faying with the Pfalmift, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou vifiteft him?

Though these reflections should naturally lead us to admire and adore the goodness of God, who has done fo much, when we deserved fo little; for what ftronger motive can there be for gratitude, than undeferved favour? yet have they oftentimes another effect: for, when men confider that God does nothing without reafon, and at the fame time fee fo little reason why God fhould do so much for them, they begin to suspect whether he has done it or no, and to imagine that the whole hiftory of the redemption is a cunningly devised fable. To confider the Son of God coming down from heaven, living among men, and at laft fhedding his blood for them, fills them with wonder and aftonishment: and when they look on the other fide, they can fee nothing in man that bears any proportion to this concern fhewed for him, or that yields any argument to justify the wisdom of God in this method of his redemption.

It must be owned, there is fomething plaufible in this way of reasoning; and the more fo, as it pretends to do justice to the wisdom of God, and cannot be charged with any great injuftice done to the character of man. But this prejudice, be the foundation of it good or bad, lies as ftrongly against the works of nature, as it does against the works of grace for it is as hard to conceive that God fhould create this world for the fake of placing in it fuch creatures as we are, as it is to conceive that he should fend his Son to redeem us.

If you can justify the wisdom and goodness of God in making fuch creatures, it will be no hard thing to justify his wisdom and goodness in redeeming them for to open a way for men to escape out of a ftate of mifery is a more divine and beneficent act, than the putting them into it. If If you you ftumble at the dignity of the Redeemer, and think that the Son of God was too great a person to be concerned in faving men; for the fame reafon you should think that God, or the Son of God, was too great a perfon to be concerned in making fuch creatures as men: and from these and the like confiderations you may as well conclude that God never made the world, as you do that he never redeemed it. But, in fpite of all these reasons, you fee plainly, that this earth was made for the habitation of men, wicked and inconfiderable as they are. Since therefore your confequence will not hold in this cafe, you have no reason to depend on it in the other; but rather to think that, fince it was agreeable to the wisdom and goodness of God to exert his power to make fuch creatures, it was alfo confiftent that he should exert his power to fave and to redeem them.

It can ferve to no good purpose to give men a great opinion of themselves, and of the confiderable figure they make in the univerfe; nor can it be done with truth and juftice. Experience, which fhews us daily our own and the follies of those about us, will be too hard for all reafonings upon this foot; and the mind of man, conscious of its own defects, will fee through the flattery, which afcribes to it perfections and excellencies with which

it feels itself to be unacquainted. Or, could a man, in fpite of his own experience, be perfuaded to think himself very confiderable, and worthy of all that God has done for him; this opinion could tend only to make him proud and conceited, and to think the difpenfations of Providence with regard to himself to be rather acts of juftice, and due to his merit, than the effects of goodness and benignity in the Governor of the world. Such an opinion would in a great measure exclude a fenfe of dependence, and in a greater ftill a fense of gratitude; which are vital and fundamental principles in religion.

But, if we set out with taking a proper view of ourselves in the first place, and with confidering the many imperfections and follies to which we are liable as rational agents, the many weakneffes and infirmities which furround us as animal creatures; and then furvey the works of Providence, and the great care of God over us, manifefted in his various difpenfations in the natural and moral world; we shall eafily enter into the true fpirit of the holy Pfalmift's reflection, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man, that thou vifiteft him? It is a reflection naturally proceeding from the sense of our dependence on God, and leading to the highest degree of gratitude, whilst we contemplate with admiration the greatest of his favours, and confider ourselves as unworthy of his leaft.

This is the natural fenfe which the reflection in the text fuggefts to us: yet has it, as I obferved before, been used to other purposes; and fome have thought it unworthy of God to fuppofe that

in the great works of providence he had any special regard to fo inconfiderable a part of the whole, as the race of men appears to be. The objection, they think, grows ftronger, when the scheme of providence difplayed to us in the Gospel of Chrift for the falvation of man is laid before them; and it appears to them aftonishing, that God fhould intereft himself fo particularly in an affair, which feems, when compared to the whole, of fo little importance. If we afcribe this great work to the divine love and goodness, it cannot be controverted that they are strongly and evidently expreffed and manifested in this proceeding; too ftrongly, it may be thought; fince divine love and goodness must be bounded by divine wisdom, and can never de generate into fondness and partiality; confequently, his love and goodness can never do what his wif dom does not approve as fit to be done.

Upon this foot it may be asked, Where is the wifdom of erecting fuch a building as this for the fervice of fuch a creature as man? The works of nature are so immenfe and wonderful, that, if they are formed for the fake of providing a proper habitation for man, the house feems to be of far greater dignity than the mafter, and the end proposed by no means to answer and justify the means made use of. So again, in the work of our redemption, if the only Son of God came down from heaven, and did and fuffered all that is reported of him in the Gofpel; what is there in man, confidered in the moft advantageous light, that bears any proportion to this wonderful method made use of to fave him, or to juftify the wifdom of God in fending the Lord

of power, and of the whole creation, to die for the meaneft, perhaps, of all intelligent beings belonging to it?

Now, whether thefe reflections upon our own weak and infirm condition, and the low rank we hold in the order of intelligent beings, be a fufficient ground for calling into queftion the credibility of the great things faid to be done for us, is a matter deferving serious confideration. And

The first queftion we fhould ask ourselves, is, whether we are proper judges in this matter? It is a great undertaking to judge of the wisdom of God, and to fay what is fit, or not fit, for him to do; especially where the fubject of the inquiry is the counfels of God in governing the natural and moral world; points, not only of the highest consequence, but of all others the moft removed out of our fight.

In human affairs we pretty well know the powers and abilities of men, and can oftentimes judge of the ends they propofe to themselves; and this knowledge of their powers, and this ability to judge of the ends they propofe, qualifies us in many cases to estimate comparatively the means and the end; and to difcern whether the thing aimed at is worth the expence or labour employed in obtaining it. This judgment cannot be made merely by confidering and comparing the means and the end together; but confideration likewife muft be had of the power and ability of the agent. The end of building an houfe is for the habitation of men: but, whether the house be too big, or too little, too magnificent, or not magnificent enough, can never