SERMON I. PREACHED ON THE 30th OF JANUARY 1807, AT ST. MARY'S, CAMBRIDGE. ISAIAH xxvi. S. In the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee -AND in the next verse the Prophet adds, When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. It is a lamentable proof both of the depravity and the disingenuousness of our nature, that in general, unless God's heavy judgments be inflicted in some shape or other, neither wicked individuals nor wicked nations will learn righteousness. The beauty of the creation, and the established laws of nature, with the numerous beneficent provisions for our comfort and security, in the eye of Reason call for profound admiration and grateful obedience: but the Apostle Paul bitterly complains that the ancient world, with all their boasted wisdom and acuteness, knew not God; and, moreover, that they were, without excuse, because they did not glorify him with thankfulness, after that he had clearly made known to them his eternal power and godhead by the things which he had created. But perhaps extraordinary blessings are often productive of eminent piety; and though it be true, that during the enjoyment of the good things of Providence in their ordinary, smooth, and uninterrupted course, fallen human nature is not disposed to think much either of the wise Contriver, the benevolent Governor, or the awful Judge of mankind, perhaps it may be hoped that uncommon interferences of the Divine goodness, where blessings are poured out in abundance on ungrateful men, should be followed by a material amendment, both of their internal tempers and their external obedience. Yet here, alas! though some transient emotions of praise and thanksgiving may be excited in the glow of success and prosperity, woful experience proves that too often these bountiful dispensations of the Creator are found to serve only as occasions to the creature for shewing the greater alienation of his heart from God, and filling up the measure of his iniquity. On the contrary, however, we do find, that when such special interferences of Providence take place as in Scripture language are called judgments, the inhabitants of the earth sometimes learn righteousness in other words, that signal afflictions and chastisements effect that, both for individuals and nations, which the most bountiful displays of kindness and compassion had failed to produce. The holy Scriptures, both in regard to precept and example, are exceedingly full to these points; namely the great danger of remarkable prosperity, on the one hand; the blessed fruits of sanctified afflictions, on the other. "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." Happy the man whom God correcteth! And frequently the scriptural expressions are such as to intimate that the trial of afflictions is an essential part of the discipline of the righteous: for example-" Many are the afflictions of the righteous;' and, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." |