SERMON XIX.

ON THE GOODNESS AND THE MERCY

OF GOD.

PSALM ciii. 14.

For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are duft.

WH

HATEVER ferves to withdraw our attention from sensual enjoyments and worldly purfuits, by fixing it on objects of higher importance, advances the dignity of human nature, and is a fource of the pureft felicity. The claims of the powerful and wealthy to fuperior happiness are often ill-founded; and their gratifications fometimes fpring wholly from vanity and pride. Even the more tempe-,

rate

rate pleasures, which refult from the cultivation of fcience, and the fportive creations of fancy, are not altogether without the mixture of human infirmity. They are, at beft, but imperfect bleffings, liable to be interrupted, if not destroyed, by a variety of accidents, and other comforts are always neceffary to render the enjoyment of them perinanent. But if there be in this world any felicity, which a rational and virtuous mind might deem perfect, and free from every alloy, it is that which a christian derives from the glorious and exalted truths of religion; truths which declare to us, that we are the probationary fubjects of Divine Providence, and the children of that all-gracious God, " in "whom we live, and move, and have our 66 being."

INSIGNIFICANT as a human creature might appear, when we confider the wonders of the creation, the regions of infinite fpace, in which the heavenly bodies are continually performing their revolutions,

and

and other glorious effects of the divine agency, we may be fufficiently affured, that not a single individual is either neglected, or overlooked in the immensity of God's works. That omnifcience which

formed the heavens, and laid the foun"dations of the earth," can, at one glance, pervade all nature, and the Deity is, at all times, and in all fituations, effentially present to every intellectual being. "When, therefore, we confider the

heavens, the moon and ftars, O Lord, "which thou haft ordained," we might afk, with David, "what is man that "thou art fo mindful of him, and the "fon of man that thou vifiteft him ?” But when we confider the divine attributes of thy Majefty, and that "Thou rejoicest

in the works of thy hands," we might be affured, that "Thou knoweft our down

fitting and our uprifing, and under"standeft our thoughts afar off." Not only the guilty wretch, who trembles at the rebuke of confcience, but the righteous alfo, who have fuffered their fhare of for

row

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row and calamity, during their fojourning here, may "lift up their hearts to the Almighty Father," and afk, with the infpired Pfalmift, "Whither fhall I go from thy fpi"rit? or whither fhall I flee from thy pre"fence?" The former might fhrink with terror from the remembrance of his crimes, when he reflects that he lives and acts under the eye of an all-juft and all-feeing God; the latter might dwell on the fame thought with inexpreffible pleasure and fatisfaction, as a fource of comfort which can never be exhaufted, but which becomes more abundant, as well as more delightful, in proportion as other bleffings fade and die away. The pious man, far from regarding his Maker with terror and difmay, has cause to look up to Him with the greatest confidence. When he addreffes his prayers to heaven, the effufions of his heart will speak the language of peace, fecurity and adoration. Though the fnares of the wicked compass him round about, and the ftorm of afflic tion falls heavily upon him; yet will he exprefs himself, when he pours out his

foul