recounting the more fuccefsful parts of them; faying,-My wifdom, my parts, and addrefs, extricated me from this misfortune; -ny forefight and penetration faved me from a fecond ;-my courage, and the mightinefs of my ftrength, carried me through a third. However we are accuftomed to talk in this manner,-yet whoever coolly fits down and reflects upon the many accidents (though very improperly called fo) which have befallen him in the course of his life,— when he confiders the many amazing turns in his favour, fometimes in the most unpromifing cafes, and often brought about by the moft unlikely caufes ;-when he remembers the particular providences which have gone along with him,-the many perfonal deliverances which have preferved him, the unaccountable manner in which he has been enabled to get through difficulties, which on all fides befet him, at one time of his life, or the ftrength of mind he found himself endowed with, to encounter afflictions which fell upon him at another period where is the man, I fay, who looks back with the least religious fenfe, upon what has thus happened to him, who could not give you fufficient proofs of God's power, and his arm over him, and recount feveral cafes wherein the God of Jacob was his help, and the Holy One of Ifrael his redeemer?

Haft thou ever laid upon the bed of languifhing, or laboured under a grievous dif temper which threatened thy life? Call to

mind

mind thy forrowful and penfive spirit at that time; and add to it, who it was that had mercy on thee, that brought thee out of darkness and the fhadow of death, and made all thy bed in thy fickness.

Hath the fcantinefs of thy condition hurried thee into great ftraits and difficulties, and brought thee almoft to distraction ?Confider who it was that spread thy table in that wilderness of thought,-who was it made thy cup to overflow,-who added a friend of confolation to thee, and thereby fpake peace to thy troubled mind.-Haft thou ever fuftained any confiderable damage in thy stock or trade?-Bethink thyfelf who it was that gave thee a ferene and contented mind under thofe loffes.-If thou haft recovered,― confider who it was that repaired thofe breaches,-when thy own fkill and endeavours failed-call to mind whose providence has bleffed them fince,-whofe hand it was that has fince fet a hedge about thee, and made all that thou haft done to profper. -Haft thou ever been wounded in thy more tender part, through the lofs of an obliging hufband?—or haft thou been torn away from the embraces of a dear and promifing child, by his unexpected death?--

O confider, whether the God of truth did not approve himself a father to thee when fatherlefs, or a husband to thee, when a widow,- and has either given thee a name better than of fons and daughters, or even beyond thy hope, made thy remaining tender branches

branches to grow up tall and beautiful, like the cedars of Libanus.

Strengthened by these confiderations, fuggefting the fame or like paft deliverances, either to thyfelf,-thy friends or acquaintance,-thou wilt learn this great leffon in the text, in all thy exigencies and diftreffes, to truft God; and whatever befals thee in the many changes and chances of this mortal life, to fpeak comfort to thy foul, and to fay in the words of Habakkuk the prophet, with which I conclude,

Although the fig-tree fhall not bloffom, neither fhall fruit be in the vines;--although the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat;-although the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the ftalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our fal

vation.

To whom be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen,

SERMON XXXV.

EXODUS, XX1. 14.

But if a man come prefumptuously upon his neighbour, to flay him with guile; thou shalt take him from my altar, that he

may die.

As the end and happy refult of fociety was our mutual protection from the depredations which malice and avarice lay us open to,fo have the laws of God laid proportionable restraints against such violations as would defeat us of fuch a fecurity.-Of all other attacks which can be made against us,that of a man's life which is his all,-being the greateft, the offence, in God's difpenfation to the Jews, was denounced as the most heinous, and reprefented as most unpardonable. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whofo fheddeth man's blood, by man fhall his blood be fhed.-Ye thall take no fatisfaction for the life of a murderer;-he hall furely be put to death.-So ye fhall not pollute the land wherein ye are,—for blood defileth the land;-and the land cannot be cleanfed of blood that is fhed therein, but by the blood of him that fhed it.-For this reafon, by the laws of all civilized nations, in all parts of the globe, it has been punished with death.

Some

Some civilized and wife communities have fo far incorporated thefe fevere difpenfations into their municipal laws, as to allow of no diftinction betwixt murder and homicide,at leaft in the penalty:-leaving the intentions of the feveral parties concerned in it to that Being who knows the heart, and will adjuft the differences of the case hereafter.

This falls, no doubt, heavy upon particulars-but it is urged for the benefit of the whole. It is not the business of a preacher to enter into an examination of the grounds and reafons for fo feeming a feverity.-Where moft fevere, they have proceeded, no doubt, from an excess of abhorrence of a crime,which is, of all others, moft terrible and fhocking in its own nature,-and the moft direct attack and ftroke at fociety;-as the fecurity of a man's life was the firft protec tion of fociety,-the groundwork of all the other bleffings to be defired from fuch a compact.-Thefts,--oppreffions,-exactions, and violences of that kind, cut of the branches; this fmote the root:-all perifhed with it -the injury irreparable.-No after-act could make amends for it.-What recompence can he give to a man in exchange for his life?What fatisfaction to the widow,-the fatherlefs, to the family, the friends, the rela tions,-cut off from his protection,-and rendered perhaps deftitute,-perhaps miferable for ever!

No wonder that, by the law of nature, this crime was always purfued with the most

extremê