VII.

to the banquet of the Queen; till it im- SERM. pelled him to devife the flaughter of a whole nation, and ended in a degree of rage, which confounded his reason, and hutried him to tuin. In this manner every criminal paffion in its progrefs fwells and blackens; and what was at firft a fmall cloud, fuch as the Prophet's fervant faw no bigger than a man's hand, rising from the fea*, is foon found to carry the tempeft in its womb.

* 1 Kings xvili. 44.

SERMÒN

SERMON VIII.

On our IGNORANCE of GOOD and EVIL in this Life.

SERM.

VIII.

ECCLES. vi. 12.

Who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow?

THE measure according to which knowledge is difpenfed to man, affords confpicuous proofs of divine wif dom. In many inftances we clearly perceive, that either more or less would have proved detrimental to his ftate; that entire ignorance would have deprived him of proper motives to action; and that complete discovery would have raised him to a sphere too high for his pre

fent

VIII.

fent powers. He is therefore permitted SERM to know only in part; and to fee through a glafs, darkly. He is left in that ftate of conjecture, and partial information, which, though it may occafionally fubject him to diftrefs, yet, on the whole, conduces moft to his improvement; which affords him knowledge fufficient for the purposes of virtue and of active life, without disturbing the operations of his mind, by a light too bright and dazzling. This evidently holds, with refpect to that degree of obfcurity, which now covers the great laws of Nature, the decrees of the Supreme Being, the ftate of the invifible world, the future events of our own life, and the thoughts and defigns which pafs within the breafts of others *.

But there is an ignorance of another kind, with respect to which the application of this remark may appear more dubious; the ignorance under which men labour concerning their happiness in the prefent life, and the means of attaining it.

SERM. If there be foundation for Solomon's comVIII. plaint in the Text, who knoweth what is good for man in this life? this confequence may be thought inevitably to follow, That the days of his life must be vain in every fense; not only because they are fleeting, but because they are empty too, like the badaw. For, to what purpose are all his labours in the purfuit of an object, which it is not in his power to difcover or afcertain ?-Let us then ferioufly enquire, what account can be given of our present ignorance, refpecting what is good for us in this life; whether nothing be left, but only to wander in uncertainty amidft this darkness, and to lament it as the fad confequence of our fallen ftate; or whether fuch inftructions may not be derived from it, as give ground for acknowledging, that by this, as by all its other appointments, the wifdom of Providence brings real good out of feeming evil. I fhall, in order to determine this point, firft, endeavour to illuftrate the doctrine of the Text, that we

know

VIII.

know not, or at most know imperfectly, SERM. What is good for us in this life: I fhall next explain the caufes to which this defect in our knowledge is owing: And then shall show the purposes which it was intended to ferve, and the effects which it ought to produce on our conduct.

THE whole history of mankind seems a comment on the doctrine of the Text. When we review the course of human affairs, one of the first objects which every where attracts our notice, is, the mif taken judgment of men concerning their own intereft. That fore evil, which Solomon long ago remarked with refpect to riches, of their being kept by the owners thereof to their hurt, takes place equally with refpect to dominion and power, and all the splendid objects and high stations of life. We every day behold men climbing, by painful fteps, to that dangerous height, which, in the end, renders their fall more fevere, and their ruin more confpicuous.