DISCOURSE I. THE CHRISTIAN KING, 1 PET. IL 21. Leaving us an example, that ye fhould follow his W Steps. I. HEN the angels beheld the Disc. dark and difordered ftate of created nature upon its first production, they were, doubtless, thrown into fome perplexity to conceive how it fhould ever be made a means of manifefting forth the glory of the Creator. But when they saw the light fpring up, at the divine command, from that blacknefs of darknefs, and fix it's refidence in it's tabernacle the fun, illuminating and adorning the firmament of heaven with it's glorious fhew, and the earth with it's beautiful furniture, all formed B DISC. formed out of rudenefs and confufion, 1. then they confeffed that the difficulty of the work ferved only to display the skill of the workmafter, which is proportionably estimated by the unpromifing nature of the materials. In like manner, whoever views the chaos to which the infinite wifdom of a prefiding Providence fometimes permits the moral world to be reduced by the prevailing power of the prince of darkness, and the agency of his inftruments, will fearce be able, at firft, to difcern any traces of the divine counfels in a mirror fo fullied and clouded over by the enormities of finful men. Yet let him wait with patience for a little season, and those clouds fhall pafs away; a light shall shine, and fome great end prefent itself to fight, fo worthy of God, fo beneficial to man, that ftanding amazed at a power able to bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil, he will be forced to cry out concerning the economy of the fpiritual system, as as David did concerning the operations of DISC. the natural- O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wifdom haft thou made "them all." What a gloomy and comfortless scene to the eye of flesh was exhibited in Judea, when the pure and innocent Jefus, forfaken by all his difciples, was delivered up into the hands of wicked men, to end a life of righteousness and mercy by a death of pain and shame! Certainly that was the hour of the ungodly, and the power of darkness. But in that very hour was God glorified, and the world redeemed. And while the Egyptians look upon a cloud which they cannot fee through, Ifrael beholds in the fame column a bright and fhining light, directing and conducting them to the Land of Promife. And as nothing that was ever transacted upon the theatre of this world brought fo I. DISC: much glory to God on high as the paffion I. of the Meffiah, fo next to that, because the nearest resemblance of it, precious and most honourable in his fight is the death of his faints. St. John "heard a voice "from heaven," enjoining him to write, and declare to the world, that "bleffed 66 are the dead which die in the Lord." More bleffed, furely, are they that die not only in him, but for him, and lay down their lives in a good and a righteous cause. And though in the eyes of men the church might appear more amiable when, exulting in the favour of Conftantine, fhe wore the white garments of joy and festivity, and carried the palm of victory and triumph in her hand, yet we know that fhe was never dearer to God, because never more conformed to the image of his Son, than just before that period of time, when, perfecuted by the fury of Dioclefian, fhe was feen arrayed in the fcarlet robe of martyrdom, and bore her crofs after Jefus. Rev. xiv. 13. Profperity I. Prosperity in this world, befides that it is DISC. an argument which will conclude for and against every caufe and party in their turns, can never be the badge of his difciples, who came into the world in a ftable, among the beafts that perish, and went out of it upon a crofs, numbered with malefactors: And whoever makes this the criterion of the divine favour, muft condemn the generation of God's children, from righteous Abel to the bleffed martyr of this day; upon whose unparalleled murder though we cannot reflect but with horror and aftonishment, yet most gratefully are we ever bound to commemorate the glories of God's grace, which he made the villany of the most abandoned mifcreants an occasion of calling forth and difplaying to mankind in the perfon of his anointed, enabled thereby fo ftedfastly to look unto and fo closely to copy after his Mafter and Saviour, who "left him an example, that he should "follow his steps" And he followed them unto the end. B 3 But |