Gideon, to make some par ticular sacrifices for God, prompted them to make every sacrifice which their salvation required? we answer, that whatever favourable presumption charity ought to inspire, no man has a right to answer the question in the affirmative: as we find many who have performed the first miracles of faith without performing the second, we ought not to be confident

that those doubtful characters performed the second because they were honoured with the first.

But if you exclaim against this opinion, I will add, not only that Jesus Christ has affirmed he will say to many in the great day, who had miraculous faith, I know you not; but we have proof that many of those, whose example the apostle has adduced in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, were detestable characters, notwithstanding their endow ment of miraculous faith. Here is our proof: he has arranged, in the class of those whose faith he extols, all the Israelites who passed through the Red Sea. Now, it is evident that a vast proportion of these were detestable men; then, draw yourselves the consequence. And here you have the reason of St. Paul having happily proposed to the Hebrews, the example of the miracles achieved by the faith of those whom I call doubtful characters. Those miracles were admirably calculated to encourage the minds of the Hebrews, and to embolden their purposes of making distinguished sacrifices for religion: but you have the reason, also, of his not being satisfied.. with merely setting before them those examples. You have the reason of his not being satisfied with setting before them the example of a faith, concern. ing which the Scriptures are silent, if it had only particular promises for its object; he sets before them the example of those saints, whose faith had particularly in view the promises of eternal felicity. But were there, indeed, among those saints enumerated by the apostle, men, whose faith had, for its object, the promises of eternal felicity? Did the obscurity of the dispensation, in which they lived, permit them to pierce the veil, which still concealed from their view a happier life than they enjoyed on earth? Let us not doubt it, my brethren: to avoid one extreme, let us not fall into the opposite one St. Paul has proved it, not only by his own authori ty, but also by the nature of the case, and by the tes Limony of the Jews of his own age.