"nefs $." There is no evidence that this was one of the captains, appointed to search for Ahab. This archer fhot without any particular aim. For he "drew a bow in his fimplicity," as the words literally fignify, having no apprehenfion that he would hit the king of Ifrael. But the arrow was directed by the divine hand, to the very spot in Ahab's armour by which an arrow might enter, and where he might receive a mortal wound.

The doctrine of a particular providence is fraught with confolation. What reafon have we to rejoice, that nothing in our lot can be the ef fect of mere chance; that every thing which be fals us "cometh from the LORD, who is wonder"ful in counsel, and excellent in working ;" and that even thofe events which may be accidental to us, are all the effect of infinite wifdom, and produced by the unerring operation of almighty power!

Let us ftill regard and acknowledge the operation of his hand. Do we enjoy profperity? Let us remember, that it is God alone who maketh rich or great. Are we vifited with adverfity? We may derive comfort from this confideration, that "affliction rifeth not out of the ground, and "that trouble fpringeth not from the duft." Are we indebted to any of our fellow men as benefactors? Let us not return ingratitude for their kindness. But, leaft of all, let us forget the God of our mercy. Well may we imitate the conduct T4

of

$ Kings xrii. 34.

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of Ezra, who, while he acknowledged the kind. nefs of Artaxerxes, especially remarked the dis vine hand; faying, "Bleffed be the LORD God "of our fathers, who hath put fuch a thing as this in the king's heart." Do we fuffer unjustly from others? Although we have given them no provocation, we may well fay, "Is there not a caufe?" Have we not, times and ways without number, provoked that juft and holy God, who has an indifputable right to employ whom he will as the inftruments of his displeasure? Let us imitate the conduct of David, who, when Shimei the Benjamite reviled and curfed him without a juft reason, faid to thofe who were eager to take vengeance on this worthlefs man," Let him alone, and let him curfe; for the LORD hath "bidden him "."

u

Juftly mayeft thou, O Chriftian, take comfort from this precious doctrine. That God, in whom "all live, and are moved, and have their being," who “giveth life, and breath, and all things," is thy God, Thou art not only, in common with others, under the direction of a particular providence, in all thy ways: but to thee it is wholly a providence of love. All the ways of the LORD thy God are truth and mercy. They are all truth, as exactly correfponding with his gracious promife; and all mercy, as directly tending to its full accomplishment. He does not merely compals thy path, and thy lying down; but he ftill furrounds thee with his favour, as with a fhield. Thy:

t Ezra vii. 27.

u 2 Sam. xvi. 12.

Thy fevereft adverfities "work together for "good." The ways of thy God may now feem covered with darkness. But in a little thou fhalt fee, that they have been all "prepared as the "morning." Wait, therefore, on the Lord thy God. Commit thy way to him, and he will bring it to pass. "Many forrows fhall be to the wick"ed but he that trufteth in the LORD, mercy "fhall compafs him about."

SECTION X.

The Natural Depravity of Man.-Example infufficient to account for the Symptoms or Univerfality of Human Corruption. This proved to be Natural, from its Early Appearance ;-from the Hiftory of Seth ;-from the Names given to the Antediluvian Patriarchs ;-from the Death of Children-from the Circumftances which allude to the Manner in which Sin is tranfmitted.

We have already taken a curfory view of human depravity; of its rapid progrefs and almost univerfal dominion, of its influence on the heart, and of its fatal effects. Let us now trace this to its origin; and it will appear that man is indeed "a tranfgreffor from the womb." From the nature of this work, it would be improper to intro

duce

duce thofe proofs that are merely of a doctrinal kind and I fhall not even call the attention of the reader to all the hiftorical evidence which the Scripture affords. The doctrine of our original corruption might be proved, from the nature of that federal tranfaction into which God entered with man in a flate of innocence; from the covenant being made with Adam before the formation of Eve, although it included her as well as her husband, and on the fame principle, the pofterity of both; from the curfe pronounced on the ground, for the fake of man, which undoubtedly affects the defcendants of Adam, no lefs than it did himself; from the circumftance of his calling his wife Eve, that is, "the mother of all living," not immediately after God had bleffed them, faying, "Be fruitful and multiply," nor while they continued in a state of integrity, but after the fall. This, as it clearly fhews his perfuafion that all thofe of her pofterity who fhould in a spiritual fense deserve the name of living, fhould be made alive by virtue of that Seed, who, according to the promife, was to fpring from her; at the fame time teftifies his conviction that they fhould all by nature be under the fentence of fpiritual and eternal death. Without entering into a particular confideration of these, and of feveral other proofs of the fame kind, I fhall confine myself to a few of a different description.

1. It is plain from Scripture-history, that the corruption of man proceeds not merely, or chiefly, from example. Imitation is indeed a power

ful

ful principle in our nature; but it cannot produce all the effects which have been afcribed to it. If there be no corrupt bias in the heart of man, the principle of imitation muft, where circumftances are equal, have equal effects, although of an oppofite kind. It must operate as powerfully in following a good, as an evil, example. But how far this is from being the cafe, let the. experience of mankind declare.

The crime of Cain was not only heinous in itfelf, but highly aggravated. It was not merely murder, one of the most horrid crimes that can be perpetrated by man, but fratricide; and fratricide committed under the form of perfecution for righteoufnefs' fake. Abel had given no provocation to his brother. He had trampled on no law human or divine. He had not directed a single word of reproach against Cain. But he flew

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him, because his own works were evil, and his "brother's righteous "." He committed this crime in the very face of God, after being favoured with an immediate revelation, warning him of his duty, and encouraging him by a promife of acceptance, as well as of dominion over his brother w.

The wickedness of Cain could not proceed from imitation: for he was the firft murderer. It could not be the effect of a gradual progrefs in guilt, in confequence of a long courfe of perfonal iniquity, or the influence of example in a long fucceffion of ages. Although the first man born

of

▼ John iii. 12.

w `Gẹn, iv. 7.