gratitude for fome unlooked-for bleffing, or call forth our tears for fome unexpected misfortune:-fome happy chance, to us unknown, may now fmile upon our fortunes; or, on the contrary, fome heavy calamity may be ready. to greet our ears with its unwelcome tidings; some distant friend may be labouring under the agonies of diftrefs; fome distant and darling child may be uttering the pang which is heard no more. These are events which are hourly taking place, and therefore are never impoffible. But what lot yet awaits us in the bofom of fate, is known only to that God, whofe judgments are like the great deep, and his ways past finding out:-vain, therefore, and fruitless will be our endeavours to pry into our future fortune; what that fhall be, it is God's to ordain, it is ours to bear,

But, in the mean time, it is our duty, it is our interest, to arm our fouls with patience against the various events of life. We cannot appoint the part we are to act on the stage of life, but we may be prepared to act it properly. We know not whether we shall continue to receive good or evil at the hand of God, but we may be ready to receive both

with that heavenly temper which inspired that godlike fentiment into the breast of holy Job, "the Lord gave, and the Lord hath "taken away: bleffed be the name of the "Lord."

Let, therefore, as many as are fuccessful in life learn not to be high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God; to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to diftribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves, by acts of charity and beneficence, a good foundation, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

And let those who are afflicted in life, whether by forrow, need, fickness, or any other adversity, caft their burden upon the Lord, and patiently await his all-righteous decifion of their fate. Amidst all their troubles and diftreffes in this vale of tears, let them boldly "look up to Jefus, the author "and finisher of their faith; who, for the

joy that was fet before him, endured the "crofs, defpifing the fhame, and is now set "down at the right hand of God.'

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SER

SERMON XXIV.

PSALM xiv. I.

The fool bath faid in his heart, There is no

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God.

MID the various dangers and accidents to which human life is expofed, it seems the only true bafis of confolation to a reasonable mind, that there is a God, who ruleth over all:-that nothing happens in heaven or in earth, but by his pleasure and permiffion;-and that we may, therefore, fecurely rely on his wisdom, who best knows what is fitting and convenient for us.

It cannot, therefore, but seem strange, that any should be foolish enough to reject this anchor of hope, and, by denying the providence of God, expofe themselves, friendless and

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unprotected, to the tempeftuous ocean of human life. Yet that fuch there have been, and ftill are, the Pfalmift's declaration, and our own experience in this licentious age, will leave us no room to doubt. "For the ungodly is fo proud that he careth not for "God, neither is God in all his thoughts." Let us see then upon what grounds these men ufually proceed, and, I truft, we shall eafily difcover the abfurdity of their conduct, and have reason to say, with the fame Pfalmift," The “fool, and the fool only, hath said in his heart, There is no God."

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Now whoever renounces a Providence, and rejects God's authority over him, must do it upon one of these two principles; either through a spirit of infidelity, because he neither believes nor acknowledges fuch a Providence, or else through the corruption of his heart, which will not let him fubmit to it, though he does believe it..

And first then, If it proceeds from a fpirit of infidelity, because he does not believe a Providence, I would ask any serious man, what can be a greater folly than to deny that