among a free people, which we believed to be essential to the happiness of all men here, and indispensible to their peace and everlasting salvation hereafter. With such ends and purposes in view we crossed the waters of the mighty deep; with such views we disembarked on the shores of this fertile land, and the blessing of the Father of all Spirits has been on our every religious effort. Our labours, though not attended with that display which some Christian professors have experienced, have yet been crown ed with signal success, and with the Psalmist we can truly say, in relation to our progress, "It is the Lord's doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
It has been customary with us in commemorating these Anniversaries of our Church, to address you on some one, or more, of those peculiar doctrines which we entertain as Bible-Christians, and by which we are distinguished from other denominations; and it is my intention, this morning, to pursue the same course, and to present to your serious and Christian consideration, the Scripture Testimony, so far as I may be enabled of the Divine Mercy to do so, on one of those subjects wherein we deviate, both in theory and practice, from the great body of our Christian Brethren.
You are all aware that the propagation of tenets of a peculiar nature, or the adoption of habits that are singular or unique, has a tendency to attract the attention of inquisitive minds, and will often lead them to enquire into the origin and foundation of such deviations from the prevailing opinions and practices of men. In these cases it is a duty incumbent on the adopters of such peculiarities, whether in faith or practice, or in Doth, to be "Always ready to give an answer to every man that asketh the reason of the hope that is in them." These are precisely the circumstances then, in which we are placed; we differ from others, and should be ready to point out the cause; hence the duty of searching after truth devolves upon us imperiously, not
