always present to promote the purposes of grace according to grace received; the Spirit of God witnesses with his Spirit that he is a child of God. Our business therefore is to compare the promises with the requirements annexed to them; and though we may find an apparent dissimilarity of principles, such as has been stated, yet we shall not be led to any unfavourable result, for we are here under sovereign protection. God himself has made these two principles one, and what he has joined together let no man put asunder. Privilege and obligation united will be offensive only to a distempered or perverted mind: and when we compare the one with the other, we shall see their fitness and propriety; we shall see the wisdom and goodness of God in placing them thus before us; we shall endeavour to carry on the design by giving our people the utmost satisfaction in our power as to their expediency, utility, and beauty; we shall endeavour to prevent them from any misunderstanding which might be conceived upon the point; we shall not allow it to be thought that there is any merit in meeting the regulation or requirement, for in fact God's own grace confers the qualification as well as the benefit; we shall not allow any to be discouraged from an apprehension of their inability to meet the requirement, since the humble are under a special protection; we shall hold a just balance, give the full weight of all the consolations to be derived from the unchangeable love of God (Rom. viii. 39), and all needful caution, that none may presume without a fair and scriptural ground.

Though not entering into the original intention of our Topic, I offer no apology for directing your minds to a branch of comparison which appears to me of some utility; viz., comparing the works of God with the word of God. This will lead us to examine whether our faith can really be benefited, and we made more efficient ministers of the gospel, by such comparison. Is there any such connexion

VOL. II.

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between the natural and moral or spiritual world, as to lead to the inference that they are counterparts of each other, formed with the design of carrying into effect one great and worthy end, which separately could not be so well effected? Or shall we find that these two economies are really two distinct considerations, without any manner of connexion whatever? The apparent similarities which invite our inquiry, and which are very striking, must be either the effect of design, or of what is called accident; and it appears to me that the most rational conclusion is the former: the resemblances were, it is presumed, designed for some great end, and that end must be the instruction of man.

Objections to this view of the subject have arisen. Sensitive Christians, zealous for the honour of Scripture literally translated or understood, have placed themselves against it; they are afraid of committing themselves to what they conceive an unsafe theory, as they are in another case to affix a spiritual sense to any historical or ceremonial passage, lest they should fall into the rank of enthusiasts. There are others who think that the word of God is the only source of instruction to mankind; and who are timorous of looking into the volume of nature, because infidels derive their religion from this source, and because some persons of a visionary turn of mind have brought the study into some discredit. I cannot however think a sentiment unsafe that is warranted by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and which has been viewed in its just light by such names as Bishops Horne, Butler, and Horsley, to which I add the late Rev. Mr. Romaine, Parkinson, Jones of Nayland, and many others-men who have been esteemed among the brightest ornaments of the church. I do not doubt the sufficiency of Scripture; but I beg leave to say that the volume of nature is recognized in Scripture much more broadly and extensively than many other things which we generally receive. I am not inclined to abandon a system or sentiment because it has been abused, since such abuse

could only arise out of an acknowledgment of its truth, and out of the same kind of zeal which has brought religion itself into some discredit. I am not inclined to abandon the works of God because infidels establish, or pretend to establish, their religion upon them-if theirs can be called a religion at all. These characters are not destitute of intelligence; and, whatever be their sin, they admit that the finger of God is visible throughout universal nature, and that instruction is to be derived from what they hear, see, and feel: but this is their sin, they aim a deadly blow at revelation, through a vain pretence of the sufficiency of natural religion. We admit their premises, that nature is instructive; but we deny their conclusion, that revelation is unnecessary. I am sorry to observe that there is a disposition in man to lower the divine designs, which we are told are as much "higher than our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth;" and again, that "God's thoughts are very deep." But why should it be thought a thing incredible to us that God should so have constructed the visible things of his natural creation as to render them an image of his moral government in many material points? in how many we cannot tell. Do we not frequently find combinations where at first we saw but a simple act? Is this one of the most mysterious things imaginable? Or rather is it not so plain that he "that runs may read?" Is not the greater part of the figurative language of Scripture built upon resemblances to nature? and if we admit the metaphors, we must admit the connexion. It seems to me a littleness of mind to suppose that the coincidences observable between the volume of nature and that of inspiration originated in mere accident, like the famous "fortuitous concourse of atoms which tumbled together and produced this world," but how, nobody could tell! As we believe that this frame of nature was contrived in all its parts to answer many and different purposes, by a sagacity that is infinite; so I presume

we may believe that among other combinations the natural world was so ordered at the first as to provide materials of instruction to man. Hence we find in Scripture such pointed references from one to the other as the following:

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As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it:" Isa. lv. 10, 11. "As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations :" Isa. lxi. 11. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel knoweth not me, my people doth not consider :" Isa. i. 3. "All creatures," says Caryl in his admirable commentary on Job, "have a teaching voice, and read us divinity lectures of Divine Providence. There are four things which the creatures teach us; they teach us there is a God, and much concerning him: Rom. i. 20. Even the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." The creatures teach us ready obedience to the will of God, in that all creatures obey the law of their creation; fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy winds and tempests, fulfil his word; Ps. cxlviii. 8. They teach us dependance upon God. Things without life are exhibited as putting forth acts of faith: Hos. ii. "The earth cries to the heavens; and the corn, and the wine, and the oil, cry to the earth." The whole creation teaches that there is something further provided for us than what we now enjoy. The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for further manifestations: Rom. viii. 19.

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"Ask," says Job, "the beasts, and they will tell

thee." So many creatures, so many teachers. The ox teaches to know our bountiful Lord. The ant preaches industry to man. We are again excited to look to the feathered creation for instruction. The fowls of the heavens seek their meat from God. "The stork knoweth her appointed times; the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgments of the Lord:" Jer. viii. 7. "The heathen indeed," as Mr. Jones of Nayland has observed, "regarded the world as a parable, the literal or bodily part of which is manifest to all men, while the hidden meaning is known only to the wise; that is, the moral in the fable, or the interpretation of the parable, was above vulgar apprehensions." Now that which was a mystery to the heathen is none to the Christian with the Bible in his hand; the secret is opened by Scripture, and the connexion of things is clearly unfolded. Whoever therefore sees this plan with an unprejudiced mind will be in the way to understand the Scriptures better than he could by the Scriptures alone.

There are, moreover, peculiar circumstances which constitute the material world a fit source of instruction: for instance, the universality of its lessons. Infidels say that our revelation meets the ear of only a small part of the world, but that if it were from heaven it would be universal. Time and means must effect a refutation of this objection, such as God will eventually provide; byt against the works of nature no such argument can be advanced, for they are of universal application, and every human being that has eyes and ears, with any share of observation and reflection, has the benefit here of an instructor. That they are not better instructed than what appears is owing to the same causes which leave men in a state of ignorance in England-a wicked and untractable nature. The works of God have a language every where intelligible. "There is no speech nor language where.