other expectation of reward than that which they hope to receive "in the resurrection of the just."

To what cause can we attribute such distinguishing effects? On rational principles we cannot account for them; and yet they cannot be denied. As facts, the evidence is unquestionable; but if we look no further than man, the cause lies quite concealed. According to our modes of calculation, such conduct is totally unaccountable; but all is clear, decisive, and explicit, when we apply to the word of God.

In this view they were "made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. In the sight of men, they were fools for Christ's sake; but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It pleased him, who giveth to no one any account of his ways, to make use of these messengers of Heaven, as instruments in his hands, that he, "through the foolishness of preaching, might save them that believe," and bestow spiritual liberty on those who were in bondage and in chains. Without entering into any minute explanation of doctrines; or amusing their illiterate hearers with the ceremonies and trappings of religion, these servants of the living God confined their sermons to those topics which were calculated rather to affect the heart, than impart theories to the head. They represented God as a being infinite in his mercies, but inexorable in his justice; ready to save, but able to punish those who had sinned against him. They described him as inaccessible to mortals who had violated his commands, and only approachable through the efficacy of a mediatorial sacrifice. Without that sacrifice they held forth God as a consuming fire, as one who could not look on sin with the least allowance, much less with any degree of approbation, but who would shortly enter into judgment with all offenders, and finally punish the in corrigible with endless woe.

They described man as a reasonable creature; originally coming from God in a state of rectitude, but now fallen and degraded; unfit for happiness, and unworthy of it; and exposed to miseries beyond the reach of calculation. They pointed out the present life as but a small portion of man's existence; they considered him as an inhabitant of a state of being which lies beyond the grave, in which the righteous and the wicked shail meet their just reward; they taught that the actions of mankind here below, have an intimate connexion with the rewards and punishments of an hereafter; and that every one shall be rewarded according to his works. Defiled and polluted without a title to heaven, or a qualification for the enjoyment of it, they represented man as being naturally depraved, and on that account exposed to punishment; and as having added his actual trans

gressions to that original depravity; and by that means riveted his doom, and rendered his condemnation sure. Debilitated' through sin, which held dominion over him, they held him forth as utterly unable to return to God without supernatural aid; to recover himself from that condition in which he was involved; or to escape that misery to which he lay exposed. In fine, they described him as dead in trespasses, and dead in sins, destitute of all power to retrieve himself; and without an inclination to "flee from the wrath to come.'

From these views in which they represented both God and man, they inferred the necessity of a Saviour; through whom man might have access to God, and be reconciled unto him, notwithstanding his past offences. From the relation in which man. stood to God, they inferred the necessity of an expiation; of a vicarious sacrifice which should be equal to the claims of justice; and from hence they led them to "behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world."

By pointing out the Saviour in all his glorious offices, the affections of the poor negroes through accompanying grace became enkindled, their native ferocity was softened through the efficacy of dying love; and from a full conviction of the excellencies of this Saviour, and of the absolute necessity of obtaining an interest in him, they were led to call upon God for mercy; and to venture by faith on that sacrifice which the adorable Jesus had made: By thus venturing on him, they soon knew in whom they had believed; and by feeling in their own souls the witness of his Holy Spirit, they were enabled to set to their seal that God is true.

Being thus justified by faith, they had peace with God through our common Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and were led into the peaceable fruits of righteousness to the honour and glory of God. By this they demonstrated that their faith was genuine ; by this they proved the sincerity of their attachment to him in whom they believed; and gave evidence by their words and actions, that their faith was wrought of God. In this happy, state thousands are now to be found in our West India Islands, who feel the powers of the world to come, and in the midst of temporary distresses can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. In servitude of the basest kind they are enabled to triumph in a freedom from condemnation; they can boast of liberty, while they feel the galling chain; and look with pity and compassion on their unhappy brethren who know not God. The losses which they have sustained on their native coast, they can reflecton with but comparatively small regret; since they have found a more than ample compensation for all in God. And though called to move under a gloomy dispensation of divine providence,

which they cannot comprehend, yet they have learned to trust God where they cannot trace him, and to walk by faith and not by sight.

Such are the blessed effects which have resulted from preaching the everlasting gospel in the "isles of the sea!”

When we survey the barbarous state of those to whom Christ has been thus preached; the deep-rooted prejudices, which they must, from a variety of circumstances, have had against Christianity; when we consider their hereditary ignorance; the contractedness of their views; and the influence of those corruptions which predominated in their hearts; and when to these we add the sources of temptation, which local circumstances must have presented before them, to question the justice of that God in whose mercies they were called by the gospel to confide; when we unite all these incidents together, we can hardly avoid exclaiming, "It is the Lord's doing, but it is marvellous in our eyes." And when to the above we also subjoin the instruments which God selected for these important purposes; the holy zeal which they have manifested on these occasions; the difficulties which they have encountered and finally overcome; together with that extraordinary success which has attended their ministry, and accompanied those simple truths which they have delivered, who can withhold the tribute of exultation, and avoid saying, "What has God wrought!"

But while the gospel of Jesus Christ shines forth with such irradiating lustre in these sultry regions, it must be acknowledged that the providence of God stands eclipsed, and appears enveloped with clouds which we can hardly penetrate. A thou sand questions may probably be asked in different forms, why God, who is infinitely just in all his ways, permits those shadows to enclose his actions and conceal his moral government from he scrutiny of mortals, in permitting the sons of Africa to move in chains. To this we can only answer, that his ways are high as the heavens, and we cannot comprehend them, neither can any man by searching find out God.

We see but a small part of his ways, and have not faculties sufficiently expanded to trace through all their intricacies the dif ferent parts of the economy of God. The utmost exertion of human efforts can discover no more than a single point, without being able to follow those connective links which unite together the remotest extremes: but, when the present system of things shall dissolve, and we shall commence inhabitants of another; when the mysteries which now surround the divine dispensations shall be unravelled, and we shall see him eye to eye, and face to face, and shall know as we are known; then, those obscurities which are now so prominent in his moral conduct, will disap

pear; and we shall behold justice, and goodness, and mercy, conspicuous in all his ways.

But the obscurities which now involve the conduct of God, originated not in him but in man. The introduction of moral evil into the world, has inverted the order of things, and occasioned that scene of confusion which we constantly behold. It has been the cause of those calamities under which human nature groans; and produced those natural evils, which our baseness would sometimes tempt us to charge on the providence and conduct of the Most High.

In the primary formation of human nature the Creator of the universe interwove with the constitution of man a dominion over his own actions; directed him in what was right, and constituted him free. From this freedom arose the power of transgression; and from transgression those various afflictions which embitter life; and create the miseries of man, both in time and in eternity. The purposes of God toward us, have uniformly been founded in love; they began in goodness in the original state of things, and to the faithful have terminated in mercy, and more peculiarly under the gospel dispensation. Conducting himself with a view to promote that holiness from which we had departed, and aiming at a renovation of our natures without acting upon us by irresistible impulse, the conduct of God towards his creatures must of course be strangely diversified in this transitory scene of action, and this fallen state of mankind, who are utterly depraved by nature, and irrecoverably fallen without the grace of God. And therefore these diversities and obscurities which exist among the human race, arise not from any deviation in the conduct of God, but from the devious conduct of man.

With these views of God and of his ways, we feel no difficul ty in accounting for the dispensations of his providence which we are not able to comprehend; or in assigning to them an adequate cause, even in those cases which elude our pursuits. We see in many instances the effects without their apparent causes ; and they appear irregular and questionable, in proportion as circumstances, either simple or combined, contract our views, Those actions which sometimes appear obscure, and so ambigu ous as to leave it dubious whether or not they came from God, are frequently elucidated by subsequent events. The event is commonly an expositor on the previous action; it discovers its connexion with it, through the intermediate stages through which it passes; and leaves, in many instances, the conduct of God and the mysteries of providence without a shade.

But while he thus permits obscure dispensations of his provi dence to overtake us, and frequently encircles us with circum

stances which we cannot comprehend; he so overrules those actions which originate in wickedness, as to make them contribute toward some general or particular good for his faithful people. But that particular influence which God thus exerts, in making evil subservient to good, cannot affect the nature of that action which is thus influenced, good or evil in itself. The action must be right or wrong, independently of those effects which through the interference of Omnipotence are made to result from it. Designs and actions which in themselves are wicked, are only permitted; and the interference of God, instead of calling them into being, only averts their natural effects for the good of those that love him. By these means he brings good out of evil, and causes even the wrath of man to praise him.

Among those strange and mysterious events which take place through the permission of God, the case of the Africans, who have been torn from their native land, transported across the vast Atlantic, and are now held in bondage by the nations of Europe, claims our particular regard: It affords to the contemplative mind, one of the most questionable forms in which the providence of God can, perhaps possibly, appear. And yet it is not an improbable case, that even this most abominable traffic, (for the abolition of which every Christian will bless the God of love,) and this condition in which human nature appears, in one of its most degraded and unhappy forms, may be made subservient to those wise designs, which we shall not be able fully to unravel on this side an eternal world. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the extent of sin, nor with the vast designs of God, to pronounce these things absurd, or even improbable. Thus even the slavery of the human species, (though so directly contrary to the spirit of Christianity,) we plainly perceive, is now overruled by the unerring wisdom of God; and, strange as it may appear, myriads without all doubt will rejoice eternally that ever they were taken into the western world.

It may here be asked, "Why did not God convey the same gospel to Africa, which he has conveyed to the West Indies? Why did he not bring them into the liberty of his children without shackling them first with chains?"

We have already observed that the judgments of God are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. The conduct which he pursues, leads invariably to the same important issue, though we cannot trace the path through which that conduct moves, His ways are just, though incomprehensible; and his designs of mercy, when apparently arbitrary, are invariably consonant with what is right. As we are not minutely acquainted with those motives from whence the Almighty acts, we are totally incompetent either to arraign his conduct, or to decide upon the pro