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and conscience are destroyed, religion must soon follow after them: in this general rout, how can one poor resolution, that of repentance, escape? This point enlarged on. Let those therefore who have it still in their power, consider their danger, and reason with their own hearts, even for a few moments, on which all eternity depends. Secondly, if you could preserve your resolutions of repentance, it is not in your own power to secure an opportunity of executing them. The thief on the cross died a violent death, happy in this at least, that he had no pretence to defer his repentance, in prospect of a farther opportunity; nor was his heart to be allured by the pleasures of life, when life itself was so near expiring. From this death may we all be defended: yet without it which of us can hope for such favorable circumstances for repentance? Whenever the sinner thinks of repentance, he finds it a work of such trouble that he is unwilling to set about it: no man is so old, but he thinks he may live one year more: hence the procrastination of his repentance, till sickness and infirmities render it impossible. This elicited the moving petition of the Psalmist so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The way that men generally number their days causes only folly and wickedness; and the years to come, which they rejoice in, render them careless of the great concerns of immortality; hence their delusion. But suppose yourself in the thief's case, and a day fixed, on which you are to die; could you then delay your repentance? could you then say, to-morrow will be time enough? and if you would not do it then, why will you do it now? only because you think you will have time enough for this work hereafter; in this expectation death or its previous sickness arrives; and thus very few think of repentance till they are confined to a sickbed so that the unfortunate death of the converted penitent on the cross was an advantage which few Christians will give to themselves. Thirdly, the death-bed repentance of a Christian will want another advantage peculiar to that of the thief on the cross; a sound body and mind, capable of performing such acts of faith and devotion as are necessary to repentance and conversion: the different case of a sick, feeble, languid sinner compared with this: whence it comes that repentance is often impracticable to a sinner: but if he possess his sense and reason, yet the general result of his repentance is horror and despair the fearful consequences of this state enlarged on; so that even supposing all circumstances most favorable, you give him no security; if he is not sensible of his sins and impenitence, he will die like the wicked thief on the cross; and if he becomes sensible of them, how shall he be preserved from such despair as will render him neither fit to live nor fit to die? Nothing but an extraordinary degree of grace can preserve this man in a temper fit for repentance, neither too presumptuous, nor too slavish: but who can tell whether God will grant this at the last, to such as have rejected his constant calls? It cannot be supposed that God intends to save Christians thus, which would be to make void all the rules and duties of the gospel. This matter more fully explained: if you do your best to obtain the promises of the gospel, happy are you; but if you seek

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new ways to salvation, joining the pleasures of sin to the hopes of the gospel, you deceive yourselves; for God is not mocked. Conclusion; exhorting all who love their own souls, to work for their salvation while they have the light, for the night cometh, when no man can work.

DISCOURSE XXV.

PSALM LXXVII. VERSES 9, 10.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?

And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

PART I.

THE text shows that the author of this psalm was manifestly under great dejection of mind when he penned it; as he speaks of himself here and in the following verses as deserted of God, and preyed on by the sorrows of his own tormented heart. The particular grief is not mentioned; the sting of it however lay in this, that the Psalmist apprehended himself to be forsaken of God, which is doubtless the most insupportable and incurable of all afflictions, and one which neither medicine nor reason can assuage; for the soul refuses to be comforted. These fears and 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 diverted by hearing or seeing what modest and humble sinners suffer from a sense of religion but their day of fear is not far off; and when it comes, it will convince them that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. There is a great difference between the misgivings and misapprehensions of a religious mind, and the fear which sinners often experience: this difference explained; whence we can distinguish between the fears to which religious men are subject, and the fears of the guilty; the former of which alone our text leads us to consider. The Psalmist manifestly speaks of the sorrows of a well-disposed heart, from the description which he gives of his conduct under distress; though he might doubt as to his own condition, and the favor of God towards him, yet of the being, power, and wisdom of God he never doubted. This faith was the sheet-anchor of his salvation. A consideration of this afflicted good man's train of thought, and of what he regarded his only comfort and support, recommended. Whether the calamities which afflicted him were public or private, yet as long as. his thoughts dwelt on them, and led him to expostulate with God

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for the severity of his judgments, he found no ease nor relief: a weak man cannot judge rightly of the actions of a man wiser than himself; much less can a man judge of the ways of God, to whose councils he is not admitted: this topic enlarged on. Since then it is weakness to complain, and folly to judge, of the methods of God's providence, what part must we take? Must religion be senseless and stupid, and shut out all reflection on the ways of God? No: one way is open to us; to trust and depend on God; which is so far from being senseless and stupid, that in the pursuit of it we shall see opening before us the noblest views which reason or religion can afford. The method here prescribed is that which the Psalmist prescribed to himself. God has not left himself without witness: the great works of nature and of grace proclaim his loving-kindness to men; hence we must admire his power and adore his goodness; and therefore throw ourselves on his protection. Here then was the comfort of the Psalmist: here the cure of his grief, though the scene around him was dark and gloomy. The text then leads us to consider: I. That all complaints against Providence proceed from weakness and the infirmity of human reason: II. That a settled peace of mind with respect to God must arise from a due contemplation of the great works of Providence, which God has laid open for our consideration and instruction. Under the first head are included all the suspicions which are apt to rise in men's minds against Providence, as well as formal complaints: the first of this sort is, that God is too great and too excellent a being to humble himself to behold the things that are on earth. This one mistake seems to have been the whole of Epicurus's divinity: this topic enlarged on. To make his gods happy, he removed them from the government of men, whom he left alone without God or Providence: this thought, which has in all times been the refuge of sinners, has even entered into better minds, broken with grief, and tempted by their misfortunes to think thus. The grounds of this suspicion are weak and unreasonable: the fault is that men consider God's abilities to be like their own; but as it is absurd to argue from the powers of men to the powers of God, so is it to argue from the passions of men to the affections of the Deity this point fully explained. Epicurus and his followers, who denied God's government of the world, denied also that he made it, and so far were consistent: but if we begin by considering the works of creation; if we call to remembrance those years of the right hand of the Most High; we shall, from these manifest and undeniable works of God, be led to conclude justly with respect to the methods of divine Providence: this point illustrated from the economy of the natural world. Another reason for suspicion of the conduct of Providence is, that men cannot discern any certain marks of God's interposition: they think that the inanimate and irrational parts of the world follow invariably a certain course of nature, and that men act as though given up to their own devices, and undirected by a superior power. The scoffers in St. Peter's time supported themselves on a similar observation, that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation; concluding that they would

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go on so for ever, and that there was no future state to engage their concern. But here are two great mistakes: First, the conclusion is not rightly drawn from the observation, supposing the observation true: Secondly, supposing the conclusion true, it does not answer the purposes intended. That the material world continues to answer the end designed, is the strongest evidence that it was made, and is conducted, by the highest wisdom and power: this fact illustrated from the edifices of human artists. Another objection is, that the world continues in one unwearied course, and a repetition of the same thing is no sign of wisdom or contrivance. This observation can arise only from what we see among men, where there is some foundation for it: but it is great weakness and want of thought to transfer this observation to God's works: this point enlarged on. But suppose the observation true, and the world to be now where it was at the beginning; yet no conclusion can be drawn from thence as to its future continuance the absurdity of arguing from the past and present state of things to their end, explained. The other part of the objection, pointed against God's moral government of the world, examined. The great irregularity observable in human actions, and the mischiefs and iniquities which abound in the world, have tempted some to think that God does not concern himself with the actions of men, but has given them up to follow their own desires. It is justly observed, that there is a difference between the material and rational parts of the world: this difference explained. Matter, being capable of no action of itself, necessarily follows the impressions it receives: if, therefore, God is the mover, nothing but order and regularity can be expected. To suppose the material world to move irregularly and inconsistently with the end to be served, would be supposing God to act irregularly and inconsistently with the end of his own creation; but in the moral world the case is otherwise men have a power of acting for themselves, or else they could not be moral or rational agents this topic enlarged on. The very difference observable in the conducting the material and the moral world, is the strongest presumption that they are under the direction of an all-wise being: this enlarged on. Moral agents cannot be invariably directed, from their very nature; and the actions of such beings will be wise and regular in proportion to their wisdom: it is then only want of thought and reflection which furnishes objections, from the present state of things, against a divine Providence. But farther; though men are moral agents, yet this excludes not God's providence from human affairs, because this may be exerted consistently with their freedom; and the distribution of rewards and punishments may be effected without overruling the wills or actions of the good and bad. God's power of life and death alone is sufficient for conducting the great affairs of the world: and the great variety of accidents, which cannot happen but as God thinks fit, may be effectual to punish or reward individuals, without any visible interposition of Providence. These secret methods do not indeed justify God's righteousness in the eyes of men, nor is it pretended that they are adopted for an exact administration of justice in every case: it is sufficient that they are,

or may be so used, over moral beings in a state of probation; which is a very different thing from the final administration of justice. Nor can the apparent unequal distribution of good and evil in this life be any objection to God's government over the world, unless it be proved that there will not be a day of reckoning hereafter: for supposing a future state, the present condition of things is quite consistent with divine justice; which sleeps not, but waits to see full proof of the righteousness or the unrighteousness of men. At the appointed dissolution of this frame of things, the material world will have done its office, and may lie by till called out again by the Creator: but not so the moral world, for which another scene is prepared; where all must answer for the use they made of God's gifts. Conclusion: exhorting men from all these considerations to contemplate divine Providence; whence they will see reason to confess their own weakness, and to say with the Psalmist, it is mine own infirmity.

PART II.

The suspicions which incline men to doubt whether God does at all concern himself in human affairs having been considered, we now come to consider the suspicions which, consistently with admitting a general care of Providence over the world, lead men to fear that they are neglected or unkindly treated by God: this the case of the Psalmist, and these his fears. Of God's government he doubted not; he applied to him in his trouble, but his grief was, that he found no return to his prayers; when he remembered God, he was troubled; when he complained, his Spirit was overwhelmed; but this good man was so well grounded in religion, that in spite of doubts and fears, he pronounced rightly in his own case of his suspicions, this is my infirmity; he called to his aid the reflection, I will remember the years of the right kand of the Most High. Admitting then God's providence to extend over the whole world, it may be doubted whether this case descends to particulars, and regards the actions and well-being of individuals; which, singly considered, have very little influence on the well-being of the whole. With respect to the material world, we may easily discern that this suspicion is groundless, and built on the weak conceit that it is too troublesome to Providence to attend to the minute things of the world: this topic enlarged on. The case is not so plain with respect to moral agents and God's government over them: the reason of this shown from their very nature. With respect to the care of Providence over particular men, we may consider that every man consists of two parts; one material, which is the body; the other rational, which is the mind: with regard to the former, every single man manifestly depends on the preservation and care of Providence, as manifestly as the great bodies of the world do: this point enlarged on: hence our Saviour's question, as related by St. Matthew vi. 26. : this passage fully explained. Nor do we want more direct proofs of

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