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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XXIII.

HEBREWS xii. 2.

Looking unto Jefus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was fet before him, endured the cross, defpifing the Shame, and is fet down at the right hand of the throne of God.

T is of all confolations, to a confiderate

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mind, the greatest and most powerful, that there is a God in heaven that ruleth over all the jarring and distracted scenes of this lower world;-a God, without whose concurrence no power can reach us, no change or chance can befal us, and on whofe goodness we may safely rely, as directing all things with an impartial hand, and for the best and most falutary purposes. And yet, in the common conduct of human life, how little do we fee of that patience and refignation, which fuch

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fuch a confideration ought to inspire! How little do we fee of that lowliness of mind and fubmiffion, with which the creature ought ever to bow down before his Creator ;-of that humility and meeknefs, with which the dark glimmerings of human wifdom should bend to the all-furveying brightness of divine omniscience! On the contrary, we are ever attempting to fathom with the fcanty line of finite knowledge, the unfathomable depths of immenfity; we are ever ready to break out into the murmurs of impiety, or fink into the abyfs of defpair; we are ever difposed to impeach the decrees of unerring wisdom, and arraign the fentence of impartial justice; and in all the misfortunes we fuffer, instead of looking up to the God of confolation with fubmiffive eyes, and a heart full of contrition for those fins which have justly drawn down his heavy difpleafure, the unfortunate are rather difpofed to charge him as a hard and cruel mafter, who loves to fport with the unoffending work of his hands, and willingly afflicts the children of men.

"Have we not," say they,

without any

fault of ours, experienced, even from our

"cradles,

cradles, nothing but calamities, afflictions, and pains? Were we not left orphans in દ our infancy;—no tender mother to cherish "us in her bofom,-no prudent father to "conduct our steps through the follies of "youth, and shield our inexperience from the frauds and allurements of a deceitful world? And have we fince met with any thing but croffes and difappointments in $6. our lawful callings? With what have our "induftrious ftruggles for bread been re"warded, but with poverty and distress? "Are we not made a fcorn and derision to "them that are round about us? Are not "our most innocent expreffions misrepre"fented by the poisonous tongue of calumny, "and our most innocent actions perverted into crimes? Hath not God multiplied

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upon us fickneffes and infirmities; and

our days, though few, are they not full of "evil? Are not even our bleffings turned "into our misfortunes, and our joys into "curfes? The friend, that fhould have been "our fupport, has treacherously deceived and betrayed us :-the child, whose beams we

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might have hoped fhould have gilded the " evening of our days with pleasure, has fet

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"in darkness, never to rife again. Thus helpless, poor, and friendless, we bend to"wards the earth, and wait, in melancholy "fufpenfe, for that awful moment which "fhall bring us to the grave. What, there"fore, are we to conclude from hence, but "that God hath marked us out from our "childhood as the fignal objects of his "heavy and unmerited vengeance ?—And "if we look forwards; if we carry our views "to another life after this, what better "treatment can we expect at his hands? "What reafon can we have to imagine that " he who hath dealt so hardly with us here, "will deal more favourably with us here"after?"

Such, too often, is the language of the unfortunate, under the afflicting hand of God!

But what weak, as well as prefumptuous, reafoning is this! Thou considerest not, O man, that God hath left no week of labour without its fabbath; no trial without its iffue; no toil without its reward; no darkness of calamity without light fufficient

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to direct thee to Chrift, the harbour of safety and eternal falvation.

And farther; what are all thy fufferings, be they ever fo great and many, when compared with those of thy bleffed Redeemer ? Read his hiftory, and be filent; "look unto "Jefus, the author and finisher of our faith," and learn patience, thou that darest to repine at the difpenfations of heaven!

His first appearance was that of a helpless babe; furrounded with all the marks of infamy and neglect; expofed to all the mise ries, infirmities, and fufferings of mortality: He fubmitted not only to be man, but even to be the leaft and loweft of men. The circumstances of his birth were not only void of all worldly pomp and grandeur, but even such as would naturally subject him to the scorn of the haughty, the contempt of the rich, and the derifion of fools:

Though he was born a king by his office, yet mean fwadling-clothes were his imperial robes, and a manger his royal cradle. And no fooner was he born into the world, than

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