Canft

blissful emotions must pervade thy foul! thou ftill mistake thy dignity? Still harbour mean and groveling ideas of thyfelf and thy deftination? Canft thou ftill refrain from being afhamed of every. ignoble, childish pursuit, and roufing thyself to a worthier application of thy powers?

How? Thou confine thy affections, views, efforts, exertions, to the narrow round of animal, fenfual occupations and pleasures? Does it become thee to place all thy happiness in the goods of the earth? Shalt thou be covetous of the fhining dirt beneath thy feet, be attached to filthy lucre, wafte thy faculties and thy time in adding one piece of glittering clay to another and afterwards in counting over thy laboriously accumulated hoard? Shall it be the object of thy ambition to climb a little higher than thy brethren on the grain of fand which thou inhabiteft and then to look down upon them with fcorn? Are thefe exertions worthy a creature that can lift his eyes to heaven, foar in meditation above millions of funs and worlds and prefs forward to the creator of the univerfe, the lord of life and light?

No, thou art formed for higher purpofes, o man. Anticipate, this too thou mayft learn from the contemplation of the ftarry fky, anticipate thy future perfection and happinefs, rejoice in it beforchand, and qualify thyfelf for it continually more and more. At prefent thou occupieft an inferior ftep on the fcale of things. But the avidity, the capacity, the effort to mount higher, thou fecleft in thy breast,

and

and which the creator cannot have given thee in vain! Why would he have displayed this ftupendous scene before thee, why enable thee at the fight of it to rife above all that is earthly and tranfitory, above thyfelf, and kindle afpirations in thy foul, which nothing of all that is here below can ever fatisfy? No, he, the Faithful and True, the Allgracious cannot and will not deceive thee! He will not warrant

thee in the prefentiment of any perfection, of any felicity, which he has determined never to grant thee! He will not mock thy expectations, he cannot trifle with thy hopes. No, thou canft, thou fhalt proceed from one step of perfection and felicity to another, canft and art defigned to become progreffively wifer, progreffively better, progressively happier! This is the decree of thy creator and father in heaven! This is declared to thee by the whole innumerable hoft of his funs and worlds! Lo, here in his immenfe dominion are fources of light and knowledge that never fail, from which we may draw from everlafting to everlasting and which no created intellect ever can exhauft! Here is matter for eternal thought, for inceffant difcoveries, for ever new transports of the fublimeft, most extatic devotion! Here are innumerable focieties of more purified, more perfect worshippers of God, whom we may join, with whom we may affociate, in the union and intercourfe with whom we may tafte ineffable felicity and blifs! Here are infinite means and opportunities and motives, to exercife our faculties,

to

to evolve them entirely, to extend our sphere of action, and to be and to become all that at present we cannot be and become! Here the pleasure procured to us by the contemplation of nature, the exertion of our faculties, the practice of beneficence, the love of God and man, presents itself in numberlefs glorious forms! Here are feats of the greatest, moft generally ufeful induftry, feats of the most inward, effective love, of the pureft, divineft joy! Yes, here we may live and act from one eternity to another, ever mount higher, ever know more truth, do and enjoy more good, approach ever nearer to deity, and be perpetually more blessed in the participation of it! No expectations can be here too fanguine, no hopes too afpiring! The infinity of God and the immenfity of his univerfe, what profpects are opened to us by them in the remoteft futurity!

Forget not then, o man, forget not thy future grandeur! Cherish the thought of it; rejoice in it by anticipation; contend for fuperior dignities, for more exalted fituations in the kingdom of thy God; conceive nothing, fay nothing, do nothing that may difqualify thee for it, that may divert thee from it. Be faithful in thy ftation, in thy calling, in the management of thy property, in the ufe of thy faculties, that hereafter more and greater matters may be entrusted to thee! Follow Jefus, thy leader and forerunner, him, whofe faithfulness and integrity the Father has crowned with fovereign power and glory, whom he has exalted above all the court of heaven,

heaven, and made the king of angels and of men. Live, fuffer, conquer with him and like him, that thou mayft reign with him hereafter !

Here, o christian, let the truth of that declaration of our faviour fink deep into thy heart: In my father's house are many manfions; there is room, occupation, joy, felicity enough for all his votaries, however different their capacities, their abilities, their exigences, their acquirements, their various approximations to perfection may be! I go to prepare the places for you, will affign to each of you the place that fuits him beft, where he may be the happiest in himself and the most useful to his brethren! Oh fublime, transporting profpects! May never infidelity and doubt, never vanity and fin overfpread them with their dark and chilling mifts! May they never entirely exclude them from our benighted minds, never damp the native ardour of our fouls panting after light and force and felicity! No, we will follow thee, o thou lamb of God, whitherfoever thou goeft, thofe ravishing profpects fhall foothe and refresh us in all our conflicts and trials, infpire us with courage amid the dangers that befet us, with refignation under all the afflictions of life, and animate us even in death with hope and affurance for ever! Amen.

SERMON XVI.

On the Viciffitude of the Seafons.

GOD, creator and governor of the univerfe, great and glorious are thy works, juft and gracious all thy ways, all tend to the perfection and happiness of thy creatures as to their common centre. This is loudly proclaimed to us by both heaven and earth, by the whole economy of nature. Oh that we did but always attend to their voice, and thence learn wifdom and acquiefcence! Yes, thou, Firft, Almighty, Incomprehenfible, thou haft appointed the fun and the earth their ftation, their motion, their mutual relations, they are guided and governed in their courfe by thee, thou makeft the light and the darknefs, thou caufeft the night to fucceed the day and the feasons of the year to follow each other; and by thefe regulations thou diffufeft life and refreshment and joy over all the inhabitants of the earth, more life, more refreshment and joy, than would have been poffible by any other conftitution! Praised be

thy