least the hope and assurance of possessing it hereafter? And what happiness can be without virtue? or what stability to either happiness or virtue, unless they are founded on truth and reason? otherwise they are no better than error and self-deception.

I. I shall therefore endeavour to prove in the first place, that the man who putteth his trust in God is truly rational.

1. First, his estimate of himself and of his fellow men is sober. He views neither the one nor the other in an exaggerated light, but sees things as they really are. Unless we keep this in our recollection we may imagine that this blessedness is the portion of persons who certainly are not recognized by the word of God as having part in it. For is not the experience of the world, of its uncertainty and disappointments, of the frailty and faithlessness of mankind, and of the hollowness and selfishness and unsteadiness of all our natural virtue, sufficient to convince us, that there is little reason to rely on any created being? But is such a conviction either virtue or happiness? By itself it certainly is not. Nay

it may be, and often is, the very reverse. It may and often does produce no higher result than a deep-rooted contempt and disgust; a proud, suspicious, cold-hearted, and despairing philosophy; an almost malignant triumph in the degradation of our nature; a temper soured, unamiable, and morose. All this is any thing but blessed. The man whom God calls blessed is one who is more occupied in trusting God than in mistrusting man. He has not received again that heart of stone which divine grace had taken away. He learns from God to love and pity that fallen man, whom God loves and pities, whom God does not despise or abhor. He is possessed of that divine charity which believeth all things and hopeth all things. He finds a real pleasure in discovering and recording the traces of goodness in his fellow men, and in hoping that many more are discovered by the allseeing eye of God than meets his observation.

The only being who is uniformly just and correct in his estimate of character is God, because God is love; and though his

holiness is quick-sighted to detect faults and imperfections which human malice fails to discover, yet his view of man is not partial. He sees him as he really is; the image of God, though in ruins; weak and sinful, but not irrecoverable; a man, not a devil and while He searches after the minutest sin, that his mercy may pardon and his grace remove it, and while He alone is fully alive to our frailty and weakness, for He alone is entirely engaged in guarding and supporting it, yet His nature is to delight to acknowledge every thing which is like Himself; to search after it and find it out, or rather, with his piercing glance to penetrate all that is merely external; to watch over the first desires after goodness, and the struggles which the spirit makes to escape from the bondage of corruption. Now he who truly trusts God, receives of the Spirit and mind of God. He knows his own weakness, and how little he is to be trusted; but yet he does not despair of himself, because God does not despair of him. What is good in himself or others he does not deny, because God does not deny it. He knows that

But he also

without divine grace his righteousness and theirs must soon pass away. knows, that God is ready and willing to bestow that grace. He is conscious that the Spirit of God is mercifully teaching and sanctifying him, notwithstanding his ignorance and daily transgressions: and he trusts that the same mercy is extended to them also; and feels more pleasure in acknowledging all that appears good or even hopeful in their character, and in interceding with God for their establishment in holiness, than in idle lamentations over an instability which lamentations can never remove, or in exhibiting a discernment of their frailty, of which he ought rather to be ashamed.

2. The man who putteth his trust in God is sober also in his estimate of the world and its enjoyments. It is far from wisdom to affect to despise and undervalue those things which God has created to be received and used with thanksgiving. The man who trusts God, in every thing recognizes His hand and values His mercies, be

knows and he recollects, that all that is in the world is transitory and short-lived, and that these are mercies which were not given to him as an everlasting possession; therefore whether they be given or taken away, the tendency of his own principles is to lead him to bless the Lord, who alone can be the eternal portion of the soul, and without whose blessing none of these things could be really desirable. It is this recumbence upon God, this recognizing of his hand in all the events of life, and in the distribution of this world's favours or misfortunes, which infuses itself into all his views and calculations, and sheds a calm sobriety over his joys and sorrows. God is the object of his abiding confidence. Without His blessing he cannot be rich with it he never can be poor.

3. The man who putteth his trust in the Lord is rational, because his dependance is free from enthusiasm. He learns from the Scripture that God is the whole author of his salvation; that He only can commence the spiritual life in his soul, and maintain and perfect it to eternity; that He