can invent of misery and ignominy. Once the church filled the highest post in Egypt in the persons of Joseph and his family; and afterward it was loaded with Egyptian fetters in the persons of this patriarch's descendants: one while leading a languishing life in a desert; another time attaining the height of its wishes by seeing the waters of Jordan divide to give a passage, by entering the land of promise, by beholding the walls of Jericho fall at the sound of trumpets, by overshadowing with an awful fear the minds of Hittites and Perizzites, Jebusites and Amorites, Canaanites and Amalekites: sometimes torn from this very country, to which a train of miracles had opened an access, led into captivity by Sennacheribs and Nebuchadnezzars, and leaving Jerusalem and its temple a heap of ruins; at other times re-established by Cyrus, and other princes like him, reassembling fugitives who had been scattered over the face of the whole earth, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and readorning the temple: now exposed to the most cruel torments, that such as Nero and Domitian, Trajan, Dioclesian, and Decius could invent; then rising from ruin by the liberal aid of Constantine and Theodosius, and princes, who like them, became patrons of the cause. Of this article, as of the former, I affirm, uniformity produced variety; the same principle that produced the happy days of the triumphs of the church, gave birth also to the calamitous times, which caused so many tears.

Let us reason in regard to the church in general, as we reason in regard to each private member of it. Do you think (I speak now to each individual), there is a dungeon so deep, a chain so heavy, a misery so great, a malady so desperate, from which God cannot deliver you, were your deliverance suitable to the eminence of his perfections? Is there, think you, any condition so noble that he cannot elevate you to it, any title so desirable that he cannot grace you with it, any treasure too immense for him to bestow, would the law of proportion, his invariable rule, permit him? Or dost thou really think, God takes pleasure in imbittering thy life, in taking away thy children, in tarnishing thy glory, in subverting thine establishments, in crushing thy house, and in precipitating thee from the highest human grandeur to the lowest and most mortifying station? Do you think God takes pleasure in seeing a poor wretch stretched on a bed of infirmity, and tormented with the gout or the stone? Has he any delight in hearing an agonized mortal exhale his life in sighs and groans? Why then does he at any time reduce us to these dismal extremities? Order requires God, who intends to save you, to employ those means, which are most likely to conduct you to salvation, or, if you refuse to profit by them, to harden you under them. He wills your salvation, and therefore he removes all your obstacles to salvation. He takes away a child, because it is become an idol; he tarnishes grandeur, because it dazzles and infatuates its possessors; he subverts palaces, because they make men forget graves, their last homes; he precipitates men from pinnacles of earthly glory, because they make them reasons for vanity

and insolence; he involves his creatures in pain and torture, because these alone make men feel their diminutiveness, their dependance, their nullity. As order requires God, who wills your salvation, to employ the most proper means to conduct you to it; so the same order requires him to punish contempt of it. It is right, that the blackest ingratitude, and the most invincible obduracy, should be punished with extreme ills. It is just, if God be not glorified in your conversion, he should be in your destruction.

Let us reason in regard to the church in general, as we do in regard to the individuals who compose it. A change in the condition of the church, does not argue any change in the attributes of God. Is his arm shortened, since he elevated to a throne those illustrious potentates, who elevated truth and piety along with themselves? Is his hand shortened since he ingulfed Pharaoh in the waves? since he obliged Nebuchadnezzar to eat grass like a beast? Since he sent a destroying angel to slay the army of Sennacherib? Since he struck the soul of Belshazzar with terror, by writing with a miraculous hand on the very walls of his profane festal room the sentence of his condemnation The same eminence of perfections, which engages him sometimes to make all concur to the prosperity of his church, engages him at other times to unite all adversities against it.

II. We have considered Jesus Christ in the economy of time, now let us consider him in the economy of eternity. We shall see in this, as in the former, that harmony of perfec tions, that uniformity of government, which made our apostle say, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."

The same principle, that formed his plan of human government in the economy of time. will form a plan altogether different in that of eternity. The same principle of propor tion, which inclines him to confine our faculties within a narrow circle during this life. will incline him infinitely to extend the sphere of them in a future state.

The same principle which induces him now to communicate himself to us in a small degree, will then induce him to communicate himself to us in a far more eminent degree.

to assemble us in material buildings, to cherish The same principle, that inclines him now our devotion by exercises savouring of the frailty of our state, by the singing of psalms, and by the participation of sacraments, will incline him hereafter to cherish it by means more noble, more sublime, better suited to the dignity of our origin, and to the price of our redemption.

The same principle, which inclines him to involve us now in indigence, misery, contempt, sickness, and death, will then induce him to free us from all these ills, and to introduce us into that happy state, where there will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, and where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes,' Rev. xxi. 4 Proportion requires, that intelligent creatures should be some time in a state of probation, and this is the nature of the present dispensa tion: but the same law of proportion requires also, that after intelligent creatures have

been some time in a state of trial, and have it is the character of a Christian, and would
answered the end of their being placed in to God it were the character of all my hear-
such a state, there should be a state of retri-ers. A Christian has only one principle of
bution in an eternal economy. The same
principle, then, that inclines Jesus Christ to
adopt the plan of his present government, will
incline him to adopt a different plan in a
future state. There is, therefore, a harmony
of perfections, a uniformity of action in all
the varieties of the two economies. In the
economy of time. then, as well as in the
economy of eternity, Jesus Christ is the

same.'

But who can exhaust this profound subject in the time prescribed for a single sermon? Our time is nearly elapsed, and I must leave you, my brethren, to enlarge on such conclusions as I shall just mention. God is always the same; he pursues one plan of government, arising from one invariable principle. By this truth let us regulate our faith, our morality, and our ideas of our future destiny.

1. Our faith. I will venture to affirm, that one chief cause of the weakness of our faith is our inattention to this harmony of perfections, this uniformity of government in God. We generally consider the perfections of God and his actions separately, and independent of those infinite relations, which the last have to the first. Hence, when God displays what we call his justice, he seems to us to cease to be kind, and when he displays what we call goodness, he seems to suspend his rigid justice. Hence it seems to us, his attributes perpetually clash, so that he cannot exercise one without doing violence to another. Hence we sometimes fear God without loving him, and at other times love him without fearing him Hence we imagine, so to speak, many different gods in one deity, and are ignorant whether the good God will favour us with his benefits, or the just God will punish us with his avenging strokes.

False ideas! more tolerable in people involved in pagan regions of darkness and shadows of death than in such as live where the light of the gospel shines with so much splendour. Let us adore only one God, and let us acknowledge in him only one perfection, that is to say, a harmony, which results from all his perfections. When he displays what we call his bounty, let us adore what we call his justice; and when he displays what we call his justice, let us adore what we call his goodness. Let us allow, that the exercise of one attribute is no way injurious to another. If this idea be impressed upon our minds, our faith will never be shaken, at least it will never be destroyed by the vicissitudes of the world, or by those of the church. Why? Because we should be fully convinced, that the vicissitudes of both proceed from the same cause, I mean the immutability of that God, who says by the mouth of one of his prophets, 1, the Lord, change not,' Mal. iii. 6.

2. But, when I began this discourse, I besought God, that, by considering this subject, we might be changed into the same image by his Spirit,' and this petition I address to him again for you. God has only one principle of his actions, that is, proportion, order, fitness of things. Let love of order be the principle of all your actions, my dear brethren,

action. We often see him perform actions,
which seem to have no relation; however,
they all proceed from the same principle.
The same motive, that carries him to church,
engages him to go to court; he goes into the
army on the same principle, that induces him
to visit an hospital; the motive, which enga-
ges him to perform acts of repentance and
mortification, inclines him to make one in a
party of pleasure; because if order, or fitness
of things, require him sometimes to perform
mortifying actions, it also requires him at
other times to take some recreation : because
as order requires him sometimes to visit the
sick, it requires him at other times to defend
his country by war; because if order calls
him sometimes to church, it calls him at other
times to court; and so of the rest. In Scrip-
ture-style this disposition of mind is called
walking with God, setting the Lord always
before us,' Gen. v. 24; Ps. xvi. 8. Glorious
character of a Christian, always uniform, and
like himself! He does nothing, if I may be
allowed to speak so, but arrange his actions
differently, as his circumstances vary.

6

3. Finally, this idea of God is very proper to regulate that of your future destiny. There is, as we have been proving in this discourse, one principle of order, that governs both the economies of time and eternity. But, we have elsewhere observed, there are two sorts of order; there is an absolute and a relative order. Relative order, or fitness, considered in itself, and independently of its relation to another economy, is a real disorder. In virtue of this relative order, we may live happily here awhile in the practice of sin: but, as this kind of order is a violent state, it cannot be of long duration. If therefore you would judge of your eternal destiny, your judgment must be regulated not by an idea of relative order, which will soon end: but by that of real, absolute order, which must have an eternal duration; and in virtue of which vice must be punished with misery, and virtue must have a recompense of felicity.

Put these questions sometimes to yourselves, and let each ask; What will my condition be in a state of absolute fitness? I, who have devoted my whole life to counteract the great design of religion, to misrepresent its nature, to check its progress, to enervate its arguments, to subvert its dominion, shall I shine then as a star of the first magnitude, along with them, who have turned many to righteousness, or shall I partake of the punishment, of the tempter and his infamous legions? I, who tremble at the thought of giving any thing away; I, who enrich myself at the private expense of individuals. and at the public expense of my country, at the expense of my friends, and even of my children, shall I share in a future state the felicity of that generous society, which breathes benevolence only, and which considers the happiness of others as its own; of that society, which is happy in the persons of all, who participate their felicity; or shall I share the misery of those infernal societies, which seek pleasure in the miseries

of others, and so become mutually self-tor-, and finisher of our faith,' Heb. xii. 2, after

mentors?

the consummation of the work, for which he Do we wish for a full assurance of a claim came; the same principle will incline him to to eternal happiness? Let us then by our con- un'oid the gates of heaven to us, when we duct form an inseparable relation between shall have finished the work for which we our eternal felicity and the invariable perfec- were born. Our felicity will be founded on tions of that God who changes not; let us the Rock of ages; it will be incorporated spare no pains to arrive at that happy state; with the essence of an unchangeable God; let us address to God our most fervent we shall stand fast in perilous times, and prayers to engage him to bless the efforts when the world, the whole world tumbles into which we make to enjoy it; and after we ruins, we shall exclaim with the highest joy, have seriously engaged in this great work, My God hou didst lay the foundation of let us fear nothing. The same principle, the earth, and the heavens are the work of which induced God to restore Isaac to Abra-thy hands They perish but thou shalt enham, to raise as it were that dear child by a dure. The all shall wax old like a garment: kind of resurrection from his father's knife, but thou art the same, and thy years shall the same principle that engaged him to ele- have no end. The children of thy servants vate David from the condition of a simple shall cont nue and their seed shall be estashepherd to the rank of a king; let us say blished be re thee. Ps. cii. 24, c. God more, the same principle, which engaged him grant this may be our happy lot! To him to open the gates of heaven to the author be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

:

THE NECESSITY OF UNIVERSAL OBEDIENCE.

JAMES ii. 10.

Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty

MY BRETHREN,

of all.

ERE I obliged to give a title to the epistle, from which I have taken my text, to distinguish it from the other books of our sacred canon, I would call it the paradox s of St. James. It should seem, the apostle had no other design in writing than that of surprising his readers by unheard-of propositions. In the first chapter he subverts that notion of religion, which is generally receiv ed both in the world and the church. To adore the God of heaven and earth, to receive his revelation, to acknowledge his Mes. siah, to partake of his sacraments, to burn with zeal for his worship, this is usually called religion. No, says St. James, this is not religion; at most this is only a small part of it: Religion consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and in keeping himself unspotted from the world, ver. 27. In the second chapter he seems to take pains to efface the grand character of a Christian, and of Christianity itself, and to destroy this fundamental truth of the gospel, that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,' Rom. iii. 28. 'No,' says he, man is not justified by faith only; Abraham our father was justified by works, chap. ii. 24, 21, and all Christians are justified by works. In another place, St. James seems to place all religion in some minute and comparatively inconsiderable articles, or, what comes to much the same, to teach, that the omission of some comparatively sinali dut, renders the most pure and solid piety of no

account. Levity of conversation is one of these articles. How different, my brethren! is the morality of the Scriptures from the morality of the world! We often hear high encomiums of some people in company. Ob serve that man, say they, what a pattern of piety he! The church doors are hardly open before he rushes into his seat with ea gerness and transport. In approaching the Lord s table he discovers by every look and gesture a heart all inflamed with divine love. When his shepherds were snitten, and the sheep scattered, the most difficult sacrifices became eas to him. Country, family, titles, riches, he left all with pleasure for the sake of following the bloody steps of Jesus Christ in his sufferings. He can be reproved for no more than one little inadvertence, that is, he has a levity of conversation. But what says St. James of this man, who seems to have a right of precedence in a catalogue of saints? What does he say of this man, so diligent to attend public worship, so fervent at the Lord's supper, so zealous for religion? He says, this man has no religion at all; If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is vain,' chap. i. 26.

But without attending to all the paradoxes of St. James, let us attend to this in our text. Here is a principle that seems more likely to produce despair in our hearts than to promote virtue; a principle which seems to aim at no less than the exclusion of the greatest saints

The apostle enters into this subject by this exhortation, My brethren! have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons,' chap. ii. 1. These words are rather difficult but one of the following senses, I think, must be given to them. 1. Instead of translating, have not the faith, we may read, judge not of faith by appearance of persons; that is to say, Do But, perhaps, our apostle spoke also of renot judge what faith Christians have in Je-ligious assemblies, and intended to inform sus Christ, whom God has elevated to the highest glory, by the rank, which they occupy in civil society, by their attendants, and equipage, and habits. A man who makes a very mean and contemptible appearance, a man all in rags, is often a better Christian than he whose Christianity, so to speak, is all set off with splendour, and grandeur, and