follies, that embroil human life: he creates no evil to himself, nor provokes any unneceffary danger. His virtue effectually does that, which atheifm attempts in vain; difpels the terror of an invifible power: he needs not drown the voice of confcience by wine, or noife, or the toil of life; it fpeaks nothing to him, but what is kind and obliging; it is his comforter, not his perfecutor and as to this world, he reaps that fatisfaction and tranquillity from the moderation of his affections, which ambition and avarice do in vain promise themselves from preferments, or the increase of wealth. If therefore there were any ftate on this fide heaven exempt from evil, it must be that of the perfect man. But he knows the world too well to flatter himself with the expectation of indolence, or an undisturbed tranquillity here below; and is as far from being deluded by vain hopes, as from being scared by vain fears, or tortur'd and diftended by vain defires. He knows the world has its evils, and that they cannot wholly be avoided; he knows it, and dares behold them with open eyes, furvey their force, and feel and try their edge. And then, when he has collected his own ftrength, and called in the aid of heaven, he brinks not, nor defponds; but meets evil with that courage, and bears it with that evenness of mind, that he seems, even in his

affliction, nearer to indolence, than the fool and finner in his profperity. So that I cannot forbear profeffing, there appears fo much beauty, fo much loveliness in the deportment of the perfect man, with refpect to the evils of life, that for that reafon alone, were there no other, I fhould admire and prefer his virtue above any poffeffion or enjoyment of life. Give me leave to compare the faint and finner on this occafion; and but very briefly: The wife man's eyes, faith Solomon, Ecclef. ii. 14. are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness. The wife man fees that he has enemies, I mean evils; and therefore he informs himfelf well of their ftrength, obferves their motion, and prepares for the encounter: but ignorance and ftupidity is the greatest bleffing of the finner's life; and his moft admired quality is not to be apprehensive of evil, till it crush him with its weight. But if the finner be not fool enough to arrive at this degree of brutality; then as soon as the report of the most diftant evil, or the moft inconfiderable, reaches his ear, how it fills his imagination, how it shakes his heart, and how it embitters his pleafures! and to what poor and defpicable arts, to what bafe and difhonourable shifts does his fear force him? when on the fame occafion we difcover nothing in the perfect man, but a beautiful mixture of

humi

humility and faith, devotion and confidence or affurance in God; He is not afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trufting in the Lord, Pfal. cxii. a frame of fpirit, which, to those who have opportu nity and sense to obferve it, renders him both more beloved and revered. Lastly, If we confider the wicked and the good man, actually under the weight and preffure of evil, how much unlike is the ftate of the one in reality to that of the other, even while the outward circumftances are the fame? what chearfulness, what courage, what refignation, what hopes adorn the one! what inftruction to all, what fatisfaction to his friends and relations does his deportment afford! and how does it infpire and warm the breafts of those that converfe with him, with an esteem for, and love of goodness, and himself! what charm, what delight is there in those gracious fpeeches, that proceed at this time out of a good man's mouth! I know that my Redeemer liveth: the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord: thou of very faithfulness haft caufed me to be afflicted: God is the ftrength of my heart, and my portion for ever: and fuch like. And how often does he pour out his heart in fecret before God! how often does he reflect on the gracious and wife ends of divine chastisement! and

or

how often does he, with defire and thirst, meditate on that fulness of joy which expects him in the presence of God! but let us caft our eye now on the voluptuary, on the ambitious, on the covetous, any other fort of finner, under disgrace, poverty, fickness, or any fuch calamity; what a mean and defpicable figure does fuch a one make! what impatience, what defpondency, what guilt, what pufillanimity does every word, every action betray! or it may be, his infolence is turned into crouching and fawning; his rudenefs and violence, into artifice and cunning; and his irreligion, into fuperftition. Various indeed are the humours, and very different the carriage of thefe unhappy men in the day of tryal; but all is but mi¬ fery in a different dress; guilt and bafeness under a different appearance. Here I might further remark, that that faith which produces patience in adverfity, produces likewife fecurity and confidence in profperity. I will lay me down (may every good man fay in the words of the Pfalmift) and fleep, and rife again, for thou, Lord, halt make me dwell in fafety. And furely the one is as ferviceable to the ease of human life as the other. But I think I have faid enough to fhew, that if pleafure be fuppofed to imply no more than indolence, the perfect man has without controverfy a far greater.

fhare

fhare of it than any other can pretend

to.

But let us take pleasure to be, not a mere calm, but a gentle breeze; not to consist in mere reft and quiet, but a delightful motion; not in the mere tranquillity of the mind, but in the transport of it, or fomething nearly approaching it. Perfection, I am confident, will fuffer nothing by this change of the notion of pleasure. How many plea fures has the wife man, which depend not on fortune, but himself, (I mean his diligence and integrity) and to which the finner is an utter ftranger! what pleasure, what triumph is equal to that of the perfect man, when he glories in God, and makes his boast of him all day long? when he rejoyces in the Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory? when being filled with all the fulness of God, tranfported by a vital sense of divine love, and ftrengthened and exalt ed by the mighty energy of the fpirit of adoption, he maintains a fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jefus? All communion with God, confifts in this joy of love and affurance, and has a taste of heaven in it. Let the most fortunate, and the wifeft Epicurean too, ranfack all the ftore-houses and treasures of nature; let him muster together all his legions of pleafure, and let him, if he can, confolidate and incorporate them all; and after

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all,