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lieve that one has gone before us, who came to guide us in our course, who has burst the barriers of the grave, and has" ascended up on high." These are the truths in which our infant years were instructed, and which our maturer judgments have approved: they are the truths which we profess to believe when we assemble round the altar of Christ; and they constitute that faith which is the polar star that directs our voyage through the dark and stormy night of mortality. "What manner of men, then, ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness." and how greatly does it become us to "hold this mystery of the faith in a pure conscience!"

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SERMON V.

ON NATURAL RELIGION.

66

ST. JOHN, xiv. 8.

Philip saith unto him, Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”

HOWEVER inattentive to the impressions of religion mankind may generally be, it is probable that there is not a human being in existence who has not, on some occasions of his life, felt the full force of the sentiment in the text. The wise and the ignorant, the busy and the gay, the prosperous and the unfortunate, the good and the bad, have all their hours of deeper and finer feeling, in which their minds, rising above common pursuits, become sensible that a Father in heaven must be found to complete the measure of their enjoyments, to alleviate their sorrows, and to pardon their sins. The language of Philip, therefore, my brethren, is the language of human nature; and it strikes upon our hearts as the voice of a being who, wandering over a dark world, where error misleads, where vice betrays, where misery pursues, and where even prosperity cloys, lifts, at times, an anxious eye to the heavens which surround him, and exclaims that all is yet well, that nothing is yet to be

complained of, if he can find a Father.

us the Father, and it sufficeth us."

"Lord, show

The answer of our Lord to the request of his disciple is conveyed in language so lofty, and is yet so gentle and condescending, that it could have proceeded from no other than one who, with all the feelings of the Son of Man, knew that he was the Son of God. "Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou, then, Show us the Father?" On a future occasion, my brethren, I will examine these words as they apply to him who spoke them. At present it may not be a useless employment of your time, if I point out a more general answer which the request of Philip might have received; an answer not indeed so applicable to the circumstances in which he stood, nor so satisfactory in itself, yet more adapted to the general circumstances of mankind, and which has at least the advantage of being ever ready at hand, if we will but open our hearts to receive it. There is no absolute necessity for a messenger from heaven to inform us that we have a Father: whatever we see, or hear, or feel, brings us assurance of this great and consolatory truth; and the sun which blazes above our heads, and "the moon and the stars which he hath ordained," address us in words which have gone out through all the earth, and to the ends of the world."

There is surely no truth more obvious to the human mind, than that this magnificent universe which we inhabit is an orderly and systematic scene; that there is no confusion or disorder in the great outlines of nature; and the farther philosophy inquires, the more contri

vance and artifice it discovers in every minute particu lar. This is a fact, my brethren; and this suffices us. It shows us the Father; it shows us the mind by which nature is governed; and tells us, in language which cannot be misunderstood, that wherever we move, wis dom embraces us.

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But it is not merely inanimate nature by which we are surrounded. The world teems with life; and innumerable orders of living beings rejoice in the light of day. It is not design and intelligence alone which the volume of creation offers to our eye. We likewise read in glowing characters the traces of benevolence; and the Father of existence is also the giver of good. Does not this suffice us, my brethren? Or, if man re quires more particular proofs that he has a Father, has he not received them? Has he not been made but "@ little lower than the angels, and been crowned with glory and honour? Is he not made to have dominion over the works of the divine hands, and are not all things put under his feet?" Are not the highest sources of happiness opened up to him in the attainment of knowledge, in his social affections, and in the practice of virtue ? Are these, and all the other enjoyments of his nature placed within his reach, and yet can he be blind to the bounty from which they flow? Can he, for a moment, suppose that God careth not for him, or that he is thrown loose upon a world where he is forsaken and neglected? True: he must often labour with the sweat of his brow; but that seeming curse commonly proves a real blessing. True he is subject to pain, to sorrow, and to death; but the rays of patience and hope gild the clouds of his heaviest day, and the best and happiest affections of his

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nature are called out under the salutary discipline of affliction.

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The evils of life, my brethren, are confessedly a dark part of the divine administration; yet we commonly conceive it to be darker than it is, and, unwilling at any time to acknowledge that we require chastisement, we are too apt to think ourselves harshly dealt with, when we are in truth receiving the most unequivocal proofs of our Father's love. Affliction cometh not forth out of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.” There are purposes, frequently indeed obscure, which the most severe calamities are intended to answer. There is one purpose which they always may effect, the improvement of our moral nature. Besides the qualities of patience and fortitude, which are exercised only in the season of sorrow and of danger, how often does it happen that our religious sentiments are for the first time acquired, or are fully confirmed in those trying moments alone! And, while the bounty of our heavenly Father is too often received with thoughtless ingratitude, how many fly to him for comfort when they have no other hope on which they can depend! Shall we speak then of the evils of life as affording a presumption that we have no Father who careth for us, when it is apparent that many of his children discover him only amidst the gloom of those evils? Is it a proof that our Father desires not our good, because he desires that we should find our good only in finding out him?

The inquiry, then, which man on some occasions so earnestly makes, may receive an easy answer. "Show us the Father" we say, "and it sufficeth us." The answer is, you behold him;-not, indeed, face to face,

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