only fure fountain whence we may derive effential help.

If these propofitions are attended to with the ferioufnels they deferve, they will naturally incline us to pay the utmost reverence to fo good and great a Being, and to profefs the humbleft acknowledgments of his undeferved favor. This is a teftimony no grateful heart can poffibly refrain. That God, therefore, may blefs the work in hand to the establishing his own glory, let us unite in our private petitions to the throne of grace, that he will affift our weak endeavors in fo good a caufe, and that, through the aid of his moft Holy Spirit, and the interceffion of our Bleffed Redeemer, the falvation of our fouls may be promoted by this prefent inftruction.

First, then, do not imagine that we prefume to represent to you, with all the force and juftice it deferves, the prodigious power, and matchlefs wifdom of Almighty God. Words cannot reach the defcription of fuch excellence; what is incomprehenfible by imperfect beings, cannot worthily be related; duft and afhes muft not dare to afpire at fuch a lofty theme. Fully to defcribe what angels are content to wonder at, exceeds the fhallow understanding and unequal power of mortals. It becomes us, therefore, to decline, with an humble confcioufnefs of natural infirmity, to fpeak upon the unfathomable nature of the Deity, for that would expofe much rashness, without affording any fatisfaction.

More fuitable to our dependant ftate and limited capacity, is it, to venerate the awful. power we cannot conceive, than boldly to leffen his glory, by a curious and vain account of him. What will better profit us, is the subject of his goodness: on this all may dwell in fafety, delight, and certainty • bur DREAD must be the natural confequence of the former contemplation. Unable to reach the dictates

of

of God's confummate wisdom, our weakness might be alarmed in measuring the miferable infignificancy of our exiftence by the fcale of his extenfive works; we might be depreffed in rating ourfelves (as we must then appear) but as the duft of the balance. But when we meditate on God's, infinite mercy, LOVE is the principle that animates our fond inquiries. We are encouraged to truft to fuch a glorious attribute; Hope and Comfort light the way before us, and we pafs through all the rugged paths of this uncertain, and imperfect fcene, rejoicing, through faith, that we have an eternal home; a bountiful, omnipotent, merciful protector, who even vouchfafes to ftyle himfelf our FATHER, and under that foftering appellation, invites us to our duty, even for our own reward.

This then is the point of view in which it will benefit us moft, to ftudy the ways of God; for confidering him as the uncontrolable Lord of the whole univerfe; as having all things under his fubjection; as determining the works we moft admire to be impure in his fight, and charging even his angels with folly; as working all things by infinite wifdom, and fecret judgment; as having made all things for bimfelf, yea even the wicked for the day of evil; and, farther, by reafon of the awful perfection of his nature, being called in fcripture a ConJuming Fire, a terrible and fearful God. With refpect, I fay, to all thefe characters, fuch unprofitable worms are the very best of men, that they must draw in their heads, and tremble to approach Him. But, in gracious confideration of our weak, and helplefs ftate, he fhews himfelf ar prefent to us, in the lovely character I have fo faintly drawn above. He ftrengtheneth us to lay afide our fears, and build our truft in his encouraging promises. For what but goodnefs infinite, could prevail on the dread Lord of heaven and earth to take delight to dwell with the children of men?

men? What but his GOODNESS could incline him to invite us to him? to tempt us with his friendfhip, and his prefence? What but his goodness could caufe his patience with us, when we have erred and ftrayed from his righteous ways? What else, could move his tender long fuffering with our grofs perverfenefs? and engage his calls to us, his repeated calls to turn unto him? and his wondrous methods of leading us to repentance? Surely to his goodness only, do we owe our being made reafonable creatures, instead of fenfeless animals. Is it not his rich mercy, that we are born under the light of the gofpel, whereby we have the bleffed opportunity of greater falvation, than if we had lived in heathen ignorance and blindness? and may we not well exclaim with the Apoftle (Hebrews ii. 3.) How hall we efcape, if we neglect fo great falvation? In short, what but the fingular goodnefs of our heavenly Father, God bleffed for evermore, could afford fuch innumerable ways of preferving us from the dominion of fin in this world, and death eternal in the next? And all this without the least defert on our part, but folely to magnify his mercy in our redemption.

Were it poffible we could hear the united praises of the heavenly choir of glorified fpirits, and were they required to answer to their experience of God's goodness, whether their happiness depended on their Maker's mercy or themfelves, doubtlefs, with one voice, they would reply, in the infpired language of the cth Pfalm, Be ye fure that the Lord He is God, it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. And where they asked again, To whom they were indebted for their regeneration, inward holiness, and falvation, whether their own merits, or God's unbounded goodnefs, advanced them to their present state of peace and blifs; although each in perfon, might extol the mercy of the Almighty for themfelves, yet let

the

the holy David again declare the truth, in whose words they could not fail to fay, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the praise, for thy loving mercy and truth's fake. And if they were yet further queftioned, from what fource they derived the power to perform the glorious acts of holy worship, which marked their earthly fame, and whereby God was fo highly pleafed and glorified; as we cannot avail ourfelves in this life of their just confeffions on the subject, we must have recourse to other witneffes to refolve it, that by the mouth of two or three, the truth may be collected.

Let us attend then, to what both Prophets and Apoftles teftify throughout their writings, on this fubject: O Lord, (faith the holy prophet Ifaiah, xxvi. 12.) thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also haft wrought all our works in us. And St. Paul's confeffion (in the 2d Epift. Cor. iii. 4, 5.) agrees exactly with the above: Such trust have we through Chrift to Godward: Not that we are fufficient of ourselves, to think any thing of ourselves, but our fufficiency is of God. Nor can it poffibly be otherwife, because, in him we live, and move, and have our being. If, then, the testimony of holy men on earth, unites to confirm the confeffion of the faints above, there needs no other proof to fhew, that every virtuous principle of the Lord, muft neceffarily proceed from God's good fpirit.

Now, if it is just and safe to believe that fpiritual graces are entirely the gift of God, why should we attribute the bleffings of nature, or fortune, (as we call it) to any other caufe? If God is the Cre ator of body and foul, can the improvements of the latter belong lefs to his power, than the former? for, in fact, fince the body becomes more virtuous, holy, and perfect, in proportion as the mind or foul is endued with light and ftrength; fo if those good qualities can be derived but from God alone,

not

not a fhadow of argument can be advanced to feparate the effect from its caufe If God is fufficient to the greater work, he must be equal to the leffer. Surely it is a more marvellous act to justify a finner, and to new create him in rightcoufnefs, (faith one of the ancient fathers *) than to new form the heaven and the earth, therefore we muft conclude (upon found religious principles) that whatfoever benefits we receive of grace, of nature, or of fortune, come all from God alone, as the fovereign fource of every thing that is good.

To imagine that the Almighty, after having made the world, immediately deferted it to the controul of a fallen, imperfect race, that had loft their original clear principle of acting, and of judging right, is to believe against the clear light of fcripture, and common fenfe; the contrary is the happy truth, or far more miferable would be our fituation bere. The hearts of men are under God's rule and governance. He humbleth the proud, and exalteth the meek, or oppreffion and wretchedness would quite overwhelm the earth. He also governeth the world by his goodness; and directeth its moral courfe, no lefs than the order of the feafons. Without the fupreme direction of his continual power and wifdom, this outward ball could not have fo long remained in undiminished beauty; nor would fuch eminent inftances of moral virtue, and chriftian excellence, have been exhibited in every age and nation. It is HE, as St. Paul affirms, Heb. i. 3. Who upholdeth all things, by the word of his power; without which influence they would fall again into their original confufion. It is by the prevailing virtue of goodnefs infinite, that every creature is preferved in the order of its creation. Though invifible to mortal eye, He filleth heaven and earth with his prefence. By his

* St. Augustin.

command