nary light of a religion;-and whether fo juft and holy a religion as the Chriftian, which fets reftraints even upon our thoughts;—a religion, which gives us the most engaging ideas of the perfections of GOD, at the fame time tho' it impreffes the most awful ones of his majesty and power;a Being rich in mercies; but, if they are abused, terrible in his judgments ;-one conftantly about our fecret paths, about our beds ;-who fpieth out all our ways,-noticeth all our actions ;-and is fo pure in his nature, that he will punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and has appointed a day wherein he will enter into this inquiry, and execute judgment according as we have deserved.

If either the hopes or fears, the paffions or reafon of men, are not to be wrought upon at all, fuch principles must have an effect, though, I own very far fhort of what a thinking man should expect from fuch motives.

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 reasons and obligations they have to be better.Yet ftill I affirm, if those reftraints were leffened,the world would be infinitely worfe;and therefore, we cannot fufficiently blefs and adore the goodness of GOD, for these advantages brought by the coming of Christ.Which God grant that we may live to be more deferving of; that, in the last day, when he fhall come again to judge the world, we may rife to life immortal. Amen.

SERMON XXXIV.

Truft 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 shrub upon the wall, are shook in their turns by numberlefs 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 befalls it in this rugged journey: and accordingly we find, that we are fo 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 provifion `left against most of the evils we suffer; we being fo ordered, that the principle of felf-love, given us for prefervation, comes in here to our aid, by opening a door of hope, and in the worft 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 cross accidents to which we lie open, or does at all pervert the course of them, yet impofes upon the fenfe of them, and like a fecret fpring in a well contrived machine, though it cannot prevent, at least it counterbalances the preffure, and fo bears up this tottering tender frame, under many a violent shock and hard juftling, which otherwise would unavoidably overwhelm it. Without fuch an inward refource, from an inclination, which is natural to man, to truft and hope for redress in the moft deplorable conditions,his ftate in this life would be, of all creatures, the most miserable. 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 remedy, without intermiffion ;-with what deplorable lamentation would he languish out his day,

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and how fweet, as Job fays, would the clods of the valley be to him?-But fo fad a perfuafion, whatever grounds there may be fometimes for it, fcarce ever gets full poffeffion of the mind of man, which, by nature, ftruggles against despair; fo that whatever part of us fuffers, the darkest mind inftantly ushers 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 strange force of this paffion ;-what wonders it has wrought in fupporting men's spirits in all ages, and under fuch inextricable difficulties, that they have fometimes hoped, as the apostle expreffes it, even against hope-against all likelihood; and have looked forwards with comfort under misfortunes, when there has been little or nothing to favour fuch an expectation.

This flattering propenfity in us, which I have here reprefented, as it is built upon one of the most deceitful of human paffions,-that is, felf-love, which at all times, inclines us to think better of ourselves 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 feverer 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 accomplished, but fix itself upon a proper object of truft 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 straits 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, Reason and Religon 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, wé know that not a hair of our heads can fall to the ground. Strengthened with this anchor of hope, which keeps us fted fast,--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 fal vation of GOD: he then builds upon a rock, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. He may be troubled, it is true, on every fide, but shall not be diftreffed, perplexed, yet not in despair: though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, even then he fears no evil;-this rod and this staff comfort him.

The virtue of this had been fufficiently tried by David, and had, no doubt, been of ufe to him in the course 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 to fee the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He believed!-how