penitence, we may turn the joy and gladness, spoken of in my text, into grief and terror. For most undoubtedly the fudge of all the earth will do what is right. He will not fail to execute judgment on obftinate and incorrigible offenders. But if we obey his laws, and keep his commandments; if we fincerely endeavour to fulfil his will, and discharge our duty; we are sure of his acceptance, encouragement, and favour. Moft gently shall we be treated, most graciously indulged, and most abundantly rewarded. No good thing will be withhold from his faithful fubjects and fervants. Happy then are all they who are in fuch a cafe; yea, blessed are the people whe have the Lord for their God.

SER

SERMON XVIII.

The Dignities and Diftinctions of Human Nature.

PSALM VIII. Verfe 5.

For thou haft made him a little lower than the angels, and haft crowned him with glory and honour.

HATEVER was the immediate

W occafion of this pfalm, and whatever

remote views may be afcribed to it of a prophetic nature, yet, in its direct and primary conftruction, it evidently contains a pious contemplation and acknowledgment of God's unfpeakable wifdom and goodness, manifefted in the works of the creation, and more particularly in the formation of man, whom he elsewhere reprefents as wonderfully made, and here fets forth as peculiarly favoured and eminently diftinguished; vested with

Y 2

with fuch powers and privileges, and poffeffed of fuch honour and dignities, as conflitute him little inferior to the very angels themselves.

For

The dignity of human nature may be confidered either comparatively, that is, in relation to the various tribes of creatures between us, or abfolutely and in itself. wherever there is found the image of the great Creator, there, we may affirm, is real and abfolute dignity; which therefore may justly be ascribed to man, on account of his being exprefsly allowed in Scripture to be formed after God's image, and of thofe high powers and faculties wherein that image is fuppofed to confift. The honour indeed which is done him in Scripture by the attribution of his Maker's likenefs, has been by fome differently explained and understood, as if it confifted not in perfonal powers, but in that authority and dominion given him over all other living creatures on the face of the earth. Whatever refemblance may arife from this dominion, it cannot, I think, be allowed that this is the principal ground of the honour we are speaking of; forafmuch as it feems only a natural confequence of thofe intellectual and moral powers with which God has bleffed the children of men.

Here

Here therefore, in all probability, we must trace the Divine Image, as well as fearch for that pre-eminence and diftinction wherein the Pfalmift triumphs in my text. By thefe chiefly is our nature ennobled, and even our inferior faculties raised, refined, and rendered more valuable.

The perceptions of fenfe belong, more or lefs, to all animals, many of which are poffeffed equally by men and brutes. Nay, in fome inftances, their fenfes are stronger and quicker than ours; and perhaps their inftincts more numerous and extenfive, which, all things confidered, may be looked upon as neceffary for the prefervation of their beings, and the continuance of their fpecies. Nevertheless how wide, how remarkable a difference is there between their perceptions and ours! Thofe very creatures which have the fharpeft and most piercing fight, how poorly, how imperfectly do they perceive external objects in comparison of man! In him the external power is accompanied with an internal one, which enables him to discover that order, that proportion, that beauty, of which no inferior creature appears to have the leaft idea, Hence he becomes a fit fpectator of God's works, and is fo far capable of beholding and admiring

the wonders of the creation: hence he enjoys the pleasures of extended views, and fpacious profpects, and can entertain himself with all the varieties of art and nature. He can lift up his eyes to the heavens, and furvey the glories of the firmament; difcovering there, and indeed every where, abundant matter for the exercife and employment even of his highest faculties and this fuperiority of human fenfe is not peculiar to that of fight. While other creatures only hear founds in fuch a manner as conduces to the purposes of animal life, man is capable of discovering their proportions, and thereby qualified for the perception and pleasure of harmony; which, properly speaking, cannot be afcribed to any ear but his own. And in him this fenfe is, in a wonderful manner, fubfervient to the use and operation of his nobleft powers, as will be further obferved and confidered afterwards.

If from the powers and perceptions of fense we go on to thofe of imagination and memory, the mind of man appears to ftill greater advantage, and the difference between him and other animals much wider. Though the images which brutes derive from fenfe, may really make impreffion, and