The fame hand which holds out forgiveness to the penitent, and affistance to the frail, difpenfes comfort and hope to the afflicted. It deferves your particular notice, in this view, that there is no character which God more frequently affumes to himself in the facred writings, than that of the Patron of the diftreffed. Compaffion is that attribute of his nature which he has chofen to place in the greatest variety of lights, on purpose that he might accommodate his majefty to our weakness, and provide a cordial for human griefs. He is the hearer of all prayers; but with particular attention he is reprefented as liftening to the cry of the poor, and regarding the prayer of the deftitute. All his creatures he governs with justice and wisdom; but he takes to himself, in a special manner, the charge of executing judgment for the oppressed, of protecting the Stranger, of delivering him who hath no helper from the hands of the spoiler. For the oppression of the poor, and for the fighing of the SER M. II. II. He SERM. the needy, will I arife, faith the Lord, to fet him in fafety from him that puffeth at him. He is the father of the fatherless, and the Judge of the widow, in his holy habitation. He raifeth up them that are bowed down. He dwelleth with the contrite. He healeth the broken in heart. For he knoweth our frame; be remembereth that we are duft-If the wifdom of his providence faw it neceffary to place fo many of his creatures in an afflicted state, that state, however, he commiferates. difdains not to point out himself as the refuge of the virtuous and pious; and to invite them, amidst all their troubles, to pour out their hearts before him. Those circumstances which eftrange others from them, intereft him the more in their fituation. The neglect or scorn of the world exposes them not to any contempt in his fight. No obfcurity conceals them from his notice; and though they fhould be forgotten by every friend on earth, they are * Pfal. ix. 8.--cii. 17.-cxlvi. 7.-Ixviii. 5.-cxlvii. 3. --cili. 14. Sc. II. are remembered by the God of heaven. SERM. That figh, heaved from the afflicted bofom, which is heard by no human ear, is liftened to by him; and that tear is remarked, which falls unnoticed or defpifed by the world. Such views of the Supreme Being, impart the most fenfible confolation to every pious heart. They prefent his adminiftration under an afpect fo mild and benign, as in a great measure to disperse the gloom which hangs over human life. A good man acts with a vigour, and suffers with a patience more than human, when he believes himself countenanced by the Almighty. Injured or oppressed by the world, he looks up to a Judge who will vindicate his caufe; he appeals to a witness who knows his integrity; he commits himself to a Friend who will never forfake him. When tired with the vexations of life, devotion opens to him its quiet retreat, where the tumults of the world are hushed, and its cares are loft in happy oblivion; where the wicked cease from SERM. from troubling, and the weary are at reft. II. There his mind regains his ferenity; the agitation of paffion is calmed; and a softening balm is infused into the wounds of the spirit. Disclosing to an invifible Friend thofe fecret griefs which he has no encouragement to make known to the world, his heart is lightened. He does not feel himself folitary or forfaken. He believes God to be prefent with him, and the Holy Ghoft to be the inspirer of his confolations. From that fecret place of the divine tabernacle, into which the Text reprefents him as admitted, he hears this voice iffue, Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will anfwer thee. Fear not; for I am with thee. Be not difmayed; for I am thy God. And as he hears a voice which speaks to none but the pure in heart, fo he beholds a hand which finners cannot fee. He beholds the hand of Providence conducting all the hidden fprings and movements of the universe; and with a secret, but unerring operation, directing every event towards the happi nefs ness of the righteous. Thofe afflictions which appear to others the meffengers of the wrath of Heaven, appear to him the minifters of fanctification and wisdom. Where they difcern nothing but the horrors of the tempeft which furrounds. them, his more enlightened eye beholds the Angel who rides in the whirlwind, and directs the ftorm. Hence a peace keeping the mind and heart, which is no where to be found but under the pavilion of the Almighty. IV. GOOD men are comforted under their troubles by the hope of Heaven; while bad men are not only deprived of this hope, but diftreffed with fears arising from a future ftate. The foul of man can never divest itself wholly of anxiety about its fate hereafter. There are hours when even to the profperous, in the midst of their pleasures, eternity is an awful thought. But much more when thofe pleasures, one after another, begin to withdraw; when life alters its form, and becomes |