Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heavenbut he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

To us, therefore, as to the Jews of old, because of transgression was the law added; and as to them the ceremonial law of the covenant of works ceased, when the seed came to whom the promise was made, so also, to us, shall the moral law of the covenant of grace be abrogated and cease, at that blessed time when sin and sorrow, temptation and danger, shall be no morewhen the existence of evil, being annihilated, the law which is its strength, shall also be dissolved, and perfect righteousness shall be consummated in perfect glory.

SERMON XV.

PSALM XCIV. 7.

Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

IN directing our thoughts to the moral government of God, as displayed in the world around us, it is to be remembered that we are not entering upon a field of barren theory, but upon the consideration of those laws under which we necessarily live, and by which our final doom must irreversibly be determined. The throne of the Almighty is not to be approached with languid indifference, but with that reverential awe, which is the tribute of allegiance from a creature thus entering into the presence of his Creator, and with that cautious reserve which arises from a sense of our infinite distance from the object of our contemplations. He who vainly attempts to rise on the wings of a presumptuous imagination into the counsels of his Maker, will find himself soon plunged into an abyss, which the powers

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of his contracted soul cannot fathom. mighty can be known to us only according to the measure of that knowledge which he has revealed to us, and of our capacities to receive it. All other speculations of a finite mind, on an infinite Being, must inevitably end in empty paradox, or unintelligible obscurity. But as there is a barrier fixed beyond which the mind cannot pass, so is there a limit determined within which it is commanded to call forth the exercise of its powers, and to view the Almighty, in all his dispensations to man, as the great moral Governor of the universe. Light has been vouchsafed us from above to discover, and reason given us to comprehend, the laws of that government as far as they concern our obedience here, or our expectations hereafter. After such a revelation of himself to mankind, ignorance is so far from a palliation of error, that it is itself a crime. The perversity of human pride, passes too hastily from hardy and adventurous presumption, to cold and sullen neglect. With what show of reason can we shelter ourselves in the darkness of voluntary ignorance, when light has been given us from on high, sufficient for every purpose of our being, and proportionate to the measures of our comprehensions? It is a crime not only as considered in itself, but as it is the parent of that long train of criminal consequences

arising from the misapprehension of the laws. under which we are governed. This is the ignorance which gives audacity to sin, and strength to temptation; this is the ignorance which entails a principle of rebellion in the human race; this is the ignorance which cries aloud in the language of impious sophistry, "The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." A supposition can scarcely be imagined more inconsistent with the divine attributes, more destructive of all moral government, more subversive of the first principles of obedience, than the supposition of inadvertency or indifference in the moral Governor, and that Governor, Almighty God. An opinion strange indeed for a reasonable Deist to maintain, still more strange for one who professes himself a Christian to support and avow; as it must immediately destroy the doctrine of a particular Providence, with which that of a general Providence is inseparably connected. When once we have abandoned this high and leading doctrine, under whatever name we choose to arrange ourselves, whether as sceptics or believers, Deists or Christians, all our opinions, and all our actions, must terminate in practical Atheism. In pursuing this train of thought, it is my intention first, to shew the necessity of a particular Providence, and of our belief in its existence, and afterwards to enlarge

upon the power and the mode of its actions and interference.

In asserting then our belief in a particular Providence we maintain, that wherever we are, there is the Almighty with us, surrounding us with his boundless presence, including and penetrating every part of our substance, and searching the most secret recesses of our heart with his unerring eye; foreseeing through an infinite series of causes the things that ever shall be, as though they now are; ordaining events apparently the most casual and fortuitous, and directing every contingency in human affairs. No circumstance too small, no accident too trifling, for his Omniscience to foresee, or for his Omnipotence to controul, but all conspiring to form a part in his incomprehensible scheme of universal government. Now that the Almighty regards events as they pass, inasmuch as they are not hid from his general view, he who disbelieves in a particular Providence, will not deny: but if he regards them only as a spectator, and not as a director, he regards them not as a moral governor, he regards them in a manner unworthy of the Deity. But here the objection lies; shall the great God whose habitation is in seats of endless bliss, condescend to look down upon this frail and miserable world, to watch the appetites, to govern the passions of every sinful creature, and