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'will be cautious how he permits himself to pass sentence on the conduct of his neighbour-to charge him with follyor to ascribe evil motives to his transactions. How much more so when he thinks or speaks of the ways of HIM whose understanding is infinite-whose faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds-whose compassions fail not-whose purity is totally insusceptible of a stain. But, inasmuch as wise and candid men are rare; and inasmuch as no man upon earth is always as wise and always as candid as he ought to be; the dispensations of God's providence and grace are apt to be estimated with a precipitancy of decision which cannot be too pointedly censured. It is with reference to this fault, among others, that the author of Ecclesiastes has given us the following advice: "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in Heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few."*

Again: how often does it happen that men murmur because they forget; and call Heaven unkind because their own memories are faithless, or their own perceptions dull? Such is the wretched disingenuousness, or the carnal stupidity of our nature, that those mercies of God, which are new every morning, and repeated every evening, are wont to pass by unobserved, or noticed only for a moment. What one of God's works is it that does not record his tender mercies? What one among the nations of men is it in which he hath left himself "without witness?" "O how great is his goodness to the children of men?"-too many of whom, in the mean while, unmindful of the rock whence they are hewn; of the shield that protects; and the sun that lights, warms, and nourishes them, ask, "why is not that goodness greater?"

Once more:-Vitiated habits and affections dispose men more powerfully, perhaps, than any other cause, to complain of the ways of Heaven. When men become so inured to vice--so perfectly enthralled by the spirit that works and

Eccles. v. 2. †See Psalm cxlv.

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rules in the children of disobedience, as "to call good evil, and. evil good; to put darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter;"* it is not to be imagined that they can avoid running into perpetual mistakes in attempting to reason respecting the divine operations; neither is it to be imagined that they will forbear murmur ing against an order of things which imposes unwelcome restrictions on the right of sinning. Nothing is more common than to hear persons who have involved themselves in crimes cognizable by the civil tribunals, declaiming against the whole system of the jurisprudence under which they suffer, and reviling those who are appointed to administer it.

I am, in the next place, to offer a few particulars that may place in a clear and striking point of light, the great impropriety of indulging in this querulous temper, in relation to the divine works and ways.

AND FIRST; let it never be forgotten that he who made all things, is inconceivably wise. He hath ordained all his works by number, weight, and measure. The Lord is a

God of knowledge. His understanding is infinite. He is light; and in him is no darkness at all. The system of the universe argues the perfect intelligence of its Creator. His revelation establishes irrefutably the same truth. We are taught that all things are naked and open to his eye, in all their indefinitely multiplied connections and dependencies; that he cannot be in ignorance; that he is incapable of erthat all his works are done in truth; that whatsoever he doeth, nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it.

ror;

SECOND. It is of equal importance to keep in mind continually, that the Divine Goodness is unsearchable; and that its operations are directed by that infinite understanding and perfect knowledge, of which I have just been speaking. It is a provident goodness; a methodized benevolence, if I may venture to say so without irreverence. It proceeds

* Isaiah, v. 20.

upon a plan. It acts with a design. It is shaped to an end becoming the holiness and majesty of the ineffable nature in which it is found. In virtue of his essential power and uncontroled dominion, God could do numberless things, no doubt, which he refrains from doing, knowing that it would not be right or fit to do them. Who will deny, for example, that he might, if he should see proper, make all his moral creation holy and happy by one general and instantaneous act? Perhaps this very thing he would do, were he to be actuated by a goodness of no higher or purer character than the mere impulse of natural benignity. But goodness, in the Deity, is, undeniably, something infinitely more noble and refined than this. It is no blind and indiscriminating inclination. It is a worker together with the wisdom that is from everlasting.

THIRD. Co-eternal wisdom and goodness having concurred in ordering all things, it would be, beyond all apology, unreasonable in any man or angel to expect that the appointed plan should be interrupted, enlarged, abridged, or in any way, how inconsiderable soever, altered, except at the bidding of necessity. But who is to be the judge of this necessity? Shall miracles be repeated to gratify the unbeliever and the doubter until they shall cease to be miracles, and the order of things interrupted by them, become in its turn miraculous? Shall the dead be raised for their convic tion who have resolved to be convinced by nothing short of a visible resurrection? "Shall the earth be forsaken, and the rock removed out of his place,”* to accommodate the plans of the restless projector? Shall the good Lord-the only wise God-who has the greatest conceivable objects constantly in view in all his acts and determinations, step aside from the path he has marked out for himself in deference to the murmurs of discontented mortals?

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FOURTH. As the present state is a state of trial or discipline, the divine dispensations are moulded and directed ac

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cordingly. Who will undertake to affirm that heaven withholds from him what the circumstances of such a state require; or appoints him what they render inexpedient or improper? What duty is assigned to you-what obligation imposed on you-which you are essentially incapacitated to discharge? Ignorance cannot incapacitate you; for, on every indispensable point, ignorance is vincible. Natural corruption cannot incapacitate you; for if you believe on the Son of God, he will make you free from the law of sin and death, and his Spirit will mortify natural corruption. Of all people upon earth, Christians have the least cause to be dissatisfied. If others are ungrateful when they murmur and complain, they more. Have they not redemption by the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins? Have they not the unction of the Holy Ghost to heal their moral diseases--to renovate their hearts and their principles-and to make them victorious in the conflicts of temptation? Have they not the lively oracles of truth-and the ministry and sacraments of reconciliation? What could have been done more to Christ's vineyard, that he has not done in it?" "O foolish people, and unwise!" O thankless people, and dead to every generous and upright sentiment; who permit themselves to complain of those trials through which their faith, "being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."*

I hope the few intimations which have been thrown together on this subject may induce us to act an ingenuous, honest, and candid part towards Heaven. Let him who is your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, have credit for the ample care he has been pleased to take of your present and everlasting interests. Every privilege you enjoy, and many, assuredly you do enjoy, brings in its train, a resulting duty. Your life is admitted to be a succession of labours and struggles. But make the expected use of it, and it will

* 1. Peter, i. 7.

conduct you to an eternity of rest. Cultivate faith and holiness. Fear God, and keep his commandments. For great will be your condemnation, if, at the last great vintage, the Lord of the vineyard shall see cause to make the expostulatory appeal, "what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"

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