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may confound all the atheistical fools in the world, who fay. in their hearts or practice, "There is no god ;" and at the fame time difcover to us, that man is but a poor dependent creature, deriving all his powers in foul and body from an infinite God: hence is that challenge, If ii. at the close, "Cease ye from man, whofe breath is in his noftrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" This challenge, together with the words in my text, are enough to ftain the pride of all gloriation in man; Lord, what is man, for wherein is he to be accounted of? Efpecially when balanced with the excellency of his glorious Creator, he just evanishes into nothing. You heard upon the first head of doctrine, what man is in general, as a creature and as a finner. Now let us take a view of him in his best excellencies and qualifications, and fee what they will amount to in God's reckoning, or compared with the infinite excellency of his infinite Creator? What account is to be made of his being before God? why, he is not, for 'tis God only whofe name is, I AM. What account is to be made of man in his pedigree, which fome, like the princes of Zoan, boast of? why, he is the "degenerate plant of a ftrange vine." What account is to be made of his riches? why, these take the wings of the morning, and fly away, and cannot "profit man in the day of wrath." What account is to be made of his honours? they cannot "defcend to the grave after him.” What account is to be made of all his projects and schemes? why, that day" his breath departs, his thoughts perith," and are all difconcerted and dafhed in pieces. What account is to be made of his beauty? it is quickly turned into rottennefs and deformity. The wildom of man before God is but folly, his knowledge fpecious ignorance, his ftrength and power is but impotency. What is his life in the world, but a vapour which the wind of sickness and death blows away, out of time into eternity? upon the whole, then, may we not well cry, Lord, what is man, and wherein is he to be accounted of? Let us ceafe from trusting in man; for "curfed is the man, that' trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whofe heart departeth from the Lord: but bleffed is the man, that trufteth in the Lord, and whofe hope the Lord is," Jer. xvii. 5. 6.

2dly, See hence the horrid ingratitude of finners, in waging war against that God, who is fo good and fo kind unto man. Oh what tongue can exprefs, or what heart can conceive, the monftrous ingratitude of finners, in rejecting his laws, tram pling on his authority, affronting him every day to his face? May not the Lord fay to us, "Do ye thus requite the Lord, Oh ye foolish and unwife? Oh my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? teftify against VOL. III.

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me; was I ever a barren wilderness, or a land of darknefs' unto you?

3dly, See hence the way and method that God takes to "lead finners to repentance: why, he just pursues them with his kindnefs, and draws them with cords of a man, with bands of love; knoweft thou not, O man, that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" The first thing that melts and thaws the heart of a finner, in a kindly way, is an uptaking of the love and kindnefs of God to man, efpecially as it vents through the death and blood of Chrift, in the free pardon of fin, and acceptance through Chrift. Whenever the foul comes to fee that love, that grace, that mercy and bowels, that it has been fpurning againft, it begins to fmite upon its thigh, with Ephraim, faying, "What have I done?" and with David, "Against thee, thee only, have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight." And it is this that influences the turning of the foul from fin unto God, with full purpose and endeavour after new obedience; faying, with Job, "That which I fee not, teach thou me, if I have done iniquity, I will do no more:" the foul is juft killed and melted with a fenfe and uptaking of the love of God.

4thly, Is God fo good and fo kind to worm man? then fee hence, what a reafonable command the first command of the law is, "Thou fhalt have no other gods before me :" that is, Thou shalt know and acknowledge me as God, and as thy God, and fhalt worship and glorify me accordingly.' Oh! fhall we give any thing, any creature, any luft, any idol, that room in our hearts, that is due unto fuch a kind Lord? fhall we not fay with Ephraim, "What have I to do any more with idols? O Lord, our God, other lords befides thee have had dominion over us, but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. All people will walk in the name of their God; and we also will walk up and down in the name of the Lord our God. Whom have we in the heavens but him? and there fhall be none in all the earth whom we defire befides him?"

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5thly, See hence the criminal nature of the fin of unbelief, which is a faying upon the matter, God is not to be trusted, notwithstanding all his kindneffes, pity, and love to man. He calls him a liar and fays there is no good to be got at his hand; that he is a hard mafter, and his words are no indications of his mind: an evil heart of unbelief turns us away from the living God why, what way doth it this? It just acts the part of the falfe fpies that went up to Canaan, and brings up an ill report of a good God, of a true and faithful God: it fays "His mercy is clean gone, he will be favourable no more, his promife fails for evermore" and as Ifrael turned back to

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Egypt, when they heard the ill report that the falfe fpies brought of Canaan; fo the foul, when it hears the ill report, that unbelief brings up of God, the heart turns away from him. O Sirs! take heed of an evil heart of unbelief, efpecially after that you have been at a communion table. There is nothing that the devil more cherishes and fofters folk in, than in their unbelief: this was the way that he ruined man at first; he made our first parents, firft to conceive harsh thoughts of that good God who had been fo kind to them, and then quickly he ruins them; and this is the very way that he still goes to work with his pofterity; he tells you, that whatever God has done in fending his Son, whatever he has faid in his word, whatever experience of his love you have met with, yet you have no ground upon which to trust him, his promise fails, he has forfaken and forgotten. If he once brings you this length, I know not how far God may be provoked to give you up to the will of the roaring lion.

6thly, Is God fo kind to man? worm, worthlefs man? Is the regard that he fhews to us fo furprising and wonderful? then let us discover a regard to him, and to every thing that belongs to him.

I thall inftance in a few particulars, wherein we are to dif cover our regard to him and for him.

1. Let us regard him even in the works of nature; the works of creation in heaven above, and in the earth below. This is a large volume, opened and spread out before all mankind: it was a book in which David was frequently reading, and he took great pleafure to fee God there," O Lord my God, how great and manifold are thy works? In wisdom haft thou made them all." The whole 104th pfalm is a lecture upon the works of creation, and the order God has established among the creatures. See alfo pfalm 8th beginning, and pfalm 19th beginning, &c.

2. Let us regard him in his works of providence, in the government of the world, and in the government of his church, through all periods of time; and let us regard him in all the difpenfations of his providence towards the land we live in, and to our families and ourfelves in particular, Pfal. cvii. at the close, "Whofo is wife, and will obferve thefe things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." When he is tryting us with favourable difpenfations, let us obferve this with praife: and when he is trylting us with afflicting difpenfations, let us humble ourselves under his mighty hand, that he may lift us up, &c. Pfal. xxviii. 5. "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he fhall deftroy them, and not build them up."

3. Let us regard him in his Chrift, and the glorious work of 'redemption through him, and, beholding him, lift up the everlasting doors of our hearts unto "the Lord of hofts, the Lord mighty in battle." It is the great fin of Scotland, for which the Lord is contending, that Chrift has not been received and regarded, either in his prophetical, prieftly, or kingly offices. You know what came of them who did not regard the Lord, and reverence him, in the perfon of his Son: he "fent forth his armies, and miferably destroyed them :" I fear armies of men, whofe language we do not understand, fhall travel through our land, and avenge the quarrel of a defpifed, contemned, and affronted Chrift, &c.

4. Let us regard him in his book of the fcriptures. We call the fcriptures the book of God; and fo it is, for it is given by the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft; and therefore let us regard it, by reading and fearching and diving into it, till we find the pearl; John v. 39. "Search the fcriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which teftify of me." And to encourage a regard to it, fee Prov. ii. 2-4. God obferves what regard is paid to his book among folk; Take heed to it, as unto a light fhining in a dark place."

5. Regard him by attending his courts, I mean the ordinances of his worship, word and facraments, efpecially the word preached, where his heralds are fent to proclaim and Intimate his mind" in the high places to men, and to the fons of men." David, though a great king, looked on it as his honour, to attend the courts of the King of kings, and esteemed" a day in his courts better than a thousand in the tents of wickedness. God's way is in his fanctuary:" these are the galleries where he has many a fweet interview with his fubjects. "One thing (fays David) have I defired of the Lord, that will I feek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire after him in his temple." These are the banqueting-houses, where he entertains them with "fat things full of marrow."

6. Shew a regard to his great name. This is one of the ten commands of his moral law, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for he will not hold him guiltlefs that taketh his name in vain." Oh!" fanctify that great name, the Lord your God," and make it " your fear and your dread." Be aware of profaning it either in your common converfation, or by your unneceffary customary fwearing by it, or by a flight mentioning of it even in religious duty; and ay when ye go to mention that name in any duty of worfhip, itudy to fill your minds with a holy awe and dread of it, Src.

7. Shew

7. Shew a regard of his day, and put refpect upon him, by remembering it, "to keep it holy." See a fweet and encouraging promife to them that regard God's day, If. lviii. at the clofe; " If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and fhalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleafure, nor fpeaking thine own words; then thalt thou delight thyfelf in the Lord, and I will caufe thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath fpoken it." I am ready to judge, that folk's acquaintance with God himfelf is known by the regard they fhew to his holy day.

8. Shew a regard unto his voice; the voice of his word; the voice of his Spirit; the voice of his providence; the voice of mercies, and the voice of afflictions: for the Lord's voice crieth in all these, and it is the man of wisdom that hears his voice, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: be not like the deaf adder ftopping her ear at the voice of charmers, charming never fo wifely." Whenever he comes, fay," Speak, Lord, for thy fervant heareth." His voice is fweeter than the melody of angels and archangels to the foul that knows him: "It is the voice of my beloved, behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, fkipping upon the hills."

9. Shew a regard to all his lanes and commandments; get them engraven upon your hearts, that they may be a lamp to your feet, and a light to your paths.

10. Shew a regard to his promifes and words of grace, and any word of grace that he feals, and fends home by his Spirit upon thy heart; let that be a michtam or golden word to thee; and fay of it, "It is better to me than gold, yea, than much fine gold: God hath spoken in his holinets, I will rejoice :" roll it like a "fweet morfel under thy tongue."

11. Shew a regard to his members, by efteeming them as the "excellent ones of the earth," and doing all the offices of kindness to them that ye are capable of: for what says he, Matth. xxv. 40. "Inafmuch as ye have done it unto one of the leaft of thefe my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Cultivate fellowship and acquaintance with thefe that belong to the Lord, and let them be the men of your counfel, and your intimates. My "delight is with the faints." Tell them that fear the Lord, what he hath done for your foul *.

12. Regard him in his meffengers and ambasadors, his fent fervants, But let it be done in a judicious way, that they may be excited to join with you in celebrating his praises.

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