of man.

that misfortunes alone form the chief misery

None but the guilty are completely miserable. The misgiving and distrust, the accusations and reproaches of their minds, the sense of having drawn down upon their heads the evils which they suffer, and the terrifying expectation of more and worse evils to come ; these are the essential ingredients of human misery. They not only whet the edge, but they envenom the darts of affliction, and add poison to the wound. Whereas, when misfortunes assail a good man, they carry no such fatal auxiliaries in their train. They may ruffle the surface of his soul; but there is a strength within, which resists their farther impression. The constitution of his mind is sound. The world can inflict upon it no wounds, but what admit of cure.

III. Ill men, in the time of trouble, can look up to no protector ; while good men commit themselves, with trust and hope, to the care of Heaven. The human mind, naturally feeble, is made to feel all its weakness by the pressure of adversity. Dejected with evils which overpower its strength, it relies no longer on itself. It casts every where around, a wishing, exploring eye, for some shelter to screen, some power to uphold it; and if, when

abandoned by the world, it can find nothing to which it may fly in the room of the world, its state is truly forlorn. Now, whither should the ungodly, in this situation, turn for aid ? After having contended with the storms of adverse fortune till their spirits are exhausted, gladly would they retreat at last to the sanctuary of religion. But that sanctuary is shut against them ; nay, it is environed with terrors. They behold there, not a Protector to whom they can fly, but a Judge whom they dread; and in those moments when they need his friendship the most, they are reduced to deprecate his wrath. If he once called when they refused, and stretched out his hands when they would not regard, how much reason have they to fear that he will leave them now to eat the fruit of their own ways, and to be filled with their own devices ; that he will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh?

But of all the thoughts which can enter into the mind, in the season of distress, the belief of an interest in his favour who rules the world, is the most soothing. Every form of religion has afforded to virtuous men some

of this consolation. But it was reserved for the Christian revelation, to carry

it to its highest point. For it is the direct

scope of that revelation, to accommodate itself to

degree

the circumstances of man, under two main views; as guilty in the sight of God, and as struggling with the evils of the world. Under the former, it discovers to him a Mediator and an atonement; under the latter, it promises him the Spirit of grace and consolation. It is a system of complete relief, extended from our spiritual to our temporal distresses. The same hand which holds out forgiveness to the penitent and assistance to the frail, dispenses comfort and hope to the afflicted.

It deserves your particular notice, in this view, that there is no character which God more frequently assumes to himself in the sacred writings, than that of the Patron of the distressed. Compassion is that attribute of his nature which he has chosen to place in the greatest variety of lights, on purpose that he might accommodate his majesty to our weakness, and provide a cordial for human griefs. He is the hearer of all prayers; but with particular attention he is represented as listening to the cry of the poor, and regarding the prayer of the destitute. All his creatures he governs with justice and wisdom; but he takes to himself, in a special manner, the charge of executing judgment for the oppressed, of protecting the stranger, of delivering him who hath no helper from the hand of the spoiler. For the oppression

of the

poor,

and for the sighing of the needy, will I arise, saith the Lord, to set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. He is the father of the fatherless, and the judge of the widow, in his holy habitation. He raiseth them

up

that are bowed down. He dwelleth with the contrite. He healeth the broken in heart. For he knoweth our frame ; he remembereth that we are dust. * If the wisdom of his providence saw it necessary to place so many of his creatures in an afflicted state, that state, however, he commiserates. He disdains not to point out himself as the refuge of the virtuous and pious ; and to invite them, amidst all their troubles, to pour

out their hearts before him. Those circumstances which estrange others from them, interest him the more in their situation. The neglect or scorn of the world exposes them not to any contempt in his sight. No obscurity conceals them from his notice; and though they should be forgotten by every friend on earth, they are remembered by the God of heaven. That sigh, heaved from the afflicted bosom, which is heard by no human ear, is listened to by him; and that tear is remarked, which falls unnoticed or despised by the world.

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Such views of the Supreme Being impart the most sensible consolation to every pious heart. They present his administration under an aspect so mild and benign, as, in a great measure, to disperse the gloom which hangs over human life. A good man acts with a vigour, and suffers with a patience more than human, when he believes himself countenanced by the Almighty. Injured or oppressed by the world, he looks up to a Judge who will vindicate his cause; he appeals to a witness who knows his integrity ; he commits himself to a friend who will never forsake him. When tired with the vexations of life, devotion opens to him its quiet retreat, where the tumults of the world are hushed, and its cares are lost in happy oblivion ; where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. There his mind regains its serenity; the agitation of passion is calmed ; and a softening balm is in. fused into the wounds of the spirit. Disclosing to an invisible friend those secret griefs, which he has no encouragement' to make known to the world, his heart is lightened. He does not feel himself solitary or forsakem He believes God to be present with him, and the Holy Ghost 'to be the inspirer of his consolations. From that secret place of the divine tabernacle, into which the text represents him

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