CONTENT S. I. Happiness of being under the govern- III. The Evidences of the Gospel intitled Iy. Against scoffing at Religion, SERMON I. Happiness of being under the Government of PROVIDENCE. PSAL. xcvii. 1. The Lord is King, the earth may thereof. be glad F all the erroneous doctrines ever OF advanced by the adverfaries of religion, none can be more void of foundation, or more pernicious in its influence, than the opinion, that the world received its being, and ftill fubfifts, without the agency of a fupreme, fuperintending Intelligence. From the flightest view of the works of nature, we may infer the existence of an all-powerful, all-wife Being, the the eternal and original Caufe of all things. The whole creation utters this great and leading truth to mankind in a language so clear and intelligible, that none but the fool can fay, There is no God. Whether we look up to the firmament above, or down upon the face of the earth; whether we confider how wonderfully we ourselves, or all other beings, are made,--we shall find that every thing above or beneath, every thing within or without us, the whole frame of nature, the whole fyftem of wonders that present themselves to us, proclaim with a thousand voices the hand that made them. It were endless to enumerate all the particulars which concur to evince this truth. In general, the power, wisdom, and defign, confpicuous in the whole fyftem of nature; the figns of divine workmanship visible in the heavens; the structure of this earth, allotted for our habitation, and fo well fitted up and furnifhed for the ufe of various tribes of creatures, and of man its principal inhabitant; the exquifite skill and amazing art that ap pear pear in the form and properties of vegetables, in the organs and faculties of animals, in the mechanifm, particularly, of the human body fo wonderfully made; and above all, the frame of the foul, and its various intellectual powers; are clear proofs of an original creating Mind. For is it poffible to conceive, that all these effects, these evident appearances of counfel and wisdom, can proceed from the undirected fortuitous motions of unconscious matter? Can we imagine, that all the regularity, harmony, and order we fee in the general system of things, can be derived from Chance, whofe nature it is to be irregular and ever varying from itself? Can Chance give steady and uniform laws to nature? Can Chance act with all the exactness and accuracy of unerring skill and infinite contrivance? If, when we furvey a palace, and obferve the grandeur and fymmetry of the whole, and the elegance and just difpofition of its parts, we nêver fail to infer the skill and ability of the architect; fhall we not much more, when |