causes of trouble; when he sees 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 shrub upon the wall, are shook in their turns by numberless calamities and distresses ;-when one sits down, and looks upon this gloomy side of things, with all the sorrowful changes and chances which surround us, at first sight, would not one wonder how the spirit of a man could bear the infirmities of his nature, and what it is that supports him as it does under the many evil accidents which he meets with in his passage through the valley of tears? Without some certain aid within us to bear us up, so tender a frame as ours would be but ill-fitted to encoun discourse by an answer to a question often asked, relatively to this argument, in prejudice of Christianity, which cannot be more seasonably answered than in a discourse at this time; and that is-Whether the Christian religion has done the world any service in reforming the lives and morals of mankind, which some, who pretend to have considered the present state of vice, seem to doubt of? This objection I, in some measure, have anticipated in the beginning of this discourse; and what I have to add to that argument is this, that as it is impossible to decide the point by evidence of facts, which at so great a distance cannot be brought together and compared, it must be decided by reason and the probability of things; upon which issue one might appeal to the most professed deist, and trust him to determine whether the lives of those who are set loose from all obligations butter what generally befalls it in this rugged jour those of conveniency, can be compared with ney; and accordingly we find that we are so those who have been blessed with the extra-curiously wrought by an all-wise hand with a ordinary light of a religion; and whether so view to this, that in the very composition and just and holy a religion as the Christian, which texture of our nature there is a remedy and sets restraints even upon our thoughts, a provision left against most of the evils we religion which gives us the most engaging ideas suffer; we being so ordered that the principle of the perfections of GOD, at the same time that of self-love, given us for preservation, comes in it impresses the most awful ones of his majesty here to our aid, by opening a door of hope, and, and power,-a Being rich in mercies, but, if in the worst emergencies, flattering us with a they are abused, terrible in his judgments ;-one belief that we shall extricate ourselves, and live constantly about our secret paths, about our to see better days. beds; who spieth out all our ways, noticeth all our actions, and is so pure in his nature that he will punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and has appointed a day wherein he will enter into this inquiry, and execute judgment according as we have deserved. If either the hopes or fears, the passions or reason of men are to be wrought upon at all, such principles must have an effect, though, I own, very far short of what a thinking man should expect from such motives. No doubt there is great room for amendment in the Christian world; and the professors of our holy religion may in general be said to be a very corrupt and bad generation of men, considering what reasons and obligations they have to be better. Yet still I affirm, if those restraints were lessened, the world would be infinitely worse; and therefore we cannot sufficiently bless and adore the goodness of God for those advantages brought by the coming of Christ; which God grant that we may live to be more deserving of, that, in the last day, when he shall come again to judge the world, we may rise to life immortal. Amen. XXXIV.-TRUST IN GOD. Put thou thy trust in the Lord.'-PSALM XXXVII. 3. WHOEVER seriously reflects upon the state and condition of man, and looks upon that dark side of it which represents his life as open to so many This expectation, though in fact it no way alters the nature of the cross accidents to which we lie 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 pressure, and so bears up this tottering, tender frame under many a violentshock and hard jostling, which otherwise would unavoidably overwhelm it. Without such an inward resource, from an inclination, which is natural to man, to trust and hope for redress in the most deplorable conditions, his state in this life would be of all creatures the most miserable. 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 should be no respite to his sorrow,-could he believe the pains he endured would continue equally intense, without remedy, without intermission,-with what deplorable lamentation would he languish out his day! and how sweet, as Job says, would the 'clods of the valley be to him!' But so sad a persuasion, whatever grounds there may be sometimes for it, scarce ever gets full possession of the mind of man, which by nature struggles against despair; so that whatever part of us suffers, the darkest mind instantly ushers in this relief to it, points out to hope, encourages to build, though on a sandy foundation, and raises an expectation in us that things will come to a fortunate issue. And, indeed, it is something surprising to con sider the strange force of this passion; what wonders it has wrought in supporting men's spirits in all ages, and under such inextricable difficulties that they have sometimes hoped, as the Apostle expresses it, even against hope, against all likelihood; and have looked forwards with comfort under misfortunes, when there has been little or nothing to favour such an expectation. help, and goodness always to incline him to do it. He knew this infinite Being, though his dwelling was so high that his glory was above the heavens, yet humbled himself to behold the things that are done in heaven and earth; that he was not an idle and distant spectator of what passed there, but that he was a present help in time of trouble; that he bowed the heavens, and came down to overrule the course of things,-delivering the poor and him that was in misery from him that was too strong for him; This flattering propensity in us, which I have here represented, as it is built upon one of the most deceitful of human passions-that is, self-lifting the simple out of his distress and guardlove-which at all times inclines us to think better of ourselves and conditions than there is ground for; how great soever the relief is which a man draws from it at present, it too often disappoints in the end, leaving him to go on his way sorrowing-mourning, as the prophet says, that his hope is lost. So that, after all, in our severer trials, we still find a necessity of calling in something 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 trust and reliance that is able to fulfil our desires, to hear our cry, and to help us. The passion of hope, without this, though in straits a man may support his spirits for a time with a general expectation of better fortune, yet, like a ship tossed without a pilot upon a troublesome sea, it may float upon the surface for a while, but is never, 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 issues of life and death, and without whose knowledge and permission we know that not a hair of our heads can fall to the ground. Strengthened with this anchor of hope, which keeps us stedfast when the rains descend and the floods come upon us, however the sorrows of a man are multiplied, he bears up his head, looks towards heaven with confidence, waiting for the salvation of God; he then builds upon a rock, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. He may be troubled, it is true, on every side, but shall not be distressed; perplexed, yet not in despair; though he walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even then he fears no evil,-this rod and this staff comfort him. ing him by his providence, so that no man should do him wrong; that neither the sun│ should smite him by day, nor the moon by night. Of this the Psalmist had such evidence from his observation on the life of others, with the strongest conviction, at the same time, which a long life full of personal deliverances could give; all which taught him the value of the lesson in the text, from which he had received so much encouragement himself that he transmits it for the benefit of the whole race of mankind after him, to support them, as it had done him, under the afflictions which befell him. The virtue of this had been sufficiently tried by David, and had no doubt been of use to him in the course of a life full of afflictions, many of which were so great, that he declares he should verily have fainted under the sense and apprehension of them, but that he believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He believed! How could he do otherwise? He had all the conviction that reason and inspiration could give him, that there was a Being in whom everything concurred which could be the proper object of trust and confidence-power to 'Trust in God;'-as if he had said, Whosoever thou art that shall hereafter fall into any such straits or troubles as I have experienced, learn by my example where to seek for succour; trust not in princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them: the sons of men, who are of low degree, are vanity, and are not able to help thee; men of high degree are a lie, too often deceive thy hopes, and will not help thee: but thou, when thy soul is in heaviness, turn thy eyes from the earth, and look up towards heaven, to that infinitely kind and powerful Being who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, who is a present help in time of trouble: despond not, nor say within thyself, why do his chariot-wheels stay so long? nor why he vouchsafeth thee not a speedy relief? but arm thyself in thy misfortunes with patience and fortitude; trust in God, who sees all those conflicts under which thou labourest, who knows thy necessities afar off, and puts all thy tears into his bottle; who sees every careful thought and pensive look, and hears every sigh and melancholy groan thou utterest. In all thy exigencies trust and depend on him; nor ever doubt but that he who heareth the cry of the fatherless, and defendeth the cause of the widow, if it is just, will hear thine, and either lighten thy burden and let thee go free, or, which is the same, if that seems not meet, by adding strength to thy mind enable thee to sustain what he has suffered to be laid upon thee. Whoever recollects the particular psalms said to be composed by this great man, under the several distresses and cross accidents of his life, will perceive the justice of this paraphrase, which is agreeable to the strain of reasoning which runs through, that is little else than a recollection of his own words and thoughts upon those occasions, in all which he appears to have been no less signal in his afflictions than in his piety, and in that goodness of soul which he discovers under them. I said the reflections upon his own life and providential escapes which he had experienced had had a share in forming these religious sentiments of trust in his mind, which had so early taken root, that when he was going to fight the Philistine, when he was but a youth and stood before Saul, he had already learned to argue in this manner :-Let no man's heart fail him: thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, and I went out after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by the beard, and smote him, and slew him: thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be as one of them; for the Lord, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will also deliver me out of his hand.--The conclusion was natural, and the experience which every man has had of God's former loving-kindness and protection to him, either in dangers or distress, does unavoidably engage him to think in the same strain. It is observable that the Apostle St. Paul, encouraging the Corinthians to bear with patience the trials incident to human nature, reminds them of the deliverances that God did formerly vouchsafe to him and his fellow-labourers Gaius and Aristarchus; and on that ground builds a rock of encouragement for future trust and dependence on him. His life had been in very great jeopardy at Ephesus, where he had like to have been brought out to the theatre to be devoured by wild beasts, and, indeed, had no human means to avert, and consequently to escape it; and therefore he tells them that he had this advantage by it, that the more he believed he should be put to death, the more he was engaged, by his deliverance, never to depend on any worldly trust, but only on God, who can rescue from the greatest extremity, even from the grave, and death itself. For we would not, brethren, says he, have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above our strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life; but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, and in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. And, indeed, a stronger argument cannot be brought for future trust than the remembrance of past protection; for what ground or reason can I have to distrust the kindness of that person who has always been my friend and benefactor? On whom can I better rely for assistance in the day of my distress than on him who stood by me in all mine affliction, and, when I was at the brink of destruction, delivered me out of all my troubles? Would it not be highly ungrateful, and reflect either upon his goodness or his sufficiency, to distrust that Providence which has always had a watchful eye over me, and who, according to his gracious promises, will never leave me, nor forsake me, and who, in all my wants, in all my emergencies, has been abundantly more willing to give than I to ask it? If the former and the latter rain have hitherto descended upon the earth in due season, and seed-time and harvest have never yet failed,-why should I fear famine in the land, or doubt but that he who feedeth the raven, and providently catereth for the sparrow, should likewise be my comfort? How unlikely is it that ever he should suffer his truth to fail! This train of reflection, from the consideration of past mercies, is suitable and natural to all mankind: there being no one, who by calling to mind. God's kindnesses, which have been ever of old, but will see cause to apply the argument to himself. And though, in looking back upon the events which have befallen us, we are apt to attribute too much to the arm of flesh, in recounting the more successful parts of them; saying, My wisdom, my parts and address, extricated me from this misfortune; my foresight and penetration saved me from a second; my courage, and the mightiness of my strength, carried me through a third: however we are accustomed to talk in this manner, yet whoever coolly sits down and reflects upon the many accidents (though very improperly called so) which have befallen him in the course of his life; when he considers the many amazing turns in his favour-sometimes in the most unpromising cases, and often brought about by the most unlikely causes; when he remembers the particular providences which have gone along with him, the many personal deliverances which have preserved him, the unaccountable manner in which he has been enabled to get through difficulties, which on all sides beset him, at one time of his life, or the strength of mind he found himself endowed with to encounter afflictions which fell upon him at another period;-where is the man, I say, who looks back with the least religious sense upon what has thus happened to him, who could not give you sufficient proofs of God's power, and his arm over him, and recount several cases wherein the God of Jacob was his help, and the Holy One of Israel his redeemer? Hast thou ever laid upon the bed of languishing, or laboured under a grievous distemper which threatened thy life? Call to mind thy sorrowful and pensive spirit at that time; and do add to it who it was that had mercy on thee, that brought thec out of darkness and the shadow of death, and made all thy bed in thy his all, being the greatest, the offence, in God's sickness. Hath the scantiness of thy condition hurried thee into great straits and difficulties, and brought thee almost to distraction? Consider who it was that spread thy table in that wilderness of thought; who it was made thy cup to overflow; who added a friend of consolation to thee, and thereby spake peace to thy troubled mind. Hast thou ever sustained any considerable damage in thy stock or trade? Bethink thyself who it was that gave thee a serene and contented mind under those losses. If thou hast recovered, consider who it was that repaired those breaches, when thy own skill and endeavours failed: call to mind whose providence has blessed them since, whose hand it was that has since set a hedge about thee, and made all that thou hast done to prosper. Hast thou ever been wounded in thy more tender part, through the loss of an obliging husband? or hast thou been torn away from the embraces of a dear and promising child, by his unexpected death? dispensation to the Jews, was denounced as the most heinous, and represented as most unpardonable. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer: he shall surely be put to death. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood defileth the land; and the land cannot be cleansed of blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. For this reason, by the laws of all civilised nations, in all parts of the globe, it has been punished with death. Some civilised and wise communities have so far incorporated these severe dispensations into their municipal laws as to allow of no distinction betwixt murder and homicide, at least in the penalty: leaving the intentions of the several parties concerned in it to that Being who knows the heart, and will adjust the differences of the case hereafter. This falls, no doubt, heavy upon particulars, but it is urged for the benefit of the whole. It is not the business of a preacher to enter into an examination of the grounds and reasons for so seeming a severity. Where most severe, they have proceeded, no doubt, from an excess of abhorrence of a crime which is, of all others, most terrible and shocking in its own nature, and the most direct attack and stroke at society; as the O consider whether the God of truth did not approve himself a father to thee when fatherless, or a husband to thee when a widow, and has either given thee a name better than of sons and daughters, or even, beyond thy hope, made thy remaining tender branches to grow up tall and beautiful, like the cedars of Libanus. Strengthened by these considerations, suggest-security of a man's life was the first protection ing the same or like past deliverances, either to thyself, thy friends or acquaintance, thou wilt learn this great lesson in the text: In all thy exigencies and distresses, to trust God; and whatever befalls thee in the many changes and chances of this mortal life, to speak comfort to thy soul, and to say in the words of Habakkuk the prophet, with which I conclude,- Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; although the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; although the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation. To whom be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen. XXXV. 'But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from my altar, that he may die.'-EXODUS XXI. 14. As the end and happy result of society was our mutual protection from the depredations which malice and avarice lay us open to, so have the laws of God laid proportionable restraints against such violations as would defeat us of such a security. Of all other attacks which can be made against us, that of a man's life, which is of society, the groundwork of all the other blessings to be desired from such a compact. Thefts, oppressions, exactions, and violences of that kind, cut off the branches; this smote the root: all perished with it, the injury irreparable. No after act could make amends for it. What recompense can he give to a man in exchange for his life? What satisfaction to the widow, the fatherless,-to the family, the friends, the relations,-cut off from his protection, and rendered perhaps destitute, perhaps miserable for ever! No wonder that by the law of nature this crime was always pursued with the most extreme vengeance; which made the barbarians to judge, when they saw St. Paul upon the point of dying a sudden and terrifying death,-No doubt this man is a murderer, who, though he hath escaped the sca, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. The censure there was rash and uncharitable; but the honest detestation of the crime was uppermost. They saw a dreadful punishment, they thought; and, in seeing the one, they suspected the other. And the vengeance which had overtaken the holy man was meant by them the vengeance and punishment of the Almighty Being, whose providence and honour were concerned in pursuing him, from the place he had fled from, to that island. The honour and authority of God is most evidently struck at, most certainly, in every such crime, and therefore he would pursue it; it being the reason, in the ninth of Genesis, upon which the prohibition of murder is grounded; for in the image of God created he man: as if to attempt the life of a man had something in it peculiarly daring and audacious; not only shocking as to its consequence above all other crimes, but of personal violence and indignity against God, the author of our life and death. That it is the highest act of injustice to man, and which will admit of no compensation, I have said. But depriving a man of life does not comprehend the whole of his suffering: he may be cut off in an unprovided or disordered condition, with regard to the great account betwixt himself and his Maker. He may be under the power of irregular passions and desires. The best of men are not always upon their guard. And I am sure we have all reason to join in that affecting part of our Litany, that amongst other evils, God would deliver us from sudden death; that we may have some foresight of that period to compose our spirits, prepare our accounts, and put ourselves in the best posture we can to meet it; for, after we are most prepared, it is a terror to human nature. The people of some nations are said to have a peculiar art in poisoning by slow and gradual advances. In this case, however horrid, it savours of mercy with regard to our spiritual state; for the sensible decays of nature which a sufferer must feel within him from the secret workings of the horrid drug, give warning, and show that mercy which the bloody hand that comes upon his neighbour suddenly, and slays him with guile, has denied him. It may serve to admonish him of the duty of repentance, and to make his peace with God, whilst he has time and opportunity. The speedy execution of justice, which, as our laws now stand, and which were intended for that end, must strike the greater terror upon that account. Short as the interval between sentence and death is, it is long, compared to the case of the murdered. Thou allowedst the man no time, said the judge to a late criminal, in a most affecting manner, -thou allowedst him not a moment to prepare for eternity; and to one who thinks at all, it is, of all reflections and self-accusation, the most insurmountable. That by the hand of violence, a man in a perfect state of health, whilst he walks out in perfect security, as he thinks, with his friends, perhaps whilst he is sleeping soundly, to be hurried out of the world by the assassin-by a sudden stroke-to find himself at the bar of God's justice, without notice and preparation for trial,-'tis most horrible! Though he be really a good man (and it is to be hoped God makes merciful allowances in such cases), yet it is a terrifying consideration at the best; and as the injury is greater, there are also very aggravating circumstances relating to the person who commits this act ;-as when it is the effect, not of a rash and sudden passion, which sometimes disorders and confounds reason for a moment, but of a deliberate and prepense design or malice; when the sun not only goes down, but rises upon his wrath; when he sleeps not till he has struck the stroke; when, after he has had time and leisure to recollect himself, and consider what he is going to do,-when, after all the checks of conscience, the struggles of humanity, the recoilings of his own blood at the thoughts of shedding another man's,--he shall persist still, and resolve to do it. Merciful God! protect us from doing or suffering such evils. Blessed be thy name and providence, which seldom or never suffers it to escape with impunity. In vain does the guilty flatter himself with hopes of secrecy or impunity: the eye of God is always upon him. Whither can he fly from his presence? By the immensity of his nature, he is present in all places; by the infinity of it, to all times; by his omniscience, to all thoughts, words, and actions of men. By an emphatical phrase in Scripture, the blood of the innocent is said to cry to heaven from the ground for vengeance; and it was for this reason, that he might be brought to justice, that he was debarred the benefit of any asylum and the cities of refuge. For the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and their eye should not pity him. The text says, Thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die. It had been a very ancient imagination that, for men guilty of this and other horrid crimes, a place held sacred, and dedicated to God, was a refuge and protection to them from the hands of justice. The law of God cuts the transgressor off from all delusive hopes of this kind; and I think the Romish Church has very little to boast of in the sanctuaries which she leaves open for this and other crimes and irregularities, — sanctuaries which are often the first temptations to wickedness, and therefore bring the greater scandal and dishonour to her that authorizes their pretensions. Every obstruction of the course of justice is a door opened to betray society, and bereave us of those blessings which it has in view. To stand up for the privileges of such places is to invite men to sin with a bribe of impunity. It is a strange way of doing honour to God, to screen actions which are a disgrace to humanity. What Scripture and all civilised nations teach concerning the crime of taking away another man's life, is applicable to the wickedness of a man's attempting to bereave himself of his own. He has no more right over it than over that of others; and whatever false glosses have been put upon it by men of bad heads or bad hearts, it is at the bottom a complication of cowardice, and wickedness, and weakness; is one of the fatalest mistakes desperation can hurry a man |