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thoughts that we can escape thy vigilance, or lie hid from thine all-seeing eye. Thy way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of thy feet. As nothing is too great to withstand thy resistless power, nothing is too minute to be disregarded by thine omniscient providence. Thou numberest the hairs of our heads, and the moments of our lives.

There is no spot in the illimitable universe unvisited by thy care, and not a sparrow falleth to the ground without thy knowledge. Who is like Thee, infinite in understanding? Who like Thee, whose judgments are unsearchable, and whose ways are past finding out?

We rejoice, O God, that we are the creatures of thy hand, the subjects of thy moral government. We thank Thee for the light of nature, for the law of conscience written in our hearts, and above all, for that holy light from heaven, which Thou hast communicated by our Lord Jesus Christ, to guide us in thy perfect way, and lead us to the imperishable joys of thy heavenly kingdom. Grant that we may duly profit by this holy light, that it may dispel our ignorance, that it may illumine our minds, and warm and purify our hearts, that we may love Thee with a more fervent devotion, and endeavor to serve and obey Thee in sincerity all the days of our lives.

Grant that we may ever entertain a due sense of thy constant presence, to sustain us in our infirmities, to cheer us in despondence, to guard us in the hour of temptation, and through all the dark and troubled scenes of life to help us on our way rejoicing. May we live under the habitual conviction, that thine eyes are upon the sons of men, to give to every man according

to his ways and according to the fruits of his doings. Regarding Thee as the witness of our actions, as the inspector of our thoughts, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, may we study to be pure in motive and intention, and in all our actions honest and sincere. May we do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before Thee, our God, as children of the light and of the day, that our hearts may not reproach us, nor our integrity depart from us so long as we have being. May we keep our tongues from evil and our lips that they speak no guile; and at all times and in every condition, may we think and speak and act under the influence of that wisdom which is from above, which is first pure, and then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Finally, grant, heavenly Father, we implore Thee, that in every period of life and most of all in its closing scene, our rejoicing may be the testimony of conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world-that we may be accepted as worthy disciples of the Lord Jesus, and through him exalted to honor, glory and immortality.

Pardon our sins, our ignorances, and our errors.. Hear our humble prayer, in heaven thy dwelling place, and when Thou hearest forgive. All we ask and pray is in the name and as the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom we would offer to Thee, O Father, everlasting praise. Amen.

SERMON XIX.

THE INCONSISTENCY, ABSURDITY, AND SIN OF PROFESSING RELIGION, WITHOUT A

CORRESPONDING CONDUCT.

Psalm. l. 16.

"BUT UNTO THE WICKED GOD SAITH; WHAT HAST THOU TO DO TO DECLARE MY STATUTES, OR, THAT THOU SHOULDST TAKE MY COVENANT IN THY MOUTH ?"

My brethren, the writer of this truly excellent and pious composition leads the Israelites to a serious review of their characters, compared with their religious advantages, profession, and hopes, under a consideration. of the immediate inspection and censure of Jehovah, the common Lord and Judge of the world, and who was exercising a kind and friendly providence over them, as a peculiar people. In order to add greater weight to the reproof he intended to convey, and the more effectually to produce the general reformation on which he was so intent, he represents the Deity as issuing his commands for collecting the whole nation before him. The presence, not only of all the other inhabitants of this world is, at the same time, demanded, but the in

habitants of Heaven are required to attend, as witnesses of the equity of his judgment. To this judgment He is supposed immediately to proceed; condemning, before the numerous assembly already convened, their follies and vices; and threatening them, if found impenitent, with corresponding marks of his displeasure.

In this imaginary judicial procedure, Jehovah is said to distinguish the Jews into two classes, and to address himself to each of them. Those, in the first class, are addressed as persons of some religion. They are, however, accused of debasing their piety with a considerable mixture of superstition. They are censured for placing an undue stress upon sacrificial rites and emblematical forms of worship, to the comparative neglect of internal and truly spiritual devotion. They are considered as being inattentive to the natural and obvious expressions of genuine religion, prayer and praise. They are represented as living in disobedience to the divine laws of purity and virtue, which they had entered into the most solemn engagements to observe. This conduct certainly arose from the grossest misconceptions of the nature and the perfections of God. He, therefore, rejects, with indignation, their acts of religious homage thus applied. He considers them as irrational in themselves, as unworthy of his acceptance, and as attended with consequences naturally subversive of real virtue and goodness in the worshipper. "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings, for they are daily before me. I will take no bullocks out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy fields. For

every beast of the forest is mine; the cattle, and the mountain bulls. I own every bird of the Heavens; and the glory of the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not apply to thee, for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer up to God the sacrifice of praise, and perform thy vows to the most High; then call upon me in the day of trouble, and when I deliver thee, glorify thou me."*

This part of the Psalm, you find, relates to such as might be real worshippers of Jehovah, though their devotions were, in some respects, weak, irrational, superstitious, and very little worthy of the nature of God, to whom they were directed; or, even of the worshipper himself. It relates to such as were capable of discerning the superior excellence of true spiritual homage, and from whom, therefore, such homage might be justly expected; and who, in the present case, were, without doubt peculiarly reprehensible for serving God thus ignorantly, since they enjoyed singular advantages for obtaining more just sentiments of his nature, perfections, and will.

In the text, those of a different character among them are addressed, and who deserved a much severer reproof, condemnation and punishment: "but to the wicked God saith, how becometh it thee to talk of my statutes? My covenant thou hast in thy mouth; but thou hatest instruction; and my word thou castest behind thee." *

In the explication of this passage, and the improve

* See Geddes' version.

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