fuch principles muft have an effect, though, I own, very far fhort of what a thinking man fhould expect from fuch motives.

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No doubt, there is great room for amendment in the chriftian world,-and the profeffors of our holy religion may in general be faid to be a very corrupt and bad generation of men, confidering what reafons and obligations they have to be better.-Yet still I affirm, if thofe reftraints were leffened,-the world would be infinitely worfe; and therefore we cannot fufficiently blefs and adore the goodness of God, for thefe advantages brought by the coming of Chrift-which God grant that we may live to be more deferving of; that, in the laft day, when he fhall come again to judge the world, we may rife to life immortal. "Amen.

SERMON XXXIV,
XXXIV,

TRUST IN GOD,

PSALM XXXVII. 3.

Put thou thy truft in the Lord.

WHOEVER feriously reflects upon the ftate and condition of man, and looks upon that dark fide of it, which reprefents his life as open to fo many causes of trouble ;-when he fees how often he eats the bread of affliction, and that he is born to it as naturally as the fparks fly upwards; that no rank or degrees of men are exempted from this law of our beings; but that all, from the high cedar of Libanus to the humble fhrub upon the wall, are fhook in their turns by number+ lefs calamities and diftreffes:when one fits down and looks upon this gloomy fide of things, with all the forrowful changes and chances which furround us, at firft fight,would not one wonder,-how the spirit of a man could bear the infirmities of his nature, and what it is that fupports him, as it does, under the many evil accidents which he meets with in his paffage through the valley of tears? Without fome certain aid within us to bear us up-fo tender a frame as ours would be but ill fitted to encounter what generally befals it in this rugged journey and

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accord

accordingly we find,—that we are so curiously wrought by an all-wife hand with a view to this, that, in the very compofition and texture of our nature, there is a remedy and provision left against most of the evils we fuffer; we being fo ordered, that the principle of felf-love, given us for preservation, comes in here to our aid, by opening a door of hope, and, in the worst emergencies, flattering us with a belief that we fhall extricate ourfelves, and live to fee better days.

This expectation, though in fact it no way alters the nature of the crofs accidents to which we lie open, or does at all pervert the courfe of them, yet impofes upon the fenfe of them, and like a fecret fpring in a well-contrived machine, though it cannot prevent, at leaft it counterbalances the preffure, and fo bears up this tottering, tender frame under many a violent fhock and hard juftling, which otherwife would unavoidably overwhelm it.Without fuch an inward res fource, from an inclination which is natural tó man, to trust and hope for redress in the most deplorable conditions, his flate in this life would be, of all creatures, the moft miferable -When his mind was either wrung with affliction, or his body lay tortured with the gout or ftone, did he think that in this world there fhould be no refpite to his forrow ;→→→ could he believe the pains he endured would continue equally intenfe, without témedy, without intermiffion; with what deplorable lamentation would he languish out his day, and how sweet, as Job fays, would the "clods

"of

k of the valley be to him ?"--But fo fad a perfuafion, whatever grounds there may be fome→ times for it, fcarce ever gets full poffeffion of the mind of man, which by nature ftruggles against defpair: fo that whatever part of us fuffers,the darkest mind inftantly ufhers in this relief to it,-points out to hope, encourages to build, though on a fandy foundation, and raifes an expectation in us, that things will come to a fortunate iffue. And indeed it is fomething furprising to confider the flrange force of this paffion;-what wonders it has wrought in fupporting men's fpirits in all ages, and under fuch inextricable difficulties, that they have fometimes hoped, as the apoftle expreffes it, even against hope, against all likelihood; and have looked forwards with comfort under misfortunes,when there has been little or nothing to favourfuch an expectation.

This flattering propenfity in us, which I have here reprefented, as it is built upon one of the moft deceitful of human paffions(that is) felf-love, which at all times inclines us to think better of ourfelves and conditions than there is ground for ;-how great foever the relief is, which a man draws from it at prefent, it too often difappoints in the end, leaving him to go on his way forrowing, -mourning, as the prophet fays, that his hope is loft. So that, after all, in our severer trials, we ftill find a neceffity of calling in fomething to aid this principle, and direct it fo that it may not wander with this uncertain expectation of what may never be accomplifhed, but fix itself upon a proper object

VOL. IV.

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of

of trust and reliance, that is able to fulfil our defires, to hear our cry, and to help us.—The paffion of hope, without this, though in ftraits a man may support his spirits for a time with a general expectation of better fortune ;-yet, like a fhip toffed without a pilot upon a troublefome fea, it may float upon the furface for a while, but is never, never likely to be brought to the haven where it would be.-To accomplish this, reafon and religion are called in at length, and join with nature in exhorting us to hope;-but to hope in God, in whofe hands are the iffues of life and death,-and without whofe knowledge and permiffion we know that not a hair of our heads can fall to the ground.-Strengthened with this anchor of hope, which keeps us ftedfast, when the rains defcend and the floods come upon us, however the forrows of a man are multiplied, he bears up his head, looks towards heaven with confidence, waiting for the falvation of God:-he then builds upon a rock againft which the gates of hell cannot prevail. He may be troubled, it is true, on every fide, but fhall not be diftreffed,-perplexed, yet not in defpair :--though he walks through the valley of the fhadow of death, even then he fears no evil; this rod and this ftaff comfort him.

The virtue of this had been fufficiently tried by David, and had, no doubt, been of ufe to him in the courfe of a life full of afflictions; many of which were fo great, that he declares that he should verily have fainted under the fenfe and apprehenfion of them, but that he

believed