to ourselves what to devise or wish, in order to secure peace to us in every state, what could we have invented so effectual as the assurance of being under the government of an Almighty Ruler, whose conduct to his creatures can have no other object but their good and welfare?Above all, and independent of all, He can have no temptation to injustice or partiality. Neither jealousy nor envy can dwell with the Supreme Being. He is a rival to none, he is an enemy to none, except to such as, by rebellion against his laws, seek enmity with him. He is equally above envying the greatest, or despising the meanest of his subjects. His dispensations, it is true, are often dark and unaccountable to us; but we know the reason of this to be, that we see only a part of them, and are not yet able to comprehend the whole. This we well know, that we ourselves are often the very worst judges of what is good or ill for us in this life. We grasp at the present, without due regard to consequences: and whether these consequences are to carry the advantages we had promised ourselves, or be pregnant with future evils, is what we cannot foresee. Experience has taught us a thousand times, that God judges better for us than we judge for ourselves. Often have we seen that what we considered at the time as sore disappointment, has proved in the issue to be a merciful Providence; and that, if what we once eagerly wished for had been obtained, it would have been so far from making us happy, that it would have produced our ruin.-The reflection of Solomon, Who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow ?* should often occur to every one who is given to discontent. Placed as we are, in the midst of so much ignorance with respect to the means of happiness, and at the same time under the government of a wise and gracious Being, who alone is able to effect our happiness, acquiescence in the disposal of our lot, is the only disposition that becomes us as rational creatures. To fret and repine at every disappointment of our wishes, is to discover the temper of froward children, not of men, far less of Christians. Christians, amidst all their grievances, have ever these promises to comfort them; that if they cast their care upon God, he will care for them; that out of evil he bringeth forth good; nay, that at last he shall make all things work together for good to them who love him.

In the second place, in order to correct discontent, let us attend to ourselves and our own state. Let us consider two things there; how little we deserve, and how much we enjoy. As to deserving in the sight of God, the great Disposer of our lot, we know that we have no claim. We are all sinners; who are so far from having a title to challenge favours as our due, that we

* Eccles, vi. 12.

must acknowledge it to be of God's mercies that we are not consumed. As to deserving from the world, we are apt indeed sometimes to make high and unreasonable pretensions; yet, surely, very conceited we must be, if we be not disposed to admit, that there are many of at least equal merit with us, whose condition in the world is no better, perhaps much worse than ours, who yet make no complaints, whose discontents are not heard. How much splendid genius is buried in forgotten neglect and obscurity? How much real worth and merit is driven forth to suffer all the hardships of a stormy life, while we dwell among our own people?-Look into your state, my brethren, and before you give vent to peevishness, make a fair and just estimate of all the blessings you enjoy in comparison with others. You would willingly, I know, exchange your condition, in part, with many. You would gladly have the wealth of this man; you would have the high reputation and honour of another, the health, perhaps, and firm vigour of a third. But I ask, Who is there with whom you would wish to make a total exchange? to forego altogether your present self; and to be just what he is, in mind and in body, as well as in outward estate? If this be an exchange, which few, I apprehend, are willing to make, does not this argue, that each man, on the whole, is sufficiently pleased with himself; that there are, in every situation, certain comforts, and certain grounds of self complacency and satisfaction, which ought in reason, to be employed as remedies against discontent?

In the last place, consider the state of the world around you.— You are not happy. You dwell, you admit, among your own people. But there, say you, "How many vexations do I occa"sionally experience? Sometimes distressed for want of health; "sometimes disappointed in my plans, and straitened in my cir"cumstances; at other times afflicted with domestic troubles; "so that I am far from being as I would wish to be."-Pray, my brother, who is there that lives in every respect just as he would wish to live? First, find out such a person; look through all conditions and ranks, and try if you can discover one who will tell you that he has no complaint or uneasiness whatever, before you allow yourself to repine at your present situation. Do you presume to indulge discontent, merely because you are included in the common lot; because you are not exempted from bearing your share of the common burden? What is human life to all, but a mixture of some scattered joys and pleasures, with various cares and troubles?

You have, perhaps, set your heart on some one thing, which if you could attain it, you insist, would put an end to all your complaints, and give you full contentment.-Vain man! will no experience teach you wisdom? Have you not had the same opinion before this, of some other object of your desire; and did

you not find that you was deceived in the enjoyment? Will you not then at last be persuaded that all which cometh, like all that is past, is vanity ?- -Vanity, believe it, is the indelible character imprinted on all human things. As far as happiness is to be found on earth, you must look for it, not in the world or the things of the world, but within yourselves, in your temper and your heart. Let the world change into one form or another as it will, it will be a vain world to the end; and you, to the end will be discontented. It cannot give you what you seek. The sea saith, it is not in me; and the earth saith, it is not in me. Silver and gold are to no purpose weighed for the price of it. The decree of the Almighty hath past, and cannot be reversed, that man should find his true contentment, under every condition, only in a good conscience and a well regulated mind, in a holy life, and the hope of heaven.You call yourself a christian. Does not that name import that you consider yourself as a pilgrim and a passenger on earth; related in your expectations and hopes to a better world? Are you not ashamed to betray, by your discontent, a spirit so inconsistent with such hopes and expectations, and at the time when you profess to be looking towards the end of your journey, to shew so much uneasiness about all the little circumstances of accommodation by the way?-Live by faith, my brethren, and you will live above this world and its discouragements. Dwell with God, and with things divine and immortal, and you shall dwell with true wisdom. You will find nothing so great in worldly events, as either to elate or deject you. Resting upon a principle superior to the world, you will possess your spirits in peace, and will learn that great lesson of heavenly philosophy, in whatever state you are, therewith to be content.

SERMON LXXIX.

ON DRAWING NEAR TO GOD.

{Preached at the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. ]

It is good for me to draw near to God.-PSALM. lxxiii. 28.

IN this psalm the pious author describes himself as suffering a great conflict within his mind. His observation of the course of Providence, did not present to him such an order of things as was to have been expected from the justice and goodness of Heaven. The wicked appeared flourishing and triumphant, while the worthy are destitute and oppressed, and much disorder and darkness seemed to prevail in the course of human affairs. Hence his mind fluctuated for a while amidst doubts and fears. His trust in the divine administration was even so far shaken as to create a suspicion that in vain he had cleansed his heart, and washed his hands in innocency: till at last he went into the sanctuary of God, and was there taught to view the state of human things in a juster and truer light. He then saw the vanity of that earthly prosperity which bad men appear to enjoy ; and the happy issue of all things at the last to the pious and good. He saw the divine presence ever surrounding them, and though with invisible guidance, yet with unerring hand, brings them in the end to glory. His mind returned to tranquillity; and, struck with compunction for his past errors, he rose into those high and memorable expressions of devotion, which we find in the verses preceding the Text. Thou shall guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. His fixed principle and

resolution, upon the whole, he declares in the words of the Text, It is good for me to draw near to God; words which will immediately occur to you as particularly suited to the solemn service in which we are to be engaged this day. In discoursing from them, I shall endeavour to show what is implied in drawing near to God; and what reason we have to agree with the Psalmist in judging this to be good for us.

To draw near to God, is an expression of awful and mysterious import; in explaining which, we have much reason to be sober and modest, and to guard with care against every enthusiastic excess; remembering always that, rise as high as we can, an immeasurable and infinite distance must ever remain between us and the Supreme Being. There are two senses in which we may be said to draw near, in such a degree as mortality admits, to God: either by the general course of a pious and virtuous life; or in solemn acts of immediate devotion.

I. By the practice of holiness and virtue throughout the general tenour of life, we may be said to draw near to God; for it is such an approach as we can make to the resemblance of his moral perfections. After the image of God, man was created. That image was defaced by our sin and apostacy. By a return to God and our duty, that image, through the intervention of our Saviour, is renewed upon the soul; man is said to be regenerated or born again, and is in some degree restored to that connection with God which blessed his primeval state. He who lives in the exercise of good affections, and in the regular discharge of the offices of virtue and piety, maintains, as far as his infirmity allows, conformity with the nature of that perfect Being, whose benevolence, whose purity and rectitude are conspicuous, both in his works and his ways.-Worldly and corrupt men, on the contrary, estrange themselves from all that is divine. They degrade their nature by unworthy pursuits, and are perpetually sinking in the scale of being. By sensuality they descend to the rank of the brute creation; by malignity, envy, and other bad passions, they connect themselves with devils and infernal spirits. Hence they are said in Scripture to be alienated from the life of God; to be without God in the world. Though in one sense God is ever near them, as he surrounds and encompasses them on all hands; yet, in a spiritual sense, they are farther removed from him than any distance of space can separate bodies from one another. Whereas a virtuous man, whose pleasure it is to do good, and his study to preserve himself upright and pure, is in the course of constant approach towards celestial nature. He is the lover of order, the follower of that righteousness of which God is the author and inspirer. He accords with the great laws of the universe, and seconds the designs of its Almighty Go