great Father of all existence and life, to

Him who had raised us up to behold the light of day, and to enjoy all the comforts which His world prefents, let our hearts fend forth a perpetual hymn of praise. Evening and morning let us celebrate Him, who maketh the morning and the evening to rejoice over our heads; who openeth his band, and fatisfeth the defire of every living thing. Let us rejoice, that we are brought into a world, which is the production of infinite goodness, over which a fupreme intelligence prefides; and where nothing happens, that was not planned and arranged from the beginning in his decree. Convinced that he hateth not the works which he hath made, nor hath brought creatures into existence, merely to fuffer unneceffary pain, let us, even in the midst of forrow, receive with calm fubmiffion whatever he is pleased to fend; thankful for what he bestows; and satisfied, that without good reason, he takes nothing away.

SUCH, in general, are the effects which meditation on the creation of the world ought to produce. It prefents fuch an astonishing

SERM,

XIX.

SERM. nishing conjunction of power, wisdom, and XIX. goodness, as cannot be beheld without religious veneration. Accordingly, among

all nations of the earth, it has given rife to
religious belief and worship. The most
ignorant and favage tribes, when they look-
ed round on the earth and the heavens,
could not avoid afcribing their origin to
fome invifible defigning caufe, and feeling
a propensity to adore. They are, indeed, the
awful appearances of the Creator's power,
by which, chiefly, they have been impreff-
ed, and which have introduced into their
worship fo many rites of dark fuperftition.
When the ufual course of nature feemed to
be interrupted, when loud thunder rolled
above them in the clouds, or earthquakes
fhook the ground, the multitude fell on
their knees, and, with trembling horror,
brought forth the bloody facrifice to ap-
peafe the angry divinity. But it is not in
thofe tremendous appearances of power
merely, that a good and well-inftructed
man beholds the Creator of the world.
the conftant and regular working of his
hands, in the filent operations of his wif
dom and goodness, ever going on through-

In

out

out nature, he delights to contemplate and SER M. adore him.

This is one of the chief fruits to be derived from that more perfect knowledge of the Creator, which is imparted to us by the Christian revelation. Impreffing our minds with a juft fenfe of his attributes, as not wife and great only, but as gracious and merciful, let it lead us to view every object of calm and undisturbed nature, with a perpetual reference to its Author. We shall then behold all the fcenes which the heavens and the earth prefent, with more refined feelings, and fublimer emotions, than they who regard them folely as objects of curiofity or amusement. Nature will appear animated and enlivened, by the prefence of its Author. When the fun rifes or fets in the heavens, when fpring paints the earth, when fummer fhines in its glory, when autumn pours forth its fruits, or winter returns in its awful forms, we shall view the Creator manifefting himself in his works. We fhall meet his presence in the fields. We fhall feel his influence in the cheering beam. We shall hear his voice in the wind. We shall behold ourselves everywhere furrounded

8

XIX.

XIX.

SERM. furrounded with the glory of that univerfal fpirit, who fills, pervades, and upholds all. We fhall live in the world as in a great and auguft temple, where the prefence of the divinity, who inhabits it, infpires devotion.

Magnificent as the fabric of the world is, it was not, however, intended for perpetual duration. It was erected as a temporary habitation for a race of beings, who, after acting there a probationary part, were to be removed into a higher state of existence. As there was an hour fixed from all eternity for its creation, fo there is an hour fixed for its diffolution; when the heavens and the earth fhall pass away, and their place fhall know them no more. The confideration of this great event, as the coun

terpart to the work of creation, shall be the fubject of the following Difcourfe.

SERMON XX.

On the DISSOLUTION of the WORLD.

2 PETER, iii. 10.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pafs away with a great noife, and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat; the earth alfo, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.

THESE words present to us an awful

view of the final catastrophe of the world. Having treated, in the preceding Discourse, of the commencement, let us now contemplate the close, of all human things. The diffolution of the material fyftem, is an article of our faith, often alluded to in the Old Teftament, clearly predicted in the New. It is an article of faith

SERM.

XX.

fo