here below, we, whom thou haft fo highly favoured, fo eminently bleffed, whom thou haft conftituted lords over the works of thy hands; we, whom thou haft endowed with understanding and reason, elevated to the knowledge of thee, with whom thou haft deigned to correfpond, and whom thou haft defigned for immortality: fhall we not rejoice in thee: not exultingly teftify our gratitude to thee for that we are, and that we are what thou in thy mercy haft ordained us to be! Shall we not hearken to thy voice; not gladly and refolutely perform thy commands! Shall we disturb the order and harmony of the whole? Shall not we by wifdom and virtue and beneficence adorn thy fair creation! Shall we not with promptitude and unremitting ardour promote thy views, and purfue our fuperior destination! No, far, far be fuch infenfibility, fuch ingratitude, fuch perverfenefs, fuch depravity from us! No, to rejoice in thee, to love thee, to praise thee, to glorify thee, to be ever gaining a nearer and brighter refemblance to thee, our father, fhall now and for ever be our honour, our glory, our greatest felicity. To this we are incited by the voice of univerfal nature, by the fmiling afpect of the prefent feafon. Blefs then to this end the contemplations in which we are about to engage. Grant that we may all hearken to thy voice and pay it due obedience. These our requests we make known to thee in the name of Jefus Chrift our Lord, and farther addrefs thee as his votaries with childlike confidence, in the words which he, knowing

knowing our neceffities and pitying our infirmities, instructed us to use when we pray unto thee: Our father, &c.

PSALM XIX. 3, 4.

There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world: in them hath he fet a tabernacle for the fun.

ALL, my pious hearers, all is revelation of God:

nature as well as fcripture; the works of creation as well as the doctrines of religion; the ordinary methods of providence in the government of the world as well as the extraordinary acts which formerly were done by the prophets, by Jefus and his apoftles. All proclaims to us the purposes and the decrees of the Eternal, the Infinite; all informs us of our deftination and our duties; all preaches to us wifdom and virtue; all encourages us to correction and improvement, to the purfuit of higher perfection; all promises joy and happiness to the wife and good. Yes, God speaks to us by all, as a father speaks to his children, if we do but attend to his voice. And who can mistake his voice, the voice of the tenderest of fathers, in that feafon of the year that foothes and cheers us with its delightful afpect, that refreshes and revives us by its balmy influence? The leffons of this inftructrefs furely cannot be mistaken, her admonitions, her encouragements, her directions

flow

flow from her mouth fo distinctly, fo energetically and with fuch infinuating grace, that they must gain easy access to the heart of every man who loves the truth, and poffeffes any moral fenfe for the beautiful and good! Yes, what the poet in our text affirms of the fun and the firmament, may with equal justice be afferted of all the works of God, we may also affirm concerning the present seafon: There is no fpeech nor language, where their voice is not heard, they speak to all nations and tribes of men an intelligible language: their found goeth forth into all lands, extends over all the furface of the earth, and their speech, their discourse, to the end of the world. And to this speech, to this instruction of renovated nature, and particularly to the moral part of it I would now call your attention, my pious hearers. Oh let us moft willingly give it audience, and obey the call of nature to wisdom, to virtue, to happiness!

What then does the vernal feafon teach us, to what does it incite us in regard to our destination and our moral conduct? The anfwering of this queftion fhall be the fcope and defign of my present difcourfe.

Order, this is the first doctrine which the prefent feafon preaches to us, order is heaven's firft law, the fupreme eternal law of the creator of the universe. Spring and fummer, autumn and winter, fucceed each other as regularly and invariably as day and night. Everything in nature has fixt, determinate ends, everything works by immutable laws to the

promotion

promotion and attainment of these ends. All things are fo connected and follow each other as these ends. require. All takes that rank, that place in the crea tion, which the creator has affigned it: all happens at the time when it fhould happen. All arifes, expands, proceeds to perfection; all germinates, or bloffoms, or matures, or bears fruit, fuitably to the nature, the defign, the analogies of each particular creature and to the prefervation of the whole. No creature enters upon this fcene of things, till all is ready for his reception, till his presence is necessary to the beauty and to the benefit of the whole. No one infolently pushes before another. No one ftands alone and unconnected with the reft. No one

changes either time or place, either shape or colour, either properties or effects, either instinct or propenfity, either strength or duration with another. Nowhere wilt thou find either real chafms in the feries and fucceffion of things, or unneceffary expence and fuperfluity; nowhere either prodigality or penury. Nature is always and everywhere confiftent with herself. Order, confiftence, harmony constitute her first, her fundamental law. All is but one; one whole, one by innumerable, vifible and invifible ties intimately connected, nicely fitted, infeparable whole; a whole, whereof the parts no less than their con◄ junction befpeak pure wifdom and benignity.

And hearest thou not, o man, all thefe diftinctly calling to thee: God, who formed the world, who created thee; God, who preferves and vivifies the

VOL. I.

T

world

world and thee, is the God of order, he loves order above all things? Wouldst thou be well pleafing to him; wouldst thou refemble him; wouldst thou refrain from destroying the fymmetry of his world, and fo far as in thee lies not defeat his views let order, confiftency, harmony be the firft, inviolable law of all thy thoughts and actions. Live, think, act not at random, not as the puppet of chance, or of fenfuality, or of thy paffions. Wander not about the world, without any fettled purpose, among creatures who have all their deftination and are all furely and joyfully pursuing it. Run not in a thoughtlefs and childish hurry now hither now thither, without having any fixt, determinate object worthy of thy pursuit. Diffipate not thy powers on empty trifles, work not at an uncertainty. Vindicate the rank and station which the creator has affigned thee. Never require to be and to do anything that thou art not intended to be and to do; but be and do that completely which God has called thee to be and to do, and be and do it at every time, in every place, in every respect. Be and become that intelligent, that wife, that beneficent, that virtuous, that godlike creature, which is endowed with faculties to honour the creator the most of all his works on earth, which fhould in fome measure fupply his place upon it, and which alone can glorify him with consciousness and understanding. Attach thyfelf more and more firmly to the whole whereof thou art an ingredient; adapt and adjuft thyfelf with increasing accuracy to