reliever and comforter of fo many poor and wretched and defolate in the power of his cruel and implacable enemies, and prevented them not from ill-treating, from condemning, from crucifying and from flaying him. And what man, who knew his innocence, and had the fentiments of humanity in his breast, and the force of a man in his hands, could there without a crime have calmly left malice to pursue its courfe and remained an idle, inactive fpectator of the horrid fcene? But God, the Omnifcient, allowed it to happen, and allowed it with the moft perfect holinefs to happen, for he faw in the afflictions of this innocent fufferer the infalli ble means of preventing far greater evils, and of elevating the sufferer himself to far greater perfection and glory; he faw the confolation, the compofure, the hope, which all future generations of men would thence derive; he faw in the magnanimous death of his favourite the life of the world. How far, my dear friends, how far were likewife here God's thoughts and ways fuperior to ours? And as God in both these inftances thought and acted, so he thinks and acts in numberlefs others, which escape our knowledge and obfervation. As he in each of these cases produced light out of darkness and made calamity a fource of bleffing, fo he ftill continues to do, though we very often perceive nought but darkness and feel nought but calamity.

Yes, God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways: as the heavens are higher

than

than the earth, fo are his thoughts higher than our thoughts and his ways than our ways. They comprehend in point of space, they comprehend in point of time, whatever is and was and will be; they extend to the possible as to the actual, to the bad as to the good. And if we in regard to our thoughts and ways are liable to a thoufand errors and mistakes, if our judgments, our views, our actions are often inconfiftent, often foolish, often unjust, and always extremely uncertain and variable, yet God's thoughts and ways are above the reach of error and infirmity, pure truth, pure harmony, pure wifdom and benignity, all fuperlatively certain, invariable and infallible.

Canft thou however not deny this truth, o man, and how little reflection is requifite, for being intimately and fully convinced of it! Canft thou not deny this truth; oh then let it be the leading principle of all thy judgments, the rule of all thy conduct. Presume not to cenfure the works and ways of the Eternal, the Infinite, fince thou feeft, thou knoweft, thou conjectureft only an extremely fmall portion of them, and the remainder is concealed from thy limited understanding as well as from thy fhort fighted eyes. Be ashamed of the childish, the froward judgments which thou art fo apt to pass on the decrees and the dealings of him, whofe purposes and doings no man, no angel, no created intelligence however exalted is able to fearch out and to fathom. Never forget, that the space which thou occupieft and knoweft, is an atom to

the

the immenfe univerfe, and the time wherein thou liveft and acteft, an indivifible inftant to the boundlefs duration of eternity. In the fentiment of thy weakness and unworthinefs humble thyfelf to the ground before the Onlywife, the Allpowerful, and adore him, whofe understanding is infinite, whofe authority is unbounded, whose wifdom and loving kindness are inexhaustible. In the deepest humility revere his decrees, his inftitutions and arrangements, his difpenfations, his commands, and revere them even then as just and proper, when thou canst not comprehend them, when they feem at variance with thy welfare or that of thy brethren. Leave him to govern the world, leave him to conduct thy deftinies and the deftinies of all creatures, who knows both thee and them, loves both thee and them, and at the fame time furveys all, comprehends all, and can will and effect nothing but good, only the best. Acquiefce entirely in the providence of the Allwife and Allbountiful, of thy father in heaven, trust in it for more, infinitely more, than thou canst conceive and understand, than thou canst covet and defire; and let no apparent diforder and incongruity, no misfortune, no affliction, no revolutions and iubverfions however extraordinary, unfettle thy faith in its over-ruling guidance and direction. All by infenfible degrees will unfold, all clear up, every incongruity vanish, every obfcurity yield to meridian light, and all that we now call diforder and evil, will diffolve into the most admirable harmony, the most perfect happiness.

VOL. I.

Z

happiness. And then, my dear friends, then fhall we, together with all creatures in heaven and on earth, glorify in one united fong of praise our creator and father, the fovereign and ruler of all worlds and all times, as the Onlywife and Supremely-good, and in the knowledge and in the love of him be bleffed beyond what our utmost expectation can reach! Amen.

.SERMON XVIII.

What ought to be our Temper and Conduct, fince God's Thoughts and Ways are fo much higher than our's.

GOD, who governeft and rulest all things, thou

Good Supreme, it is our comfort that we alfo are under the guidance and direction of thy overruling providence, that even we are governed and directed by thee, the Allwife, the Allgracious.. Yes, weak and infignificant as we are in ourselves, humble as the fituation may be which we fill in thy immenfe domain, we however are and fubfift by thee, and occupy the fituation which thou haft affigned us. And before thee, the Infinite, nothing is great and nothing small, but everything is that which it can and is defigned to be, is worthy of thy fovereign wisdom and benignity, is deftined to perfection and happiness, and is in the fituation, in the connection, in which it can beft attain its deftination. But who is able adequately to conceive of thee, the