ness.

streets; nor have our spirits sunk into silliness or stupidity, which would make every little child to mock and deride us! It is possible enough that this should befall the wisest and most steadfast of us all. A stroke on the head, a few more degrees of heat in the blood, or agitation of the vital spirits, were enough to do the busiSo weak and mutable creatures are we; so small is the distance between a wise man and a fool. Next to the use of our reason, how much are we indebted to the divine goodness for our health and welfare! These bodies of ours are made up of so various parts, and withal so nice and delicate, that the least thing in the world is enough to entangle and disorder them. A drop of humour, or a grain of sand, will sometimes occasion such anguish and pain, as render a man insensible of all the comforts he enjoyeth in the world: and they who understand any thing of the human body, will justly wonder that all the parts are kept in order for an hour. What a mercy ought we therefore to account it, to find ourselves in health and vigour; no aching in our head, no noisomeness in our stomach, no fever in the blood, none of the humours vitiated, none of those innumerable conduits broken which convey them, but all the organs performing their proper functions, and a sprightly vigour possessing every part! How much are we indebted to that providence which preserveth us from falls and bruises, and keepeth all our bones, so that none of them is broken; which watcheth over us when we are not able to care for ourselves! What a blessing is it to enjoy the repose of the night; that we are not wearied with endless tossings and rollings, nor scared with dreams, and terrified with visions, whereof holy Job complains; that we are protected from fire and violence, from evil spirits, and from evil men! I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety. And what shall we say of our food and raiment, of our houses and manifold accommodations, of the kindness of our neighbours, and the love of our friends, of all the means of our subsistence, and all the comforts of our lives? We are made up, as it were, of

a great many several pieces, have such a variety of interests and enjoyments concurring to our present happiness, that it is an unspeakable goodness which continueth them all with us from time to time: that when we awake in the morning we should find our minds clear, our bodies well, our house safe, all our friends in health, and all our interests secure. He is a wall of fire about us, and about all that we have, by night and by day;' and his mercies are new every morning. I cannot stand to speak of all those more public mercies, the peace and tranquillity of kingdoms, and all the happy effects of society and government. I shall only say, that it is a signal instance of the divine wisdom and goodness in the government of the world, that such a vast number of persons only actuated by self-love, should all conspire for the public interest, and so eminently advance one another's welfare; that magistrates should so willingly undergo the trouble of government, and a heady and inconsiderate multitude should be commanded and overawed by a single man. Certainly it can be no other but that same God who stilleth the noise of the waves, that can prevent or compose the tumults of the people.

Hitherto we have considered those instances of the divine bounty which relate to our temporal concerns. But sure we were made for some higher and more excellent end, than to pass a few months or years in this world, to eat, drink, sleep, and die. God hath designed us for a more lasting and durable life, and hath accordingly made greater provisions for it. He taketh care of our very bodies; but hath an infinitely greater regard to those spiritual and immortal substances which he hath breathed into us. And here in all reason we ought to begin with that great and fundamental mercy, which is the root and spring of all his other mercies towards the souls of men; I mean the incarnation and the death of his only begotten Son. But, alas! where are those affections wherewith that should be spoken and heard? Our dulness makes me almost afraid to meddle with so high a theme. That the eternal Son of God, the Wisdom of the Father, the maker and lord of all things,

should clothe himself with the infirmities of the human nature, and come down from the habitation of his glory, and take up his abode among the wretched and rebellious children of men, to reclaim them from their wickedness and folly, and reduce them to their duty and their happiness; that he should have gone up and down in the world upwards of thirty years in poverty, affliction, and contempt, doing good and suffering evil, scattering blessings and enduring injuries wherever he came; and at last should have yjelded up his life in unspeakable anguish and torment, to be a propitiation for our sins; these are matters which ought never to be spoken or heard, without losing ourselves (as it were) in a rapture of admiration, gratitude, and love. O the breadth, length, depth, and height of that love which passeth all knowledge; which made God assume our nature, that we might become partakers of his! It is true, all that our Saviour hath done and suffered, proveth ineffectual to the greatest part of mankind. But sure they have themselves to blame. God hath both said and sworn, that he hath no pleasure in the death of sinners, but would have them rather repent and live. And indeed this way of dealing with them, doth sufficiently declare the same. With what long-suffering patience doth he wait for their repentance! what pains doth he take to reclaim them!

It is an astonishing thing to consider what indignities and affronts are every day done unto that infinite Majesty by sinful dust and ashes, and that he doth not avenge himself by their total overthrow; that they should violate his law, and despise his threatenings, and defy him, as it were, unto his very face, and yet he should pity and spare them, and wait to be gracious unto them. Were the government of the world committed to the meekest person on the face of the earth, he would never endure the outrages which are commitfed against heaven, but would presently lose all his patience, and turn the whole frame into ruin. But God is love. His thoughts and ways are not like those of men; but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so

are his thoughts and ways higher than ours. And when the obstinate wickedness of sinful creatures doth, as it were, force and extort punishment from his hands, what reluctancy, what unwillingness doth he express to this work; this strange and unnatural work, as himself seems to term it? How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? How shall I give thee up? O that my people had hearkened unto me, that Israel had known my ways! O Jerusalem! O Jerusalem! &c.

Again, as God waiteth patiently for our reformation, so he doth make use of many methods and means to bring us unto it. He hath published the gospel through the world, and brought down the knowledge of it to our days, in spite of all the opposition of devils and men. He hath established a church, and appointed a whole order of men, whose peculiar calling and business in the world is, to take care of peoples' souls, to instruct them in the way to heaven, and as ambassadors in Christ's stead, to beseech them to be reconciled unto God. These are some of his common mercies: but who can express that favour and love which he showeth to his own, to those blessed persons whom he chooseth, and causeth to approach unto himself, when he rescueth them from the vanity of their conversation, and that pollution which is in the world through lust; when he mouldeth their souls unto a conformity with himself, and stampeth his blessed image upon them; when he visiteth them with his Holy Spirit, and filleth their heart with those hidden pleasures which none can understand but those that feel them! A stranger intermeddleth not with their joy. And yet even these are but the earnest of that great felicity for which he hath designed us; those joys that are at his right hand, those pleasures that endure for evermore. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for those that love him. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Meanwhile, those small and imperfect discoveries which are made to us in the holy Scriptures of that inconceivable happiness, are enough to overwhelm us with admiration and wonder. To think

that the blessed day is coming, when we shall be loosed from these dull and lumpish bodies; those sinks of corruption, diseases, and pains; those prisons and dungeons of our heaven-born souls; and, being clothed with robes of light and glory, shall get above the clouds, and all those storms and tempests which are here below; and be carried into those blessed regions of calmness and serenity, of peace and joy, of happiness and security; when we shall come unto the innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly of the church of the first-born, and the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant; there to behold the glory of God, and all the splendour of the court of heaven; to view and contemplate that infinite power which created the world, that unsearchable wisdom which ordereth all things, that unspeakable goodness which exerteth both; nay, so to see God as to become like unto him; and beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory: to receive the continual illapses of the divine goodness, and the constant expressions of his favour and love; and to have our own souls melted and dissolved into the flames of reciprocal affection, and that fire fed and nourished by uninterrupted enjoyments: in a word, to be continually transported into ecstasies and raptures, and swallowed up in the embraces of eternal sweetness, and to be lost, as it were, in the source and fountain of happiness and bliss! Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the son of man, that thou makest such account of him? and that thou shouldst set thine heart so much upon him? Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.