and there is no fearching of his understanding: he needs not that any should testify of man to him; he knows the inward value of perfons, things, and actions: God has balances in which be weighs all mankind, and therefore he can well tell what man is; "he fearches the hearts, and tries the reins of the children of men," and knows far better what you and I are, than we do ourselves. 4. We have the ground and reafon of this inquiry concerning man; it is the knowledge that God takes, and the account God makes, of fuch an inconfider able creature, that "the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, and who dwells in the high and holy place," that he fhould" bow his heavens, and come down," to visit man in a way of love. OBSERVE, "That the regard that God fhews unto man is truly wonderful and furprising.". This I take to be the plain import of the queftion. We have the like question put, Job vii. 17. 18. "What is man that thou shouldft magnify him? and that thou shouldft fer thine heart upon him? and that thou shouldft vifit him every morning, and try him every moment." Pfal. viii. 3. 4. "When I confider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the ftars which thou haft ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou vifiteft him." Thefe are down-bringing queftions. It is ob fervable in fcripture, that questions, when they are put concerning God, they are intended to raise our affections and admiration to the higheft. So Exod. xv. 11. “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?" and Micah vii. 18. "Who is a God like unto thee?" These are uplitting queftions. But when the question is concerning man, it brings him down in his own eyes unto nothing, "that no flesh may glory in the prefence of God." Now, in difcourfing this doctrine, through the Lord's affiftance, I fhall endeavour, I. To give a fcriptural folution of this diminutive and and down-bringing queftion, What is man? II. What is imported in God's regarding man, or making account of him. III. Wherein doth God discover his regard unto man? I. The first thing is to give a fcriptural folution of this queftion, What is man? for we can never wonder at and admire the regard that God fhews unto man, until we know what man is. Come, then, Sirs, let us weigh ourselves in the balances of the fanctuary, and fee what we are; ift, As creatures; 2dly, As fallen creatures. ift, What is man, as he is a creature of God? Why, trace him to his firft original, he is but a piece of modified duft, enlivened with the breath of God: Adam fignifies earth, and red earth, Gen. ii. 7. "The Lord God formed man of the duft of the ground." Hence is that of the apostle, 1 Cor, xv. 47. "The first Adam was of the earth, earthy;" alfo that of the prophet Jeremiah, who, addreffing himself to Ifrael, cries out, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord," &c. Again, What is man? He is in fcripture reckoned a potter's veffel, that is easily dashed and broken: "Hath not the potter power over the clay of his hand, to make one veffel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" Rom. ix. 21. and Pfal. ii. 9. Chrift "will dash all his enemies in pieces, as a potter's veffel." If you ask further, What is man? the prophet Isaiah will tell you that he is but grafs; Ifa. xl. 6-8. "The voice faid, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grafs, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. The grafs withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: furely the people is grafs." What is all this multitude here prefent, but just a pickle grafs: for as grafs fpringeth out of the earth, and falls down again to the earth, so shall we and all living; and then the place that knows us fhall know us no more. If you afk again, What is man? the Spirit of God will tell, Ifa. xl. 15. That "all mankind is before God but as the drop of the bucket, and the small dust that will not turn the fcales of a balance," no body regarding it; and yet all mankind before the Lord is no more. Oh then, What is man, that God fbould take knowledge of him?" If you ask yet again, What is man before the Lord? Why, you have an answer that reduces man, and all nations of men, into nothing. Ifa. xl. 17. "All nations are before him as nothing." Can any thing be less than nothing? yea, it is added in the clofe of that verfe, "They are accounted before him lefs than nothing and vanity." And thus you fee an answer to that queftion, What is man, confidered as a creature? But, 2dly, What is man as a fallen creature? Man, even in his beft eftate, is altogether vanity before God: what then is he in his worft eftate? "God planted him a noble vine, but he : is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine." Let us confider what he is in this respect a creature he is indeed; but then he is the worst of all creatures through fin; for if we search out his character from the record of God, we shall find him described, 1. To be a diseased creature, over-run with a loathefome leprofy, from the crown of the head to the fole of the foot: the disease of fin has invaded the very vitals, infomuch that the very mind and confcience is defiled and wasted, &c. Hence it follows, 2. That man, fallen man, is become an ugly and a loathesome creature, Job xv. 16. “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? Sin is called the abominable thing that God's foul hates. Oh! how abominable then is man, who is nothing else than a mass of fin, a compound of all manner of iniquity? 3. What is man? He is an impotent and a helpless creature, without ftrength, "like the helplefs infant caft out into the open field," Ezek. xvi. Men may talk of the power of nature, and of their ability to convert and turn themselves, as they have a-mind; but, if we believe the Spirit of God, fpeaking by the Son of God, he will tell us that "no man can come unto him, except the Father who fent him draw him." What can a`new-born infant do for its own help, cast out into the open field? Of all creatures it is the most helpless and impotent; and yet this is man's condition in his natural ftate. 4. What is man? Why, the Spirit of God will tell you that he is a rebellious creature; that he has lifted up arms against his great Lord; broken his allegiance to God, and joined in a confederacy with the devil against God. With proud Pharaoh, "we have difowned God, faying, Who is the Lord, that I fhould obey him?" Numb. xx. 10. "Hear now, ye rebels, muft we fetch you water out of this rock?" &c. 5. What is man, fallen man? Why, he is a condemned creature, under fentence from the great Judge of heaven and earth: "He that believeth not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him," &c. Condemned by God, condemned by the law, condemned by confcience, &c. 6. What is man, fallen man? Why he is a noxious and a hurtful creature; (he has hurt the creation of God; "Curfed is the ground for thy fake," fays the Lord to Adam); a cumberer of the ground; " Yea, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, under the burden of his fin." 7. He is a noifome creature, that hath a filthy fmell in the noftrils of God, angels, and faints; and therefore compared to the ftench of a green opened grave, that is ready to raise the peftilence: "Their throat (fays David, fpeaking of the wicked) is an open fepulchre, and the poifon of afps is under their tongue." Yea, we find fallen man compared unto thofe creatures that are most hurtful unto us; he is compared unto a toad, a ferpent, an afp, a tyger, a lion, and the like hurtful beafts. 8. What is man, fallen man? Why, he is a dead creature, Eph. ii. 1. "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins :" Now, what account do we make of the dead? They are buried out of the fight of the living; "Bury my dead out of my fight," said Abraham of Sarah; fo what account should God make of dead finners, who are destitute of the life of grace? but bury them out of his fight in hell. Thus I have told you fome things in answer to that queftion, What is man? and told you what he is, as he is a creature, and as he is a finner, or a fallen creature. And, after all, is there not good ground for this question in my text, What is man, that thou takeft knowledge of him? or the fon of man, that thou makeft account of him? II. The second thing, What is imported in this regard that God fhews unto man, and the fon of man? He is here faid to take knowledge of him, to make account of him. Anfw. It implies, 1. That, for as low, mean, and miferable a creature man is, yet he is not beyond God's notice and obfervation. "I faw thee," fays the Lord, "when no eye pitied, when thou waft cast out and polluted in thy blood." When Adam hid himself in the bushes of paradife," the eyes of the Lord were upon him." He faw what a pitiful pickle he was in, and all mankind in him. So Gen. vi. 5. "God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 2. What is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? It implies that the regard God fhews unto man does not flow from any thing in himself, that there is no excellency whatever in him, to recommend him unto God, neither birth nor beauty, nor riches, nor wisdom, no qualification at all that is defirable. When God takes knowledge of his elect in a way of mercy, what are they, but children of wrath, as well as others? dead in fin and therefore," it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." 3. What is man? &c. It implies, that, whatever regard God fhews unto man, it is the fruit of his own free grace, and sovereign will and pleasure: "By grace are ye faved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. I will heal their backflidings; I will love them freely," Hof. xiv. 4. Hence all the promises of the covenant, they run in the tenor of sovereignty, ་་ vereignty, no other reason being given for them, but that of his own fovereign will. "I will be their God, and they fhall be my people. I will fprinkle them with clean water, and they thall be clean; from all their filthiness and idols will I cleanse them. A new heart alfo will I give you," &c. 4. What is man? It implies, that God has no need of man, or of any of his fervices; Job xxii. 2. " Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wife may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him that thou makeft thy ways perfect?" From whence it is plain, that God maketh not account of man, as that he could be profitable or advantageous to him. Oh, Sirs! let us not fancy that God is obliged to us for our praying, reading, hearing, obedience, or communicating: no, no; God needs neither us nor our fervices, &c. 5. What is man? It implies, that God's mercy and love unto man, and the fon of man, is of a preventing nature: man is not seeking after God when he t kes knowledge of him in a way of mercy. What knowledge was the poor infant taking of the Lord, when the Lord took knowledge of it, Ezek. xvi. 4-6. Ifa. lxv. 1. "I am fought of them that afked not after me, I am found of them that fought me not." Oh Sirs! none of Adam's race would ever look after God, did not God look after us: yea, so far are we from feeking after God, that we are running further and further away from him, until he feek and find us, Ifa. Ixii. 12. "Thou shalt be called fought out." God fought out and prevented Paul in the way to Damafcus, when he had little thoughts of the Lord: he fought out Zaccheus, and every foul is fought out by preventing grace, &c. 6. What is man? It implies, that whatever man be, however despicable, low, and inconfiderable, yet God treats him as if he were some great and confiderable perfon. Hence he is faid to magnify him in that forecited Job vii. 17. "What is man that thou magnifiest him?" he makes an account of him, as if he were fomething worth. But this leads me to III. The third thing in the method, which was to fhow, wherein doth God difcover fuch a regard to man, and the son of man? And here, as matter of praife upon a thanksgiving-day; let us confider, firft, The regard that God fhews unto all men in common; fecondly, The regard he thews to his chofen generation, his peculiar people. First, I fay, let us take a fhort view of the regard that God thews in common unto all men, and that both in creation and providence. ft, Let us obferve what regard God fhewed unto man, that petty peor creature, at his creation. He builds a Rately |