This subject may be illustrated by the following suppositions. The parent of a family of children, having no regard for the welfare of his offspring, arranges his whole economy in respect to them, in such a manner as to deprive them of all enjoyment, and to subject them to the most severe slavery and even sufferings, for the purpose of indulging himself in voluptuousness. In such a case, should those unhappy children fully acquiesce in the designs and schemes of their cruel parent, they would thereby promote their own. wretchedness, and give success to the means which were employed to render them miserable. Under such circumstances, the only way by which they could be beneficial to themselves, would conflict with the unmerciful purposes of their heartless father. And if they could succeed in circumventing his schemes, they might thereby subserve their own interest; and in place of bringing on them a woe, might avert it.

But let us reverse our supposition. A kind and loving father, having no designs, respecting his children, but such as embrace their best interests and happiness, imposes no duties, no services, no restraints but such as he knows are indispensable for the purpose of promoting their felicity, and of rendering them as blest as possible. In this case, should any or all of these children be so blind as not to understand that their happiness was the end of their father's law, and the sure result of obedience to his requirements; should they erroneously believe, that disobedience would procure their enjoyment; and, in consequence of this mistake, should proceed to strive with their kind and provident father, how evident it is that this strife would bring them woe!

By the light reflected from the foregoing suppositions we clearly discern the goodness of our Creator set forth in our text. And it appears to be evident, that in order to have a full and correct view of the woe, which striving with our Maker

brings upon us, we must, at the same time, have a clear and open view of the divine goodness, against which our strife has been preposterously directed.

By referring to the divine requirements, we not only confirm what we have already advanced, but we bring our leading and major subject more clearly into view. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Let us carefully inquire what the command to love God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind implies, respecting the divine goodness? 1st. It implies that there is no quality or attribute in God that is not lovely in its nature. For it would be unreasonable to require us to love that which is not lovely. 2d. It implies that, in relation to us, God is as good, in all respects, as we could possibly desire him to be, on a full discovery of his character. For if by a true knowledge of the divine attributes it should appear that anything is wanting in our Creator, which could in the least advance our rational enjoyments, it would be impossible for us to love him to the extent of the requirement. If we should discover any want of wisdom to contrive and plan for our best good, or any want of will to do so, or any want of power to carry into effect such a will, there would exist in us a corresponding defect of the love required. And it would be equally as impossible for us to supply such defect in our love, as it would be unreasonable and arbitrary to require us to do it. 3d. The requirement, under consideration, implies that our Creator loves us with all his heart and mind. For he could not, with the least propriety, require us to love him without any reservation, if a reservation existed in his love toward us.--Nothing but

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love can require love, nor can it ask for more than it gives. Any one may test the soundness of this reasoning by the exercises of his own affections. If you dislike your neighbour, and harbour enmity in your heart against him, you have no desire that the neighbour you hate should love you, and seek to do you good. Should he do so, and succeed in convincing you of the fact, you would find all your inimical designs frustrated, your enmity removed, and your hard heart dissolved into contrition.

By again recurring to the divine commands, we shall be further confirmed in our arguments, in favour of the fulness of our Maker's goodness. If what our Creator required of us were irksome to perform; if it gave us distress and pain to yield obedience; if the yoke were ponderous, and the burden heavy, we might rightly infer, that our happiness was not the design of the requirement. But we find, on the most careful examination, that if the Creator had no other end to accomplish than to raise our felicity to the highest possible point, no means would be better suited to such a purpose than obedience to the two commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets.

If we keep the goodness of our Creator in constant view, as that goodness is manifested in his requirements, we shall at once understand what it is which constitutes a strife with our Maker: and likewise the nature and extent of the woe which such strife is likely to bring upon us.

To strive with our Maker is to strive against goodness itself; it is to strive against our own happiness; it is to hate that which is infinitely lovely; it is to oppose the means which are designed to make us blest. In short, it is to hate God and our fellow creatures. As our highest happiness consists in loving God with all our hearts, and our neighbours as ourselves; so our happiness must always correspond with our short coming of this duty; and the severity of the woe,

which our strife procures, will be heavy or light. as the heat of our strife shall wax, or wane.

We now have our subject in such a shape that we may easily illustrate it by referring to instances recorded in the scriptures.

In kindness to the family of the patriarch Jacob, God designed that Joseph's brethren and the whole family should become dependent on him. This purpose he revealed in those wonderful and significant dreams, which being related, stung those brethren with envy, and raised in them a strife against their Maker. That which God designed for their temporal salvation, they, in their ignorance and wrath, were determined to prevent. As their strife was against the goodness of God, so it led them on to violate his divine command, which required them to love their brother; and their acts towards him of lawless violence, brought them into distress and trouble, which exactly corresponded with the magnitude and intenseness of their strife against God and their brother.

Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because he neither loved God nor his neighbours, strove with his Maker, oppressed the Israelites with cruel servitude and barbarous edicts, by which he brought on himself and on his people woes which corresponded with the heinous character of the strife in which he engaged. Had he loved his Maker with all his heart, he would have obeyed his command to let his people go; or had he loved that people as he loved himself, he would not have afflicted them with cruel bondage and merciless edicts.

David, king of Israel, forgetful of the goodness of God, and regardless of the command to love his neighbour as himself, strove against that benign law which requires of all men to do unto others as they would be done unto, and in his strife committed crimes most heinous in the sight of God and man, by which he brought on himself woes of a character perfectly suited to the nature of his strife which procured them.

Absalom, the son of David, so departed from the law of love, that he strove against God, hated his father, and raised a conspiracy and a rebellion, which, for a season, drove his father from Jerusalem, and from his beloved Zion. But this strife gathered a woeful storm of disastrous war, which burst upon him, and on his deluded followers, in the wood of Ephraim, where he lost his life, and where twenty thousand of Israel found their graves.

Look at Abimelech, who in murderous strife slew his brethren, three score and ten persons, at Ophia, that he might quietly and prosperously reign over the Shechemites. In thus doing he strove with his Maker; he trampled the law of God beneath his feet, which were swift to shed blood. The Shechemites also were his partners in blood and guilt. But who can strive with their Maker and prosper? A fire came out from Abimelech and devoured the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and a fire came out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devoured Abimelech. "Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren. And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads; And upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal."

It is of importance that we rightly understand, and clearly discern from whence the woe comes, which is sure to fall on him who striveth with his Maker. It is true that the scripture informs us that God rendered," &c., but where did the fire come from that devoured the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo? It came out from Abimelech. Where did the fire come from that devoured Abimelech ? It came out from the men of Sechem and the house of Millo. It is true that our Makar renders to every one according to his deeds; but this he does in the economy which he has established in the laws of nature, according