DISC. reflect glory and honour on him who formed, IV. and poured it abroad-Let us remember, that The Sea is his, and he made it. Such an object, continually before our eyes, invites and demands our attention; and religion calls upon us to fearch out the riches of divine power and goodness contained in it. When we place ourselves upon the shore, and from thence behold that immenfe body of waters, ftretching away on all fides, far as the eye can reach; and when we confider how large a portion of the globe is covered in like manner; what a noble idea are we hereby enabled to form of the immensity of that Being who, in the emphatical language of Scripture, is faid not only to weigh the mountains in a balance, but to take up the fea in the hollow of his hand! In whofe fight, the hills are but as duft, the ocean is no more than a drop. The immeasurable breadth of the fea may remind us of God's boundless mercy; it's unfathomable depth holds holds forth an image of his unfearchable DISC. judgments. When we see a mass of water rifing up by a gradual afcent, till the sky feems, as it were, to defcend, and clofe upon it; a thought immediately ftrikes us-What is it which prevents thefe waters from breaking in upon, and overflowing the land, as they appear in heaps fo much above it? Let us adore that unseen power, which, by a perpetual decree, keeps them in their proper place, nor fuffers them to intrude themselves into one which is not theirs. It is God's will that it should be fo; when he gives the word, Hitherto halt thou come, and no farther, plain fand proves a fufficient barrier. The obedient waves bow themselves, and retire, They continue this day according to thine ordinance, O Lord, for all things ferve thee, but rebellious man, whom nothing can restrain from paffing the bounds fet him by thy commandments! Hear attentively the noise of the fea F 3 How IV. IV. DISC. How grand and awful the found! even as the voice of the Almighty God, when he fpeaketh! St. John, in the Revelation, to give us fome notion of the praises of God as uttered by men and angels, or the choirs of heaven and earth united before the throne, has chofen this fimilitude, joining two others with it; the creation does not afford a fourth-" I heard as it were the "voice of much people in heaven, and the "voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, faying Hallelujah!” And is not this what the waves always fay, -Praise the Lord-praise him with your voices, as we constantly do with ours, while we thus intelligibly proclaim aloud the might of his power, and the glory of his majesty! Pleafing is the variety of profpects which the sea, at different times, affords us. For, one while, like the confcience of a good man, calm and unruffled, it reflects a bright and beautiful image of the light which shineth upon it from above; at another, iv. like the heart of the wicked, it is dark and DISC. cloudy, ftormy and tempeftuous, agitated from the very bottom, and it's reftless waters caft up mire and dirt. Reflect, for a moment, on these two pictures of virtue and vice; and then doubt, if you can, to which of the originals your choice ought to be directed. To behold the ebbing and flowing of the tide, is an amusement ever new. By this contrivance of infinite wisdom (whatever second causes are employed to produce the effect) the whole mass of sea-water is kept in continual motion, which, together with the falt contained in it, preserves it from corrupting (as it would do, if stagnant) and poisoning the world. At one part of the day, therefore, the ocean seems to be leaving us, and going to other more favoured coafts: but at the stated period, as if it had only paused to recover itself, it returns again by gradual advances, till it be arrived to it's former height. There is an ebb and a flow in all human affairs; and a turn of Disc. events may render him happy who is now miferable. The veffel, which is ftranded, IV. may yet be borne up on the waters; may put out again to sea, and be bleffed with a profperous voyage. Nor is the fea more wonderful in itself, than it is beneficial to mankind. From it's furface vapours are continually arifing, drawn upwards by the heat of the fun, which, by degrees formed into clouds, drop fatnefs on our fields and gardens, caufing even the wilderness to fmile, and the vallies, covered over with corn, to laugh and fing. Thus the prayers of the faithful fervants of God, daily afcending from all parts of the earth, return in large effufions of grace and bleffing from heaven. ་ But we are indebted to the ocean not only for the vapours fent up from it's furface, but likewise for many springs, which have their origin from the great deep beneath, with which the fea communicates, Thefe, arifing |