is its capacity! It is a companion for angels, nay, capable of espousals to Christ and eternal communion with God. It is the wonder of earth, and the envy of hell.

Suppose now that Providence had so permitted and ordered it, that thy soul had entered into thy body with one or two of its faculties wounded and defective; suppose its understanding had been unsound, what a miserable life hadst thou lived in this world, capable neither of service nor comfort! And, truly, when I have considered those works of Providence, in bringing into the world, in all countries and ages, some such spectacles of pity, some deprived of the use of reason and differing from beasts in little more than shape and figure, and others, though sound in their understandings, yet deformed or defective in their bodies, monstrous, misshapen, and loathsome; I can resolve the design of this Providence into nothing but a demonstration of the sovereign power of God; except these pitiable objects be designed as foils, to set off the beauty of other rare and exquisite pieces, and intended to stand before your eyes,

as monitors of God's mercy to you, that your hearts, as often as you behold them, may be melted into thankfulness for so distinguishing a favour to you.

Look then, but not proudly, on thy outside and inside. See and admire what Providence has done for thee, and how well it has performed the first service that ever it did for thee in this world.

II. The second great performance of Providence for the people of God, respects the place and time in which it ordered their nativity to fall.

And this is no small concernment to every one of us, but of vast consequence either to our good or evil, though it is but little minded by most men. I am persuaded, that the thoughts of few Christians penetrate deeply enough into this Providence; they pass too slightly and superficially over an abyss of much mercy, rich and manifold mercy, wrapt up in this gracious performance of Providence

for them.

Ah, friends, can you think it an indifferent thing, into what part of the world the womb of nature had cast you out? Is there no difference, on what spot of the

creation, or what age of the world, your lot had fallen? It may be, you have not seriously bethought yourselves about this matter. And because this point is so seldom touched on, I will enter a little more particularly and distinctly into it, and endeavour to warm your affections with a representation of the many and rich benefits you owe to this one performance of Providence for you. And we will consider it under a double respect or relation, as it respects your present comfort in this world, and as it relates to your eternal happiness in the world to

come.

1. This performance of Providence for you very much concerns your present comfort in this world. All the rooms in this great house are not alike pleasant and commodious for the inhabitants of it. You read of "the dark places of the earth which are full of the habitations of cruelty;" and many such dismal places are found in the habitable earth. What a vast tract of the world lies as a waste wilderness? How poor, miserable, and unprovided with earthly comforts and accommodation, are many millions of the

inhabitants of this world! What mercies do you enjoy, in respect of the amenity, fertility, and civilization of the place of your habitation! What is it but a garden enclosed out of a wilderness? I may, without partiality or vanity, say, God has provided you with one of the best furnished rooms in all the great houses of this world. Hear what Speed, our own chronicler, says of it; "It is the fortunate island, the paradise of pleasure, the garden of God; whose valleys are like Eden, whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose wall is the ocean, and whose defence is the Lord Jehovah."

Say not, that the barbarous nations excel you in this, that they possess mines of silver and gold. Alas, poor creatures! better had it been for them, if their country had brought forth briers and thorns, instead of gold, silver, and precious stones; for this has been the occasion of the ruin of all their other comforts; this has invited their cruel, avaricious enemies, under whose servitude they groan and die without mercy. And why might not your lot have fallen there as well as

where it is? Are not they made of the same clay, and endowed with as good a nature, as yourselves? O what a distinction has divine mercy made where nature made none! Consider, ungrateful man, thou mightest have fallen into some of those regions, where a tainted air frequently cloys the jaws of death; where the inhabitants differ very little from the beasts, in the manner of their living. O what has Providence done for you!

2. But all that I have said is very inconsiderable in comparison with the spiritual mercies and advantages you here enjoy for your souls. O this is such an advantageous cast of Providence for you, as obliges you to a thankful acknowledgment of it to all eternity! Let us here make but a few suppositions, and the glory of Providence will shine, like a sunbeam, full in your faces.

Suppose it had been your lot to have fallen into any of those vast continents possessed by pagans and heathens at this day, who bow down to the stock of a tree, and worship the host of heaven. O how deplorable had thy case been if a Pagan idolatress had brought thee forth, and