and consoling to reflect, that you have done your duty as members of society, and have sustained, honourably, the great interests that were committed to you? How animating too the prospect before you-how glorious the anticipations of the future? All the great interests of society safe; all its institutions secure and flourishing; a generation rising up under the influence of your example and training, intelligent, virtuous, enterprising; prepared to fill your places and carry on the system of human affairs. To them you commend all that you hold most dear on earth, the high interests of the church and society,—hapру in the assurance, that they will sustain the sacred trust and transmit the precious inheritance entire, to those who shall come after them. To a mind gladdening with such reflections and prospects, how bright and benignant shines the sun of declining life? The shades of evening gather around him in peace; he reposes in joyful hope, and all his powers are invigorated and cheered by the delightful visions that burst upon his view. LESSON IV. Benevolence of the Deity.-DICK. THE Benevolence of God is that perfection of his nature, by which he communicates happiness to the various ranks of sensitive and intelligent existence. The system of Nature, in all its parts, exhibits an unbounded display of this attribute of the Divine Mind, both in relation to man, and in relation to the subordinate tribes of animated existence. In relation to Man-the magnificence and glory of the heavens the variegated colouring which is spread over the scene of nature-the beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees, with which the earth is adorned, which not only delight the eye, but perfume the air with their delicious odors—the various kinds of agreeable sounds that charm the ear-the music of the feathered songsters, which fill the groves with their melody-the thousands of pleasant images which delight the eye, in the natural embellishments of creation-the agreeable feelings produced by the contact of almost every thing we have occasion to touch-the pleasure attached to eating, drinking, muscular motion, and activity-the luxuriant profusion, and rich variety of aliments which the earth affords-and the interchanges of thought and affection-all proclaim the Benevolence of our Almighty Maker, and show, that the communication of happiness is one grand object of all his arrangements. For, these circumstances are not essentially requisite to our existence. We might have lived, and breathed, and walked, though every thing we touched had produced pain; though every thing we ate and drank had been bitter; though every movement of our hands and feet had been accompanied with uneasiness and fatigue; though every sound had been as harsh as the saw of the carpenter; though no birds had warbled in the groves; though no flowers had decked the fields, or filled the air with their perfumes; though one unvaried scene of dull uniformity had prevailed, and beauty and sublimity had been swept from the face of nature; though the earth had been covered with a mantle of black, and no radiant orbs had appeared in our nocturnal sky. But what a miserable world should we then have inhabited, compared with that which we now possess ! Life would have passed away without enjoyment; and pain would have overbalanced the pleasure of existence. Whereas, in the existing constitution of things, all the objects around us, and every sense of which we are possessed, when preserved in its natural vigour, have a direct tendency to produce pleasing sensations, and to contribute to our enjoyment: and it is chiefly when we indulge in foolish and depraved passions, and commit immoral actions, that the benevolent intentions of the Deity are frustrated, and pain and misery produced. If we consider, farther, that the inexhaustible bounty of the Creator, and the numerous pleasures we enjoy, are bestowed upon a guilty race of men, the benevolence of the Deity will appear in a still more striking point of view. Man has dared to rebel against his Maker; he is a depraved and ungrateful creature. The great majority of our race have banished God from their thoughts, trampled upon his laws, neglected to contemplate his works, refused to pay him that tribute of reverence and adora tion which his perfections demand, have been ungrateful for his favours, have blasphemed his name, and have transferred to "four-footed beasts, and creeping things," that homage which is due to him alone. It has been the chief part of their employment, in all ages, to counteract the effects of his Beneficence, by inflicting injustice, oppression, and torture, upon each other; by maiming the human frame, burning cities and villages, turning fruitful fields into a wilderness, and, by every other act of violence, carrying death and destruction through the world. And, if water, air, and the light of heaven, had been placed within the limits of their controul, it is more than probable, that whole nations would have been occasionally deprived of these elements, so essential to human existence. Yet, notwithstanding the prevalence of such depraved dispositions, the streams of Divine benevolence towards our apostate race, have never yet been interrupted. The earth has never stopped in its career, and thrown nature into a scene of confusion; the light of heaven has never ceased to illume the world; the springs of water have never been dried up, nor has the fertile soil ceased to enrich the plains with golden harvests. God" hath not left himself without a witness" to his beneficence, in any age, in that he hath unceasingly bestowed on the inhabitants of the world, "rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." This is one of the characters of Deity which forms the most perfect contrast to the selfish and revengeful dispositions of man, which as far transcends human benevolence, as the heavens in extent surpass the earth—a character calculated to excite our highest love and admiration, and which we are called upon, in the Sacred Oracles, to imitate and revere. "Be ye merciful, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." "O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men." From such considerations, we learn, even from the system of nature, that mercy is an attribute of the Deity; for, if mercy consists in bestowing favours on those who are unworthy, or who merit punishment, the greatest sinners in all ages have shared in it, and every individual of the human race, now existing, enjoys a certain portion of those comforts which flow from the benevolent arrangements which the Creator has established. "He maketh the sun to arise on the evil and on the good." Though the nations in ancient times, as well as at present, "walked in their own ways," indulging in impiety, falsehood, lewdness, war, devastations, revenge, abominable idolatries, and every other violation of his law, he still supported the functions of their animal frames, and caused the influences of the sun, the rains, and the dews, to descend upon their fields, that they might be refreshed with his bounty, and filled" with food and gladness." If mercy were not an essential attribute of the Deity, he would have cut them down in the midst of their first transgressions, shattered to pieces the globe on which they dwelt, and buried them in eternal oblivion. But whether Divine mercy will extend to the final forgiveness of sin, and the communication of eternal happiness to such beings, can be learned only from the discoveries of Revelation. In relation to the inferior animals-the immense multitude of living creatures with which the earth is replenished, is a striking evidence of the vast profusion of Divine Beneficence. More than a hundred thousand species of animated beings are dispersed through the different regions of the air, the water, and the earth, besides myriads which are invisible to the unassisted eye. To estimate the number of individuals belonging to any one species is beyond the power of man. What countless myriads of herrings, for example, are contained in a single shoal, which is frequently more than six miles long, and three miles broad! To estimate the number of individuals in all the different species would, therefore, be as impossible as to count the grains of sand in the Arabian deserts. There is not a single spot, in any region of the globe, but what teems with animated beings. Yet, all this vast assemblage of sensitive existence is amply provided for by the bountiful Creator. These all wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due season." They enjoy not only life, but also a happy existence. “ The sportive motions, and gesticulations of all the animal tribes-the birds skimming through the air, warbling in the groves, and perching on the trees-the beasts of the field, bounding in the forests, and through the lawns -the fishes sporting in the waters-the reptiles wriggling in the dust, and the winged insects, by a thousand wanton mazes-all declare that they are rejoicing in their existence, and in the exercise of those powers with which the Creator has furnished them. So that wherever we turn our eyes, we evidently perceive, that "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord," and that "his tender mercies are over all his works.” LESSON V. The same Subject.-WILCOX. Or God's Benevolence, proof in his works God seeks not his, as men their glory seek; |