cious affection which may exist in his bosom?-Unquestionably he has. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. While his bad heart is the odious seat of selfishness, of envy, and of other vile and malignant affections and passions, in whatever way these miserable feelings gained possession of his mind, while they continue there, they must be the hateful source of confusion and wretchedness, and he cannot but regard himself with loathing and abhorrence. His mind will be like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. It might, with equal propriety be asked, whether the sufferer under the pangs of an acute disease should complain of his bitter agonies, and seek for relief.

Finally, can the wicked feel any motive to repentance and reformation; or must he sit down with folded arms, and sullen acquiescence, in his character and his doom?

By no means. All is indeed of God, and all for good; and all will come to pass as God foresees, intends, and appoints. But, in all cases, man's ignorance of the

divine purpose must, and will, and ought to operate as a stimulus to exertion, exactly as though the event itself were in its own nature uncertain. Who is there that neglects the proper means of preserving life because he is assured that the time, the place, and the circumstances in which he shall leave the world, are already foreknown and appointed by God? What husbandman is there that declines to plough the ground, and to sow the seed, because God foreknows whether there will be a scanty or an abundant harvest? and all must come to pass as God foresees, and has fore-ordained that it shall. Precisely so the wicked man knows not what mercy may be in store for him. But one thing he knows as certain: that if he neglects the means he will infallibly miss the end; that if he perseveres in vice it will assuredly terminate in misery; and that it will be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Not knowing the decrees of God, it must be consummate folly for any one to act as

though he were informed of them. To every individual, as to any practical purpose, they are as if they had no existence. Without perplexing himself, therefore, by endeavouring to fathom what is beyond his line, let every one resolve to exert the same energy, and the same resolution and perseverance in the acquisition of virtuous habits, which he is conscious that he possesses, and which he would not hesitate to exert for the attainment of any other valuable object.

Resolute and persevering exertion, with the divine blessing, will insure success. Therefore work out your salvation with fear and trembling, while God worketh in you to will and to do.

I shall conclude in the words of that treatise of my venerable predecessor, which I have already cited, and which he bequeathed as his last legacy to his affectionate flock. From what has been said, it appears that if God be charged any way with being the author of men's sins, it is not in any such sense as to acquit the per

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petrator, or so as to excuse them, even in their own estimate, from being responsible at the tribunal of that Being, whose laws, calculated for their own good, and the general good of all, they have presumed to violate."

SERMON VI.

THE PLAN OF PROVIDENCE CONDUCTED BY GENERAL LAWS, WITHOUT OCCASIONAL DEVIA

TIONS.

ROMANS, xi. 36.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever.

No doctrine seems to have impressed the apostle's mind more forcibly and habitually than that of the universal, all-comprehending, all-governing providence of God; and this doctrine appears to have been to him, as it justly might, and indeed necessarily must be to every virtuous mind who rightly apprehends it, an inexhaustible source of satisfaction and delight. "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." As though he had said, all things originate in his councils; all are accomplished by his providence; all are subservient to his purposes. He, therefore, is the sole and