slavery to sin and death, has introduced into his family; upon whom he has bestowed spiritual riches, and to whom he has assured a heavenly inheritance: shall we not often and profoundly recollect this grace, be anxious to know every thing connected with it, and have ever present to our minds, our privileges, our obligations, our hopes? Shall we content ourselves with thinking of it, when the subject is presented by the ministers of the gospel? No; let us, like the angels, desire to look deeper into these things; let them be a sweet and habitual subject of our reflections.

2. But this alone is not sufficient. It is not enough that we often reflect on the adopting love of God, and feel wonder at the contemplation of his grace. We must besides correspond with the design of our heavenly Father in forming so strict and glorious a bond with his creatures. And what was the design, the end of God? You cannot be ignorant of it, my brethren. It was not merely to lead us to consider and to celebrate his goodness, but to make us holy, to transform us into his image, to attach us to his service by bonds stronger and more sacred than those of nature, to lead us to render to him the love, the reverence, the obedience, that children owe to a kind father. Let us ever, then, consider our adoption as obliging us to consecrate to the glory of God all the faculties of our bodies and our souls. Let us imitate, as far as in our power, the kindness of God; "be followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also walked." Let us nourish high and lofty thoughts, corresponding with the greatness of our hopes, the dignity of our characters, and the sublimity of our destination. Let us scorn the trifles of earth, when put in competition with the inherit

ance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away. With this elevation of soul, let us unite the deepest humility. If earthly distinctions excite pride, spiritual blessings should abase us, since we have nothing that we have not freely received. Let us pity and pray for those who are yet at a distance from God; let us affectionately warn them, and endeavour to lead them to our Father. Let us be contented and resigned in all our trials. Children of God! can you not sustain sickness, affliction, reproach, the loss of your property, the death of your children, when you recollect your privileges? Learn to judge of yourselves, not by the relations you have with this world, but by those which you have with God and the Saviour; not by the occupations or riches that you here have, but by the great and magnificent hopes which religion presents to you; not by this little span of time that you have to pass upon earth, but by the eternity that you will spend in heaven; not by the pleasures that you here taste in the society of your friends, your relatives, your children, but by those everlasting delights that are prepared for you in the company of God, of Jesus, of saints, and angels. When these considerations are impressed upon the heart, there is no situation in which you may not shout that song of triumph, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or perils, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved

us."

And you, my unhappy friends, who are still aliens from the family of God, let me entreat you, with all the tenderness of my heart, to seek this privilege. Have you no ambition to acquire it? Is your heart

dead to the attractions of eternal glory; have you no desire to be advanced to the dignity of the sons of God? Oh! trifle not with your happiness; pour out your prayers to God: we also will pray for you, that your lot may be among his children, and that their inheritance may be your portion.

SERMON CIX.

THE LORD, A GOD THAT HIDETH HIMSELF.

ISAIAH XlV. 15.

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour,

WHEN the Holy Scriptures represent the Lord to us, or describe any of the more splendid manifestations of himself, we find united together the fire and the cloud, light and darkness. If God descends in majesty upon Sinai, you behold there these two tokens of his presence; the fire and the lightnings blaze before the eyes of the terrified people, and the cloud envelopes the mountain: if he displays his presence in the tabernacle, it is by a cloud covering it by day and a fire by night; if David describes to us his interpositions for his people, he exclaims, "Fire out of his mouth devoured, and brightness

went before him, while darkness was under his feet, and he made darkness his secret place." (Ps. xviii.) This is a proper representation of the Being of beings, both in his nature and in his conduct. An ancient philosopher with propriety said, "that nothing was at once so known and so concealed as God!" Do we ask, "Is there a God?" here is light; do we endeavour thoroughly to fathom his perfections? here is darkness. That he exists, is a truth that shines with a lustre brighter than that of the sun; but in endeavouring to comprehend his essence, to have a thorough knowledge of his attributes, to understand all the schemes of his providence, to comprehend his designs and aims, we find a profound and venerable darkness which we cannot penetrate. But still, from this darkness a light proceeds which discovers him who makes it his pavilion, and which justifies his providence. It is this admirable union which Isaiah exhibits in the impressive words of my text: "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour!"

We need not pause long in showing the connexion of these words with the context. The prophet had been predicting the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, and the re-establishment of the temple-worship by Cyrus, a pagan prince, who disregarded their religion; who had no interest in their return to their native land; who, from ambition, led his forces against Babylon, and who unconsciously accomplished the designs of Providence: filled with admiration at the surprising mode in which God fulfilled his purposes and promises, the prophet uses this impressive address to the Lord. In many passages of scripture, God is said "to hide his face from his people," when he withholds from them those spi

ritual consolations and joys of which they had partaken. This is not, however, the import of the phrase in this place; it here denotes the incomprehensibility of Providence, the obscurity of God's ways and dealings with the children of men. Two important and interesting truths are contained in the verse :

I. That God the Saviour of Israel, is a God that hideth himself.

II. That though he hideth himself, he is always the Saviour of his people. The illustration and improvement of these truths will occupy your attention during the remainder of this discourse.

I. That the Lord is a God that hideth himself; that his dispensations, though wise and merciful, are often mysterious, would be supposed by reason, and is proved by experience.

1. Reason, deducing her proofs from the nature of God, and from the character and situation of man, would conclude that the proceedings of Providence must often be incomprehensible to us.

For who is the God of providence? He whose wisdom is infinite; whose "thoughts are as much above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways," as the heavens which he inhabits, are above the earth on which we tread; who holds in his hands the chain connecting an eternity past with an eternity to come; whose vast plans have respect, not merely to a few persons of the present age,but to all generations, to all times,and to all worlds! And is this the Being whose purposes and counsels can be fully comprehended by short-sighted mortals, who "are but of yesterday, and know nothing;" whose philosophy finds insuperable difficulties in every pebble and every gnat, and who perpetually err in the opinions which they form in this their contracted sphere of the designs of lit