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STRANGENESS OF A DIVINE MANIFESTATION,

No Argument against its Occurrence.

Ir appears incredible to many, that God Almighty should have had colloquial intercourse with our first parents; that he should have contracted a kind of friendship for the patriarchs, and entered into covenant with them; that he should have suspended the laws of nature in Egypt; should have been so apparently partial as to become the God and Governor of one particular nation; and should have so far demeaned himself as to give to that people a burthensome ritual of worship, statutes and ordinances, many of which seem to be beneath the dignity of his attention, unimportant and impolitic. I have conversed with many deists, and have always found that the strangeness of these things was the only reason for their disbelief of them: nothing similar has happened in their time; they will not, therefore, admit that these events have really taken place at any time. As well might a child, when arrived at a state of manhood, contend that he had never either stood in need or experienced the fostering care of a mother's kindness, the wearisome attention of his nurse, or the instruction and discipline of his schoolmaster. The Supreme Being selected one family from an idolatrous world; nursed it up, by various acts of his providence, into a great nation; communicated to that nation a knowledge of his holiness, justice, mercy, power, and wisdom;

disseminated them at various times through every part of the earth, that they might be " a leaven to leaven the whole lump," that they might assure all other nations of the existence of one supreme God, the creator and preserver of the world, the only proper object of adoration. With what reason can we expect that what was done to one nation, not out of any partiality to them, but for the general good, should be done to all? That the mode of instruction, which was suited to the infancy of the world, should be extended to the maturity of its manhood, or to the imbecility of its old age? I own to you, that when I consider how nearly man, in a savage state, approaches to the brute creation, as to intellectual excellence; and when I contemplate his miserable attainments as to the knowledge of God, in a civilized state, when he has had no divine instruction on the subject, or when that instruction has been forgotten (for all men have known something of God from tradition), I cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Being, in having let himself down to our apprehensions; in having given to mankind in the earliest ages sensible and extraordinary proofs of his existence and attributes; in having made the Jewish and Christian dispensations mediums to convey to all men, through all ages, that knowledge concerning himself, which he had vouchsafed to give immediately to the first. I own it is strange, very strange, that he should have made an immediate manifestation of himself in the first ages of the world; but what is there that is not strange? It is strange that you and I are here-that there is

water, and earth, and air, and fire-that there is a sun, and moon, and stars-that there is generation, corruption, reproduction. I can account ultimately for none of these things, without recurring to him who made every thing. I also am his workmanship, and look up to him with hope of preservation through all eternity; I adore him for his word as well as for his work; his work I cannot comprehend, but his word hath assured me of all that I am concerned to know—that he hath prepared everlasting happiness for those who love and obey him. This you will call preachment:-I will have done with it; but the subject is so vast, and the plan of Providence, in my opinion, so obviously wise and good, that I can never think of it without having my mind filled with piety, admiration, and gratitude.

BISHOP WATSON.

DANGER OF DEFERRING REPENTANCE. THAT the Almighty will accept the late resolutions of a deathbed repentance is more than any one in his own case can presume to say. On this difficult and dangerous point, thus much we may be warranted to conclude, that if it should fail, it will fail most probably in the case of those who have rested their dependance most upon it. They that sin in hope of final repentance often sin so far as to be incapable of it when their hour approaches. Their consciences by degrees are hardened, and not to be touched by those soft impressions which in their early

career they felt from the languishing remains of grace. Are they sure that they can command those few moments on which eternity depends? How often when they lie down upon a sick bed, do they want both the will and the power to ask forgiveness? Are they sure that their promised repentance will bring any thing in its train but horror and despair? Are they sure that their reason will not, in the extremity of disease, forsake them? or, should that remain, are they sure that it will not prove their severe and relentless judge, showing them the opportunities which they have neglected, the mercies they have despised, and anticipating the terrors of a future judgment? Thus restless and uneasy, thus void of comfort, and debarred from hope, without confidence to ask pardon, without faith to receive it, man, under these circumstances, descends to the receptacle of all flesh in the horrors of guilty despair.

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What then remains, but to embrace the offers of mercy, whilst mercy remains sure; "for the night cometh in which no man can work." night of darkness and tribulation, which may overwhelm the sinner in the midst of iniquities, without offering him even a chance of a doubtful and dangerous repentance. The time cometh, and, O Lord, who may abide its coming! While health and strength remain, the season of mercy still shines upon us; but how long that season shall last man cannot know. When the opportunity of repentance is gone, the season of mercy is gone also. And how soon to every man among us this ray of heavenly light may set in dark

ness, who can tell? This night, thy soul may be required of thee; this night the faculties of thy mind may be destroyed; this night the season of mercy may be for ever closed; and "in the grave there is neither wisdom nor device;" no power of forgiveness, nor hopes of pardon-there our doom is sealed for ever.

Viewing then the extent of the mercy of God, in respect to the season of acceptance, as involved in necessary obscurity, let not man complain of the indefinity of pardon, or of the uncertainty of his destiny; the nature of it is clear, the terms are definite, and as far as relates to himself, the extent is clear also. Can we look for greater precision? At this moment is the mercy of God offered to every one who hears me, on the terms of repentance from sin, by the blood of his Redeemer. At this moment, are the ears of the Lord open to the prayers of the contrite sinner. At this moment, is the Holy Spirit ready to invigorate every effort, and to animate every hope. Shall we then complain because we know not how often this gracious offer may be repeated, or how soon it may be finally withdrawn? Shall we murmur that we cannot indulge ourselves in the pollutions of sin, with the full security of future mercy? Such a complaint is an insult to the divine attributes; it is trifling with God.

RENNELL.