SERM. thofe tremendous
XIX.

appearances of power merely, that a good and well-inftructed man beholds the Creator of the world In the conftant and regular working of his hands, in the filent operations of his wifdom and goodness, ever going on throughout nature, he delights to contemplate and adore him.

This is one of the chief fruits to be derived from that more perfect knowledge of the Creator, which is imparted to us by the Christian revelation. Impreffing our minds with a juft fenfe of all his attributes, as not wife and great only, but as gracious and merciful, let it lead us to view every object of calm and undisturbed nature, with a perpetual reference to its author. We fhall then behold all the fcenes which the heavens and the earth prefent, with more refined feelings, and fublimer emotions, than they who regard them folely as objects of curiofity, or amusement. Nature will appear animated, and enlivened, by the prefence of its author. When the fun rifes or fets in the heavens; when spring paints the earth, when fummer fhines in its glory,

when

when autumn pours forth its fruits, or SER M. winter returns in its awful forms, we fhall

view the Creator nianifefting himself in his works. We shall meet his presence in the fields. We fhall feel his influence in the cheering beam. We fhall hear his voice in the wind. We shall behold ourselves every where furrounded with the glory of that univerfal fpirit, who fills, pervades, and upholds all. We shall live in the world as in a great and auguft temple; where the presence of the divinity, who inhabits it, infpires devotion.

Magnificent as the fabric of the world is, it was not, however, intended for perpetual duration. It was erected as a temporary habitation for a race of beings, who, after acting there a probationary part, were to be removed into a higher state of existence. As there was an hour fixed from all eternity for its creation, fo there is an hour fixed for its diffolution; when the heavens and the earth fhall pafs away, and their place fhall know them no more. The confideration of this great event, as the counterpart to the work of creation, shall be the fubject of the following Difcourfe.

XIX.

SERMON

XX.

On the DISSOLUTION of the WORLD,

SER M.

XX.

2 PETER, iii. 10.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noife, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth alfo, and the works that are therein, Shall be burnt up.

;

HESE words prefent to us an awful

view of the final catastrophe of the world. Having treated, in the preceding Difcourfe, of the commencement, let us now contemplate the clofe, of all human things. The diffolution of the material fyftem is an article of our faith, often alluded to in the Old Teftament, clearly predicted in the New. It is an article of faith

fo far from being incredible, that many
appearances in nature lead to the belief of
it. We fee all terreftrial fubftances chan-
ging their form. Nothing that consists of
matter, is formed for perpetual duration.
Every thing around us, is impaired and
confumed by time; waxes old by degrees,
and tends to decay. There is reason, there-
fore, to believe, that a ftructure fo complex
as the world, must be liable to the fame
law; and fhall, at fome period, undergo
the fame fate. Through many changes, the
earth has already paffed; many shocks it
has received, and ftill is often receiving. A
great portion of what is now dry land ap-
pears, from various tokens, to have been
once covered with water. Continents bear
the marks of having been violently rent,
and torn afunder from one another. New
islands have rifen from the bottom of the
ocean; thrown up by the force of fubter-
raneous fire. Formidable earthquakes have
in divers quarters, fhaken the globe; and
at this hour terrify, with their alarms, ma-
ny parts of it. Burning mountains have,
for
ages, been discharging torrents of flame;

and

SERM.

XX.

SER M. and from time to time renew their exploXX. sions, in various regions. All these circumftances fhow, that in the bowels of the earth, the inftruments of its diffolution are formed. To our view, we behold only its furface, it may appear firm and unshaken; while its deftruction is preparing in fecret. The ground on which we tread is undermined. Combustible materials are ftored. The train is laid. When the mine is to spring, none of us can foresee.

Accustomed to behold the course of nature proceeding in regular order, we indulge, meanwhile, our pleafures and purfuits with full fecurity; and fuch awful fcenes as the convulfion of the elements, and the diffolution of the world, are foreign to our thoughts. Yet, as it is certain that fome generation of men must witness this great catastrophe, it is fit and proper that we should fometimes look forward to it. Such profpects may not, indeed, be alluring to the bulk of men. But they carry a grandeur and folemnity, which are congenial to fome of the moft dignified feelings in our nature; and tend to produce

elevation