SERMON I.

ON THE CONDESCENSION AND GOODNESS OF GOD TO MAN.

Psalm viii. 4.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

IT is a happy circumstance when the contemplation of the works of nature leads the mind to reflect upon their great Author, and to adore him. This, however, is not always, the case. With pain it must be acknowledged, that there have been philosophers who have measured the immense magnitude of the heavenly orbs, and surveyed the swiftness and order of their motion; who have examined the exquisitely curious structure of the human body, and observed how fearfully and wonderfully we are made; and yet have not been led by their admirable discoveries to worship and obey the great Creator. It was not thus with the Psalmist. You may figure to yourself the king of Israel, at the time he composed this Psalm, sitting by night in his garden, to contemplate the starry heaven, and watch the planets rolling through the serene at

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mosphere of an eastern sky. In him every faculty of the soul was sanctified, and every object ministered to the service of God. He breaks out, therefore, in the language of religious adoration:-"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!- who hast set thy glory in, the heavens!"-And then, considering the majesty of God, "the heavens, the work of his fingers; and the moon and the stars which he had ordained;" he cannot conceal his astonishment, that such a great and glorious God should notice a creature so insignificant as man, and visit him with his presence and blessing. "Lord," he adds, "what is man, that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man that thou visitest him?”

If we fall into the same train of meditation as the Psalmist, we may fix our thoughts upon the following points.

I. The meanness of man, and his unworthiness of the regard and affection of the Most High God.

II. The greatness and majesty of God, and yet the condescension and goodness which he has been pleased to shew, in being "mindful of man, and in visiting him."

I. The meanness of man, and his unworthiness of the regard and affection of the Most High God.”. Whenever man singles out one of his fellow-creatures with peculiar regard, it is on account of some amiable or useful quality he supposes him to possess; his powers to entertain and communicate pleasure, his benevolence of disposition, his strict integrity, or his ability to grant protection and to confer benefits. These form the ordinary basis upon which esteem is built; and without some such basis, affection degenerates into a mere brutal instinct unworthy of a rational being. There must also be suitableness and correspondence between the persons allied in friendship. The great and noble unite themselves to persons in an elevated station. The learned and wise consort with persons of taste and knowledge. The pious and excellent seek

for companions amidst such as fear the Lord. In vain however, shall we look to these several sources of esteem, to account for that regard which God has been pleased to entertain for man: for when we survey man, and compare him with the Divine Being, there appears every thing which would tend to break the bonds of union. Such a dissimilarity of taste, as well as difference of rank, exists in this case; such a want of those dispositions which alone can appear amiable and excellent, in the eyes of a holy God, is discoverable in man; that it would appear to be almost morally impossible the glorious Jehovah should ever "be mindful of him, and visit him."

I do not here set before you the intellectual meanness of man, or the scanty and limited nature of his powers and faculties; though indeed these, when compared with the excellent glory of the Divine Nature, would seem to form an insurmountable obstacle to union. For "what is man?" He is "like a thing of nought." Take the noblest part of him, his mind.-Far be it from us to undervalue any of the works of God, and much less the chief of those works. But when our end is to exalt God, then surely we may say, as the Psalmist did, "yet let God be true and every man” be found "a liar," or vanity, before him."What, then, is man," with all his boasted powers? How scanty the limits of his comprehension! Instead of seeing, as a more perfect creature may see, all truth by intuition, what pains must he take, and what helps must he use; to what patient study and laborious investigation must he submit, in order to discover even a small part of that truth which is within his comprehension! I say, within his comprehension; for it is probably but a very small part indeed of the whole compass of knowledge which he is capable of discerning. Many of the sublime truths which relate to the existence of God, and to eternal things, it is impossible for him, however ardent his pursuit, to comprehend. And how dim is the light, even of that knowledge he does possess; how

mixed with error: how hardly acquired; how easily lost! But the natural defect and scantiness of his powers is not the point on which I would insist. There are more serious obstacles to an union between him and a holy God. There is a moral opposition between them. Man is a depraved and sinful, as well as a weak, creature. There prevails in him not merely a darkness with respect to spiritual things, but a dislike to them. He shuts his eyes against the light of truth: he is prone to ridicule, to despise, to revile it: he loves his own grovelling ideas; he is a slave to those corrupt passions which are hateful to God: he takes pleasure not merely in trifles, but in sin: his heart is the seat of vanity and vice; his understanding is blind to the beauty of Divine things: his will is no longer free to what is good: his memory is tenacious only of what is bad: his judgment is perverse; his affections are unhallowed.

It must be admitted, indeed, that there are remains of dignity in man which sometimes break forth and shew his original; his desires are sometimes great, and he pants after immortality: his spirit seems not unfrequently to burst the bonds of its prison, to feel indignant at its captivity to sin, and to aspire after a happier and holier state. But, setting aside the influence of the Spirit of God, with whom those better feelings originate, we may remark, that these very endeavours betray his weakness and corruption. Were there no knowledge of a better state: were no desires felt, and no efforts made to attain it, we could not so fully ascertain the feebleness of man. But when desires so strong generally fail, and attempts so earnest prove abortive, it is evident, there must be some radical defect and inherent corruption in man, which unfits him for what is truly great and excellent.

To know what man is, we ought not to consider of what he is capable under circumstances peculiarly favourable, but to look at him as he generally is. Cast your eyes, then, around the world. First contemplate the abundant means of grace, the awful remonstrances,

the clear instruction, the powerful motives God has employed for the reformation of mankind, and then observe the actual state of mankind. Mark the dissensions which prevail in it; nation rising up against nation; the feuds of private families or states; the acts of cruelty and fraud; the insatiable cravings of ambition; the secret workings of lust! Explore the hearts of men, and see how they are occupied; how low and sordid their desires; how foolish and vain their pursuits; how much of their time is consumed either in doing nothing or in doing wrong! It is a scene from which the philosopher, as well as the religious man, retires with disgust. "Lord, what is man?" Yet, of him, God is "mindful."

II. Let us, therefore, in the second place, contemplate the nature of the great and glorious God, and judge how unlikely it is that he should be "mindful of man, or visit him."

I am aware how little we are acquainted with the Divine Nature. But though we cannot tell what He is, we can say what he is not: though we cannot comprehend his perfections, we understand enough of them to see how unfit they appear for any union with man.

Consider, then, a Being, who, full and complete in himself, needs no addition, and feels no want; a Being who knows all things, embraces the past, the present, and the future, in one comprehensive glance:-a Being Almighty; who, by the simple exertion of his will, can create or destroy. “What is man, whose breath is in his nostrils," that such a Being should "regard him?” He sitteth in the circle of the heavens, and the inhabitants of the earth are as "grasshoppers before him. The nations are as the drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance." "All nations before him are nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity." "Wherein then is man to be accounted of?"-The peculiar attribute of God is holiness. "Behold the very heavens are unclean in his sight, and he chargeth his angels with fol