actions, it seems to be honouring the Deity, to leave them wholly to man, and to attribute no share in them to God, who cannot be the author of sin. When the sons of Jacob sell Joseph, their envy seems to furnish a sufficient explanation of their conduct. When Shimei curses David, it seems needless to seek for any other cause than his hatred. When a conqueror takes cities and desolates provinces, ambition, interest, and revenge, are supposed to be his true and only reasons. Yet the scripture teaches us to acknowledge the hand of God in every thing: it represents him as concerned in all actions, without having any part in the turpitude of those which are evil. It exhibits him to our view, decreeing and foretelling things before they come to pass, directing them in the moment of action, referring them to 'certain ends, and making them conduce to his glory.

In every event, the divine energy is united with the operation of second causes. But who can explain the nature of that concurrence and union? God manages things in such a manner, so gently inclines the heart, and so imperceptibly influences the will; that it is impossible to distinguish his agency; to say how much may be attributed to him, and how much to the creature; to ascertain the means by which God acts, the state in which he leaves the balance, or the weight he adds to it. No, it must be confessed that all this is very obscure. The grand spring of events is wholly concealed from us, we see neither its vibrations nor its motions. We plunge ourselves into unfathomable depths, whenever we attempt to explain how our liberty can consist with the secret impulses and infallible direction of God. Yet we are

assured, that a " king's heart is in the hand of the "Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whi"thersoever he will."* Kings, those sovereigns of other men, whose wills give a beginning to so many events, and seem to have so much influence on our actions, are themselves directed by an over-ruling hand as a man charged with the management of a stream of water, turns it which way soever he pleases, through invisible channels and hidden pipes. And can we suppose that the hearts of other men are less. subject to the divine controul? We see that God knows every thing, and foretels actions the most free. This the example of Cyrus, in the prophecy before us, is sufficient to evince, God predicted the actions of that prince with as much accuracy, as if they had been no more free than the rising of the sun. He described those actions, even to the most contingent circumstances. Yet Cyrus acted as naturally, voluntarily, and freely, as if there had been no preordination, and his volitions had been perfectly independent of divine controul. In all his proceedings, he, doubtless, thought of nothing but fulfilling his own designs: and, at the same time, God was directing him, and executing his decrees by his instrumentality. Wonderful and incomprehensible mystery of providence! We confine our attention to second causes: the instrument conceals from our view the hand which guides it: yet God is always behind the scenes. Verily," will we exclaim with the prophet, and with the same admiration as he did, "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." In the third place we remark, that God hides him • Prov. xxi. 1.

self from us in the conduct of his providence; because, in observing what passes in the world, we almost always find matter of offence and scandal. We behold sin every where predominant. Satan seems to triumph over the creature. Error, vice, and delusion, have a thousand times more followers than truth and virtue.

The good suffer: the wicked prosper. For one instance in which guilt is visibly punished, we see a hundred in which it escapes with impunity. How many tyrants continue their acts of insolence, cruelty, and injustice, with success as long as they live! How has God permitted the entrance of evil into the world? How does he so often abandon the field to the machinations of the Devil? Why does he suffer, what he could hinder? Why not prevent the disorders which the wicked cause among mankind, rather than wait slowly to punish them? What abysses present themselves on every side! What subjects for the prophane and impious to perplex us with objections! Reason, piety, the promises of the scripture, the truths of religion, the expectation of judgment to come, the hope of another life, fortify and support us amidst these difficulties, and shew us a way out of these labyrinths. But after all, we are still obliged to exclaim: "O God of Israel, the Saviour! Verily thou art a "God that hidest thyself!"

In the last place, it must be confessed, that God hides himself from men, by the delays which he makes in the development of events and the deliverance of the church. We are greatly embarrassed respecting the conduct of providence by observing its delays, and, if I may venture to use such a term, its procrastinations. Its march, in our apprehension,

is heavy and slow, like that of great armies with ́a large train. It resembles those rivers which make so many turnings and windings, and roll forward their deep waters with such tranquility, that we can scarcely perceive their motion. Persons who embark upon them, often returning almost to the place from which they departed, are exceedingly tired with so tedious a voyage. The church is like a vessel sailing on such a river, and desirous of proceeding with greater celerity towards her place of destination. She complains that providence delays her deliverance. If, as soon as difficulties appear, God would remove them; if, as soon as evil trees have shot forth their branches, he would tear them up by the roots; if, as soon as the wicked oppress the good, he would fall upon them and grind them to powder; if, as soon as the church is attacked, he would employ the spear and the buckler in her defence; and, if always armed with miracles, if such an expression be allowable, he would scarcely suffer himself to be invoked, without appearing and displaying his power; we should no longer complain of his being a God that hideth "himself." We should say, Behold a God manifested, marching before us! But because he takes a longer circuit, and does not always arrive at the point we desire; while this continues, we are perpetually complaining: " Why art thou far from me? "Wherefore hidest thou thy face? Wilt thou be ས angry for ever? Wilt thou be favourable no more? "O that I knew where I might find him!"* Happy would it be, if our complaints were no more than ardent and pious desires; and if doubt, murmuring,

⚫ Psal. xxii, 1, xliv. 24. lxxix. 5. lxxvii. 7. Job xxiii. 3.

and impatience did not carry us beyond the limits of tender and humble supplication.

It must be acknowledged, that God does not accomplish every thing by methods, in our esteem, sufficiently compendious. He often waits a long time: he permits the impious to prosper, and the righteous to suffer he advances towards the completion of his designs, only by circuitous paths. He "hideth him"self" by a mysterious and profound conduct; of which we must briefly inquire the reasons.

In the first place, we observe, that one natural and necessary reason is, the disproportion between God and us, between his actions and our ideas. You ask, Why is the conduct of providence in so many respects obscure and almost impenetrable? Why does not God march before our eyes, in a way more easy and plain? Indeed, my brethren, you might just as well inquire, why we are men, and why he is God. Do we imagine, that, finite and limited as we are, we can be qualified to comprehend all his proceedings? Was he obliged to reveal to us the rules of his conduct? And while we are ignorant of those rules, how can he but be very much concealed in all that he does? We know not what reasons of wisdom or equity, order or necessity, produce any particular dispensation, causing events to take place at a certain time and to a certain extent, and more or less accelerating or retarding them. He tells us himself: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are "my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts "than your thoughts."* His operations may be as remote from our ideas, as his essence is exalted above

* Isaiah ly. 9.