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nezzar walking in his palace, surrounded with all the pomp and splendour of the east, would have believed him to be the object of Divine displeasure, and that the decree was gone out, that he was to be driven among the beasts? Who, that beheld our Lord in the form of a servant, would have believed that he was the Master of Na ture?

III. I am to deduce the practical consequences from the doctrine, by shewing you the grounds of joy and consolation that it gives to the world.

In the first place, The doctrine of a superintending Providence yields us joy and consolation with respect to our lot in life. Many persons are accustomed to complain concerning their situation and circumstances in the world. Their desires and their fortune do not correspond; they think they are misplaced by Providence, and look upon the lot of their neighbours as more eligible than their own. It is impossible, in the present system of things, that all men can be alike. Nature, through all her works, delights in variety. Though every flower is beautiful, and every star is glorious; yet one flower excelleth another in beauty, and one star exceedeth another in glory. There are also diversities in human life, and a beautiful subordination prevails amongst mankind. The Father of spirits hath communicated himself to men, in different degrees. But, although all men cannot be alike; yet all men may enjoy a great measure of happiness. Every station in life possesses its comforts and advantages. In those comparisons you make of your life with that of others, when you would wish to exchange places with some of your more fortunate neighbours, do you not al ways find something in which you have the superiority? Is there not some talent of the mind, some quality of the heart, something where you think your strength lies, some one source of enjoyment which you would wish still to retain? Is not this the testimony of nature, that you are happier in that path of life, than you would be in another? Wherever you are placed by Providence, the station appointed is the post of honour. A general in the day of battle, marshals his army according as he sees proper, and distributes the posts of danger and importance, according to the courage and conduct of his soldiers. Your Commander knows your abilities better than you do yourselves; he prescribed to you the duty you have to ex

ecute; and he marked out the path in which you are to seek for honour and immortality. It is from your discharge of these offices assigned to you, that the happiness of your life, and the perfection of your character, are to arise. It is not from the sphere they hold in life, but from the lustre they cast around them in that sphere, that men rank in the Divine estimation, and figure in the annals of eternity. If, with five talents, you gain five more, or if, even with one talent you gain another, you are as praise-worthy as he who, with ten talents, gaineth other ten talents.

Further, as in a kingdom, every high-way leads to the capital; as in a circle, every line terminates in the centre; so, in the wide circle of nature, every line terminates in heaven; and every path in life conducts alike to the great city of God. The present state is intimately connected with the future; the life, which we now lead, is an education for the life which is to come. If your mind were enlarged to comprehend all the connections and dependencies of things; if your eyes were opened to take in the whole of your immortal existence, you would then see and acknowledge, that Providence had assigned to you the very station you would have wished to fill; the very part you would have chosen to act. Trusting, therefore, in that God who presides over the universe; assured of that wisdom and goodness which direct the whole train of the Divine administration, each of us may express our joy in the words of the Psalmist; "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage: The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance; the Lord will command the blessing, even life for evermore.”

In the second place, This doctrine will yield us consolation during the afflictions which we meet with in life. If we believed that the universe was a state of anarchy, confusion, and uproar, that the Governor of the world was a cruel and malignant being, who made sport of human misery, and took pleasure in punishing his unhappy creatures; such a thought would overwhelm the mind; it would turn the gloom of adversity into the shadow of death, and mingle poison in the cup of bitterness which we are doomed to drink. But the Scriptures inform us, that the dark dispensations of Providence are part of that plan which has the good of the world for its object; take their rise from the goodness of our Father in heaven; are

intended for the reformation and final blessedness of his children. The same word of life which says, "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and makest approach unto thee," says also, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest." So far from being marks of the Divine wrath, the afflictions of life are tokens of the Divine love.While heedless and unthinking we go astray, God interests himself in our favour, and sends these his messengers to bring us to himself. It is but a narrow and imperfect view we take of afflictions when we consider them only as trials. They are not so much intended for the trial as for the cultivation of virtue. They are sent by Providence, to mortify your unruly passions; to wean you from the world; to prepare you for heaven. They are sent for the improvement of your nature, for the increase of your graces, and for the superabounding of your joy to all eternity. When under the afflicting hand of Heaven, therefore, you are standing a candidate for immortality; your are singled out by Providence to exert the part of a Christian, and you are called forth to exhibit to the world a pattern of the suffering virtues. He is but a novice in the school of Christ, who has not learned to suffer. The best affections of the heart, the noblest graces of the soul, the highest virtues of life, the offering that is most acceptable to Heaven, arise from the proper improvement of adversity. The blessed above, whom the Prophet saw arrayed in white before the throne, came out of great tribulation; the blessed above, whom he heard singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, learned the first notes of it on the bed of sor

row.

Such is the intention of afflictions which Providence sends, and even under these afflictions God is with his people. You are ever under the hand of a merciful Creator, who doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men: He knoweth your frame; he remembereth that you are but dust; he will afflict you no farther than you are able to bear; and as your days are, he hath promised that your strength shall be. Nay, in all yonr afflictions he is present with you, and the hand that bruised you binds up the wound. Let not then your hearts be troubled. Bear up under the pressure of woe. Rejoice because the Lord reigneth, and exult in the language of the Prophet: "Although the fig-tree should not blossom, nor fruit be found in the vine; though the labour of the

olive should fail, and the field should yleld no meat; though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stall, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation.

Thirdly, With respect to appearances of moral eviland disorder, it is afflicting to the mind to behold disorder in the universe of God: bad men often exalted, while the good man's lot is bitterness and pain: virtue depressed, and vice triumphant. He who caused light to arise out of darkness, and order and beauty to spring from chaos and confusion, can correct these irregularities. He not only restrains, and says, "Hitherto and no farther :" He also over-rules and makes the wrath of men to praise him.Hear how he gives commission, and sends Sennacherib against Israel, as a general sends a weapon of war. "0 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath, to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so;" that is, neither doth his heart think that he is a mere instrument in the hand of God. David was raised to the throne of Israel by those steps which his foes devised against him.— The enemy of mankind, seducing our first parents, was the means of their being elevated to a greater degree of happiness and glory.

Lastly, With respect to our departure from this world, and entering upon a new state of being. We know that the time is appointed, when dust shall return unto dust, and the spirit unto God who gave it. But it is awful, it is alarming, to nature, to call up the hour when the union between soul and body shall be dissolved; when our connection with all that we held dear in life shall be broken off; when we shall enter upon a new state of existence, and become inhabitants of the world unknown. But even then the Providence of God will give us comfort. The Lord reigneth king for ever and ever. The dominions of the dead are part of his kingdom; time and eternity, the world that now is, and the world that is to come, confess him for their Lord. When thou goest through the dark valiey, he will go with thee: In the hour of dissolving nature, he will support thy spirit. Thou canst not go but where God is. Around thee is infinite love, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms.

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SERMON IX.

PROVERBS iv. 18.

The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

HUMAN life has been often compared to a journey,

for this as well as for other reasons, that we are always making progress in our way. In whatever path we set out, there is no standing still. Evil men wax worse and worse: the corruptions of their nature gather strength: the vices which they have contracted grow into habit: the evil principle is for ever on the increase, till having attained the ascendant over the whole man, it subjects him entirely to his own power, the willing and obedient servant of sin. Good men on the other hand, make advances in the paths of righteousness. The grace of God, which is given unto them, lies not dormant. The better mind, with which they are endowed, incites them to virtue: the new nature which they have put on, pants after perfection. They give all diligence to add to their faith virtue, and to virtue temperance, and to temperance brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, until having abounded in every good work, they perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. Such a life is here called "the path of the just." By the just in Scripture, are not meant those who merely abstain from doing unjust and injurious things to their neighbours. The just man is he who possesses that sincerity of heart and that integrity of the whole life which God requires of

man.

The life of such a man is here compared to the light of the morning. Nothing in nature is more lovely than the light. When the Spirit began to move upon the face of the deep, light was the first effect of his creating power; and when the six days work was finished, light collected, and centred in the sun, continued to be the grandest and most beautiful work of nature; so grand and beautiful,

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