IV. tion to him to have been the author of DISC. that, than of all his large volumes of controversy. The raptures with which the penmen of the holy Scriptures expatiate upon the perfections of God, as displayed in the creation, are well known. And could we bring our minds habitually into the fame train of thinking, every walk we take would begin with admiration, and end with praise. We fhould always, upon fuch occafions, think, what the pfalmift has fo finely expressed, after a furvey of the heavens above, and the earth beneath-O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom haft thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches! And who, that looks around him from the delightful place where we now are, can forbear to add, So is this great and wide fea alfo! For of this truth let us never be unmindful, that wonderful as the fea is in itfelf, and beneficial as it is to the fons of men, all it's wonders and all it's benefits → This Difcourfe was compofed at Brighthelmftone. F 2 reflect DISC. reflect glory and honour on him who formed, IV. and poured it abroad-Let us remember, that The Sea is his, and he made it. Such an object, continually before our eyes, invites and demands our attention; and religion calls upon us to fearch out the riches of divine power and goodness con tained in it. When we place ourselves upon the shore, and from thence behold that immenfe body of waters, ftretching away on all fides, far as the eye can reach; and when we confider how large a portion of the globe is covered in like manner; what a noble idea are we hereby enabled to form of the immenfity of that Being who, in the emphatical language of Scripture, is faid not only to weigh the mountains in a balance, but to take up the fea in the hollow of his hand! In whose fight, the hills are but as duft, the ocean is no more than a drop. The immeasurable breadth of the fea may remind us of God's boundless mercy; it's unfathomable depth holds holds forth an image of his unsearchable DISC. judgments. When we fee a mass of water rifing up by a gradual ascent, till the sky seems, as it were, to defcend, and clofe upon it; a thought immediately ftrikes us-What is it which prevents these waters from breaking in upon, and overflowing the land, as they appear in heaps fo much above it? Let us adore that unseen power, which, by a perpetual decree, keeps them in their proper place, nor fuffers them to intrude themselves into one which is not theirs. It is God's will that it should be fo; when he gives the word, Hitherto fhalt thou come, and no farther, plain fand proves a fufficient barrier. The obedient waves bow themselves,, and retire. They continue this day according to thine ordinance, O Lord, for all things ferve thee, but rebellious man, whom nothing can restrain from paffing the bounds fet him by thy commandments! Hear attentively the noife of the fea IV. IV. DISC. How grand and awful the found! even as the voice of the Almighty God, when he fpeaketh! St. John, in the Revelation, to give us some notion of the praises of God as uttered by men and angels, or the choirs of heaven and earth united before the throne, has chofen this fimilitude, joining two others with it; the creation does not afford a fourth-" I heard as it were the "voice of much people in heaven, and the "voice of many waters, and the voice of ་ mighty thunderings, faying Hallelujah!" And is not this what the waves always fay, Praife the Lord-praise him with your voices, as we conftantly do with ours, while we thus intelligibly proclaim aloud the might of his power, and the glory of his majesty! Pleafing is the variety of profpects which the fea, at different times, affords us. For, one while, like the confcience of a good man, calm and unruffled, it reflects a bright and beautiful image of the light which fhineth upon it from above; at another, IV. like the heart of the wicked, it is dark and DISC. cloudy, ftormy and tempeftuous, agitated from the very bottom, and it's restless waters caft up mire and dirt. Reflect, for a moment, on these two pictures of virtue and vice; and then doubt, if you can, to which of the originals your choice ought to be directed. To behold the ebbing and flowing of the tide, is an amusement ever new. By this contrivance of infinite wisdom (whatever second causes are employed to produce the effect) the whole mafs of fea-water is kept in continual motion, which, together with the falt contained in it, preferves it from corrupting (as it would do, if stagnant) and poisoning the world. At one part of the day, therefore, the ocean seems to be leaving us, and going to other more favoured coafts: but at the ftated period, as if it had only paused to recover itself, it returns again by gradual advances, till it be arrived. to it's former height. There is an ebb and a flow in all human affairs; and a turn of events F 4 |