The penitential sense of sin, and the desire of a new life, when they arise in the mind, are to be received as monitions excited by our merciful Father, as calls which it is our duty to hear and our interest to follow; that to turn our thoughts away from them is a new sin; a sin which, often repeated, may at last be punished by dereliction. He that has been called often in vain, may be called no more ; and when death comes upon him, he will recollect his broken resolves with unutterable anguish; will wish for time to do what he has hitherto neglected, and lament in vain that his days are few.

The motives to religious vigilance, and diligence in our duties, which are afforded by serious meditation on the shortness of life, will receive assistance from the view of its misery; and we are, therefore, to remember,

Secondly, That "man born of a woman is full of trouble."

'The immediate effect of the numerous calamities with which human nature is threatened or afflicted, is to direct our desires to a better state. When we know that we are on every side beset with dangers; that our condition admits many evils which cannot be remedied, but contains no good which cannot be taken from us; that pain lies in ambush behind pleasure, and misfortune behind success; that we have bodies subject to innumerable maladies, and minds liable to endless perturbations; that our knowledge often gives us pain, by presenting to our wishes such felicity as is beyond our reach; and our ignorance is such, that we often pursue with

eagerness what either we cannot attain, or what, if we could attain it, disappoints our hopes; that in the dead calm of solitude we are insufficient to our own contentment; and that, when weariness of ourselves impels us to society, we are often ill received; when we perceive that small offences may raise enemies, but that great benefits will not always gain us friends; when we find ourselves courted by interest, and forsaken by ingratitude; when those who love us fall daily into the grave, and we see ourselves considered as aliens and strangers by the rising generation; it seems that we must, by necessity, turn our thoughts to another life, where, to those that are well prepared for their departure, there will be no longer pain or

sorrow.

Of the troubles incident to mankind, every one is best acquainted with his own share. The miseries of others may attract, but his own force his attention; and, as man is not afflicted but for good purposes, that attention, if well regulated, will contribute to purify his heart.

We are taught, in the history of Adam's fall, that trouble was the consequence of sin, and that misery came into the world by disobedience to the divine law. Sin and vexation are still so closely united, that he who traces his troubles to their source, will commonly find that his faults have produced them; and he is then to consider his sufferings as the mild admonitions of his heavenly Father, by which he is summoned to timely penitence. He is so far from having any reason to repine, that he may draw comfortable hopes of pardon and acceptance, and may say, with the highest reason, is good for me that I have been afflicted."

It

It is, however, possible that trouble may, sometimes, be the consequence of virtue. In times of persecution this has often happened. Confessors of the truth have been punished by exile, imprisonment, tortures, and death. The faithful have been driven from place to place, and those "have wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, of whom the world was not worthy." Heb. xi. 37.

Of such violence Providence has now removed us from the danger; but it is still possible, that integrity may raise enemies, and that a resolute adherence to the right may not always be without danger. But evils of this kind bring their consolation with them; and their natural effect is, to raise the eye and thoughts to Him who certainly judges right; and to excite ardent desires of that state where innocence and happiness shall be united.

. When we have leisure from our own cares to cast our eyes about us, and behold the whole creation groaning in misery, we must be careful that our judgment is not presumptuous, and that our charity is not regulated by external appearances. We are not to consider those on whom evil falls as the outcasts of Providence; for though temporal prosperity was promised to the Jews, as a reward of faithful adherence to the worship of God; yet, under the dispensation of the Gospel, we are no where taught that the good shall have any exemption from the common accidents of life, or that natural and civil evil shall not be equally shared by the righteous and the wicked.

The frequency of misfortunes and universality of misery may properly repress any tendency to discontent or murmur. We suffer only what is suf

fered by others, and often by those who are better than ourselves.

But the chief reason why we should send out our inquiries, to collect intelligence of misery, is, that we find opportunities of doing good. Many human troubles are such as God has given man the power of alleviating. The wants of poverty may evidently be removed by the kindness of those who have more than their own use requires. Of such beneficence the time in which we live does not want examples; and surely that duty can never be neglected, to which so great rewards are so explicitly promised.

But the power of doing good is not confined to the wealthy. He that has nothing else to give, may often give advice. Wisdom likewise has benefits in its power. A wise man may reclaim the vicious, and instruct the ignorant; may quiet the throbs of sorrow, or disentangle the perplexities of conscience. He may compose the resentful, encourage the timorous, and animate the hopeless : In the multifarious afflictions, with which every state of human life is acquainted, there is place for thousand offices of tenderness; so that he, whose desire it is to do good, can never be long without an opportunity; and every opportunity that Providence presents, let us seize with eagerness, and improve with diligence; remembering that we have no time to lose, for "Man that is born of a woman is of few days."

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SERMON XVI.

JOB, CHAP. I. VERSE 22.

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

SUCH is the weakness of human nature, that every particular state or condition lies open to particular temptations. Different frames of constitution expose us to different passions, of equal danger to our virtue; and different methods of life, whether we engage in them by choice or are forced upon them by necessity, have each of them their inlets to sin, and their avenues to perdition.

The two opposite states of prosperity and adversity equally require our vigilance and caution; each of them is a state of conflict, in which nothing but unwearied resistance can preserve us from being

overcome.

The vices of prosperity are well known, and generally observed. The haughtiness of high rank, the luxury of affluence, and the cruelty of power, every man remarks, and no man palliates; so that they are the common subjects of invective.

But though compassion hinders men from being equally severe upon the faults of the unhappy and distressed, yet, as there always has been, and always will be, at least an equal number in this, as in the other state, it is proper that they likewise should be warned of the crimes to which the circumstances of their condition expose them, and furnished with