which your rapid, free, and unclogged fpirits, fhall meditate like themfelves. This is the firfti duty we fhould prefcribe to you. 2. Our next reflection is on the majesty of our religion. That must certainly be thought the true religion which gives us the noblest ideas of God. Let our religion be judged by this rule. Where do we fee the attributes of the Supreme Being placed in fo clear a light? what can be more noble than this idea of God? what can be conceived more fublime than a Being whom nothing escapes, before whom all things are naked and open, Heb. iv. 13. who, by one fingle look, fully comprehends all beings, paft, prefent, and to come, all that do exift, all that poffibly can exift; who thinks, in the fame inftant, with equal facility on bodies and fpirits, on all the dimenfions of time and of matter? What more noble can be conceived than a Being who imparteth himself to all, diffuseth himself through all, influenceth all, giveth life and motion to all? What can be conceived more noble than a Being who directeth the conduct of the whole univerfe, who knoweth how to make all concur to his defigns, who knoweth how to connect alike with the laws of order and equity, the virtues of the righteous, the vices of the wicked, the praifes of the happy, the blafphemies of the victims facrificed to his vengeance in hell? When we find in any heathen philofopher, amidst a thoufand falfe notions, amidft a thousand wild imaginations, fome few leaves of the flowers with which our bibles are ftrewed, we are ready to cry a miracle, a miracle, we tranfmit thefe fhreds of the Deity (if I may be allowed to fpeak fo) to the moft diftant pofter ity, and thefe ideas, all defective, and all defiled as they are, procure their authors immortal reputation. On this principle, what refpect, what veneration, what deference ought we to have for the patriarchs and the prophets, for the evangel ifts and the apostles, who spoke of God in fo fublime a manner ! However, be not surprised at their fuperiority over the great pagan geniufes; had the biblical writers, like them, been guided only by human reafon, like them they would have wandered too. If they spoke fo nobly of God, it was because they had received that spirit whe searcbeth all things, yea the deep things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10. It was becaufe all scripture was given by inspiration, 2 Tim. iii. 16. It was because the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but boly men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. i. 21. 3. Make a third reflection. This attribute of God removes the greatest stumbling-blocks that sceptics and infidels pretend to meet with in religion. It juftifies all thofe dark myfteries which are above the comprehenfion of our feeble reafon. We would not make ufe of this reflection to open a way for human fancies, and to authorize every thing that is prefented to us under the idea of the marvellous. All doctrines that are incoinprehenfible are not divine, nor ought we to embrace any opinion, merely because it is beyond our knowledge. But when a religion, in other refpects, hath good guarantees, when we have good arguments to prove that fuch a revelation comes from heaven, when we certainly know that it is God who fpeaks, ought we to be surprised, if ideas of God, which come fo fully authenticated, abforb and confound us? I freely grant, that, had I confulted my own reafon only, I could not have discovered fome mysteries of the gospel. Nevertheless, when I think on the immensity of God, when I caft my eyes on that vaft ocean, when I confider that immenfe all, nothing aftonifhes me, nothing stumbles me, nothing seems to me inadmiffible, how incomprehenfible foever it may be. When the fubject is divine, I am ready to believe all, to admit all, to receive all; pro vided I be convinced that it is God himself who fpeaks to me, or any one on his part. After this, I am no more aftonifhed that there are three diftinct perfons in one divine effence; one God, and yet a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghoft. After this, I am no more aftonifhed that God forefees all without forcing any; permits fin without forcing the finner; ordains free and intelligent creatures to fuch and fuch ends, yet without deftroying their intelligence or their liberty. Af ter this, I am no more aftonished that the juftice of God required a fatisfaction proportional to his greatnefs, that his own love hath provided that fatisfaction, and that God, from the abundance of his compaffion, defigned the mystery of an incarnate God; a mystery which angels admire while Sceptics oppofe; a mystery which absorbs human reafon, but which fills all heaven with fongs of praife; a mystery which is the great mystery, by excellence, 1 Tim. iii. 16. but the greatnefs of which nothing should make us reject, fince religion propofeth it as the grand effort of the wisdom of the incomprehenfible God, and commandeth us to receive it on the teftimony of the incomprehenfible God himfelf. Either reli gion must tell us nothing about God, or what it tells us must be beyond our capacities, and, indiscovering even the borders of this immenfe. ocean, it must needs exhibit a vast extent in which our feeble eyes are loft. But what furprifes me, what ftumbles me, what frightens me, is to fee a diminutive creature, a contemptible man, a little ray of light glimmering through a few feeble organs, controvert a point with the Supreme Being, oppofe that Intelligence who fitteth at the helm of the world; queftion what he affirms, difpute what he determines, appeal from his decifions, and, even after God hath given evidence, reject all doctrines that are beyond his capacity. Enter into thy nothingnefs, mortal creature.. creature. What madnefs animates thee? How dareft thou pretend, thou who art but a point, thou whofe effence is but an atom, to measure thy felf with the Supreme Being, with him who fills heaven and earth, with him whom heaven, the heaven of beavens cannot contain? 1 Kings viii. 27. "Canft thou by fearching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty to perfection? High as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canft thou know?" Job xi. 7. He ftretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, the pillars of heaven tremble, and are af tonished at his reproof: Lo thefe are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him ? but the thunder of his power who can underftand? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where waft thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou haft understanding," ch. xxvi. 7, 11, 14.. "Who hath laid the meafures thereof? who hath ftretched the line upon it? whereupon are the foundations thereof faft ened? who laid the corner-ftone thereof, when the morning ftars fang together, and all the fons of God fhouted for joy? Who fhut up the fea with doors, when I'made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a fwaddling band for it? when I brake up for it my decreed place, and fet bars and doors, and faid, Hitherto halt thou come and no further: and here fhall thy proud waves be stayed?" ch. xxxviii. 1, 2, 3, &c. "He that reproveth God, let him answer this," ch. xl. 2. "O Lord, fuch knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain unto it!" 4. But, my brethren, fhall these be the only inferences from our text? fhall we reap only fpeculations from this difcourfe? fhall we only believe, admire, and exclaim? Ah! from this idea of God, I fee all the virtues issue which religion prescribes! If fuch be the grandeur of the God I adore, miferable wretch! what ought my repentance to be! I, a contemptible worm, I, a creature whom God could tread beneath his feet, and crush into duft by a single act of his will, I have rebelled against the great God, I have endeavoured to provoke him to jealousy, as if I had been stronger than he, 1 Cor. x. 22. I have infulted that Majefty which the angels of heaven adore; I have attacked God, with madnefs and boldness, on his throne, and in his empire. Is it poffible to feel remorfes too cutting for fins which the majefty of the offended, and the littlenefs of the offender, make fo very atrocious"? If fuch be the grandeur of God, what fhould our bumility be! Grandees of the world, mortal divinities, who fwell with vanity in the prefence of God, oppofe yourselves to the immenfe God. Behold his eternal ideas, his infinite knowledge, his general influence, his univerfal direction; enter his immenfe ocean of perfections and virtues, what are ye? a grain of dust, a point, an atom, a nothing. If fuch be the grandeur of God, what ought our confidence to be! "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. viii. 31. Poor crea ture, toffed about the world, as by fo many winds, by hunger, by fickness, by perfecution, by mifery, by nakednefs, by exile; fear not in a veffel of which God himself is the pilot. But above all, if fuck be the grandeur of God, if God be every where prefent, what fhould our vigilance be! and, to return to the idea with which we began, what impreffion fhould this thought make on reasonable fouls! God seeth me. When thou wast under the fig-tree, said Jefus Chrift to Nathaniel, I saw thee, John i. 48. See Ecclef. iii. 23, 24, 25. We do not know what |
