things of him, even his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, are manifested. If we consider the things which he has made either in their magnitude, their extent, their number, their variety, their beauty, their usefulness, or their manner of production,-in each of these respects, they lead us to the most admiring and adoring apprehensions of his unsearchable greatness and glory. In the Gospel we find the disciples of our Saviour admiring the grandeur and workmanship of the temple at Jerusalem. In their superb palaces, temples, towers, and other edifices, the kings of the earth have been ambitious of making a display of their greatness and magnificence. But what are all human structures, even those called the wonders of the world, in comparison with the fabrick of the universe? What are all other architects to Him who buildeth his stories in the heavens? If we consider the creation as it appears to the vulgar eye, or according to the plain and simple account of it given in Scripture; if we think of God as laying the foundations of the earth, hanging it upon nothing, bringing this beautiful and well furnished world into being, preparing the bottomless abyss as a prison for his enemies; erecting the third heaven as the presence chamber of the great King, those beatific mansions forming the promised seats of the blessed; and as hanging out in the firmament below, the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars-those splendid symbols of uncreated glory and magnificence,-what august

ideas of the Author rush upon and overwhelm our understandings!

Views still more extended are held forth by the light of philosophy. The learned profess, with a degree of accuracy, to ascertain the circumference and diameter of the earth, to calculate its bulk, and to assure us that though it be so prodigious, there are other planets belonging to the solar system still greater; that the sun itself, the source of all their light and heat, is of a magnitude so vast, that in comparison with it, this earth is but a mere spot-that besides his regular planets, there are many other bodies falling within the compass of his attraction, called comets, consisting of huge masses of matter, far surpassing the bulk of this earth-that beyond all these, in the trackless fields of ether, or rather in the immensity of space, are what are called the fixed stars, glistening through all parts of the heavenly canopy, yet so inconceivably distant as to have no sensible connexion with our solar system. As they appear to shine by their own native light, it has been conjectured that they may all be so many suns, each, like ours, encircled by its system of planets, or worlds; and all these inhabited by creatures whose natures and capacities may be infinitely diversified, filling up numberless gradations in the scale of created existence. We are lost and swallowed up in such contemplations. "Who, by searching, can find out God," or ascertain the number or extent of his works, or announce to us their limits? So far

as we are able to survey them, they are as beautiful and useful, as they are grand and stupendous; bearing upon them order and uniformity of design amidst the most complicated variety. As adapted to the enjoyment of sensitive beings, and to enlarge and improve the faculties of rational, intelligent natures, we are constrained to view them as so many streams of good, emanating from the infinite, inexhaustible fountain. Well may we ascribe greatness to their author! What works, or whose, may be compared with his ?

In constructing the dwellings of man, the united skill and strength of numbers are requisite; but God neither had nor needed assistance in rearing the fabrick of nature. Men must have materials, instruments, and engines, or they cannot build; but if God made use of pre-existent materials in forming the world, they were such as he himself had created. In every case, his word, LET IT BE, was sufficient for the instantaneous production. Well might the morning stars sing and shout for joy, when they beheld the frame of nature rising, the heavens expanding, and this visible universe assuming order and form.

In contemplating his works of providence, as well as those of creation, we may find equal reason for ascribing greatness to our God. As the universe was made by his power, so it is sustained and governed by his providence. Wherever he has given existence to creatures, there the continued energy of his providence upholds their being and provides

for them. This energy is spread through the whole creation to a minuteness which our thoughts cannot pursue, and to an universality that admits of no exemption. Throughout creation, in the outlying regions of the universe as well as at the centre of the earth, the immediate action of his providence binds together the parts and particles of matter, constitutes their solidity, maintains the laws of motion, and regulates every movement; pervading, surrounding, and governing the whole, every change and event, from the greatest to the most minute, even to the deciding upon the life of a sparrow, and adjusting the number of hairs on every head. It is by the unremitting agency of his providence that the several parts and members of our bodies are held together, that our organs of sense perform their functions, that the blood flows in our veins, and the breath heaves our lungs. It is IN HIM that we live, and move, and breathe, and have our being.

As in the natural, so in the moral world, he superintends whatever takes place, doing his pleasure among the armies of heaven above, and among the inhabitants of the earth below. The affairs of all nations, families, and of each individual, are the objects of his care. To none of all these does any evil happen, or any good accrue, without his appointment. The rectitude of his administration, the justice and mercy of his character, are displayed in rendering to men according to their works, not perfectly indeed or in every instance during this probationary

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state, but so far as ought to give us ample a ance of its completion hereafter. His present works of terror and compassion in his judgments upon the wicked, and his deliverances to the righteous, are certain pledges of a future full retribution to all and every one. This inference is forced upon us by the general history of his dispensations towards mankind from the earliest ages; in his saving Noah and his family, while he brought a flood of waters on the world of the ungodly; in rescuing righteous Lot from the flames which consumed the sinners of Sodom; in delivering his ancient Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and in preserving them ⚫ from the plagues inflicted on their oppressors; and

in all the wonders which attended them before and after their settlement in Canaan, through the lapse of a long course of ages, till they were rejected from being his people.

Wonders also both of judgment and of mercy have attended the planting, increase, and preservation of the christian church amidst the continual opposition of earth and hell. Towards no part of this church, in modern times, have the dispensations of Providence been more illustrious and signal, perhaps, than to that planted in these New England states. Our ears have heard and our fathers have told us what great things were done for them in their day.* Since we ourselves have been upon the stage, scenes have opened and revolutions taken

*This sermon was preached on the day of the general Thanksgiving for Peace, April 13th, 1815.