understanding, bear witness to their face, and charge them with aggravated guilt. But besides these fruits of their negligence, which are at once both the evidences and aggravations of their guilt; their own voluntary, public, and solemn vows and engagements must be brought into the account, to fill up the measure of their sins. The aggravations arising from both these sources will be fully displayed at the great and last day. Then the skirts of their garments shall be unfolded, and the blood of the souls of the poor innocents, who perished through their negligence, shall be brought to light; and at the same time, the solemn vows and engagements which they violated, shall be fully exhibited to their own view, and to the view of those whom they neglected, betrayed and destroyed. These aggravations of guilt will appear to be peculiar to those who have been negligent and unfaithful in the ministry; and will sink them lower than the lowest of all other classes of men, in the gulf of perdition. Let us all, therefore, my brethren, now judge and condemn ourselves, that we may not be judged and condemned of the Lord. And while we mourn for our past negligence and unfaithfulness, let us resolve to give ourselves wholly to our work in time to come, and to watch for souls as those who must give account.

Permit me now to turn my discourse to him, who is waiting to be introduced into this part of the vineyard of Christ.

Dear Sir,-You have reason to bow your knee in profound gratitude to the Father of mercies, who allows you to choose and enter upon the greatest and best work in the world. Gratitude therefore obliges you to give yourself wholly to the service of God. From this day of your public dedication, to the day of your decease, your time will be consecrated time, your talents consecrated talents, your interests consecrated interests. If you withhold or divert these from your sacred work, you will be guilty of sacrilege; but if you give them wholly to your office, you will make your profiting appear unto all. If then you wish to appear a faithful minister, be one. If you wish to be a successful minister, be a faithful one. And if you wish to go through your work with ease, and to finish it with joy, give yourself wholly to the duties of your office. You have but one object to pursue, and that is your work. Let that have the supreme place in your heart Let that have a governing influence upon your life. Let that bring every other object and concern into complete subordination. You need not be con

cerned about riches or honors; for these, so far as they can be either necessary or beneficial to you, shall fall to your lot, if you seek first the kingdom of God and the good of your people. When God requires you to give yourself wholly to your

VOL. I.

10

work, he forbids you to take thought for the morrow. When he requires you to be wholly concerned about his honor and interest, he engages to take care of you and of all your concerns. But if you withhold your time, or your labors, or your heart, from this people, you may expect that God will deny you his gracious smiles and presence, and teach you the folly and guilt of unfaithfulness, by those briars and thorns which are the fruits of your own negligence. Be kind then to this people, speak good words to them, and devote yourself wholly to their service; and you will justly claim their sincere esteem, veneration and respect. Lay out yourself to be a minister, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Enter into this vineyard of Christ, with a full determination to labor, and if possible, to repair the waste places. Manure and cultivate this garden of the Lord, and you may expect the dews of heaven to water it. Feed this flock of Christ with the sincere milk of the word, and you may expect that they will grow thereby. Display divine truth with a full blaze of evidence, and you may expect the mists of darkness and error will vanish. How this people shall appear, in this world, at the day of judgment, and to all eternity, depends, under God, upon your conduct. Their eternal interests in the most important stage of their existence, are now, for a while, to be lodged in your hands. It is therefore as important that you should be laborious and faithful in your work, as it is that you and they should be saved. Be entreated then, to "take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine, and continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee."

The Church and Congregation in this place, will please to indulge me in a short, but free address, on this solemn oc

casion.

Dearly Beloved,-If you have been humble in asking, you 'will be grateful in receiving, one of the richest blessings which Christ has to bestow upon a people, a pastor after his own heart. Such a pastor, we believe, is now waiting to take the care and charge of your souls. And if he should fulfil his great obligations to you, he will lay you under great obligations to him. If he should seek your future and highest good, he will oblige you to seek his present ease and comfort. If he should be laborious and faithful in his work, he will oblige you to assist, to encourage and to support him in it. If he should seek to promote the purity of the church, the destruction of error, and the salvation of sinners, he will oblige you to seek and pursue the same desirable and important objects. And if he should plainly and faithfully preach the pure doctrines of the gospel, he will oblige you to receive and embrace them in meekness and love. In a

word, if he should be a good minister, he will oblige you to be a good people.

But if he should fulfil his obligations to you, and you should violate your obligations to him, the consequence to you will be fatal. All his labors, all his self denial, all his love and compassion, will only aggravate your present guilt and future destruction. God is about to try you. And a most tremendous trial it will be, if he puts a price into your hands to get wisdom, and you have no heart to it, but prefer folly to wisdom, and darkness to light. This is a solemn day to you, and next to that day, when you must give an account how you have received and heard. Between this day and that, you will have a day of grace and space of repentance. And between this day and that, your pastor will have an opportunity of being a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, to your souls for ever. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!" Hear, and your souls shall live. Refuse, and your souls shall die!

SERMON VI.

GOD INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY HIS CREATURES.

DELIVERED OCTOBER 10, 1793, AT THE ORDINATION OF REV. CALVIN CHADDOCK, TO THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE THIRD CHURCH IN ROCHESTER.

CANST thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?-JOB, xi. 7.

THAT there is a first and supreme cause, who is the Creator and Governor of the universe, is a plain and obvious truth, which forces itself upon every attentive mind; so that many have argued the existence of God, from the unanimous consent of all nations to this great and fundamental truth. But though we may easily conceive of the existence of the Deity, yet his nature and perfections surpass the comprehension of all minds but his own. Our eyes can perceive, without difficulty, the scattered rays of the sun; but if we fix them steadily upon the sun itself, we are immediately involved in darkness by a profusion of light. So our general ideas of the Deity are clear and distinct; but if we take a more steady and particular survey of the divine mind, our mental sight is confused by the greatness and brightness of the object. We commonly, therefore, rest satisfied with more general and familiar views of the Supreme Being, unless some great event, some sudden change, or some pressing calamity, rouse our attention, and excite us to dive deeper into the divine nature and counsel. This was precisely the situation of Job. A great and sudden calamity had turned away his eyes from all second causes, and fixed his whole attention upon the supreme First Cause. He was astonished that God should raise him so high, and in a moment, sink him so low. This led him to pry into the mysteries of

divine providence, and to censure the ways of Him, whose ways are past finding out. Zophar, his friend, had impatiently heard his unreasonable complaints; and at length put a question to him, which was exactly suited to silence all his objections. "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" This question carries in it the most strong and pointed assertion, that no created natures are able to comprehend the Supreme Being. The single point, therefore, which claims our present attention, is this:

That God is incomprehensible by his creatures.

This truth is too plain to need a labored proof. It rests upon the same evidence, upon which the truth of the divine existence depends. If God be eternal and self existent, he must be incomprehensible. Every mind revolts from the idea, that creatures should be able to comprehend their Creator, because this would imply that their powers and capacities are equal to his. I shall therefore only point out the various respects, in which God is incomprehensible by his creatures. And here I may

observe,

1. That God is incomprehensible in respect to the ground of his existence.

Though God is the first of beings, and owes his existence to no cause out of himself, yet we are obliged to suppose there is some ground or reason of his existing, rather than not existing. We cannot conceive of any existence, which has no ground or foundation. But the foundation of God's existence is neither before, nor out of himself. For, if it were before himself, or out of himself, he could not be the first and self existent Being. The ground or reason, then, of God's existence must be wholly within himself. There must be something in the nature of the Divine Being which renders his existence absolutely necessary. But what that something is, which is wholly within himself, and which renders his existence absolutely necessary, is above the comprehension of all created beings. It is not the divine will; it is not the divine power; it is not the divine wisdom; it is not, indeed, any divine attribute, but something which lies at the foundation of all the perfections of God, and which can be comprehended only by himself.

2. God is incomprehensible in respect to many of his perfections.

In some sense, indeed, all the perfections of God are unsearchable; for they are all unbounded in respect to creatures. Most of the divine perfections, however, are in the strictest sense, incomprehensible; and these deserve particular notice.

Eternity is one. God is eternal. He is said to inhabit, that is, properly and supremely to possess, eternity. He never had