marked with the indelible seal of reprobation, and devoted to the temporal and eternal wrath of the Almighty.

SECT. IV.

The Gospel a religion throughout of sympathy and compassion-The object of trial-Its reference to the present correction and future welfare of the sufferer-All things work together for the good of those who love God-The consequent hope and trust of the upright -Further consolations deduced from the consideration of the divine character-" He spared not his own son"-Inference-Even the guilty invited to unite with the household of God, and to partake of the blessing of the divine favour-The language of Christ," Come unto me"-Examples of forgiveness and acceptance—The woman caught in adultery-The woman who anointed the feet of Christ with ointment—Christian consolation completed by views of hereafter-The courage, the patience, and the constancy kindled in the Apostles by these doctrines-Their general tendency-Recapitulation.

"WE have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin*". In this manner is the legislator of the Gospel described; and the religion which emanated from such a personage, may naturally be expected to exhibit clear and distinctive marks of the kindness and sympathy which are thus said to illustrate his character. Accordingly, however we may primarily look to that religion for wise precept and authoritative injunction, we find that it is accommodated, with the utmost tenderness, to the distressed condition of mankind. The same penetrating voice, which prescribes the necessity of active virtue, and

* Heb. iv. 15.

denounces negative virtue as guilt*, assumes, when addressing itself to the children of affliction, the tone and language of commiseration and comfort.

Partial evil, however generated, has been described as essential to the order and harmony of the universet. But, while to this order the interests of individuals were obliged to bend, the individuals who suffered have been provided, neither by the suggestions of antient wisdom nor modern philosophy, with any effectual consolation; and they are to endure, as necessary or unavoidable, what they should have been taught to consider as salutary and wise.

More noble views and more generous doctrines are every where afforded by the Gospel. That which may be required for the maintenance of general order, is not ordained to overwhelm the individual by irresistible evil, but to chastise and improve him by salutary probation. All things are said to work together for the good of those who love God . "He who sitteth upon the throne," knows how to accomplish his ends, without sacrificing the real welfare of any good man; and "the life of the upright is a system complete within itself, where every event that happens is a link in that great chain of causes which is appointed for carrying on his improvement and felicity, as well as for promoting the welfare and harmony of the whole ||." The particular,

See the parables of the barren fig tree, of the unprofitable servant, and of the rejected virgins.

An old doctrine, repeated by Bolingbroke to Pope. The dry and meagre form embraced by the philosopher is invested with a mantle of gold by the poet.

Epist. Hebrews, ch. viii. v. 38.

Blair's Serm. vol. v. serm. 4.

Christianity.

This is the philosophy of

therefore, is not lost in the universal; and the go, vernment which watches over and preserves all, equally watches over and preserves each. It is by no ambiguous reasoning, and no elaborate subtilty, that man is here attempted to be consoled. The doctrine is emphatically announced. The noblest ideas which we can conceive of the goodness of God, are verified by the plan of Providence which is thus revealed. The fountain appears to be opened by divine mercy, and the copious and innumerable streams which issue forth, are intended to become medicinal to the souls and sorrows of the just.

Of the just! To the hardened sinner no encouragement is given. He is rejected with indignation, and left to feed on the fruits of his ways, which are dust and ashes. But they who seek the approbation of God, by observing his laws, and imitating his character, are "sealed unto the day of redemp tion." Be Be pure and holy, says the Gospel, and be confident and happy. If, "to the guilty the Al"mighty giveth sore travail to labour and lay up, "he giveth to him that is good in his sight, wisdom, "and knowledge, and joy*!"

When the good man recollects the order of things which is thus established, the most sublime and cheering views open on his mind. He is not placed under the capricious empire of time and chance; it is not under the blind dominion of necessity that he is to struggle with events; he has not to look up to conflicting deities, who shower down misfortunes or blessings upon the sons of men with capricious partiality. Whatever, from the beginning to the end

Eccles. ch. ii. v. 26. The spirit of these words, if not the letter, is adopted in its fullest meaning by the Gospel.

of his days, be the circumstances of his lot, the care of heaven is to convert all into a means of his improvement and felicity. There is, he knows, no vain and useless event, no unwise and unjust infliction. To his present or future welfare he is taught to trust that all the apparent discordances or real calamities which mingle in his life are to tend. The lightning and the tempest which rage around him, may smite but not destroy; and, however he bend beneath the storm, "his leaf shall not wither, and, like a tree planted by the water side, he shall bring forth his fruit in due season*."

It is true that, "if need be, the righteous may be left for a season in heaviness t". The Almighty is not miraculously to save their harvest from the mildew or the blight, nor to turn aside the arrow of death from their relatives and friends, nor always to avert the hostility with which they may be pursued by the wicked. But the sorrows which overwhelm crime, are rendered corrective and salutary to virtue. The upright trust, and are authorized to trust, that the evil shall work for their good. They recognize in the storm and in the cloud the power and mercy which shall, sooner or later, hush the storm into peace, and touch the cloud into light and glory. They are encouraged to believe that the seeds which are sown in tears, shall, one day, ripen beneath the sun-shine of heaven, and yield to them the fruits of peace and joy. With these sentiments calamity is found to minister unto blessedness. Misfortune, instead of being met with hopeless despondency or *listless imbecility, exercises the fortitude, the piety, and the trust of the sufferer. The blessing for which

trial was ordained is gradually unfolded and felt; and the probation affords a new proof of the love and wisdom of the Almighty.

To the good man, then, whatever be his trial, a sanctuary is opened by Christian hope, to which he can always retire. Instead of being told, like the Stoic, that virtue is to render him insensible to evil, he soothes himself with the conviction that evil is necessary to his discipline and his happiness. Instead of being instructed, like the Epicurean, that wisdom may convert the flame and the rack into instruments of delight, he is directed, in the hour of calamity, to repose on the bosom of his father and his God, and to soften sorrow by hope. In a word, deriving strength and trust from the promises of the Gospel, he dwells at all times under the shelter of celestial protection; and "if the floods left up their "voice, yea, if they lift up their waves," he may whisper to himself, with humble, but steadfast faith, "The Lord is higher and mightier than the voice "of many waters, yea, than the waters of the sea; แ my heart, therefore, is strong, my heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

The character of God, as it is represented in the Gospel, is calculated to heighten and to augment these consolations. He is not, as the Almighty is exhibited in other religions, a capricious tyrant sporting in blood, nor a solitary being indolently secluding himself in the depths of space, and preferring the slumbers of eternal repose, to the glory of guiding and governing the movements of the universe. The religion of Christ invests him with all the perfection of purity and love, and we behold in Him the wise and gracious arbiter of events, who delights to store the treasures of his mercy in the