553 / 652
OP
PUBLIC EVENTS.
547
royal
Psalmist;
Ps.
cxxiii.
2.
We
should watch every
motion
of
the
right -hand
of
our God, and
all the
pro-
gress
of
his
footsteps
in
his
government
of
the
world,
that
we
may
learn our
proper
business
thence
;
" that
in
the
time
of
prosperity
we
may
rejoice
in
the
Lord, and in
the hour
of
adversity
we
may
set
ourselves to
consider
our
ways
and humble ourselves before
him
;"
Ec.
vii.
14.
It
is
the word
of
God that appoints
us
the general
rules
of
duty
and
religion
;
but
it
is
providence
that
leads us
to apply these
rules,
and
to
put
them
into
daily practice.
Thus
having
enquired
what
sort
of
notice
a
christian
ought
to
take
of
the hand
of
God
in
the
events
of
life,
we
proceed
to shew
In
the second place,
"
what
is
the
guilt and danger
of
neglecting this pious
practice
:
And
that
may
be corn-
prized
chiefly
under
the
four
following heads.
1.
Those
who
take
no
notice of
the
operations
of God
in the affairs
of
human
life,
G4
abuse
their reason
and,
their
better
powers,
both
as
men
and
as
christians."
Our
eyes
and
our
ears
and
other
senses
of
the
body
are
given us to
take notice
of
the outward objects
that
sur-
round
us which
are the springs
of pain
or.
pleasure
;
and
these
we
enjoy
in
common with the beasts
of
the
earth
:
The
birds and the
fishes,
the creeping things,
and
every
little insect employ
their corporeal
powers
for
the
same
purposes
;
but
man
was
made with nobler principles,
and.
capacitated
to
discover and discern the
hand
of God
his
Creator,
and to observe
his
supreme direction
of
all
the,
affairs
of
mankind
:
And
if
we
consider ourselves as
christians,
we
.profess still
a
diviner principle
of
converse,
with
God. How
mean, how ignoble
and degenerate
a,
thing
is
it then, for
men
who
profess christianity,
to
look
no
further, than the
objects,
of
sense,
and
sink themselves
to the
rank
of
the
brute creation
?
Man, though
he
be
raised
by
the station
of
his
nature,
to
a
more
honour-
able
character
than the
rest of
the
animals;
yet
if
he
re-
main
without understanding, and
thoughtless
of
his
God,
he becomes like
the beasts
that perish;
Ps.
xlix.
20..
" Brute
beasts, which, as
the apostle
says,
are made to
be
destroyed
;"
2
Pet.
ii. 12.
So
men
that "
regard
not
the
operation
of
the
Lord, nor consider
the work
of
his
hands, the
Lord
will
destroy them and
not
build them
Up;" Ps.
$xviil.
5.
2N2