ing, of adoration, and of praise; let us never quit our temples without bearing from them some new grace, since here is the throne of mercy from whence they are shed upon men; never quit them without an additional relish for heaven, without new desires of terminating your errors, and of attaching yourselves solely to God; without envying the happiness of those who serve him, who have it in their power to be continually worshipping him at the feet of the altar, and whose station and functions particularly consecrate them to his holy ministry. Say to him, as the queen of Sheba formerly said to Solomon, " Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom." And should the duties of your station not permit you to come here to worship the Lord at the different hours of the day, when his ministers assemble to praise him; ah! continually turn, at least, toward the holy place, like the Israelites formerly, your longings and your desires. Let our temples be the sweetest consolation of your troubles, the only asylum of your afflictions, the only resource of your wants, the most certain recreation from the confinements, the fatiguing attentions, and the painful subjections of the world: in a word, find there the beginning of that unalterable peace, the plenitude and the consummation of which you will find only with the blessed, in the eternal temple of the heavenly Jerusalem.
SERMON XXII.
THE TRUTH OF RELIGION.
"Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel." — Matthew viii. 10.
Whence came, then, the incredulity with which Jesus Christ at present reproaches the Jews; and what cause could they still have for doubting the sanctity of his doctrine and the truth of his ministry? They had demanded miracles, and, before their eyes, he had wrought such evident ones that no person before him had done the like. They had wished that his mission were authorized by testimonies; Moses and the prophets had amply borne them to him; the precursor had openly proclaimed, Behold the Christ and the Lamb of God, which taketh sway the sin of the world; a Gentile renders glory in our gospel to his almightiness; the heavenly Father had declared from on high, that it was his well-beloved Son; lastly, the demons themselves, struck with his sanctity, quitted the bodies, confessing that he was the Holy, and the Son of the living God. What could the incredulity of the Jews still oppose to so many proofs and prodigies?
Behold, my brethren, what, with much greater surprise, might be demanded of those unbelieving minds, who, after the fulfilment
