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up for me a crown of righteoufnefs which "God, the righteous judge, fhall give me at that "day."He who can fay with this holy Apoftle, "To me to live is Chrift," he, and he only, can with him fubjoin, "and to die is gain." If now we live when believers fland faft in the Lord; if to promote the honour of our Master, and the falvation of our brethren, be the object of our keenest defires and moft vigorous purfuit, death can do us no harm: we may cheerfully look be yond the grave to thofe pure regions of everlafting light, and love, and joy; where "they that "be wife, fhall fhine as the brightness of the "firmament; and they that turn many unto " righteousness, as the ftars for ever and ever.” Animated by thefe hopes, let us henceforth go on with fidelity and zeal in performing every part of duty that belongs to us; and though Ifrael be not gathered by our means, yet fhall "we be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and "our God fhall be our ftrength." He who graciously accepteth according to what a man hath, will not reject " our labour of love;" but will confefs us at last before an affembled world; and say, with all the indulgence of a kind and liberal mafter, Well done, good and faithful "fervants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." Amen.

VOL. I.

SERMON

1:

SERMON II.

PROVERBS, xv. 3.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

IN every age of the church the complaint may

be repeated, that all men have not faith." Many who think they have it, are fatally deceived; and fhall be found in the iffue to have been utterly devoid of this gracious principle. True faith determines the choice, and governs the practice according to the nature of the thing believed. It is called the evidence," or demonftration, "of things not feen." Let the objects be ever fo remote, yet faith brings them near to the mind, and renders them as powerful and operative upon the affections and will, as if they were both prefent and visible. Such is the nature and efficacy of this grace; from whence you may judge, whether it be fo common as men are apt to imagine.

The fubject of my text will afford us a striking illuftration of this remark. We have already profeffed our belief, and we have done it too with fome folemnity, that the eyes of the Lord are in this place, beholding the evil and the good. This we virtually acknowledged when we celebrated his praife: but we did it moft explicitly when we offered up our prayers to him; for to what purpose should we pray to an absent, or even to

an

an inattentive being? Yet if we examine ourfelves impartially, and try our faith by the only proper teft, I fufpect we shall find too much reafon to conclude, either that we do not ferioufly believe this doctrine, or, at beft that our faith is very weak and imperfect.

Were God vifibly prefent in our affembly;were the great Immanuel, God in our nature, ftanding in the midst of us; would we praise him fo feebly, or pray to him fo coldly, or speak and hear fo unfeelingly as we do? -And fhall feeing, or not seeing, make such an odds ?— -Did we juft now behold the object of our worship, would the mere fhutting our eyes render his prefence lefs venerable, or the influence of it lefs powerful? No, my brethren :-our feeing God could only affure us that he is prefent; and if an equal affurance is obtained by any other means, the influence of his presence will in either cafe be the fame. It is not therefore to the feeing or not feeing God, that any difference in our temper or behaviour must be imputed; but to the believing, or not believing, the reality of his prefence: from which we may juftly infer, that every degree of irreverence in our minds, and every undutiful ftep in our conduct, is a fymptom of the weaknefs and imperfection of our faith; and, confequently, that a course of known fin; or the habitual indulgence of any corrupt affection, affords undoubted evidence, that whatever light we may have in our understanding, yet we do not believe with our heart, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

C 2

When

When there things are confidered, it will appear that infidelity, in one degree or other, is far more prevalent than we are aware of; and that, notwithstanding our profeffional affent to the doctrine of my text, yet the best of us have need to get our faith of this interefting truth enlivened and confirmed. Ifhall therefore proceed to lay the evidence of it before you, in as plain and convincing a manner as I can; imploring, in the entrance, that powerful bleffing, without which the ftrongest and most perfuafive arguments, like a dart thrown by a weak arm, will either fall fhort of the heart, or if they reach it, yet ftrike fo feebly, as to make no deep or lafting impreffion.

There are two judges, before one or other of which every queftion of this kind must neceffarily be tried; I mean, Scripture, and Reafon

Scripture must determine thofe who confefs its divine original: and they who decline the authority of this judge, can appeal to none other but that reafon with which God had endowed them; there they muft ftop, the caufe can be carried no where else. If therefore it fhall appear, that the doctrine of God's univerfal prefence and knowledge is fupported both by fcripture and reafon, the question will be finally decided, and unbelief can have no refource but perverfe and wilful obftinacy.

First, then, This doctrine is plainly taught and repeatedly afferted in the facred writings.

The teftimony of my text is clear and strong: The eyes of the Lord are in every place. They not only "run to and fro throughout the earth,"

as

as it is elsewhere expreffed; which form of speech might leave room to fuppofe that God beholds things, fucceffively, looking firft at one object, and afterwards at another; but they are in every place at the fame time. How awful are the words of Elihu! (Job, xxxiv. 21.) " His eyes "are upon the ways of man, and he feeth all his "goings. There is no darkness, nor fhadow of "death, where the workers of iniquity may hide "themselves."

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Nor is his attention confined to "the ways of "man," by which is commonly meant his outward behaviour; he looks immediately into his heart, and fees the inward frame and tendency of his foul; for "all things are naked and opened "to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, " even the thoughts and intents of the heart." "Man looketh on the outward appearance, faid Samuel; " but the Lord looketh on the "heart." He needs no information from our actions; he looketh directly on the heart, out of which are the iffues of life. Nay, "Hell and "deftruction are before the Lord, how much more the hearts of the children of men? Prov. xv. 11.

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Neither do the Scriptures reprefent him as a mere spectator, but as a witness and judge, who ponders the thought and action with all their circumftances, and makes a juft and righteous eftimation of them: "I know, and am a witness, "faith the Lord."" The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." -Nay, he weighs the spirits: "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord "weigheth

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