DISCOURSE XI.

PART I.

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PSALM 1xxvii. 9, 10.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious, hath he in Anger fhut up his tender Mercies?

And I faid, This is my Infirmity; but I will remember the Years of the Right Hand of the Moft High.

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HOEVER was the Author of this Pfalm, he was manifeftly under a great Dejection of Mind when he penned it: He speaks of himself as detefted of God, and given up to be a Prey to the Sorrows of his own difturbed, tormented Heart. His Soul refufed Comfort, as he complains in the fecond Verfe: When he rememQ3 bered

bered God, he was troubled; when he complained, his Spirit was overwhelmed, as he laments in the third Verse.

What the particular Grief was, which gave rife to this mournful Complaint, does not appear; but whatever it was, the Sting of it lay in this, That the Pfalmist apprehended himself to be forsaken of God: And without Doubt this is of all Afflictions the most afflicting, the most insupportable; a Grief it is, which no Medicine can reach, which all the Powers of Reafon can hardly affift, for the Soul refufes to be comforted.

These Fears, these Sorrows, belong not to the Vicious and Profligate, who have not God in all their Thoughts: They live without Reflection, and therefore without Concern; and can be extremely diverted with hearing or feeing what modeft and humble Sinners suffer from a Sense of Religion: But, bold and fearless as fuch Men are, their Day of Fear is not far off, it draws near apace; and, when it comes, will convince them of the Truth of the wife Preacher's Obfervation; The Heart of the Wife is in the House of Mourning, but the Heart of Fools is in the Houfe of Mirth.

There is a very great Difference between the Misgivings and Misapprehenfions of a religious

religious Mind, and the Fear to which Sinners are always expofed, and which oftentimes they experience. The Fears of the Religious are frequently ill-grounded, and arise from their not rightly confidering and understanding their own Cafe, or the Methods of God's Providence in relation to this World: But the Sinner's Fear is never illgrounded, for if the profligate Sinner has not Reason to fear God, there can be no fuch Thing as a reasonable Fear in the World. The religious Man may fear in the Hours of his Weakness and Infirmity ; the Sinner can only fear when he comes to his right Reason, and a due Sense of his Condition.

This Obfervation will ferve to distinguish between the Fears to which the Religious are subject, and which the Text leads us to confider; and the Fears of Guilt, which are foreign to our present Purpose, and to be treated in quite a different Manner.

That the Pfalmift speaks of the Sorrows of a religious well-difpofed Heart, is manifest from the Defcription he gives of his Conduct and Behaviour under his Distress He was forely troubled, but in the Day of his Trouble he fought the Lord, (Verse 2.) He was afflicted, but in his Affliction he rememQ4 bered

bered God, (Verse 3.) Whatever Doubts he entertained as to his own Condition, and the Favour of God towards him, yet of the Being, the Power, and Wisdom of God he never doubted. This Faith, which in his utmost Extremity be held fast, proved to be his Sheet-Anchor, and faved him from the Shipwreck which the Storms and Tempefts raised in his own Breaft seemed to threaten,

It is worth our while to obferve the Train of Thought which this afflicted good Man pursued, and what were the Reflections in which he rested at laft, as his best and only Comfort and Support.

Whether the Calamities which afflicted him were private to himself, or public to his People and Country; yet as long as his Thoughts dwelt on them, and led him into Expoftulations with God for the Severity of his Judgments, he found no Ease or Relief. A weak Man cannot rightly judge of the Actions even of a Man wiser than himself, of whose Views and Defigns he is not Mafter; much less can any Man judge of the Ways of God, to whofe Councils he is not admitted, and to whofe Secrets he is a Stranger. And tho' it is but too natural for Men, when they consider the Sins of others,

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to complain for want of Juftice in the World, and when they confider their own, of want of Mercy; yet in both Cafes do they act weakly and inconfiftently, pretending to judge where they want not only Authority to decide, but even Understanding fufficient to try, the Cause. The Psalmist complained heavily, Has God forgotten to be gracious, bath he in Anger shut up his tender Mercies? But what did he get by this Complaint? was he not forced immediately to confefs the Impropriety and Folly of it? I faid, This is my Infirmity. He said very rightly: In complaining, he followed the natural Impreffions of Paffion and Impatience; in acknowledging the Folly of his Complaint, he spoke not only the Language of Grace, but of Senfe and Reafon.

What must we do then? fince it is Weakness to complain, and Folly to judge, of the Methods of God's Providence, what is there left for us to do? and what Part must we take? Must Religion be senseless and stupid, and shut out all Reflection on the Ways of God? No: one Way there is still left open to us, To truft, and to depend on God: And a Way it is fo far from being fenfelefs and stupid, that in pursuit of it we shall fee

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