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religion; not by him at least, who acknowledges. the providence of God, and whose principle of religion is reason for all madness is destructive of reafon, as much as these terrors are of religion: they are both destructive: they are evils to which we muft fubmit: and if we cannot account for the reafon of them, it becomes us to be dumb, and not open our mouths in his prefence, whofe ways are. paft finding out.

DISCOURSE XXVIII.

PSALM xix. 14.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy fight, O Lord, my ftrength and my redeemer.

I HAVE made choice of these words, with which the holy Pfalmift fhuts up this nineteenth Pfalm, intending to open to you the scheme of thought which runs through the whole. It contains one of the completeft forms of devotion, and of the most general use, of those recorded in his writings. When his thoughts turn upon his own circumstances, which were in all refpects great and uncommon, and fuch as the generality of men can never experience, it is no wonder to find his prayers and his fongs of praises conceived in no common ftrain, When a king stands before the altar, we may well expect a royal facrifice; fuch an one as is not ex. pected from a private hand, nor fit to be offered by it. But here, in the Pfalm before you, the crown and the fceptre are laid by, his own dignity is forgotten, and his whole mind employed in contemplating the mighty things of Providence, difplayed in the works of nature, and of grace. Ex

alted thoughts of God do naturally produce the loweft, which are always the jufteft, of ourselves. Thus the royal Pfalmift, having warmed his heart with the glory of the Almighty, as if he were now in the posture in which all kings muft one day appear before their Maker, confeffes his own weaknefs, and flies to mercy and grace for protection: Who can understand his errors? fays he, cleanfe thou me from my fecret faults. Keep back thy fervant also from prefumptuous fins, let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great tranfgreffion.

The piety of this Pfalm is fo natural, and yet fo exalted; so easy to be understood, fo adapted to move the affections, that it is hardly poffible to read it with any attention, without feeling fomething of the fame fpirit by which it was indited: The heavens, fays the holy King, declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth Speech, and night unto night fheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. He begins with the works of the creation, to magnify the power and wisdom of the Creator: they are a perpetual inftruction to mankind; every day and every night speak his goodnefs, and, by their regular and conftant viciffitude, fet forth the excellency of wifdom by which they are ordered. This book of nature is written in every language, and lies open to all the world: the works of the creation speak in the common voice of reason, and want no interpreter to explain their meaning; but are to be understood by people of all languages upon the face of the earth: There is no

Speech nor language where their voice is not heard. From these works in general he fingles out one, to ftand as a teftimony of the power of his Maker: the fun is the great fpirit of the world, the life that animates these lower parts: How conftant and unwearied is his courfe! How large his circuit, to impart life and genial heat to every dark corner of the earth! He is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a firong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

From this mighty fcene and profpect of nature the Pfalmift turns his thoughts to the confideration of the ftill greater works of grace: the rational world, as in itself the nobleft, fo has it been the more peculiar care of Providence to preferve and ádorn it. The fun knows its course, and has always trod the path marked out by the Creator: the fea keeps its old channel, and, in its utmost fury, remembers the first law of its Maker, Hitherto fhalt thou go, and no farther: but freedom and reason, fubject to no fuch restraint, have produced infinite variety in the rational world: of all the creatures man only could forget his Maker and himself, and proftitute the honour of both, by robbing God of the obedience due to him, and by submitting himself a flave to the elements of the world. When he looked up to the heavens, and faw the glory of the fun and ftars, instead of praifing the Lord of all, he foolishly faid, Thefe are thy gods, O man! When man was thus loft in ignorance and fuperftition, God manifefted himself again, gave him a

VOL. II.

law to direct his will and inform his reafon, and to teach him in all things how to pursue his own happiness. This was a kind of second creation, a work that calls as much both for our wonder and our praise, as any or all the works of nature. And thus the holy Pfalmift fings the triumphs of grace, and extols the mercy and power of God in the reftoring mankind from the bondage of ignorance and idolatry: The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the foul: the teftimony of the Lord is fure, making wife the fimple: the ftatutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes: the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be defired are they than gold, than much fine gold; fweeter also than honey and the honey-comb. Moreover, by them is thy fervant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. To thefe divine oracles the finner owes the converfion of his foul to the light of God's word the fimple owes his wifdom; nay, even the pleasures of life, and all the folid comforts we enjoy, flow from the fame living spring the ftatutes of the Lord do rejoice the heart, as well as enlighten the eyes; and not only fhew us the danger and miseries of iniquity, and by fhewing teach us to avoid them, but do lead us likewife to certain happiness and joy for evermore for in keeping them there is great reward.

yea,

But is it poffible, whilft thus we praise and adore God for all his mercies, to forget one great circumftance, which affects both them and ourselves? I mean, how undeserved they are! It is a reflection, which, like the pillar of the cloud that waited on

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