midst of their torments, and under the very pangs of death, rejoice in the hope of the glory of God?

There are none of us but may happen to fall into thofe circumstances of danger, and of bodily pains and fufferings, as to have no hopes of relief and comfort but from God; none in all the world to trust to but him only and in the greatest evils that can befal us in this life, he is a fure refuge and fanctuary; and, to repeat the words of the Pfalmift after the text, when our heart fails, and our ftrength fails, God is the ftrength of our hearts, and our portion for ever.

Now, what would any of us do in fuch a cafe, if it were not for God? Human nature is liable to desperate straits and exigencies; and he is not happy who is not provided against the worst that may happen. It is fad to be reduced to fuch a condition, as to be destitute of all comfort and hope; and yet men may be brought to that extremity, that, if it were not for God, they would not know which way to turn themselves, or how to entertain their thoughts with any comfortable confideration under their prefent anguish.

All men naturally refort to God in extremity, and cry out to him for help. Even the most profane and Atheistical, when they are deftitute of all other comfort, will run to God, and take hold of him, and cling about him. But God hath no pleasure in fools; in those who neglect and defpife him in their profperity, though they owe that alfo entirely to him: but when the evil day comes, then they lay hold of him as their only refuge. When all things go well with them, God is not in all their thoughts; but in their affliction they will feek him early: then they will cry, Lord, Lord; but he will fay to them in that day, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I know you not,

Here will be the great unhappiness of fuch perfons, that God will then appear terrible to them, fo as they fhall not be able, when they look up to him, to abide his frowns; and at the fame time that they are forced to acknowledge him, and to fupplicate to him for mercy and forgiveness, they fhall be ready to despair of it. Then those terrible threatenings of God's word will come to their minds, Prov. i, 24, 25. &c. Because I

called

called, and ye refufed; I ftretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye fet at nought all my counfel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh as a whirlwind; when diftrefs and anguifh cometh upon you. Then fhall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they fball feek me early, but they fhall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not chufe the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counfel; they defpifed all my reproof. Therefore Jhall they eat the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices. The eafe of the fimple fhalt flay them, and the profperity of fools Jhall deftroy them. To which I will add that terrible paffage in the Prophet, concerning the perverse and obftinate Jews, If. xxvii. 11. They are a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will fhew them no favour.

And men are miferable creatures indeed, when God their maker doth abandon them, and hath fo far hardened his heart against them, that he can have no pity and compassion for them.

VII. and laftly, which is confequent upon all the rest, God is fuch a good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds : and that which cannot do this, though it had all the properties before mentioned, cannot make us happy; for he is not happy who does not think himfelf fo, whatever cause he may have to think fo. Now, what in reason can give us difquiet, if we do firmly believe, that there is a God, and that his providence rules and governs all things for the best; and that God is all that to good men which hath now been faid of him. Why fhould not our minds be in perfect repose, when we are secure of the chief good, and have found out that which can make us happy, and is willing to make us fo, if we be not wanting to ourselves, and, by our wilful obftinacy and rebellion against him, do not oppofe and fruftrate his design?

If a confiderate man were permitted to his own choice, to wish the greateft good to himself that he could poffibly devife, after he had searched heaven and earth, the refult of all his wishes would be, that there were juft fuch a being as we must neceffarily conceive God to be: nor

would

would he chufe any other friend or benefactor, any other protector for himself or governor for the whole world, than infinite power, conducted and managed by infinite wisdom and goodness; which is the true notion of a God. After all his inquiry, he would come to the Pfalmift's conclufion here in the text, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befides thee.

Vain man is apt to feek for happiness elsewhere; but this proceeds from want of due confideration: for when all things are well weighed, and all accounts rightly caft up and adjusted, we shall at last fettle in David's refoluon of that great question, Pfal. iv. 6. 7. 8. What is the chief good of man? There be many (fays he) that fay, Who will fhew us any good? That is, Men are generally inquifitive after happiness, but greatly divided in their opinions about it. Moft men place it in the present enjoyments of this world; but David, for his part, pitches upon God, in whom he was fully convinced, that the happiness of man does confift: There be many that fay, Who will fhew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou haft put gladnefs in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increafed. The great joy of the men of this world is in a plentiful harvest, and the abundance of the good things of this life; but David had found that which gave more joy and gladnefs to his heart, the favour of God, and the light of his countenance. This gave perfect reft and tranquillity to his mind, fo that he needed not to inquire any further; for fo it follows in the next words, I will both lay me down in peace, and reft for thou, Lord, only makeft me to dwell in fafety. The Hebrew word fignifies confidence or fecurity. Here, and no where else, his mind found reft, and was in perfect eafe and security.

I fhall now only make two or three inferences from this discourse, and fo conclude.

1. This plainly fhews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism, which would banish the belief of God and his providence out of the world: which, as it is molt impious in refpect of God, fo is it most malicious to men; because it strikes at the very foundation of

our

Ser. 40 our happiness, and perfectly undermines it. For if there were no God, man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other beings here below; because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature, in that which distinguishes him from all other beings below him, I mean in his reafon and understanding; and he would be fo much more miserable than the beasts, by how much he hath a farther reach, and a larger profpect of future evils; a quicker apprehenfion, and a deeper and more lafting refentment of them.

So that if any man could fee reason to stagger his belief of a God, or of his providence, as I am fure there is infinite reafon to the contrary; yet the belief of these things is fo much for the intereft, and comfort, and happiness of mankind, that a wife man would be heartily troubled to part with a principle fo favourable to his quiet, and that, does fo exactly answer all the natural defires, and hopes, and fears of men; and is fo equally calculated, both for our comfort in this world, and for our happiness in the other. For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can, his mind can find no reft, no probable foundation of happiness, but God only; no other reasonable, no nor tolerable hypothesis and scheme of things for a wife man to rely upon, and to live and die by: for no other principle but this, firmly believed and truly lived up to by an anfwerable practice, was ever able to fupport the generality of mankind, and to minister true confolation to them under the calamities of life, and the pangs of death.

And if there were not fomething real in the principles of religion, it is impoffible that they fhould have fo remarkable and fo regular an effect to fupport our minds in every condition, upon fo great a number of perfons of different degrees of understanding, of all ranks and conditions, young and old, learned and unlearned, in fo many diftant places, and in all ages of the world, the records whereof are come down to us; I fay fo real, and fo frequent, and fo regular an effect as this is, cannot, with any colour of reafon, be afcribed either to blind chance, or mere imagination, but must have a real, and regular, and uniform caufe, proportionable to fo great and general an effect.

I

I remember that Grotius, in his excellent book of the truth of the Christian religion, hath this obfervation, 'That God did not intend that the principles of religion fhould have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable of, and fuch as is fufficient to answer and bear down all forts of captious cavils and objections against it; but fo much as is abundantly fufficient to fatisfy a fober and impartial inquirer after truth; one that hath no other intereft but to find out truth, and when he hath found it, to yield to it if it were otherwife, and the principles of religion were as glaring and evident as the fun fhining at noonday, as there could hardly be any virtue in fuch a faith, fo infidelity would be next to an impoffibility.

All that I would expect from any man that shall fay that he cannot fee fufficient reafon to believe the being and the providence of God, is this, that he would offer fome other principles; that he would advance any other hypothefis, and fcheme of things, that is more agreeable to the common and natural notions of men, and to all appearances of things in the world; and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of mankind, than these principles of the being of a God, and of his watchful providence over the children of men, do plainly do: and till this be clearly done, the principles of religion, which have generally been received by mankind, and have obtained in the world in all ages, cannot fairły be discarded, and ought not to be disturbed, and put out of poffeffion. And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable iffue; and that nothing more needs to be faid concerning it.

2. From what hath been faid in the foregoing dif course, it naturally follows, that God is the only object of our trust and confidence; and therefore to him alone, and to no other, we ought to addrefs all our prayers and fupplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need. But now, according to the doctrine and practice of the church of Rome, the Pfalmift here puts a very odd and Arange queftion, Whom have I in heaven but thee? To which they must give a quite different anfwer from what the Pfalmift plainly intended, namely, That God was the fole object of his hope and truft, and that upon him alone he relied as his only comfort and happiness. But VOL. II. K k

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