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SERMON XXII.

EZEKIEL, Xviii. 32.

have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

THESE words are addressed to the House of Israel, who were a stiff-necked, and rebellious generation. Highly favoured had they been in receiving instructions from Heaven, and well did they know, that to walk according to the commandments of the Lord was the most effectual way to secure happiness. Yet, with this knowledge of what was right, they were perpetually doing the things that are wrong, and because they found pleasure in following the devices and desires of their own hearts, they insisted upon indulging themselves, whatever might be the consequence. But, the merciful God, who willeth not the death of a sinner, allowed them not so to do, without sending his messengers, the Prophets, to apprise them of their danger, and to exhort them, with the most affectionate intreaty, to avoid that misery, which perseverance in

wickedness would inevitably bring upon them. The great God of Heaven and Earth, though he might have consumed them in a moment, yet spared them from day to day, and most plainly shewed, by his forbearance and long suffering, as well as by the various methods which he used to reclaim them from their evil ways, how greatly he desired their salvation.

As the most powerful incentives to duty are love and gratitude, I shall make it my business to shew, from what the Scriptures reveal on the subject, what is the disposition of God towards his reasonable creatures; and I hope thereby to induce you to think more seriously than you have been accustomed to do, and not to fly in the face of your most gracious benefactor. With a view then to convince you of the benevolence of our Creator towards the children of men, consider his various dispensations of goodness in creating, preserving, and redeeming them; in instructing and guiding; in reproving and correcting them, and in bringing them, in despite of all the opposition of Satan and his agents, to a state of the most inexpressible happiness and glory. Consider,

1st. The regard which God has shewn to wards mankind in the work of creation. See the dignity of their creation, and mark well the high and particular honour which is conferred

upon them. Thus ran the words in the book of Genesis concerning this wonderful operation of the Divine power and goodness, "God said let us make man in our image and in our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." * Thus man, you perceive, was made in the image of God; and it seems, from the manner of the expression " Let us make man," as if the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had entered into a consultation for the performance of the amazing work. Such a creature, so dignified and so exalted, we may well suppose to have been the object of his Maker's particular regard; that he continually looked upon him with an eye of favour; and that he had blessings innumerable to confer upon him, to make his happiness everlasting. Yet blessed as man was, he did not continue so, and we must ascribe his fall to his not choosing to obey the only injunction that was given him. He ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, concerning which God had said "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Then happiness forsook him; then he became subject to mortality,

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and liable to all those evils of pain, sickness, and sorrow, which fail not sooner or later to bring the body to dissolution. Having thus freely chosen death, or in other words, having been guilty of that disobedience which infallibly leads to it, justice seemed to demand that the offender should perish without remedy; yet no sooner had the first act of transgression past, than the merciful God shewed his unwillingness to let the sinner perish, and therefore he immediately provided a way of recovery for every one who should be disposed to take the advantage of it. A gracious promise was given, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; that is, that Christ, who was signified by that seed, should destroy the power of Satan, who had used the body of the serpent as an instrument for that temptation in which he had unhappily succeeded. The care of God for the fallen race appeared afterwards on various occasions; but I do not intend to take notice of any in particular, till we come to the appointment of the priesthood, which was established with such particular attention, and which was arranged, in the several cir cumstances pertaining to it, with such minute. exactness, that the great God appeared to take infinite pains, if I may be allowed so to speak, to convince us that his purpose of saving man

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