2. What encouragement is here afforded to the
righteous !
[Not a day or an hour passes without adding to your hap- piness in the eternal world. The least thing which you do for God shall be rewarded ; and every trial that you sustain for him, be recompensed. Moses " looked to the recompence of the reward ;" and the same may you do also. How would this thought lighten all your crosses, if it were duly contemplated
m Gal. vi. 7, 8. n 2 Cor. ix. 6.
° This is the proper meaning of Isai. v. 18. p 2 Cor. ii. 16.
and firmly believed ! Does St. Paul say, " Our light affliction, which endureth but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory q?" Whom will you fear? or rather, What sufferings will you not welcome for Christ's sake ? Go on then, my brethren, labouring to "keep a conscience void of offence" towards both God and man : and let it be your care so to approve yourselves to the heart-searching God, that, when he shall judge the world, he may say to you, " Thou hast been faithful over a few things, be thou ruler over many things." " Enter now into the joy of thy Lord, thou good and faithful servant ;" and " inherit the kingdom prepared for thee from the foundation of the world."]
<J 2 Cor. iv. 17.
Jer. xviii.6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this pot- ter ? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in my hand, 0 house of Israel.
WHILE the grandeur of the heavenly bodies fills us with a sense of our own insignificance3, we may learn many instructive lessons from the meanest creatures upon earth. The instinctive wisdom of the crane or swallow, the provident care of the ant, and the grateful acknowledgments of the ox and ass, are proposed to us as models for our imitation^. Nor are works of art less capable of suggesting useful hints to a reflecting mind. In the passage before us the pro- phet was commanded to observe a potter forming his vessels, and to declare to the Jews that they were, notwithstanding all their boasted strength, as much subject to the will of God as the clay was to the pot- ter's will. To illustrate this we shall shew, I. The power of God over us —
We can scarcely conceive any greater power than the potter has over the clay. He forms, or mars, or varies the shape of his vessels, as he pleases. Such is God's power over us,
1. Individually considered —
a Ps. viii. 3, 4. b Jer. viii. 7. Prov. vi. 6 — 8. Isai. i. 3.
1058.1 THE potter's power over the clay. 1G1
[Every man is altogether in the hands of God. Our bodies are instantly brought low, when he sends a fierce disease to prey upon them. Nor can the physician's aid profit us, till he be pleased to bless the means prescribed0 Our souls are also entirely dependent upon him. When his time is come, the obdurate relent, the dead arise, the drooping are com- forted, and the weak established. Till then, the Bible is a sealed book, and the most faithful ministers are only as sounding brass d.]
2. In our collective capacity —
[The most flourishing families, how soon are they brought low ! And how speedily may they be restored to their former prosperity e ! Nor are the most powerful kingdoms less at his disposal. He can raise a mighty empire from the most con- temptible beginnings f, or reduce it to utter ruin in a single hour*. As the smallest motion of the finger suffices to effect any change upon the potter's clay, so the secret volition of the Almighty operates with irresistible energy through the whole creation.]
This truth being universally admitted, we shall proceed to shew,