SERMON VII. 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 represents 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 sparks 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 fhrub upon the wall, are fhook in their turns by numberless calamities and diftreffes :-when one fits down and looks upon this gloomy fide of things, with all the forrowful changes and chances which fur round us,―at the first fight,—would not one wonder, how the fpirit 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,-so tender a frame as ours, would be but ill fitted to encounter what generally befals it in this rugged journey and accordingly we find,that we are so curiously wrought by an allwife hand, with a view to this, that in the very compofition and texture of our nature, there is a remedy and provifion left against moft of the evils we fuffer;-we being fo ordered, that the principle of felf-love given us for preservation, comes in here to our aid,— by opening a door of hope, and in the worst emergencies, flattering us with a belief that we fhall extricate ourselves, and live to fee better days. This expectation,-though in fact it no way alters the nature of the crofs accidents to which we lay open, or does at all pervert the course of them, yet imposes upon the sense of them, and like a secret spring 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 fhock and hard justling, which otherwise would unavoidably overwhelm it. Without fuch an inward refource, from an inclination, which is natural to man, to trust and hope for redrefs in the most deplorable conditions,-his ftate in this life would be, of all creatures, the moft miferable.-When his mind was either wrung with affliction,-or his body lay tortured with the gout or stone,-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 intense,—without remedy, without intermiffion;- with what remedy,—without deplorable lamentation would he languish out his day, and how sweet, as Job fays, would 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 struggles against despair: so that whatever part of us fuffers, the darkest mind inftantly ushers Р in this relief to it,-points out to hope, encourages to build, though on a fandy foundation, and raises an expectation in us, that things will come to a fortunate issue.—And indeed it is fomething furprising to confider the ftrange force of this paffion;-what wonders it has wrought in fupporting men's fpirits in all ages, and under fuch inextricable difficulties, that they have fometimes hoped, as the apoftle 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 represented, as it is built upon one of the moft 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 disappoints in the end, leaving him to go on his way forrowing,mourning, as the prophet says, 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 so, 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 fpirits for a time with a general expectation of better fortune;-yet, like a ship toffed without a pilot upon a troublesome sea, float upon the furface for a while, but -it may is never,3-never likely to be brought to the haven where it would be.-To accomplish this, -reason and religion are called in at length, and join with nature in exhorting us to hope; --but to hope in God, in whose hands are the iffues of life and death,-and without whofe knowlege and permiffion we know that not a hair of our heads can fall to the ground.Strengthened with this anchor of hope, which keeps us ftedfaft, 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, wait |