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have been held in bondage, but have been freed, and are desirous of being transported back to their native country, relatives, and friends, with a view to enlighten and civilize others, and to put a final stop to the slave trade on the African coast. This is a most humane and benevolent design, and it is hoped it will be approved and promoted by individuals at present, and soon by the national legislature. Realizing the freedom, the civilization, and the blessings of the gospel, which we have long and fully enjoyed, can we forbear to throw in our mite, to promote such a humane, important, and benevolent purpose? If the design be accomplished, it will give the fairest opening and prospect of not only breaking the rod of oppressors, but of spreading the glorious gospel among a large portion of the human race, who are perishing in their ignorance and guilt, while it will wipe off a foul blot from our national honor, humanity, and religion. These are motives, which must sink deeply in every benevolent heart.

SERMON II.

THE HOPELESS STATE OF THE HEATHEN,

PSALM IX. 17.-The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,

The time was, when all the nations of the earth knew and acknowledged the only living and true God. This time, however was of short duration. The nations were soon divided and scattered over the four quarters of the globe. Soon after their separation from each other, they lost their religious traditions, grew vain in their imaginations, and degenerated into all kinds of idolatry. The true religion would have become entirely extinct, had not God selected one nation from all the rest, and given them a written and standing revelation, Of this nation David was both a king and a prophet. As the king of God's peculiar people, he viewed all the heathen nations as his personal enemies; and as a prophet of the true church, he viewed all the heathen nations as enemies to the true God and the true religion. Hence it is, that he so often blends his enemies with the enemies of God, and speaks of both as exposed to both temporal and eternal ruin. This mode of speaking runs through this psalm. He begins with praising God for the overthrow of his enemies. "I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee; I will sing praise to

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thy name, O thou most High. When mine enemies are turned back they shall fall and perish at thy pres For thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou sattest in the throne judging right, Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked." From God's past conduct, he proceeds, under the influence of a true prophetie spirit, to foretel his future conduct towards the wicked, and espec ially the heathen, whom he considered as such. "The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in It the net which they hid is their own foot taken." follows in the next verse but one, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." This is not a mere threatening, but a plain prediction; and therefore the veracity of God stands pledged to fulfil it. The prediction is, that all the finally wicked shall be destroyed, and among these, all nations that forget God. This is a description of all the heathen world, who are destitute of divine revelation. For it was common among the Jews, as well as among us, to call all nations heathens, who were left to the mere light of nature. It is true, that in David's day all nations were heathens except the Jews; but now by the heathens we mean only those nations, who never enjoyed the gospel. To these nations the prediction in the text still extends, and assures us that it is God's fixed determination to destroy them, as well as the unbelievers of the gospel. The text contains this solemn truth,

That all the heathens will finally perish.

Since this is a subject, upon which both the learned and unlearned differ in their opinions, I shall endeavor to treat it as thoroughly and plainly as I can.

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make it appear, that the heathens will be finally lost, I would observe,

1. That God many years ago, gave them up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. The first heathen nations might have known God, but they chose to forget him. And from this circumstance, they are justly called the nations that forget God.--The first families and nations after the deluge, were instructed by their pious progenitors in the knowledge of God and of true religion. And it is highly probable, that when the nations were divided, and sent to the various parts of the earth to which God directed them, there were some pious and intelligent persons, in each nation, who would have gladly instructed them, if they had been willing to receive divine instruction. But the body of each nation chose to forget and forsake their creator, and sink into a state of gross ignorance and impiety. This was highly displeasing to God; and for this he gave them up to judicial blind. ness and stupidity. Paul, speaking of the heathens, says, "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind." And Paul and Barnabas both say, "God in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways." Both these passages plainly imply, that the heathens had then long been given up to judicial blindness. And it seems natural to conclude, that this heavy curse fell upon them, at the time of the calling of Abraham. As all the nations had then become idolaters, so they then deserved to be given up; and as God's peculiar covenant with Abraham included all religious privileges, so it seemed to cut off all nations from those peculiar blessings. At that time, how

ever, or soon after, God actually withheld the means of grace from the heathen world. He did not speak to them by dreams, or visions, or face to face, as he did to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity. And when God withheld all special communications from the heathen nations, then they were certainly devoted to ruin. In this forlorn condition, the heathen nations have been, for more than four thousand years. God has left them to walk in their own ways, without sending them angels, or prophets, or Christ, or apostles, or ministers, to teach the way of salvation. He has denied them the means of grace, and therefore, there is reason to conclude, that he never will make them the subjects of his grace, until he sends them the gospel. He has declared by his word and providence, that he has given them up to judicial blindness and ignorance, which plainly implies, that they with the rest of the finally wicked, shall be turned into hell.

2. When God formed the seed of Abraham into a distinct nation and visible church, he shut the door against the heathen nations. At mount Sinai, God avouched the Israelites to be his people; and they avouched him to be their God, and promised to pay a universal obedience to his commands. By some of these cammands, he separated them from all intercourse with the heathen nations; forbidding them to make treaties, or intermarriages with them, or to follow any of their peculiar customs and manners. They might neither worship their gods, nor eat, nor drink in their temples, nor at their tables. They were directed to consider all the heathen world, or all nations but their own, as out of the pale of the church, and out of the favor of God. And this is confirmed by the very permission, which God gave

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