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SERMON I

THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.

Psalm civ. 24.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Psalm lxxvi. 10.

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places. Psalm cxxxv. 6.

Compare Psalm xcii. 5—6, and xciv. 8—10.

THAT there is such a thing as Evil in the world, and that evil men and spirits may tempt the unwary to their destruction, are truths which no sound Divine will venture to deny. Occasions will often arise, when it may be necessary to insist upon such topics, as inducements to that watchfulness and prayer, in which Christian Humility finds her armour.

Perhaps however a doubt may be suggested, whether the range of Evil is so extensive, and its operation so unmitigated, as on a superficial view we might be inclined to apprehend. In the mere physical world, it

1 I print this sermon, preached by me formerly as a resident Fellow at Cambridge, to be a sort of introduction to the more recent ones. After about eight years interval, I find little to change but some formal expressions which I would not now write for the first time.

W. S.

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