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DISCOURSE XI.

PSALM viii. 4.

What is Man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that thou visitest him?

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HEN we confider the Care of Providence over the Children of Men, as it is manifested either in the Works of Nature or of Grace, we naturally fall into the Reflection of the Text, and wonder to fee fo much done for Men, who seem to have no Merit or Defert equal to the Concern fhewed for them. If we look up to the Heavens, and view the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and confider the Power by which these mighty Bodies were formed, the Wisdom and Contrivance by which their Motions are regulated and adjufted; we fee plainly, by

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the Benefit we receive from them, that they were intended for our Service; And yet what are we, that we should be fo ferved? If we look round this Earth, the Place of our Habitation, we find it filled with many Kinds of Creatures, and adorned by the bountiful Hand of Nature, as if it were meant to be a Seat of Pleasure and Happiness; and we are fure that this Part of the World, at least, was made for the Benefit of Man: Here he is Lord, and has Dominion over the Works of God; for on Earth there is no Creature to rival him in Power and Wisdom, or that can challenge any Share of Authority with him. But this Lord of the Earth, does he not come into it helpless? is he not wretched whilst he is in it, and oftentimes miferable when he is to go out of it? What must we fay then? that this noble Palace was erected and adorned merely to be turned into an Hofpital to receive the Blind and the Lame, the Diseased in Body and Mind; to be the Seat of him who is like, a Thing of nought, and his Days like a Shadow that palleth away?

If we go on from the Works of Nature to the Works of Grace, the fame Reflection will purfue us ftill. One would imagine, that Man, who had received fo much from God, fhould at least continue to ferve and

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obey his fupreme Lord, and to acknowledge the Author of these great and good Gifts: So far from it, that God was in a manner expelled from his own Creation, and Stocks and Stones and the Beafts of the Field were exalted and set up to receive the Honour and Worship due to the Creator. The Morality of the World became anfwerable to the Religion of it; and no Wonder: For why fhould he not turn Brute himself, who can be content with a Brute for his God? The Wonder lies on the other Side, that God fhould continue his Care and Concern for fuch Creatures; that he fhould be willing not only to forgive their Iniquities, but that he should contrive the Means of their Redemption; and that in fo wonderful a Manner, as to fend his own Son into the World, not only to instruct and reform them, but to redeem them by making Atonement for their Sins by his own Blood. Who that confiders this can help faying with the Pfalmift, What is Man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of Man, that thou vifiteft him?

Though these Reflections should naturally lead us to admire and adore the Goodness of God, who has done fo much, when we deferved fo little; for what ftronger Motive can there be for Gratitude, than undeserved

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Favour? yet have they oftentimes another Effect: For, when Men confider that God does nothing without Reafon, and at the fame time fee fo little Reason why God should do so much for them, they begin to fufpect whether he has done it or no, and to imagine that the whole History of the Redemption is a cunningly devised Fable. To confider the Son of God coming down from Heaven, living among Men, and at laft fhedding his Blood for them, fills them with Wonder and Astonishment: And when they look on the other Side, they can see nothing in Man that bears any Proportion to this Concern fhewed for him, or that yields any Argument to justify the Wisdom of God in this Method of his Redemption.

It must be owned, there is fomething plausible in this Way of reasoning; and the more fo, as it pretends to do Justice to the Wisdom of God, and cannot be charged with any great Injustice done to the Character of Man. But this Prejudice, be the Foundation of it good or bad, lies as ftrongly against the Works of Nature, as it does against the Works of Grace: For it is as hard to conceive that God fhould create this World for the fake of placing in it fuch Creatures as we are, as it is to conceive that he should

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fend his Son to redeem us. If you can justify the Wisdom and Goodness of God in making fuch Creatures, it will be no hard Thing to justify his Wifdom and Goodness in redeeming them: For to open a Way for Men to escape out of a State of Mifery is a more divine and beneficent Act, than the putting them into it. If you ftumble at the Dignity of the Redeemer, and think that the Son of God was too great a Person to be concerned in faving Men; for the fame Reafon you should think that God, or the Son of God, was too great a Perfon to be concerned in making fuch Creatures as Men: And from these and the like Confiderations you may as well conclude that God never made the World, as you do that he never redeemed it. But, in fpight of all these Reasons, you fee plainly, that this Earth was made for the Habitation of Men, wicked and inconfiderable as they are. Since therefore your Confequence will not hold in this Cafe, you have no Reafon to depend on it in the other; but rather to think that, fince it was agreeable to the Wisdom and Goodnefs of God to exert his Power to make fuch Creatures, it was alfo confiftent that he fhould exert his Power to fave and to redeem them.

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