tion. The purity and simplicity of nature, in the state of primeval innocence, seems to revive, and to shed a wholesome influence over the feverish agitations of a corrupt world. But, whilst we all, perhaps, indulge this gentle and soothing enjoyment of renovated nature, let us not neglect the opportunity which it affords us for cultivating the love of God: let His goodness in these "His lower works," lead our thoughts on to dwell upon mercies and blessings in comparison of which all the bounty of the visible creation is as nothing; let the perishable and fragile beauties, which every hour discloses, and every day withers up, train our minds to the contemplation of the unfading glories which indeed we can as yet only "see through a glass darkly," but which, even through that medium of our weak conception, are sufficiently bright to enlighten our understandings, to elevate our views, and to warm our affections towards Him,

whose unspeakable love hath "prepared such great things for them that love Him."

All good and holy affections require care and culture in the unkindly soil of the human heart, in the chilling climate of the world; but especially the love of GOD, the origin of all the rest, cannot be sustained without assiduous and watchful cultivation. Unless we devote some portion of our time (of every day, but especially of days set apart for religious uses,) to the contemplation of Him, and of His mercies, it is quite impossible that we can render Him the due returns of filial love and duty. It will be in vain that His sun shines, and His rain falls, if we close our eyes against the beams of Divine light, and permit the evil world to make our hearts as impenetrable as a rock by the dews of Heaven. If our time and thoughts are wholly engrossed by the objects of sense; if we permit ourselves. to imagine that we have no leisure for

the duties of devout meditation; we cannot but continue cold and insensible to the fervour of a Christian spirit. We are the temple of the living GoD: let us not make "His house, a house of merchandize;" let not the thoughts and cares of this world encumber the holy place dedicated to His honour; let the inner man, like its emblem the Holy of Holies in the visible temple, be sacred to the presence of the Spirit, and sedulously guarded from profane approaches.

When, by such means, we have attained. to love God, as a tender Father, with all the confiding affection of dutiful children, we shall have no difficulty in reconciling the fullest view of Christian liberty with the most exact discharge of Christian duty. We shall find such pleasure in the service of our Lord that we shall need no laws to bind us to it; such glowing happiness in the sense of his love to us, as will make our intercourse with Him our highest gratification in this

life; and our hope of enjoying His presence for ever, that treasure of untold price, which, by its glorious brightness quenches all the false glitter of earthly pleasures, riches, and renown, and finally sets us above their temptations.

SERMON XII.

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

GENESIS i. 31.

GOD saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

GOD is the Creator and Author of all goodness, moral, spiritual, and natural. It is contrary to all our notions of the Deity, to all conclusions of our reason, and, what is more to the purpose, to the whole tenor of Revelation, to suppose that any thing but good can proceed from Him. How is it, then, that in His own world, and among His creatures, we see, and feel, and suffer so much evil? If