righteous part of mankind, on whom the mercy of God has made its due impression; those burning lights, which are shining in the midst of a wicked and selfbenighted world. But in our survey we shall too often have occasion to see and lament, that wickedness embraces a very wide compass even where Christianity is professed; that vice and iniquity are reigning amongst us, with despotic power; that idolatry and superstition have erected their banners beside the cross of Christ; and that many, who have received the knowledge of the truth, who have been baptized into the faith of Jesus, and into enmity with Satan, are frequently committing sins, which might vie with the worst actions of the worst times of pagan ignorance.

Considering this long chain of wickedness, which extends in unbroken continuity from the fall of Adam to the present moment, is it not astonishing that the judgments of God have been so seldom executed; that the vials of his wrath have been poured out with so sparing a hand, and that he has not, long before

this, again swept away the inhabitants of the earth with some tremendous visitation? Well may we say, that "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses."

Great has been his forbearance, unspeakable his goodness towards his fallen creatures! He punished Adam according to his word; but at the same time comforted him in his misery with the promise of a Redeemer. *"The seed of the woman," said he, " shall bruise the serpent's head." He caused Cain to feel the bitterness of his wrath, and to suffer for his crime the pangs of a wounded spirit; but permitted him to live, that his misery might be a warning to others to avoid his sin, and that he himself might have time and opportunity to repent. He destroyed the wicked with a flood; but suffered the good to survive, that they might repeople the world. He confounded the tongues of the impious builders of the Tower of Babel; but in his judgment he thought upon mercy, and in their disper

* Gen. iii. 15.

sion answered his own gracious purpose of spreading inhabitants over the earth. He showered down fire and brimstone upon the wicked cities of the plain: but permitted the righteous Lot to depart in safety, that he might preach repentance to the surrounding people. He brought the sword and destruction upon the Canaanitish nations, the measure of whose iniquities was filled up; but in their place established his chosen servants, thereby causing the sacrifice of true religion to be offered up, where innocent blood had been shed, and sons and daughters immolated to devils. The children of Israel and of Judah often, in the pride and folly of their hearts, rebelled against him, and felt the chastisements of his Almighty hand; he sent, however, his prophets amongst them to call them to repentance, and spared them until the accumulation of their iniquities weighed down his uplifted arm of vengeance.

At length, when sin had reached an alarming height, when, had God visited the nations with his bitterest wrath, destroying their fruit from above, and their

roots from beneath, it would have been no more than what justice demanded, he sent forth his Glorious Word, and caused *"life and immortality to be brought to light through the Gospel." Under his ever-watchful providence Christianity has spread itself far and wide; so that +“the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;" and "the isles, and the inhabitants thereof, have sung a new song unto the Lord." Although so many have, in the hardness of their hearts, resisted the cloud of evidence by which it is attended, and have §" done despite unto the Spirit of Grace;" and although few, even of its professors, have endeavoured with unremitted diligence to fulfil all its duties; yet he has permitted the blessing to continue and increase, and will, we trust, cause it at last to be received with gladness, and acknowledged with gratitude, by every nation upon earth.

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Upon this view of the wickedness of man, and the justice and goodness of

God, who is not ready to confess, that " he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses."*" Oh! that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men!"

We, of all the nations of the earth, have partaken most largely of the goodness of God. When we contemplate the awful visitations, which have for some years past afflicted other countries, and the tremendous shocks, which, with overwhelming force, have thrown down the monuments of their ancient pride, broken the sceptre of their rulers, and paralized the strength of their arm; when we consider that ambition, rearing its frightful form out of the ruins of religious principle, and under the auspices of an unbelieving philosophy, has hurled abroad, with a mad impetuosity and a relentless tyranny, the burning brands of desolation, quenching its thirst in the blood of nations, and deriving its sweetest satisfaction from the

* Psalm cvii. 8.