But the

their union by multiplying those who compose to give that place to God in your souls which it, and their children imbibe knowledge and the object held of which ye have been deprived. virtue from the womb. The parents taste the 2. God establishes his church by the very most delicious pleasure in the world, in culti-means that tyrants use to destroy it. vating the promising geniuses of their children, and in seeing the good grain, which they sow in a field favoured of Heaven, produce "in one thirty, in another sixty, in another a hundred fold;" and they delight themselves with the hopes of giving one child to the state, and another to the church; this to an art, and that to a science, and thus of enriching society with the most valuable of all treasures, virtuous and capable citizens. All on a sudden this delicious union is impoisoned and dissolved; this amiable fondness is interrupted; those likely projects are disconcerted: an unexpected catastrophe sweeps away that fortune, by which alone their designs for their family could have been accomplished; the child of their greatest hopes is cut down in the beginning of his race; the head of the family expires at a time in which his life is most necessary to it. A disconsolate widow, a helpless family, exposed to every danger, are the sad remains of a house just now a model of the highest human happiness, and, in all appearance, of the purest piety. Is not this the depth of misery?

reflections which naturally belong to this article, ye heard a few weeks ago, when we explained these words in the Revelation, “Here is the patience of the saints,"* Rev. xiii. 10. We endeavoured then to prevent the gloomy fears that might be occasioned in your minds by those new edicts, which Rome, always intent upon making "the kings of the earth drunk with her fornication," Rev. xvii. 2; had extorted against your brethren. We exhorted you, in the greatest tribulations of the church, never to lose sight of that Divine Providence which watches to preserve it.

We reminded you of some great truths which proceeded from the mouth of God himself; such as, that the Assyrian was only "the rod of his anger," Isa. x. 5; that Herod and Pilate did only "what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done," Acts iv. 27, 28. These truths should be always in our minds; for there never was a time when we had more need to meditate on them. The distresses of our brethren seem to be past remedy. To incorporate our felicity with that of a church, a considerable part of which has been so long bathed in tears, seems as irrational as the conduct of Jeremiah, who, just before the dissolution of Judea, purchased an estate in that devoted country, with the money which he wanted to alleviate his captivity in Babylon. Yet, "O Lord God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, is there any thing too hard for thee? Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and by thy stretched-out arm. Thou art the great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is thy name; great in counsel, and mighty in work," Numb. xvi. 22.

From this depth of misery, however, arises the highest felicity. The prosperity, of which we have been speaking, was so much the more dangerous by how much the more innocent it appeared; for if the persons in question had founded it in vice, they would have quickly forsaken it, as wholly incompatible with their pious principles; but, as they had founded it in piety, there is great reason to fear they had placed too much of their happiness in earthly prosperity, and that it had almost entirely engaged the attention of their minds, and set bounds to the desires of their hearts. But what is it to engage the mind too much in temporal 3. Finally, God turns the victories of Satan prosperity? It is to lose sight of God, our to the ruin of his empire. Here fix your attenchief good, in a world where at best we can tion upon the work of redemption, for the perobtain but an imperfect knowledge of him. fections of God, which we celebrate to-day, are What is it to confine the desires of our hearts more illustriously displayed in it than in any to earthly happiness? It is to forget our best other of the Creator's wonders. It is, if I may interest in a world, where, when we have car- be allowed to express myself so, the utmost efried that love which God so abundantly merits, fort of the concurrence of the greatness of his to the highest pitch, we can offer him but a counsels with the abundance of his power. I very imperfect service. Every object that pro- resume this subject, not for the sake of filling duces such an effect, occupies a place in the up my plan, but because my text cannot be heart which is due to none but God. And well explained without it. Those inspired while any other fills the seat of God in the writers, who lived under the Old Testament heart, we may indeed have a kind of happi dispensation, always mixed something of the ness, but it must be a happiness contrary to or- gospel redemption with the temporal deliverder; it is violent and must be short. I am aware ances which they foretold. One of the stronthat the loss will be bitter in the same degree gest reasons that they urged to convince the as the enjoyments had been sweet; but the bit-Jewish exiles that God would restore their terness will produce ineffable pleasures, infinitely preferable to all those that have been taken away. It will reclaim us again to God, the only object worthy of our love, the alone fountain of all our felicity. This may be inferred from many declarations of Scripture, and from the lives of many exemplary saints, as well as from your own experience, if, indeed, my dear hearers, when God has torn away the objects of your tenderest affection, ye have been so wise as to make this use of your losses, to re-establish order in your hearts, and

country to them, was that their return was essential to the accomplishment of the promises relating to the Messiah. Jeremiah particularly uses this method in the verses which are connected with the text. Why does he exalt the greatness of God's counsel, and the abun dance of his power? Is it only because, as he expresses it, "God would gather the Jews out of all countries whither he had driven them in his fury," Jer. xxxii. 37; so that": men should

*This is the seventh sermon of the twelfth vol. and is entitled, Le Nouveaux Malheurs de d'Eglise.

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What a victory had Satan obtained, when the object of Israel's hopes was nailed to an accursed tree, and there ended a life, upon which seemed to depend the salvation of mankind!

What a triumphant victory for Satan, when he had inspired the nation of the risen Redeemer to treat the report of his resurrection as an imposture, and to declare an everlasting war against him in the persons of all who durst declare in his favour!

But, however, the more impracticable the redemption of mankind seemed, the more did God display the greatness of his counsel, and the abundance of his power, in effecting it; for he turned all the triumphs of Satan to the destruction of his dominion.

The Branch was lodged in a stable, the king of the universe did lie in a manger; but a star in the heavens announced his birth, angels conducted worshippers to him from the most distant eastern countries, and joined their own adorations to those of the wise men, who offered to him their gold, their frankincense, and their myrrh.

buy fields in the places about Jerusalem?" No, | one tribunal to another, and, in fine, conbut it is because he "would make an everlast- demned by his judges to die! ing covenant with them," Jer. xxxii. 40. It is because " at that time he would cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David," Jer. xxxiii. 15. Who is this branch? It is he of whom our prophet had before spoken in the twenty-third chapter of his prophecy, ver. 5. "Behold the days come that I will raise unto David a righteous branch." It is he of whom Isaiah said, "The branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious," Isa. iv. 2. It is he whom God promised by Zechariah, after the captivity, in order to convince the Jews that the promises concerning the branch had not been accomplished by their release: "Behold the man whose name is The Branch, he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord," Zech. vi. 12. It is he whom the Jews themselves have acknowledged for the Messiah. It is the holy seed who was promised to man after the fall, and who has been the object of the church's hope in all ages. It is eminently in behalf of this branch that God has displayed, as I said before, in all their grandeur, the abundance of his power, 61 and the greatness of his counsel. I do not speak here of that counsel, which has been from all eternity, in the intelligence of God, touching the redemption of mankind. My capacity is absorbed, I own, in contemplating so grand an object, and to admire and to exclaim 3 seem more suitable to our finite minds than to attempt to fathom such a prodigious depth; for where is the genius that can form adequate ideas of a subject so profound? A God, who, from all eternity, formed the plan of this universe: a God, who, from all eternity, foresaw Le whatever would result from its arrangement: a God, who, from all eternity, resolved to create mankind, although he knew from all eternity that they would fall into sin, and plunge themselves into everlasting miseries: but a God, who, foreseeing from all eternity the malady, from all eternity provided the remedy: a God, who, from everlasting determined to clothe his Son in mortal flesh, and to send him into the world: a God, who, according to the language of Scripture, slew, in his design from all eternity, the lamb Rev. xiii. 8. But, I repeat it again, my brethren, better becomes such feeble minds as ours to admire and to exclaim, than to attempt to fathom. Let us content ourselves with beholding in the execution of this divine plan, how the victories of Satan have subverted his empire.

What a victory for Satan, when that Redeemer, that king Messiah, whose advent had been announced with so much pomp and magnificence, appeared in a form so mean, and so inferior to the expectations which the prophecies had occasioned, and to the extraordinary work for which he came into the world, when he lodged in a stable, and lay in a manger!

What a triumph for Satan, when Jesus had no attendants but a few forlorn fishermen, and a few publicans, as contemptible as their

master!

What a victory for Satan, when Jesus was apprehended as a malefactor, dragged from

His attendants were only a few fishermen and publicans; but this served the more ef fectually to secure his doctrine from the most odious objections that could be opposed against it. The meaner the vessel appears, the more excellent seems the treasure contained in it: the weaker the instruments employed in building the church appear, the more evident will the ability of the builder be. These fishermen confounded philosophers; these publicans struck the Rabbins dumb; the winds and the waves were subject to their authority; and to their commands all the powers of nature were seen to bow.

He was apprehended like a malefactor, and crucified; but upon the cross he bruised the serpent's head, while Satan vaunted of bruising his heel, Gen. iii. 15. Upon the cross "he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," Col. ii. 15.

He was wrapped in burying clothes, laid on a bier, and, with all the mournful furniture of death, deposited in a tomb; but by this he conquered death, and disarmed him of his sting, 1 Cor. xv. 56. By this he furnished thee, Christian, with armour of proof against the attacks of the tyrant, who would enslave thee, and whose formidable approaches have caused thee so many fears.

He was rejected by his own countrymen, even after he had risen victorious from the tomb, laden with the spoils of "the king of terrors," Job xviii. 15; but their rejection of him animated his apostles to shake off the dust from their feet against those execrable men, who, after they had murdered the Master, endeavoured to destroy the disciples, and put them upon lifting up the standard of the cross in every other part of the universe, and thus the heathen world was bound to his triumphal chariot, and the whole earth saw the accomplishment of those prophecies which had foretold that he should reign from sea to sea, and

from the river to the ends of the earth." How | ed them simply, will actually take the oppogreat the counsel! my dear brethren, how site side when ye propose the same questions mighty the work! "Ah, Lord God, there is no- relatively. But who then, ye will ask me, thing too hard for thee." Thou art, "the who are those men, who presumptuously think!! great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is of overcoming God by their superior know-thy name, great in counsel and mighty in ledge and power? work."

Here we may pause, and very properly come to a conclusion of this discourse; for, though we proposed at first to consider "the greatness of God's counsel and the omnipotence of his working," in a practical light, after having examined them speculatively, yet, I think the examination of the subject in one point of light, is the explication of it in both. When we have proved that God is "great in counsel, and mighty in work," in my opinion, we have sufficiently shown, on the one hand, the extravagance of those madmen, who, in the language of the Wise Man, pretend to exercise "wisdom and understanding, and counsel, against the Lord," Prov. xxi. 20; and on the other, the wisdom of those, who, taking his laws for the only rules of their conversation, commit their peace, their lives, and their salvation, to the disposal of his Providence. Only let us take care, my dear brethren, (and with this single exhortation we conclude,) let us take care, that we do not flatter ourselves into an opinion that we possess this wisdom while we are destitute of it: and let us take care, while we exclaim against the extravagance of those madmen, of whom I just now spoke, that we do not imitate their dangerous examples.

Who? It is that soldier, who, with a brutal courage, defies danger, affronts death, resolutely marches amidst fires and flames, even though he has taken no care to have an interest in the Lord of hosts, or to commit his soul to his trust.

Who? It is that statesman, who, despising = the suggestions of evangelical prudence, pursues stratagems altogether worldly; who makes no scruple of committing what are called state-crimes; who with a disdainful air, affects to pity us, when we affirm, that the most advantageous service that a wise legislator can perform for society, is to render the Deity propitious to it; that the happiest nations are those "whose God is the Lord." Ps. xxxiii. 12.

Who? It is that philosopher, who makes a parade of I know not what stoical firmness; who conceits himself superior to all the vicissitudes of life; who boasts of his tranquil expectation of death, yea, who affects to desire its approach, for the sake of enjoying the pleasure of insulting his casuist, who has ventured to foretell that he will be terrified at it.

Who? It is that voluptuary, who opposes to all our exhortations and threatenings, to the most affecting denunciations of calamities from God in this life, and to the most awful descriptions of judgment to come in the next, to all our representations of hell, of an eternity spent in the most execrable company, t and in the most excruciating pain; who opposes to all these the buz of amusements, the hurry of company, gaming at home, or diversions abroad."

Study all these characters, my brethren, lay aside the specious appearances that men use to conceal their turpitude from themselves, and ye will find that, to dare the Deity, to pretend by superior knowledge and strength to resist the wisdom and omnipotence of God, is not so rare a disposition as ye may at first have supposed.

But what! is it possible to find, among beings who have the least spark of reason, an individual mad enough to suppose himself wiser than that God who is "great in counsel," or, is there one who dares resist a God, mighty in working?" My brethren, one of the most difficult questions, that we meet with in the study of human nature, is, whether some actions in men's lives proceed from intentions in their minds. To affirm, or to deny, is equally difficult. On the one hand, we can hardly believe that an intelligent creature can revolve intentions in his mind directly opposite to intelligence, and the extravagance of which the least ray of intelligence seems Let us abhor this disposition of mind, my sufficient to discover. On the other, we can brethren; let us entertain right notions of sin; hardly think it possible, that this creature let us consider him who commits it as a madshould follow a course of life altogether found-man, who has taken it into his head that he ed on such an intention, if indeed he have it has more knowledge than God, the fountain not in his mind. The truth is, a question of of intelligence, more strength than He, beneath this kind may be either affirmed or denied ac- whose power all the creatures of the universe cording to the different lights in which it is are compelled to bow. When we are temptconsidered. Put these questions to the most ed by sin, let us remember what sin is: let irregular of mankind: Dost thou pretend to each ask himself, What can I, a miserable oppose God? Hast thou the presumption to at- man, mean? Do I mean to provoke the Lord tempt to prevail over him by thy superiority to jealousy? Do I pretend to be stronger than of knowledge and power? Put these questions he? Can I resist his will? Shall I set briars simply apart from the conduct, and ye will and thorns against him in battle? "He will hardly meet with one who will not answer No. go through them, he will burn them together," But examine the conduct, not only of the I Cor. x. 22. Rom. ix. 19. Isa. xxvii. 5. Let most irregular men, but even of those who us seek those benefits in a communion with imagine that their behaviour is the most pru- the great God, of which our fanciful passions dent; penetrate those secret thoughts, which can only offer the shadows. Let us not prethey involve in darkness in order to conceal tend to deceive him by the subtilty of our the horror of them from themselves; and ye stratagems; but let us endeavour to please will soon discover that they, who answered so him by acknowledging our doubts, our darkpertinently to your questions when ye propos- I ness, and our ignorance; the fluctuations of

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ticularly in such a discourse as this. It is, however, of great consequence; and I make it here for the sake of young students in divinity: for, as the writers of the holy Scriptures frequently make use of terms, that excite several ideas, the reasons of their choosing such terms will be inquired: and on such reasons as the fancies of students assign, some maxims, and even some doctrines will be grounded. I could mention more mysteries than one, that have been found in Scripture, only because on some occasions it uses equivocal terms. An interpreter of Scripture, should indeed assiduously urge the force of those emphatical expressions which the Holy Spirit sometimes uses to signify, if I may so speak, the ground and substance of the truth; but at the same time, he should avoid searching after the marvellous in other expressions, that are employed only for the sake of accommodating the discourse to the genius of the Hebrew tongue.

The force of the term holiness, then, not being sufficient to determine its meaning, its meaning must be sought elsewhere. We must inquire the object to which he devotes himself, who in our Scriptures is called holy. For, as all those words, ye shall be holy, for I am holy, are equal to these, ye shall be set apart, or ye shall be devoted, for I am set apart, or devoted, it is plain that they cannot be well explained unless the object of the appointment or designation be determined. This object is the matter of our present inquiry, and on the investigation of this depends our knowledge of what we call holiness. Now, this subject is of such a kind, that the weakest Christian may form some idea of it, while the ablest philosophers, and the most profound divines are incapable of treating it with the precision, and of answering all the questions that a desire of a complete explication may produce.

indeed, I am responsible only to myself for my conduct, but, however, I will prescribe to myself some rules of action, which I will inviolably pursue. I will never betray a trust reposed in me, but I will, with the utmost fidelity discharge it, whatever interest I may have to do otherwise. I will carefully preserve the life of my friend, who discovers so much fidelity and love to me, whatever interest I may have in his destruction. We ask those of our hearers who are the least acquainted with meditations of this kind, whether they can prevail with themselves not to make an essential difference between those two members of the supposed society? We ask, whether ye can help feeling a horror at the first, and a veneration for the last of these men? Now this conduct, or the principles of this conduct, for which we cannot help feeling veneration and respect, although the whole passes in a world, and in a society to which we have no relation, and to which we never can have any, these are the principles, I say, to which he is de voted, whom our Scriptures call holy: these principles are what we call virtue, rectitude, order, or, as the text expresses it, holiness. "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy."

Let us proceed a little farther in our meditation, and let us make a supposition of another kind. Ye have all some idea of God. Ye have at least this notion of him, that he is supremely independent, and that none can punish or reward him for the use he makes of his independence. Suppose, as well as ye cant without blasphemy, that he should lavish his favours on the faithless depository, whom we just now mentioned, and should withhold them from the other: that he should heap benefits upon him who would stab his tenderest and most faithful friend, and expose the other to indigence and misery. Suppose, on the contrary, that God should liberally bestow his fat vours on the faithful depository, and refusethem to the other. I ask those of my hearers who are the least acquainted with a meditation of this kind, whether they can help making an essential difference between these two uses of independence? Can ye help feeling more veneration and respect for the Supreme Being in the latter case than in the former? Now, my brethren, I repeat it again, the laws according to which the Supreme Being acts, are the laws to which the person is appointed, or set apart, who in the holy Scriptures is denominated holy. Conformity to these laws is what we call virtue, rectitude, order, or as the text expresses it, holiness. In this manner, it seems to me, that the weakest Christian (if he avail himself of such helps as are offered to him) may form an adequate idea of holiness.

The weakest Christians may form (especially if they be willing to avail themselves of such helps as are at hand) some just notions of what we call holiness. It seems to me, that in this auditory at least, there is not one person who is incapable of pursuing the following meditation: to which I entreat your attention. Suppose, in a world entirely remote from you, a society, to which ye have no kind of relation, and to which ye never can have any. Suppose that God had dispensed with an obedience to his laws in favour of this society, had permitted the members of it to live as they thought proper, and had assured them that he would neither inflict any punishment upon them for what we call vice, nor bestow any rewards on an attachment to what we call virtue. Suppose two men in this society, making an opposite use of this independence. The one says to himself, Since I am the arbiter of my own conduct, and the Supreme Being, on However, it is no less certain that the ablest whom I depend, has engaged to require no philosophers, and the most consummate divines, account of my actions, I will consult no other find it difficult to speak with precision on this rule of conduct than my own interest. When- subject, and to answer all the questions that ever it may be my interest to deny a trust re- have arisen about it. Perhaps its perspicuity posed in me, I will do it without reluctance. may be one principal cause of this difficulty-= Whenever my interest may require the de- for it is a rule, of which we inform those to struction of my tenderest and most faithful whom we teach the art of reasoning justly. friend, I myself will become his executioner, that when an idea is brought to a certain deand will stab him. Thus reasons one of them.gree of evidence and simplicity, every thing The other, on the contrary, says, I am free that is added to elucidate, serves only to ob