instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee! Why, why will ye die O house of Israel! Ps. lxxxi. 8; Jer. vi. 8. O were we wise, these expostulations would reign over our hearts! O! if there remained the least spark of reason in us, the frightful image of hell would henceforth make the deepest impressions on our souls!

Frightful ideas of judgment and hell! may you be always in my mind, when the world would decoy me to stain my ministry by its

SERMON XLI.

vain and glaring snares! Frightful ideas of judgment and hell! may you strike all these hearers so as to give success to this sermon, and weight to our ministry! Frightful ideas of judgment and hell! may you ever follow us, so that by knowing the terror of avenging justice, and the unspeakable value of grace set before us, we may be rendered capable of participating eternal glory; which I wish you, my brethren, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

THE UNIFORMITY OF GOD IN HIS GOVERNMENT.

HEBREWS xiii. 8.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

ST. Paul gives us a very beautiful idea of God, when he says, 'The wisdom of God is manifold,' Eph. iii. 10. The first great cause, the Supreme Being, has designs infinitely diversified. This appears by the various beings which he has created, and by the different ways in which he governs them.

What a variety in created beings! A material world, an intelligent world! Matter variously modified, or, as the apostle speaks, One kind of flesh of men, another Hesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds, celestial bodies, and bodies terrestial; one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and so on to an infinite multitude. There is a similar variety of spirits; men, angels, seraphim, cherubim, powers, dominions, archangels, and thrones.

ed to treat in his epistle to the Hebrews. Look, said he on the present period, reflect on past times, anticipate the future, run through all dimensions of time, dive into the abysses of eternity, you will always find the perfections of God in exact harmony, you will perceive an exact uniformity characterize his actions, you will acknowledge, that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' 1 John v. 20.

Are you disposed, my brethren, to elevate your minds a little while above sense and matter? Can you sufficiently suspend the impressions, which sensible objects made on your minds last week, to give such an attention to this subject as its nature and importance demand? Let us then enter into the matter, and God grant while we are contemplating to-day the harmony of his perfections, and the uniformity of his government, we may be changed into his image from glory to glory, even as by his Spirit.' God grant, as far as it is compatible with the inconstancy essential to human nature, we may be always the same, and amidst the perpetual vicissitudes of life may have only one principle, that is to obey and please him! Amen

What a variety in the manner in which God governs these beings? To restrain ourselves to men only, are not some loaded with benefits, and others depressed with adversities? Does he not enlighten some by nature, others by the law, and others by the gospel? Did he not allow the antediluvians one period of life, the cities of the plain another, and us another; the first he overwhelmed with water, the next consumed by fire, and the last by an endless variety of means.

But, although there be a diversity in the conduct of God, it is always a diversity of wisdom. Whether he creates a material or an intelligent world; whether he forms celestial or terrestrial bodies,men,angels,seraphim, or cherubim; whether he governs the universe by the same, or by different laws; in all cases, and at all times, he acts like a God, he has only one principle, and that is order. There is a harmony in his perfections, which be never disconcerts. There is in his conduct a uniformity, which is the great character of his actions. His variety is always wise, or, to repeat the words just now mentioned, 'the wisdom of God is of many kinds.'

These expositions may be reduced to three classes. Some say, the apostle speaks of the person of Jesus Christ; others of his doctrine; and a third class apply the passage to the protection that he affords his church.

The first class of expositors, who apply the text to the person of Jesus Christ, are not unanimous to the strict sense of the work; some think, the apostle speaks of the human nature of Jesus Christ, and others say, he

These great truths we intend to set before

you to-day; for on these the apostle intend-speaks of his divine nature. The latter take the

I shall connect, as well as I can, the different explications of my text; I would rather conciliate them in this manner, than consume my hour in relating, and comparing them, and in selecting the most probable from them.

text for a proof of his eternity; and accord ing to them the words are synonymous to these, I am Alpha and Omega, the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,' Rev. i. 8

The former consider the apostle as speaking of Christ either as man. or as mediator; and according to them St Paul means to say, The Saviour, whom I propose to you. was the Saviour of Adam, of Abraham, and of the whole church, agreeably to what I have elsewhere affirmed. Him hath God set forth a propitiation through faith, for the remission of sins that are past.' Rom iii. 25; that is, his sacrifice always was the relief of sin

ners.

The second class of interpreters affirm, that St. Paul does not speak of the person of Jesus Christ: but of his doctrine. In this view the text must be connected with the words which immediately follow, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.' Why would not the apostle have Christians carried about with divers doctrines? Because Jesus Christ, that is Christianity, the religion taught by Jesus Christ. is always the same, and is not subject to the uncertainty of any

human science.

But other expositors ascribe a quite different sense to the words, and say, the apostle speaks neither of the person of Christ, nor of his doctrine, but of that protection which he affords believers. According to this, the text has no connexion with the following verse, but with that which goes before. St. Paul had been proposing to the believing Hebrews the examples of their ancestors and predecessors, some of whom had sealed the doctrine of the gospel with their blood. Remember' your guides, 'who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. In order to induce them to imitate these bright examples, he adds. 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;' that is to say be supported, and rewarded his primitive martyrs, and he will confirm and 'crown all who shall have courage to follow their example.

•

It would be easy to multiply this list of various opinions but, as I said, I will connect the three different expositions which have been mentioned, and endeavour to show you the admirable harmony of the perfections of God, and the uniformity of his actions in regard to mankind. first as they appear in the economy of time, and secondly in that of eternity; and we will attempt to prove that God is the same in both.

worship, which he required of men; at another time he required a worship altogether spiritual and free from ceremonial usages. At one time his laws tolerated some remains of concupiscence: at another time he commanded the eradication of every fibre of sin. At one time the church saw sensible miracles, and grounded faith on them; at another time faith followed a train of reasoning, made up of principle and consequences. At one time the church participated worldly pomps and grandeurs; at another it experienced all the misery and ignominy of the world.

A work so different, and, in some sort, so opposite in its parts, is, however, the work of one and the same God. And what is more remarkable, a work, the parts of which are so different and so opposite, arises from one principle, that is, from the union and harmony of the divine perfections. The same principle, that inclined God to grant the church a small degree of light at one time, engaged him to grant a greater degree at another time. The same principle which induced him to require a gross worship under the economy of the law, inclined him to exact a worship wholly spiritual under the gos pel; and so of the rest.

1. We see in God's government of his church, various degrees of light communicated. Compare the time of Moses with that of the prophets, and that of the prophets with that of the evangelists and apostles, and the difference will be evident. Moses did not enter into a particular detail concerning God, the world in general, or man in particular. It should seem, the principal view of this legislator, in regard to God, was to establish the doctrine of his unity; at most to give a vague idea of his perfections. It should seem, lus chief design in regard to the world in general was to prove that it was the production of that God, whose unity he established. And, in regard to man in particular, it should seem, his principal drift was to teach, that, being a part of a world which had a begin ning, he himself had a beginning, that he derived his existence from the same Creator, and from him only could expect to enjoy a happy existence

Pass from the reading of the writings of Moses to a survey of the prophecies, thence proceed to the gospels and epistles, and you will see truth unfold as the sacred roll opens. You will be fully convinced, that as John the Baptist had more knowledge than any of his predecessors, so he himself had less than any of his followers

In these various degrees of knowledge communicated by God to men, I see that uniformity which is the distinguishing character of his actions, and the inviolable rule of his government The same principle that in

on which it has pleased God to found the faith of the church. 4. A variety in the laws. that he has thought proper to prescribe. At one time he gave only a small degree of knowledge; at another he drew aside the veil, and exposed to public view the whole body of truth and knowledge. At one time he prescribed the observation of a great many gross ceremonies along with that spiritual

I. We see in the economy of time four remarkable varieties. A variety in the degrees of knowledge given to the church 2. A variety in the worship required of it. 3. A variety in the nature of the evidences.clined him to grant a little light to the age of Moses, inclined him to afford more to the time of the prophets, and the greatest of all to the age in which the evangelists and apostles lived. What is this principle? It is a principle of order, which requires that the object proposed to a faculty be proportioned to this faculty; that a truth proposed to an in. telligence be proportioned to this intelligence. What proportion would there have been

6

to see the objects of their worship before, ferior to ours? The same principle, then, that their eyes, and, as they themselves said, to inclined the Supreme Being to exact of his have gods going before them,' Exod. xxxii. church a gross ceremonial worship, under 1. Imagine these gross creatures coming ancient dispensations, engages him to reinto our assemblies, how could they, being all quire a worship altogether spiritual, and desense and imagination (so to speak), exercise tached from sensible objects, under the disthe better powers of their souls, without ob- pensation of the gospel. jects operating on fancy and sense? How could they have made reflection, meditation, and thought, supply the place of hands and eyes, they, who hardly knew what it was to meditate? How could they, who had hardly any idea of spirituality, have studied the nature of God abstractly, which yet is the only way of conducting us to a clear knowledge of a spiritual Being?

3. The same may be said of the evidences, on which God has founded the faith of his church; and this is our third article. What a striking difference! Formerly the church saw sensible miracles, level to the weakest capacities; at present our faith is founded on a chain of principles and consequences, which find exercise for the most penetrating ge- . niuses. How many times have infidels re

If there ever was a religion proper to spirit-proached us on account of this difference! How often have they inferred, that the church never saw miracles, because there are none wrought now! How often have they pretended to prove, that, had miracles ever been wrought, they ought to be performed still! But this triumph is imaginary, and only serves to display the absurdity of those who make parade of it.

ualize men; if ever a religion was fitted to
produce attention and emulation. and to fix
our ideas on an invisible God, certainly it is
the Christian religion. And yet how few
Christians are capable of approaching God,
without the aid of sensible objects! Whence
come those rich altars, superb edifices, mag-
nificent decorations, statues of silver and gold
adorned with precious stones, pompous pro-
cessions, gaudy habits, and all that heap of
ceremonies, with which one whole communi-
ty employs the minds, or, shall I rather say,
amuses the senses of its disciples? All these
argue a general disinclination to piety with
out ceremony.
Whence comes another kind
of superstition, which, though less gross in
appearance, is more so in effect? How is it,
that some of you persuade yourselves, that
God, though he does not require any longer,
the pompous worship of the Jews, will yet be
perfectly satisfied with the observation of the
Christian ritual, although it be always unac-'
companied with the exercise of the mind, and
the emotions of the heart? Whence comes
this kind of superstition? It proceeds from
the same disposition, a disinclination and a
difficulty to approach God without the aid
of sensible things. And yet, all things con-
sidered, a pompous worship is more worthy
of God than a plain worship. The Jew, who
offers hecatombs to God, honours the Deity
more than the Christian, who offers only
prayers to him
The Jew, who cleanses his
hands, feet, and habits, when he goes to pre-
sent himself before God, honours him much
more than the Christian, who observes none
of these ceremonies, when he approaches him.
The Jew, who comes from the farthest part
of the world to adore the Deity in an elegant
temple, honours God much more than the
Christian, who worships him in any mean
edifice. But God retrenched pomp in the
exterior of religion, lest the capacities of
men's minds, too much taken up with pomp,
should not furnish those cool reflections of
mind, and those just sentiments of heart, of
which the Deity appears an object so proper
to all who know him, as he is revealed in the
gospel. If Christians then, who, through the
nature of the revelation, with which God has
honoured them, know the Deity better than
the Jews knew him, if they find a difficulty
in rendering to God a worship of heart and
mind proportional to this knowled e. what
would have been the difficulties of the Jews,

A wise being, who proposes a truth to an intelligent creature ought to proportion his proofs not only to the importance of the truth proposed and to the capacity of him to whom evidence is offered, but also to his own end in proposing it. If he intend only, by proposing a truth, to make it understood, he will give all his arguments as much clearness and facility as they are capable of having: but if he designs, by proposing a truth, to exercise the faculties of him to whom it was proposed; if he intends to put his obedience to the trial, and to render him in some sort worthy of the benefit which he means to bestow; then it will be necessary indeed to place the arguments, on which the truth is founded, in a strong and conclusive point of view; but it will not be necessary to give them all the clearness and facility of which they are capable.

Why, then, you will say, did not God give to the contemporaries of Jesus Christ, and his apostles, such an exercise of capacity as he gives to Christians now? Why should a truth, made so very intelligible then by a seal of miracles, be inaccessible to us, except by the painful way of reasoning and discussion? I deny the principle, on which this objection goes. I do not allow, that God exercised them, who lived in the time of Christ and his apostles, less than he exercises us. Weigh their circumstances against yours; represent Christianity destitute of those arguments, which arise in favour of it from the rejection of the Jews, and the conversion of the Gentiles; imagine men called to own for their God and Redeemer a man, who had no form, nor comeliness,' Isa. liii. 2, a man dragged from one tribunal to another, from on a cross. one province to another, and at last expiring How needful were miracles in these sad times, and, with all their aid, how hard was it to believe! Represent to your selves the whole world let loose against Christians; imagine the primitive disciples required to believe the heavenly origin of a religion, which called them first to be baptiz

whose degrees of knowledge were so far in-ed in water, then in blood. How necessary

were miracles in these adverse times, and how, hard, with all the encouragement given by them, must the practice of duty be then! Weigh these circumstances against yours, and the balance will appear more equal than you have imagined. There is, you will perceive, a uniformity in God's government of both, even when his government seems so very dissimilar.