SERM. is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; XXI. "to the fowls of the air, even to the spar rows, two of which are sold for a far thing, and yet not one of them falleth "to the ground without God." And if this be the case in these small instances, how much more is it likely to be so in that of man, who was created after God's own image, and a little lower than the angels! of man, to whom dominion over the whole creation was allotted; of man, for whose instruction the Son of God descended upon earth, and for whose salvation he submitted to a cruel and ignominious death on the cross. To the conduct and affairs of a creature thus highly born, thus nobly allied and thus greatly favoured, God does certainly attend most minutely; all his thoughts, words, and actions, are exactly noted, all his concerns are observed, " even the very hairs of his head "are numbered." Nor is God merely an XXI. indifferent spectator of the events of hu- SERM, man life, but as occasion demands, he is likewise an active disposer of them; he not only sees what is transacting, but, as he thinks proper, interferes also: he frequently baffles the best contrived schemes of human wisdom, where the mind of him, who laid them, proud and self-conceited, thinks it impossible that the issue should be different from what he had designed and expected; while, on the other hand, he often blesses the endeavours of the humble and the ignorant, of those who rely not on their own abilities, but commit themselves to his protection, with unlooked-for and apparently impossible successes. Men doubt of the universal observation of God, because they are apt to measure the divine faculties by their own: they find how hard it is for themselves to attend to more than one thing at a time, and therefore they are with difficulty per suaded XXI. SERM. suaded that any other being can attend to such an infinite number; but this arises from their narrow and contracted notions of the divine perfections: they forget that God made the world, that he still sus- . tains it, and that if he were to withdraw his support, all would again be reduced to nothing they forget that his wisdom and power are without bounds, and that he consequently can observe and direct every thing without the smallest degree of trouble and disquiet. But even of those who allow the universal attention of God to what passes here below, there are some, perhaps, who doubt of his interference, because they see many disorders in the world, and meet with many occurrences which they think hard to be reconciled with the government of an allgood and all-powerful ruler; because it often goes well with the wicked, while the righteous are in trouble and affliction. But XXI. But this is no argument, or at least it is SERM. easily answered ;-this life is a state of trial, it is but as a moment in comparison with the eternity which is to follow; what, if virtue do suffer here for a few fleeting years, and vice appear triumphant! there is a day coming when this seeming inconsistency will be fully rectified, when the providence of God will appear, and his justice be vindicated in the sight of men and of angels, when no one shall have reason, either to glory in the wickedness which he has committed, or to complain of the calamities which he has undergone. Nay, even in this life, the apparent prosperity which is enjoyed by the vicious is often either the cause or the forerunner of their future misery or destruction; while the afflictions, under which the righteous are seen to labour, frequently produce in their effects honour and happiness. Elevated was the situation, and many were the circumstances XXI. SERM. cumstances which conspired together to the felicity of the Amalekite Haman; yet, amidst all his good fortune, as he himself has confessed, he was miserable: yet did all his grandeur only serve to expose and conduct him to an ignominious and deserved death.-On the other hand, it was through many hardships and much anguish that the virtuous Joseph was raised to greatness and to power: those who judged hastily might have concluded him "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," and that his rise from some situations of his life was impossible; yet were these sufferings and this depression in the hands of him who maketh all things to work together for good to them who love him, but so many steps in his ascent, but so many causes of his subsequent glory: they conducted him to a station, in which he ruled with honour, and saved from famine a great kingdom, and had the inestimable |