SERMON ground, drinks of the same cold stream, V. carries the same weight of armour with the lowest sentinel, can any of his soldiers repine at what they endure?

.

Whatever afflictions our Lord may judge to be necessary for us, of this we may rest assured, that he will deal them forth, not with harsh and imperious authority, but with the tenderness of one who knows from experience how deeply the human heart is wounded by every stroke of adversity. He will not lay more upon us than he sees we are able to bear. Though he cause grief, yet will be have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies. He will stay his rough wind in the day of the east wind* : For it is his state, but not his nature, which is now changed. Notwithstanding his high exaltation, he still retains the compassionate sentiments of the man of sorrows. Still, we are assured by an inspired writer, he is not ashamed to call us brethren †. And with the heart of a brother, he regards those few and troubled days, such as his own once were, which good men are doomed to pass in this evil world.

* Ifaiah, xxvii. 8.

+ Heb. ii. 11.

From

V.

From his compassion, indeed, we are not SERMON to expect that fond indulgence or unseasonable relief by which the weak pity of men frequently injures its objects. It is to the material interests, more than to the present ease, of good men, that he attends. When under the impatience of sorrow we exclaim, Hath he forgotten to be gracious? hath be in anger shut up his tender mercies? we recollect not in whose hands we are. His compassion is not diminished, when its operations are most concealed. It continues equally to flow, though the channels by which it is conducted towards us lie too deep for our observation. Amidst our present ignorance of what is good or ill for us in this life, it is sufficient for us to know, that the immediate administration of universal government is placed in the hands of the most attentive and compassionate friend of mankind. How greatly does this consideration alleviate the burden of human woe! How happily does it connect with the awful dispensations of religion the mildest ideas of tenderness and humanity!

III. THE

SERMON

V.

III. THE Text leads us to hope, that amidst all the infirmities of our state, both under the temptations and under the distresses of life, our Blessed Lord will afford us a proper measure of assistance and support. In that he hath suffered being tempted, be is able to succour them who either suffer or are tempted*; that is, he is perfectly qualified for discharging this beneficent office; he knows exactly where the wound bleeds, where the burden presses, what relief will prove most seasonable, and how it can be most successfully applied. The manner in which it is conveyed by him to the heart, we may be at a loss to explain; but no argument can be thence drawn against the credibility of the fact. The operations which the power of God carries on in the natural world, are no less mysterious than those which we are taught to believe that his spirit performs in the moral world. we can give no account of what is every day before our eyes, how a seed becomes a tree, or how the child rises into a man, is it any wonder that we should be unable to explain how virtue is supported, and constancy

*Heb. ii. 18.

If

strength

V.

strengthened by God within the heart? If SERMON men by their counsels and suggestions can influence the minds of one another, must not divine suggestion and counsel produce a much greater effect? Surely, the Father of Spirits must, by a thousand ways, have access to the spirits which he has made, so as to give them what determination, or impart. to them what assistance he thinks proper, without injuring their frame, or disturbing their rational powers.

Accordingly, whenever any notions of religion have taken place among mankind, this belief has in some measure prevailed, that, to the virtuous under distress, aid was communicated from above. This sentiment is so congruous to our natural impressions of the divine benignity, that both among poets and philosophers of ancient times it was a favourite idea, and often occurs in their writings. But what among them was no more than loose conjecture or feeble hope, has received full confirmation from the gospel of Christ. Not only is the promise of divine assistance expressly given to Christians, but their faith in that promise VOL. II. K

is

V.

SERMON is strengthened by an argument which must carry conviction to every heart. If Christ had full experience of the insufficiency of human nature to overcome the difficulties wherewith it is now surrounded, will he withhold from his followers that grace without which he sees they must perish in the evil day? If, in the season of his temptation and distress, an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him *, shall no celestial messenger be employed by him on the like kind errand to those whom he styles his brethren? Can we believe that he who once bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows, will, from that height of glory to which he is now exalted,- look down upon us here, contending with the storm of adversity, labouring to follow his steps through the steep and difficult paths of virtue, exposed on every side to arrows aimed against us by the powers of darkness; and that, seeing our distress and hearing our supplications, he will remain an unconcerned spectator, without vouchsafing us either assistance to support our frailty, or protection to screen us amidst surrounding dangers ?

* Luke, xxii. 42.

Where