IV.

to the human race in sending his Son to SERMON dwell on the earth; encouraged by favours, and warmed by gratitude, we are sometimes in danger of presuming too much on his goodness, and of indulging a certain fondness of affection, which is unsuitable to our humble and dependent state. It is necessary that he should frequently appear to our minds in all that majesty with which the immutability of his nature clothes him; in order that reverence may be combined with love, and that a mixture of sacred awe may chasten the rapturous effusions of warm devotion. Servile fear, indeed, would crush the spirit of ingenuous and affectionate homage. But that reverence which springs from elevated conceptions of the divine nature, has a happy effect in checking the forwardness of imagination, restraining our affections within due bounds, and composing our thoughts at the same time that it exalts them.

When, from the adoration of the unchangeable perfection of the Almighty, we return to the view of our own state, the first sentiment which ought naturally to arise, is that of self-abasement.

We are too apt to

be

SERMON be lifted up by any little distinctions which

IV.

we possess; and to fancy ourselves great, only because there are others whom we consider as less. But what is man, with all his advantages and boasted powers, before the eternal Father of Lights? With God there is no variableness; with man there is no stability. Virtue and vice divide the empire of his mind; and wisdom and folly alternately rule him. Hence he is change. able in his designs, fickle in his friendship, fluctuating in his whole character. His life is a series of contradictions. He is one thing to-day, and another to-morrow; sometimes obliged by experience to alter his purpose, and often led to change it through levity. Variable and unequal himself, he is surrounded with fleeting objects. He is placed as in the midst of a torrent, where all things are rolling by, and nothing keeps its place. He has hardly time to contemplate this scene of vicissitude, before he too is swept away. Thus circumstanced in himself, and in all the objects with which he is connected, let him be admonished to be humble and modest. Let the contemplation of the unchanging glory of his Creator

inspire

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inspire him with sentiments of due submis- SERMON sion. Let it teach him to know his proper place; and check that vanity which is so ready to betray him into guilt.

Let the same meditation affect him with a deep sense of what he owes to the goodness of the Deity. His goodness never appears in so striking a light, as when viewed in connection with his greatness. The description which is given of him in the text, calls, in this view, for our particular attention. It presents to us the most amiable union of condescension with majesty, of the moral with the natural perfections of God, which can possibly be exhibited to the imagination of man. From the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, cometh down every good and perfect gift. The most independent of all Beings is represented as the most beneficent. He who is eternal and immutable, exalted above all, and incapable of receiving returns from any, is the liberal and unwearied Giver of every thing that is good. --Let such views of the divine nature not only call forth gratitude and praise, but prompt us to imitate what we adore. Let

them

SERMON them shew us that benevolence is divine

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that to stoop from our fancied grandeur in order to assist and relieve one another, is so far from being any degradation of character, that it is our truest honour, and our nearest resemblance to the Father of Lights.

II. LET the consideration of the divine immutability convince us, that the method of attaining the favour of Heaven is one and invariable. Were the Almighty a capricious and inconstant Being, like man, we should be at a loss what tenour of conduct to hold. In order to conciliate his grace, we might think of applying sometimes to one supposed principle of his inclination, sometimes to another; and bewildered amidst various attempts, would be overwhelmed with dismay. The guilty would essay to flatter him. to flatter him. The timid, sometimes by austere mortifications, some times by costly gifts, sometimes by obsequious rites, would try to appease him. Hence, in fact, have arisen all the corruptions of religious worship among men; from their forming the divine character upon their own, and ascribing to the Sove

IV.

reign of the Universe the mutability of hu- SERMON man passions. God is represented by the psalmist David as saying to the wicked, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one, as thyself. This continues to be the description of all the superstitious and enthu siastic sects, which, since the days of David, have sprung up in the world.

It is our peculiar happiness, under the Gospel, to have God revealed to us in his genuine character; as without variableness or shadow of turning. We know that at no time there is any change, either in his affections, or in the plan of his administration. One light always shines upon us from above. One clear and direct path is always pointed out to man. The Supreme Being is, and was, and ever will be, the supporter of order and virtue; the righteous Lord loving righteousness. The external forms of religion may vary; but under all dispensations which proceed from God, its substance is the same. It tends continually to one point, the purification of man's heart and life. This was the object of the original law of nature. This was the scope of

*Pfalm. 1. 21.

the