DISCOURSE V.

MATTHEW, Vi. 11.

Give us, this day, our daily bread.

WE have hitherto contemplated those parts of our Lord's prayer which relate to the higher branches of our holy religion. We are now entering on a subject which will, in a considerable measure, limit our attention to the temporal concerns of mankind; but which, it is hoped, will afford us such views of the beneficent care of our Heavenly Father as will encourage our application to his throne, and our reliance on his promise.

Human beings are subject to an endless variety of wants. Among their numerous tribes there is not an individual who inherits, inde

pendently, those resources which are requisite for his own happiness. Whatever may be his mental endowments, and how elevated soever his situation in life, he has no more power to control the events of the future than he has to obliterate those of the past;-no more ability to prevent a disaster which may deprive him of his comforts, and plunge him into the depths of indigence, than he has to arrest the whirlwind. This reflection affords us sufficient reason for offering our petitions to the Father of mercies for the supply of our temporal wants. And although it may be objected, that a prayer for "daily bread" was more particularly adapted to the precarious lives of the Apostles, who were required to execute their ministry in the face of a persecuting world, and to travel through strange and inhospitable countries, without gold, or silver, or brass, in their purses; yet, let it not be thought unsuitable to ourselves; since God, to whom the request is presented, "holdeth our soul in life,-openeth his hand, and filleth his creatures with good;" and can, if he choose, "take away the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water."

The petition which is to be the foundation of our present discourse, leads us to consider,

I. The doctrine of Divine Providence.

II. The dependence we should place on it. III. The proper manner of evincing that dependence.

I. Our text leads us to consider the doctrine of Divine Providence.

Divine Providence is that wise and omnipotent superintendence by which the Creator supports the whole frame of nature, and supplies and governs all classes of beings, agreeably to his own eternal designs, and for the manifestation of his own glory.

For some truths we are indebted to Divine revelation; they are of such an order, that the lips of nature cannot utter them; they lie so far without the circle of human inquiry, that no created wisdom can descry them. To bring them, therefore, beneath our observation, it was necessary for God himself to speak from heaven; and thus disclose those interesting topics "which had been kept secret from the foundation of the world." The doctrine of Providence is implied in every truth which the understanding admits, and is exhibited by every object in nature. Who, for example, can reflect on the on the proposition, That there is a

God, without supposing him to possess supreme authority, over all inferior existences? Who can behold the stupendous works of creation, the globe covered with millions of beings, and enriched with whatever is essential to the support and accommodation of animal life, without attributing its preservation to the superintendence of its Almighty Former? Who can reflect on the revolving seasons,—the variations of heat and cold,--the influence of the sun,— the showers that cheer and fertilize the earth, -and not trace in them the wise regulations of an intelligent Agent? Who can witness the diversified circumstances of individuals, families, and nations, together with all their successes, disappointments, comforts, and privations, without observing in them some bright and convincing evidence of a Supreme Will, by which the designs, operations, and fortunes of mankind are directed and over-ruled? Who can reflect on the preservation and wide distribution of the sacred oracles, notwithstanding the opposition of paganism and infidelity; or, on the protection of the church, although the world, by threatenings and artifice, has, in every age, attempted to destroy it, without perceiving that the Eternal God rules among the children of men?

This subject must, in the estimation of every