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ference majesty, furrounded with that S ER M. host of stars which present to your imagination an innumerable multitude of worlds. Liften to the awful voice of thunder. Liften to the roar of the tempest and the ocean. Survey the wonders that fill the earth which you inhabit. Contemplate a steady and powerful Hand, bringing round fpring and fummer, autumn and winter, in regular course; decorating this earth with innumerable beauties, diverfifying it with innumerable inhabitants; pouring forth comforts on all that live; and, at the fame time, overawing the nations with the violence of the elements, when it pleases the Creator to let them forth.

After you

you have viewed yourselves as furrounded with fuch a scene of wonders; after you have beheld on every hand, fuch an astonishing display of majesty united with wisdom and goodness; are you not feized with folemn and serious awe? Is there not fomething which whispers you within, that to this great Creator reverence and homage

are

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SERM, are due by all the rational beings whom he has made? Admitted to be fpectators of his works, placed in the midst of so many great and interefting objects, can you believe that you were brought hither for no purpose, but to immerse yourselves in grofs and brutal, or, at beft, in trifling pleasures; loft to all fense of the wonders you behold; loft to all reverence of that God who gave you being, and who has erected this amazing fabric of nature, on which you look only with ftupid and unmeaning eyes? No: Let the scenes which you behold prompt correfpondent feelings. Let them awaken you from the degrading intoxication of licentioufness, into nobler emotions. Every object which you view in nature, whether great or fmall, ferves to inftru&t you. The ftar and the infect, the fiery meteor and the flower of fpring, the verdant field and the lofty mountain, all exhibit a Supreme Power, before which you ought to tremble and adore; all preach the doctrine, all inspire the spirit, of devoti

on,

VI.

on, and reverence. Regarding, then, SERM. the work of the Lord, let rifing emotions of awe and gratitude call forth from your fouls fuch fentiments as thefe:

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66

Lord, wherever I am, and whatever "I enjoy, may I never forget thee as "the Author of nature! May I never forget that I am thy creature and thy fubject! In this magnificent temple of the univerfe, where thou haft placed me, may I ever be thy faithful worshipper; and may the reverence " and the fear of God be the firft fenti"ments of my heart!"-It is to fuch confiderations of God I would now recal your thoughts, from the wine and the feast, as proper to check the fpirit of levity and folly; and to infpire manly and becoming fentiments, in the place of criminal diffipation. But,

In the fecond place, there is a confideration of a nature still more ferious, to be employed for the fame purpofe; the confideration of God as not only the Author of nature, but the governor of his crea

tures.

SER M. tures.

VI.

While we regard the work of the Lord, we are also to confider the never ceafing operation of his hands. We are to look up to an awful and irresistible Providence, ftretching its arm over our heads; directing the fate of men, and dispensing at its pleasure happiness or mifery. In the giddy moments of jollity, the wanton and thoughtless are apt to fay: "Let us eat and drink, for "to-morrow we die. Nothing is bet❝ter for man, than to rejoice as much "as he can all the days of his vain life; "and to keep himself undisturbed by fuperftitious terrors. He who fit"teth in the heavens bestows no mi"nute attention on the fons of earth. "He permits all things to come alike to "all; one event to happen to the righte"ous and to the wicked."-Be affured, my brethren, it is not fo. You greatly deceive yourselves, by imagining that your Creator and Governor is indifferent to the part you are now acting; or that the distribution of good and evil, which now takes place, has no

relation

In SERM.

relation to your moral conduct.
some instances, that relation may not
be apparent, because the moral govern-
ment of God is not completed in this
world. But a multitude of proofs show
government to be already begun; and
point out to you the train in which you
may expect it to proceed.

In the history of all ages and nations, you cannot but have obferved a thousand inftances, in which the operations of the divine band has been difplayed; overtaking evil doers fooner or later with punishment, and bringing on their own heads the ruin they had devised for others. You are not to imagine that this displeasure of Providence is exerted only against the ambitious, the treacherous, and the cruel, who are the authors of extenfive mifery to the world. Under this idea, perhaps, you may be defirous to fhelter yourselves, that your exceffes are of a harmless kind; that you feek nothing more than the enjoyment of your own pleasures; that your feaft and your wine interfere not with the

order

VI.