In

"Blessed be my Master's name, this disorder found me employed in his service. It seized me in the pulpit, like a soldier wounded in the field. This has been a busy summer with me. about two months, I rode about five hundred miles, and preached about forty sermons. This affords me some pleasure in the review. But, alas! the mixture of sin and of many nameless inperfections that run through and corrupt all my services, give me shame, sorrow, and mortification. My fever made unusual ravages upon my understanding, and rendered me frequently delirious, and always stupid. But, when I had any little sense of things, I generally felt pretty calm and serene, and death, that mighty terror, was disarmed. Indeed the thought of leaving my dear family destitute, and my flock shepherdless, made me often start back and cling to life; but in other respects death appeared a kind of indifferency to me. Formerly I have wished to live longer that I might be better prepared for heaven, but this con-sideration had but very little weight with me, and that for a very unusual reason, which was this-After long trial I found this world was a place so unfriendly to the growth of every thing divine and heavenly, that I was afraid, if I should live longer, I should be no better fitted for heaven than I am. Indeed I have hardly any hopes of ever making any great attainments in holiness while in this world, though I should be doomed to stay in it as long as Methuselah. I see other christians indeed around me make some progress, though they go on with but a snail-like motion; but when I consider that I set out about twelve years old, and what sanguine hopes I then had of my future progress, and yet that I have been almost at a stand ever since, I am quite discouraged. O my good Master, if I may dare to call thee so, I am afraid I shall never serve thee much better on this side the region of perfection. The thought grieves me it breaks my heart, but I can hardly hope better. But if I have the least spark of true piety in my breast I shall not always labour under this complaint. No, my Lord, I shall yet serve thee-serve thee through an immortal duration-with the activity, the fervour, the perfection of the rapt seraph that adores and burns. I very much suspect this desponding view of the matter is wrong, and I do not mention it with approbation, but only relate it as an unusual reason for my willingness to die, which I never felt before, and which I could not suppress.

"In my sickness I found the unspeakable importance of a Mediator in a religion for sinners. O! I could have given you the word of a dying man for it, that that Jesus whom you preach is indeed a necessary, and an all-sufficient Saviour. Indeed he is the only support for a departing soul. None but Christ, none but Christ. Had I as many good works as Abraham or Paul, I would not have dared to build my hopes upon such a quicksand, but only on this firm eternal rock.

"I am rising up, my brother, with a desire to recommend him better to my fellow-sinners, than I have done. But, alas! I VOL. I.

6

hardly hope to accomplish it. He has done a great deal more by me already than I ever expected, and infinitely more than I deserved. But he never intended me for great things. He has beings both of my own, and of superior orders, that can perform him more worthy serviceO! if I might but untie the latchet of his shoes, or draw water for the service of his sanctuary, it is enough for me. I am no angel, nor would I murmur because I

am not

"My strength fails me, and I must give over-pray for me— write to me-love me living and dying, on earth and in heaven."

Judge you from these passages, written in the freedom of friendship, and to one to whom he scrupled not to lay open the secrets of his bosom, what a loss the church has sustained, and how much our world is impoverished by the death of Mr. Davies, in the vigour of his days, and in the meridian of his usefulness!

Such a blow, such an uncommon and distressing blow has been given in the death of Mr. Davies. And now what shall we do? to what shall we recur, or to what quarter shall we look for help under such an awful providence? My advice is, that we should seriously and attentively turn our minds to the passage of sacred writ which I mentioned at the beginning of my discourse :

Who (that is, God) works all things after the counsel of his own will. Without inquiring into the context, the words may be regarded as a distinct proposition. He, (that is, God) works. works, or he works with energy and irresistible power, in such a manner as none besides him either has ability or right to work. He works like himself, he works with the omnipotence that belongs to him, and which is his essential and distinguished attribute.* Farther, not only does God work, but he works all things, all things done by him in heaven and earth, in all the provinces of his vast empire, all things in nature, providence, and grace, all things in time, and all things in eternity. And he works all things after the council of his own will; that is, as he pleases. His will is the source of his action. He gives an account of his matters to none. None in the army of heaven, or among the inhabitants of the earth, have any authority to say unto him, What dost thou? He depends upon none, but all, all worlds and beings depend upon him; and therefore none are to presume to dictate to him, or direct him what is or what is not to be done by him. But observe, that though he works, and works all things, and all this as he pleases,

* That the word ('Evpys) here translated who works, contains in it that forcible meaning which I have here ascribed to it, we may learn from from what the critics have said upon it :-"Hac voce significatur actio conjuncta cum efficacia, & quidem summa, quæ prohiberi nullo modo possit. Isaiah xli. 4."-Leighius in verb. "At Græca vox magis sonat, ejus cujus vi. & virtute fiunt omnia, h. e. omnia agentis ac moderantis."-Erasmus in loc. Could we admit of such an English word, the original might be rendered, who energizes all things, &c,

yet it is after the counsel of his own will. We are to consider God indeed as a great sovereign, as Lord of all, higher than the highest, supreme and unrivalled in perfection and glory, who is not to be called to the tribunal of his creatures, or to be questioned by them, as to what he pleases to perform. We are not to snatch the sceptre or the balance from his hands. But yet this we may be assured of, that whatever the Almighty God does is done not from a kind of blind though omnipotent necessity, neither is it by an unguided or unmeaning exertion of power; but that he works all things after the counsel, the design, or wisdom of his own will.* Survey the great Jehovah as he is indeed in his own nature, and in the revelation he has made of himself to us. If he is sovereign, and not in the least accountable to any one, yet he is wise, and infinitely wise.

We are not to view God partially, but as far as we can completely, as the fountain of all perfection; as containing in his nature an harmony of all that is excellent and glorious. He has a right to do, and he can do whatever he pleases in all his wide-extended dominions; yet what he pleases is always worthy of himself. He is the aggregate, the system of excellence; and one attribute never displays itself to the diminution or eclipse of another. As he is greatest, so he is the best of beings. Wisdom dwells eternally and essentially in the divine will; and it must be obvious, that though none can limit God, yet he, with reverence be it spoken, limits himself by the rule which infinite wisdom prescribes to infinite power. Hear the account scripture gives of him He is the rock, his works are perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is Deut. xxxii. 4. He is wise in heart, as well as mighty in strength. Job ix. 4. His judgments are a great deep. Ps. xxxvi. 6—but they are judgments, the children of wisdom

he.

* The word Savin' he translated counsel, may, according to the learned Stephen sin the Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ, be rendered a decree or resolution, a counsel or advice, whether good or bad, or a consultation or deliberation. If we understand the word here of decree or resolution as applied to God, we are certain that such a decree or resolution in Deity had its birth in wisdom, or in no way derogatory to it. If we interpret the word of counsel or advice, who sees not that wisdom is taken into the account? it is the counsel, it is the advice of the God of unerring wisdom. But if we take the word, and what forbids that we should not so translate it? as denoting consultation or deliberation, then we are led in the strongest manner to conclude that the will of God proceeds upon wisdom. Not that there is properly or strictly any such thing as consultation or deliberation in the divine mind but we may hereby conceive, speaking of God after the manner of men, that God when he wills, wills in such a wise manner, and upon such worthy reasons, as if he had first consulted and deliberated with himself what was proper to be done. "Libere quidem, quia ex voluntate, sed tamen etiam sapienter et juste quia ex confilio voluntatis." Zanch. "But because (says the great Howe) he orders all things according to the counsel of his will, we must conceive some weighty reason did induce hereto "Howe's Redeemer's dominion over the invisible world. p. 72. Folio Edition, Vol. II.

and counsel still. If clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Ps. xcvii. 2. His works are truth and his ways judgment. Dan. iv. 37. * The Almighty will not pervert judgment. Job xxxiv. 12. His ways are equal. Ezek. xviii. 25, directed by the straight unerring line of infinite wisdom. Be this then an established truth with us, that whatever perplexity and darkness may encompass the divine proceedings, there is nothing which God does, that God who works all things after the counsel of his own will, but what is just, and right, and good; and that his every action is no other than the birth of consummate counsel, or that the plan of wisdom is laid as the foundation of all his government. And particularly in such an event as we are now considering, the removal of such an excellent and worthy person as Mr. Davies from our world, in the prime of life, and at such a juncture as this, when there are so few surviving persons of such ability and character, we are to believe and own that, as the blow was unquestionably given by God, it was perfectly right, and that not the least shadow or suspicion of blame or wrong is to be ascribed to the most high, most holy, most wise, most faithful, and most merciful God. And even though we could not discern so much as one reason, one end of wisdom or goodness answered by such an awful Providence, yet nevertheless we are not to doubt but that the All-wise as well as the Almighty God has proceeded upon motives, though absolutely impenetrable by us, worthy of himself; that he dwells in the thickest darkness, and that the glories of his perfections are enthroned at the centre, though not a ray of them penetrates and breaks through the external veil. But perhaps, upon a careful and steady survey of this most afflictive Providence, we may attain to some discovery of the purposes or counsels of Deity, in the decease of such an excellent person as Mr. Davies in the prime of his days, and in the very height of his usefulness. And though we are not to call the Lord of all to our tribunal, yet perhaps we may not venture beyond our line, or deviate from the path of duty; nay, we may, on the other hand, be glorifying God as well as composing and comforting ourselves, if, with profound humility and reverence, we make the inquiry, Wherefore it is that God, who works all things after the counsel of his own will, is pleased to call away by death the excellent of the earth in the vigour of life, and in the meridian of their services for the glory of God, and the good of his church? These hard mysteries may not upon a diligent research be altogether inexplicable; and these dark passages of Providence upon a close survey may appear illuminated with evident and illustrious beams of wisdom and love. Accordingly I shall endeavour, I trust with a decency becoming a poor imperfect creature examining into the ways of the most high and glorious God, to resolve this problem of Providence, "Why the excellent of the earth should be taken away in the flower or prime of their age, and from the most enlarged spheres of usefulness, or what instructions and improvements we

may gather from such seemingly unkind and undesirable dispensations ?"

1. In the removal of the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the height of their usefulness, we may be taught the wonderful majesty and independent glories of the great God over all blessed forever more. "God will have it known," says the venerable Mr. Howe, on an occasion not unlike that which has given rise to our discourse,* "that though he uses instruments, he needs them not. It is a piece of divine royalty and magnificence, that when he hath prepared and polished such an utensil, so as to be capable of great service, he can lay it by without loss."-God can maintain and carry on his own cause, and answer his counsels, without the interposition of his creatures, or, if he pleases, he may employ only meaner instruments, and call home from the vineyard the ablest and best of his servants, to shew his church he can accomplish his pleasure without them.

2. God may cut off the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the height of their usefulness, to endear and magnify his power and grace in unexpectedly raising up others amidst the desponding fears and sorrows of his people. When God takes away the excellent of the earth, such as were most eminently formed for service, in the midst of their days, the church of God, the friends of Zion, are apt to sink into great anxiety and distress, and to say with Zion of old, The Lord has forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me; Isa. xlix. 14; or with Jacob, All these things are against me. Gen. xlii. 36.-Now at the very juncture when the people of God are thus dejected, when their hearts are trembling for the ark of the Lord, for God then to arise and to make the time of his church's extremity the time of his mercy in raising up others, and pouring out his Spirit upon them in a plentiful effusion of gifts and graces, how does he hereby most wonderfully illustrate his power and love! His light, his favour towards Zion appears as it were with a double brightness, thus breaking out from amidst a night of thick darkness; and the people of God, with a most lively and powerful sense of the divine goodness, acknowledge that God has done great things for them, which they looked not for; and that nothing but his own arm and his own love could have helped them in such a distressing season. Hereby God is more eminently seen and glorified, and the work appears to be the Lord's, and is wonderful in his people's eyes.

3. God may take away the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the meridian of their usefulness, to shew us more powerfully and affectingly the vanity of the present state. God shows us the vanity of the present state when he takes away persons in old age, when they have reached their threescore years and ten, to fourscore years; for by such

* Howe's Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World, on the death of John Houghton, Esq.