piness are rendered efficacious and successful, who "careth for those who cast their cares upon Him,” and makes" all things work together for good to those who love" Him. Verily " the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof." "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned '." Secondly, it must show how greatly godliness has the advantage in this world as well as in the world to come, if we consider that, as neither good nor evil is dispensed to mankind at random, so if we are fit for good, good will come to us; while, if we are ready to faint under the gracious chastisement of God, the surest way to obtain relief is, by the diligent amendment of our lives, to render that chastisement unnecessary. Nor can a stronger inducement be found to think humbly of our own success in life, and charitably of the failures of other men, than the assurance that both they and we can only so far succeed as God has determined for us, and that" it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy "." 2 And, lastly, when we accustom ourselves to look up to God as his daily and hourly pensioners, and to ascribe whatever we receive or obtain to His bounteous and only dispensation, we may learn to look on prayer not only as a duty but a privilege, and to 1 1 St. Pet. v. 7. Rom. viii. 28. Psalm xcvii. 1. Rev. xi. 17. 2 Romans ix. 16. apply to His throne for the good things which we desire from Him, with as much earnestness and regularity as we now betake ourselves to the outward and ordinary means of obtaining the gratification of our wishes. Yea more, with this pervading and abiding sense of God's infinite presence and power, the necessary pursuits of the present life will, themselves, become devotional, as we go forth to our toil, and commence our studies in His name from whom every good gift proceeds, and consecrate to His service whatever increase He shall bestow of knowledge, or renown, or prosperity! SERMON III. ON THE MINISTRY OF GOOD ANGELS. [Preached before the University of Oxford, 1818, and at 2 KINGS vi. 16. Fear not! for they that be with us, are more than they which are with them. WE are now arrived at the second branch of the enquiry which these words have suggested, the existence, namely, and the number of those invisible beings, by whose agency the Almighty (as in the case of the prophet Elisha) protects or consoles His servants. For that they were spiritual and celestial guards to whose presence Elisha thus referred, and on whose power and numbers he reposed his hope of safety, is plain, both from the reason of his words themselves, and from the miracle by which those words were corroborated, when the eyes of his attendant were so purged from the film of mortality as to behold those terrific ranks, whose chariots thronged the mount, and interposed their burning wheels between the prophet and his Syrian enemies. But though the literal and obvious sense of the words is thus undoubted, a question has still been raised whether the expression of Elisha is not capable of a figurative meaning; whether by the angels who are thus said, in Scripture, to encamp around the righteous, any thing more is intended than to express, in lively colours and imagery familiar to eastern eloquence, the ever-watchful care and ever-ready help of Providence; or, at most, those powers of the material world which are wielded by the immediate and invisible sway of Him, who "maketh the winds his messengers," in whose cause the heavenly bodies" in their courses fight together," and to whose call " the lightnings answer." The "famine," "the pestilence," and "the sword," are apostrophized and personified as His servants in the same glowing flights of oratory; and His glory is said to be proclaimed, and His praises sung by "the deep," "the mountains," ""the corn-fields," and the "morning-stars." We know what is meant when Minerva reminds Achilles of that which his own reason might well have suggested to him; and the prudence of Jacob, and the blessing which the Almighty bestowed on his labours might, with equal propriety, be described in the sacred volume as "the angel" which led him by the way, and delivered him in all his troubles. There are instances in the Apocalyptic visions where the mortal protectors of the Church, or the mortal invaders of the Roman empire are supposed to be allegorically described as angels engaged in the execution of God's judgments. The plagues and diseases which befel the Egyptians, are spoken of by the Psalmist as "evil angels sent among them';" and a very little extension of the same principle may lead us to suppose that no more was meant by the words of Elisha than to express his confidence in that divine protection which, in fact, did not preserve him by the shields and spears of any celestial guards, but by blinding the eyes and confusing the understanding of the Syrians sent to surprise him. 66 Why, indeed," it has been further asked, "should such intermediate agents be employed by a God who is omnipresent and almighty? It is only the imperfection and weakness of earthly monarchs which are disguised by the flimsy veil of solemn and ceremonious attendance, and which compel them to receive their information or accomplish their designs through the eyes and hands of others. But how different is the case with Him who beholds, and embraces, and pervades, and sustains the universe; and how superfluous does it seem to crowd the court of Heaven with these unmeaning pageants, whose praises and homage can confer no honour on Him from whom all things are derived; whose swiftness is idle with Him from whom nothing can escape, and whose fiery chariots are but an empty show in His presence who need but withhold His breath to reduce His enemies to their original nothing! It is more reasonable then," they tell us, " and more reverential towards the Almighty, to give an allegorical interpretation to 1 Psalm lxxviii. 49. |