to impress upon our minds a more lively fense of its weighty obligations; and to fix us, by fome means, in a more steady course of obedience to its dictates :-that it had pleased him, for example, to appoint these material objects, which furround us, as kind remembrancers of our spiritual concerns; and fo to order the occurrences of life, that, whilst we are pasfing through things temporal, we might conftantly be reminded of the things that are eternal. For, having then-such a crowd of monitors perpetually about us, pointing to us our duty, and urging us to perform it, at every turn ;—we may be led to imagine, that we should be no longer fubject to our present irregularities; but, directing our course to a proper end, should proceed invariably in the ways of righteousness, and daily advance in piety

and virtue.

But

But, alas! how deceitful are these imaginations! fince the truth is, that the very expedient we propofe, how little foever we may profit by it, is actually employed by our gracious Creator, to the great purpose of spiritual improvement. As we are placed in this world to be trained up and disciplined for eternity, fo the world itself is a kind of school, where every thing that occurs leads to wife and pious reflectionsreads to us a conftant lesson of morality-and exhorts us to provide for our future good. For doth not Wisdom cry without, and utter her voice in the fields, and in the streets? Doth not every object we meet, and every event that happens, labour, as it were, to arreft our attention, and adminifter counsel to our wandering hearts? Is it not the cry of all Nature to the fons of men-" How long, ye fimple ones, will

46

ye love fimplicity; and, ye fcorners, de

light in fcorning; and fools hate know

ledge? Liften in time to the voice of "reproof; attend fpeedily to the checks "which Providence has placed in your giddy course; and be perfuaded thereby "to fufpend your pursuits, and turn your "feet into the way of godliness."

mercy,

Whatever irregularities we may be guilty of, and whatsoever disorders may be found in our conduct, nothing has been wanting on God's part to make us wifer and better men. That which is over all his works, and that paternal care which he exerts over the creatures of his hands, is in no instance more vifible, than in the plentiful provision he has graciously made, both for the discovery of his facred will, and for enforcing conformity to it. In all the feveral adjustments of his wifdom at the creation of the world, and in all

the

the various difpenfations of his providence from that to the prefent time, He has shewn throughout a manifest regard to this important article. For he has made it, as it fhould feem, his peculiar business to address his voice to the children of men;

-to teach and direct them to admonish and exhort them and all with this view, that they might live well and virtuously here, in order to be perfect and happy hereafter.

This He has done, and continues to do, by all imaginable methods. For man has not more capacities for receiving the reve lations of God, than the means are, which GOD makes use of, to reveal himself to him. "He fpeaks to him fleeping, "and he speaks to him waking. He speaks to him in company, and he speaks to him in retirement. He speaks

"to his fenfes, and he speaks to his un"derstanding. He speaks to him within, "and he speaks to him without: within, "by the filent dictates of reason, and the "fecret whispers of confcience; without, "by the vifible frame and order of the "univerfe by the Heavens, which declare "the glory of GoD, and by the Earth "that abounds with his riches. He fpeaks "to him alfo by the course of human af"fairs-by the hiftories of former times, "and by the tranfactions of his own. He

speaks to him by his judgments, and by

"his mercies by the rewards that are "conferred on good men, and by the "punishments inflicted on the wick"ed. He speaks to him by the counfels " and admonitions of friends, and by the "reproaches and revilings of enemies. He "speaks to him by every good book he "reads, and by every fermon he hears.

• Fi