their Salvation whilft they have the Light; for the Night cometh, when no Man can work. The Night cometh on apace, and brings with it a Change which every Mortal must undergo. Then fhall we be forfaken of all our Pleasures and Enjoyments, and deferted by those gay Thoughts which now fupport our foolish Hearts against the Fears of Religion. The Time cometh, and who, O Lord, may abide its Coming! when we must stand before the Judgment-Seat of Chrift; when the Highest and the Lowest shall be placed on the fame Level, expecting a new Distribution of Honours and Rewards. In that Day the ftouteft Heart will tremble, and the Countenance of the proudest Man will fall in the Prefence of his injured Lord.. I speak not to you the Suggestion of Superftition or Fear, but the Words of Soberness and of Truth. May they fink into your Hearts, and yield you the Fruits of spiritual Joy and Comfort here, and of Glory and Immortality hereafter!

DISCOURSE

枣粥

DISCOURSE XI.

PART I.

PSALM lxxvii. 9, 10.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious, bath he in Anger fhut up bis tender Mercies?

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

W

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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 second Verfe: When be remembered

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

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

These Fears, thefe 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 Senfe 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 Mifgivings 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 arife 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 Senfe of his Condition.

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

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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 Diftrefs: 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 remem

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 atmost Extremity be held faft, proved to be his Sheet-Anchor, and faved him from the Shipwreck which the Storms and Tempefts raised in his own Breaft feemed to threaten.

It is worth our while to obferve the Train of Thought which this afflicted good Man purfued, 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 Eafe or Relief. A weak Man cannot rightly judge of the Actions even of a Man wiser than himself, of whofe Views and Designs he is not Mafter; much lefs 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 confider the Sins of others,

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