human family, then they have no right to enslave one another. 4. Since all nations are of one blood and brethren of the nation should rise or fall, or become mixed with any other nation. In a word, he appointed the times, when all the revolutions among the nations of the earth should take place. In these appointments, he has manifested peculiar care, wisdom, and kindness, in disposing of the large family of mankind. It requires great care, wisdom, and kindness in a parent, to dispose of his numerous family, in the wisest and best manner. It requires more care, wisdom, and kindness in a prince to dispose of his numerous subjects in the wisest and best manner. But it required far greater care, wisdom, and kindness in God, to settle the innumerable children of Adam in their proper places in this world. All the nations of the earth are under strong obligations of gratitude to God for determining their times and the bounds of their habitation. Though they cannot see why they are placed as they are, yet God knows why, and they have reason to be satisfied with the divine allotment. They may know that if they are really contented, it will eventually be for the glory of God, and their own good. 5. If God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and they are all brethren of the same family, then he has exercised his absolute sovereignty in a very striking manner, in the government of the world. He has made great and innumerable distinctions among the nations and inhabitants of the earth. How differently did he treat the three branches of Noah's family, causing them to separate far and wide from each other, and fixing the bounds of their habitation in very different parts of the earth? How differently did he treat Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau? How differently did he treat his own people, and all other nations? He has placed one nation in a warm and another in a cold country. He has placed one nation in a rich, and another in a poor, barren country. He has raised one nation to great power, opulence, and dignity, and reduced many other people to servitude, poverty and meanness. He has placed families and individuals in ten thousand different circumstances. He has governed the whole world and all the inhabitants of it, in a mysterious and incomprehensible manner. All things have come alike to all; there has been one event to the righteous and to the wicked. The race has not been to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but to human view, time and chance has happened to them all. We cannot conceive how God could have made more or greater distinctions among men in this life, than he has made, or how he could have made greater or more visible displays of his sovereignty in governing one and the same large family. But still it is denied by thousands, that God has a right to act as a sovereign in this sing before nations and kingdoms, kings and princes, high and 6. Has God made of one blood all nations of men, and have they been so slow in coming to their present state of knowledge, holiness and happiness? then we have ground to think, that the world will stand many centuries longer. The earth is far from being fully inhabited. There is room for a far wider spread of the human family over the four quarters of the globe. Their numbers may increase an hundred fold; their knowledge may increase with their numbers; and their holiness and happiness may increase in proportion to their numbers and knowledge. God has made men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and it will undoubtedly be covered with them for a thousand years at least. The earth will be filled with holiness and happiness, and the glory of God, as the waters cover the seas, and bear a lively resemblance to the world above. The great and glorious fruits of the sufferings and death of the divine Redeemer, will be astonishingly great in the eyes of the whole intelligent creation, when his kingdom shall come, and his will shall be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 7. Has God made of one blood all nations of men who now dwell on all the face of the earth, who have dwelt on the earth, and who will hereafter dwell on the earth? Then the whole family of Adam will be immensely numerous. If the seed of Abraham will be as the stars of heaven for multitude, what will be the seed of Adam? Their numbers will be beyond human calculation, if not beyond human conception. This immense family are to have one universal and solemn meeting. For, "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." We shall all be placed in this solemn attitude on that great day, to hear our own doom, the doom of the whole human race, and of the whole intelligent creation. The division will be irreversible. The righteous shall go away into life eternal; but the wicked into everlasting punishment. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." Are we prepared to see what we must see; to hear what we must hear; and to be where we must be, to all eternity? We are upon trial, and the trial will soon close, in eternal joy or sorrow. Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. SERMON II. DIGNITY OF MAN. DONATION OF BOOKS, BY DR. FRANKLIN, 1786. SHOW thyself a man. -1 KINGS ii. 2. DAVID closed the scene of life with that propriety of conduct, and that composure of mind, which at once displayed the beauty of religion and the dignity of human nature. When the time of his departure drew nigh he had nothing to do to prepare for death, but only, like other pious and illustrious patriarchs, to converse with his friends, and to give them his last and best advice. And as he had, some time before, committed to Solomon the care of his family and government of his kingdom; so he felt a strong and ardent desire that this beloved son, in whom he had reposed such important trusts, should appear with dignity, and act a noble and worthy part upon the stage of life. Accordingly he called him into his presence, and with equal solemnity and affection, addressed him in these memorable words: "I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man." This appellation sometimes signifies the dignity, and sometimes the meanness of our nature. Job makes use of it to express our meanness and turpitude in the sight of God. “How can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the Son of man which is a worm." But Isaiah employs this same appellative to represent the dignity of human nature, when he calls upon stupid idolaters to "remember this, and show themselves men." So here David, in his dying address to Solomon, "show thyself a man," evidently means to use the term in the best sense, |