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SERMON V.

The Vanity of attempting to oppose God.

PROVERBS xxi. 30.

There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord.

How mean and despicable soever the human heart since the fall may be, there are always found in it some principles of grandeur and elevation. Like such superb edifices as time hath demolished, it discovers even in its ruins some vestiges of its primitive splendour. Whatever presents itself to man under the idea of great and noble, strikes and dazzles him: whatever presents itself to him under the idea of low and servile, shocks and disgusts him. Accordingly one of the most formidable methods of attacking religion is to exhibit it as a contrivance fit for narrow geniusses and mean souls. One of the most proper means to establish irreligion is to represent it as suited to great and generous minds. To rise above vulgar ideas, to shake off the yoke of conscience, to derive felicity and glory from self, to make fortune, victory, providence, and deity itself yield to human will, these are pretensions, which have, I know not what in them, to flatter that foolish pride, which an erroneous mind confounds with

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true magnanimity. We propose to-day, my brethren, to combat these dangerous prejudices, to dissipate all such appearances of grandeur and elevation, and to make you feel the extravagance of all those, who have the audacity to attempt to oppose Almighty God. The wise man calls us to this meditation in the words of the text. There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord.

Perhaps you will accuse us (and we will enter on the subject by examining this objection) perhaps you will accuse us of creating phantoms to combat. Perhaps you will defy us to find among the different classes of idiots, whom society cherishes in its bosom, any one, who hath carried his extravagance so far as to presume to oppose God, or to pretend to constrain him by superior knowledge or power.

My brethren, one of the most difficult subjects in the study of the human heart is, when a man leads a certain course of life, to determine whether he have adopted the extravagant principles on which his conduct is founded, and without which his conduct is the most palpable folly. Take which side we will, whether that he acts on principles, or without them, the case will appear extremely difficult. On the one hand, we can hardly persuade ourselves that an intelligent creature, who is capable of governing a state, regulating a large and extensive commerce, and of arranging a variety of systems, should entertain notions seemingly incompatible with the very least degree of intelligence. On the other hand, we know not how to comprehend, that a course

of action, which is the natural effect of such notions, can subsist without them.

Follow us a moment, my brethren, into these labyrinths of the human heart, or rather let us endeavour to know ourselves, and to reconcile ourselves to ourselves, and let each of us put a few questions to himself.

I, who have some idea of the perfections of God, and who cannot doubt whether he know the most secret thoughts of my heart, can I promise myself to impose on him in his temple by a painted outside, by a grave deportment, and by a mournful countenance, while my understanding and my affections take no part in religious exercises, while my ideas are confused, and while my passions promise me an immediate indemnity for the violence I have offered them during the few moments of this seeming devotion? But, if I have not this thought, how is it then that I think to obtain the favour of God by exercises of this kind?

I, who was educated in the Christian church, can I imagine that God hath less dominion over me when the air is calm, the heavens serene, and the earth firm under my feet, than when the clouds are thick and black, the thunder rolls in the air, the lightning flashes, and the earth seems to open under my feet? But, if I have not adopted this opinion, how comes it to pass that I commit the greatest crimes without remorse in the first period, and in the second reproach myself for the most pardonable of all my frailties?

I, who am surrounded with the dying and the dead, I, who feel myself dying every day, I who car

ry death in my face, who feel it in my veins, who when I lay on a sick-bed a few months ago, and thought myself come to the last moment of life, felt the most violent remorse, I, who would have then given the whole world, had the whole world been at my disposal, to have been delivered from sin, can I persuade myself that I shall live here always? Can I even persuade myself that I shall live much longer? Or if I could, that when death shall present itself to me, I shall be exempt from remorse, and that the crimes which now make the pleasure of my life, will not be the poison of my dying bed? But, if I be incapable of adopting opinions so opposite to what I know by feeling and experience, what am I doing? How is it possible for me to live as if I thought myself immortal, as if I had made a covenant with death, and were at agreement with the grave, as if I had stifled for ever the feelings of my conscience, as if I were sure of dictating myself the decree of divine justice concerning my own eternal state?

And, not to multiply examples, of which the extravagance of the human mind would furnish a great number, I whose views are so short, whose knowledge is so confined, whose faculties are so frail, and whose power is so limited, can I promise myself success in opposing the designs of that God, who saith in his word, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure? Isa, xlvi. 10, Can I promise myself to subdue a God great in counsel, and mighty in work, Jer, xxxii, 19. and to constrain him by superior power? But, if I have not adopted such extravagant thoughts, what mean the obstacles which I oppose against his will? What signify my plans of felicity,

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