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foundation of a holy life must be laid in repentance and in lively faith; and all its exercises must be carried on in dependance on the Holy Spirit.

And, to conclude, imitate the example of Jesus Christ in caring for sinners, and in love to perishing souls, and in sending forth the heralds of salvation to a perishing world. Jesus Christ became the first preach er of his own religion, and then he sent forth his apostles to engage in the same work. Thus, the "great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed also by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost." In proportion, therefore, as you care for the souls of your fellow-men; as you send forth proper persons to preach the gospel to them; as you lend your time, your talents, your property, your influence, your counsels, to this great work; in proportion as you are aiming to propagate Christianity, in such proportion are you imitating Christ. Jesus Christ has now entered on his heavenly rest; but what is he doing? He rests, but not in inglorious ease: he rests, but he is still using every means to gather his elect from the four quarters of the world, he is still actively employed in beating down the kingdom of Satan; he is still aiming at the salvation, the holiness, the happiness of an "exceeding great multitude, which no man can number." Imitate this benevolent anxiety; look on the world sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, and send them forth the gospel of salvation. Thus you will be doing his work, preparing for his triumphs, increasing his satisfaction. Thus you are acting the part of him, who is emphatically termed "the Good Shepherd;" you seek diligently after the sheep that are lost, and bring them back with rejoicing. Thus you are instrumentally sending forth "the rod of his strength out of Zion," and aiming to bring men to the obedience of his will. Much has been done by these means, and more will be done, till " every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low;" till "the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;" till "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, as the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Before this great work all the concerns of the world die away, and are left at an immense distance. This is a grand concern, which may well occupy all our minds, and engross all our care. Ministers and private Christians are all employed in doing one work-a work compared with which all else has no value. Bear this sacred cause on your minds, Christians; assault heaven with your prayers, and Satan shall fall back before you. Remember that you are not alone in your prayers and intercessions: "He that searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." And there cannot be a more sure sign of a soul fully devoted to Christ, than an anxious desire that "all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of God"

XIII.

THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD.*

PSALM xcvii., 1: The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

[Preached at Cambridge, May 9, 1802.]

If we could suppose a person, without any acquaintance with the principles of religion, to be witness of the scenes of human wickedness, cruelty, and oppression-the prevalence of vice, of disorder, and calamity in the world-what, think you, would be the first wish of his heart? Would it not be, that some being of unlimited power and goodness would take the sceptre into his hands, and assume the government and administration of all things? But this is the very truth which the text declares"the Lord reigneth"-and on which our present meditation and inquiry rests; so that we shall find there is in this reflection abundant reason for joy on the part of his intelligent creatures. "Let the earth rejoice, and the multitude of isles be glad." There are many events, appearances, and inequalities, which make the administration of God to appear dark and difficult to our apprehensions. This we are taught in this very Psalm— "Clouds and darkness are round about him." In requesting, therefore, your attention, my brethren, to this important subject, permit me, first, to point out some of those things which render the administration of God less plain to us. Secondly, that, notwithstanding this, it is sufficiently conspicuous, and shines through them all. Finally, this furnishes a most abundant source of thanksgiving and joy--" That the Lord reigneth."

First: I propose to point out some of those appearances which render us less sensible of the divine administration. The operation of second causes makes us less sensible of it. The great Supreme is accustomed to execute his plans and purposes through the intervention of second causes; so that we are apt to forget that hand through which all are produced, and on which all are suspended, until we have accounted, as we imagine, in some way or other, for their existence, without looking higher. Hence the greater part of mankind either rest in second causes, or deny the reality of his providence. But if we consider the matter properly, we shall see the same difficulties are found in the productions of nature, or the works of man, so that they will furnish no sort of objection to the subject; for either the Divine Being must act by second causes, or else the economy of nature and the faculties of man would have been created in vain, and all things would be performed without their intervention. This would be to set

From the notes of John Greene, Esq.

his character as a ruler in opposition to his character as a creator; or, in other words, to set aside the dominion of God.

Secondly: The freedom of human actions and counsels is another objection that is raised against the truth of the text. We feel and know that we act for ourselves; that we are led to determine our own conduct in an infinite variety of circumstances; that we are not impelled contrary to our own choice and inclinations. We feel our independence in the consciousness that we act from our own impulse, and hence, though it may tend to obscure, yet it does not controvert the truth asserted; for we cannot fail to observe that there is great wisdom and benevolence controlling and leading on the order of events, and if the Divine. Hand was more distinct and conspicuous, we should be overwhelmed as by a superior force. Whatever, then, of dignity there may be that distinguishes men from the brutes that perish, in this freedom of action which the Divine Being has given us, would be thus greatly impaired-a freedom which is so mysterious in its nature and its effects, and in the philosophy of its connexion and dependance.

Thirdly: The uniformity of events and occurrences is another obscuration of the government of God. We see events take place in an exceedingly uniform manner. The sun rises and sets; summer and winter, cold and heat, seed-time and harvest, succeed each other; similar causes everywhere produce similar effects; the same series of things is continually repeated; as Solomon says, "all things come alike to all." Fortunes are made by industry and perseverance; nations are raised to eminence by the arts and sciences; while, on the contrary, by the neglect of these means, both individuals and nations sink into insignificance and contempt. There seems, therefore, to be steadiness and constancy in the midst of change, and men think they have sufficiently accounted for every thing by the course of events; hence they have supposed the presence of a fatality which establishes this uniform order. This uniformity, however, is very far from disparaging the moral government of God; so far from its being a blemish or objection, it is a very great excellence, for if the seasons were constantly changing, every day and every moment bringing different things to our view, wisdom would be utterly useless; we should always be in a state of childhood, and nothing would remain but to commit ourselves to a dark and headlong torrent. It is evident that the regular succession of the seasons is a very great proof of divine wisdom and goodness, and from noticing these and similar circumstances of cause and effect, all practical wisdom springs; so that the extension of our observation is the extension of our knowledge: "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord."

Fourthly: The government of God is obscured by the great prevalence of vice and disorder, misery and injustice, that are in

the world.

We are ready to suppose that, if the Divine Being governed the world, there would not be so many good examples neglected, so many benefits ill requited, so many crimes in high stations, so much oppressed virtue in low and miserable conditions. This is an argument which would not admit of a satisfactory answer, were it not for a divine revelation, that "God will judge the world in righteousness, and render to every man according to his work"-punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. Were this the ultimate state of man, and that the perfec tions of God were not such as we suppose them to be, it would lead us, as the heathen did, to erect gods like unto ourselves. But when we are told by revelation that this world is but a preparatory state, that we are here but a short time, that every one is hastening to an "account for the deeds done in the body," this difficulty vanishes, and, "though clouds and darkness are round about him," righteousness and judgment are the invariable habitations of his throne. Notwithstanding these appearances which obscure the providence of God, it often makes itself conspicuous in the midst of them all. When we have allowed to human agency, to human wisdom, and human power, a large circle of events imputed to nothing else, we see the Divine Wisdom frequently disencumber itself from all communication with second causes, and stretch itself out in the face of all men, in defeating and confounding the plans of human wisdom in the failure of the deepest schemes. How impossible, indeed, is it frequently to know that the wisest plans of men will take effect, because superior talents, or assiduity, or superior means of success, may be unexpectedly opposed to them; and how frequently events take quite a different turn from what the wisest persons ever foresaw or imagined. Battles are fought and determined by the slightest accident; the mistake of a word of command, or a wrong impres sion, or a sudden panic, that cannot be accounted for. The heathen world, conscious of this uncertainty, supposed a deity who delighted in change, that took a pleasure in sporting with the calamities of mankind; but the change in the order of events, which they called chance, is either the power of an Omnipotent Being, or nothing at all. On all those occasions, and others that might be enumerated, the happiness of man is affected by means entirely out of his own power, and how extremely numerous are such instances, the smallest attention must convince us. Human skill and industry produce much by the intervention of second causes; but there is a higher power on which success is dependant. For instance: the skill of man frames and builds ships, and they are launched on their voyage, but whether they are brought back in safety, or scattered by the gale, or become a prize to the enemy, depends upon Him whom "the winds and the waves obey."

Again, we see nations forming and assembling fleets; they depart, but whether they return with ignominy or success, or VOL. IV.-Z

supply the enemy with resources, or are sunk in the mighty deep, depends upon Him "who commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves of the sea, who maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still." He frequently shuts up every avenue, and closes every hand but his own, that his power and wisdom may appear conspicuous.

Again, with respect to plenty or the fruitfulness of the seasons, his hand is necessary. We sometimes find there is a power which mocks and disappoints the hopes of man, and that can fill a whole nation with dismay. The husbandman casts his seed into the ground; but if the Lord pleases, he sends either cold or heat, or withholds the rain that should temper the earth, and whole nations are reduced to famine and misery. Again, whether as to health or sickness, how evident it is that we are dependant upon an infinite power. In one season general health prevails, so that every climate is equally salubrious; at another season there may be the element of death in a raging pestilence. He can awake" the pestilence that walketh in darkness, or the destruction that wasteth at noonday," He causes happiness and misery, that lie quite out of human reach. There is a secret spring which needs only to be touched by the finger of Omnipotence; so that the consideration of all these things unite to lead us to the consequence asserted in our text: "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice, and the multitude of isles be glad thereof."

We may observe, again, that there are many remarkable deliv erances God works out for his servants, in order to make bare the interposition of Providence, and to show to his enemies that there is a "God that judgeth in the earth." He writes deep moral lessons from the events of history, so that the history of the Church and the world is the history of Providence. Even in these later times, the conduct of God has been such as to make it exceedingly manifest that "the Lord reigneth;" so much so, that it cannot fail to lead every one to confess that it is "the finger of God." In former times many tyrants were united against the cause of God. There was a Nero, a Trajan, a Domitian, a Diocletian, monsters of iniquity, who associated every form of persecution and cruelty, so that the Church was deluged with the blood of Christian martyrs, and all flesh failed before them; but sooner than the cause of Christianity should fail, God was pleased suddenly to change the scene, by placing a Christian emperor on the throne, and armed that very throne with universal power to protect that which it was formerly employed to destroy How evident was this truth, that "the Lord reigneth!"

Again, when, after the celebrated Diet of Worms, the ban of the empire was published against Luther through all parts of

* In the severe persecution under Diocletian, from A.D. 270 to A.D. 304, which was the most extensive and furious of all, so many Christians suffered death, that the heathen boasted, in an ancient inscription, that they had effaced the name and superstition of the Christians.-DR. DOD

DRIDGE.

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