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cry out, "It is good for us to be here." When, after the observation and experience of years, we have found out the objects of the soul, and met with minds congenial to our own, what pangs must it give to the heart, to think of parting for ever? We even contract an attachment to inanimate objects. The tree under whose shadow we have often sat; the fields where we have frequently strayed; the hill, the scene of contemplation, or the haunt of friendship, become objects of passion to the mind, and upon our leaving them, excite a temporary sorrow and regret. If these things can affect us with uneasiness, how great must be the affliction, when stretched on that bed from which we shall rise no more, and looking about for the last time on the sad circle of our weeping friends,-how great must be the affliction, to dissolve at once all the attachments of life: to bid an eternal adieu to the friends whom we have loved, and to part for ever with all that is dear below the sun! But let not the Christian be disconsolate. He parts with the objects of his affection, to meet them again; to meet them in a better world, where change never enters, and from whose blissful mansions sorrow flies away. At the resurrection of the just; in the great assembly of the sons of God, when all the family of heaven are gathered together, not one person shall be missing that was worthy of thy affection or esteem. And if among imperfect creatures, and in a troubled world, the kind, the tender, and the generous affections, have such power to charm the heart, that even the tears which they occasion, delight us, what joy unspeakable and glorious will they produce, when they exist in perfect minds, and are improved by the purity of the hea

vens.

Christianity also gives us consolation in the transition from this world to the next. Every change in life awakens anxiety; whatever is unknown, is the object of fear; no wonder then that it is awful and alarming to nature, to think of that time when the hour of our departure is at hand; when this animal

frame shall be dissolved, and the mysterious bond between soul and body shall be broken. Even the visible effects of mortality are not without terror: to have no more a name among the living; to pass into the dominions of the dead; to have the worm for a companion and a sister, are events at which nature shudders and starts back. But more awful still is the invisible scene, when the curtain between both worlds shall be drawn back, and the soul naked and disembodied appear in the presence of its Creator. Even under these thoughts, the comforts of Christianity may delight thy soul. Jesus, thy Saviour has the keys of death the abodes of the dead are part of his kingdom. He lay in the grave, and hallowed it for the repose of the just. Before our Lord ascended up on high, he said to his disciples, "I go to my Father, and

to your Father, to my God, and to your God;" and when the time of your departure is at hand, you go to your Father, and his Father, to your God, and his God.

Enlightened by these discoveries, trusting to the merits of his Redeemer, and animated with the hope which is set before him, the Christian will depart with tranquillity and joy. To him the bed of death will not be a scene of terror, nor the last hour an hour of despair. There is a majesty in the death of the Christian: He partakes of the spirit of that world to which he is advancing, and he meets his latter end with a face that looks to the heavens.

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SERMON VIII.

PSALM XCVii. 1.

The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.

O thinking men, the universe presents a scene of wonders. They find themselves brought into the world, they know not how. If they look around them, they behold the earth clothed with an infinite variety of herbs and fruits, subservient to their use, or administering to their delight. If they look above them, they behold the host of heaven walking in brightness and in beauty; the sun ruling the day; the moon and the stars governing the night. If they attend to the course of nature, they behold with wonder the various revolutions of the year; the gradual return of the seasons, and the constant vicissitude of day and of night. Whilst thus they are employed, they behold in the heavens the glory of their Creator; they discover in the firmament the handiwork of Omnipotence, and they hear the voice that nature sends out to the ends of the earth, that all things are the workmanship of a supreme and intelligent Čause. As from these events they conclude the Almighty to be the Maker of the world; from the same events, they conclude that he is the Governor of the world which he hath made, and that Divine power is as requisite to preserve the order and harmony of the world now, as it was necessary to establish it at the first. But when experience unfolded to them the powers of natural bodies; when they saw machines contrived by human skill, ex

hibiting motions, and producing effects, similar to those which they observed in nature, by the impulse of matter upon matter; and when they saw these machines regularly exhibiting such motions, regularly producing such effects, although the head that contrived, and the hand that put them together; were removed from them; this raised an opinion, in some speculative minds, that the world resembled such machines; and that, as a clock will shew the hour of the day, in virtue of its original frame and constitution, without any further interposition of the artificer that framed it, so nature, in virtue of its original frame and constitution, may, and does produce every effect which we see around us, without any further interposition of its Divine Author.

This opinion is frequently mentioned and confuted in the Sacred Scriptures. Those men are condemned whose belief it was, that, in the course of human affairs, the Lord would not do good, neither would he · do any evil. Although I seldom choose to carry you through the barren and unpleasant fields of controversy, yet as this question affects so deeply our religious comfort in this state, and our hopes of happiness in a future world, I shall consider it at large, and shall, in the first place, shew you the absurdity of that opinion which would exclude God from the government of the world. Secondly, establish and confirm the doctrine of a particular Providence.-Thirdly, shew you the grounds of joy arising to the world from such a Providence.

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In the first place, I am to shew you the absurdity of that opinion which would exclude God from the government of the world.

It has been thought by some, "That the Creator

"of the universe formed the constitution of nature in “such a manner at the beginning, as to stand in need "of no succeeding change; that he established cer"tain laws in the material and in the moral world, "which uniformly and invariably take place, producing all the effects which he ever intended they

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"should produce; as when an artist frames a machine "for certain purposes, and for a limited duration, the "effects which result from it spring not from the im"mediate direction and influence of the artist, but "from the original frame and composition of the ma"chine." Such is the opinion of those who hold what they call a general Providence. We, on the other hand, maintain that "Almighty God upon special occa"sions, directs and over-rules the course of events, "both in the natural and moral world, by an imme"diate influence, to answer the great designs of his “universal government."

With respect to a general Providence, this mechanical system, this engine by which some persons would throw out the superintending Providence of Heaven, is a creature of the brain. It is a mere presumption. It is by its own nature incapable of proof. From whence should the evidence arise? Art thou, who excludest God from his works, intrusted with the secrets of Heaven? Wert thou present when God laid the foundations of the world? Wert thou privy to his councils? Or do you now see, or can you shew, that original cause, or those original causes, established by God at the creation, from which all the various ef fects in nature may be deduced, and into which they may mechanically be resolved? Can you shew the immediate cause of lightning or of rain, or of any other phenomenon in nature, and from the immediate cause ascend to the second, from the second to the third, and so upward till you come to the last link of the chain, which hangs immediately upon the throne of God? This can be done in the works of art. An artist will shew you the dependence of all the movements in a machine upon one another; and when you are as well acquainted with the fabric of the world, as you may be with the structure of a machine, you may speak of your chain of mechanical causes and effects. But alas the most improved philosophy can do no more but skim the surface of things; and in its pro

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