SERMON XVII.

PSALM 1xxiii. 12, 13.

Behold, these are the ungodly who profper in the world, they increase in riches.

Verily, I have cleanfed my heart in vain, and wafhed my hands in innocency.

TH

HIS complaint of the Pfalmift's, concerning the promifcuous diftribution of God's bleffings to the juft and the unjust,that the fun fhould fhine without distinction upon the good and the bad,—and rains defcend upon the righteous and unrighteous man, -is a fubject that has afforded much matter for enquiry, and at one time or other has raifed doubts to difhearten and perplex the minds of men.—If the fovereign Lord of all the earth does look on, whence fo much diforder in the face of things?-why is it permitted, that wife and good men fhould be left often a

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prey to fo many miseries and distresses of life, -whilft the guilty and foolish triumph in their offences, and even the tabernacles of robbers profper?

To this it is anfwered,-that therefore there is a future state of rewards and punishments to take place after this life,-wherein all these inequalities shall be made even, where the circumftances of every man's cafe shall be confidered, and where God fhall be justified in all his ways, and every mouth fhall be stopt.

If this was not fo,-if the ungodly were to profper in the world, and have riches in poffeflion, and no diftinction to be made hereafter, to what purpose would it have been to have maintained our integrity?-Lo! then, indeed, fhould I have cleanfed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

It is farther faid, and what is a more direct anfwer to the point,-that when God created man, that he might make him capable of re- ' ceiving happinefs at his hands hereafter,-he endowed him with liberty and freedom of choice, without which he could not have been a creature accountable for his actions;-that

it is merely from the bad ufe he makes of thefe gifts,—that all those inftances of irregularity do refult, upon which the complaint is here grounded,-which could no ways be prevented, but by the total fubverfion of human liberty; that should God make bare his arm, and interpofe on every injustice that is committed, mankind might be faid to do what was right, but, at the fame time, to lose the merit of it, fince they would act under forcé and neceffity, and not from the determinations of their own mind;-that, upon this fuppofition, a man could with no more reafon expect to go to heaven for acts of temperance, juftice and humanity, than for the ordinary impulfes of hunger and thirft, which nature directed; that God has dealt with man upon better terms; he hath first endowed him with liberty and free-will;-he has fet life and death, good and evil, before him;-that he has given him faculties to find out what will be the confequences of either way of acting, and then left him to take which courfe his reafon and direction fhall point out.

I shall defift from enlarging any further up

on either of the foregoing arguments in vindication of God's providence, which are urged fo often with fo much force and conviction, as to leave no room for a reasonable reply ;— fince the miferies which befal the good, and the feeming happinefs of the wicked, could not be otherwife in fuch a free ftate and condition as this is in which we are placed.

In all charges of this kind, we generally take two things for granted;-1ft, That in the inftances we give, we know certainly the good from the bad;—and, 2dly, The respective ftate of their enjoyments or fufferings.

I fhall, therefore, in the remaining part of my discourse, take up your time with a short enquiry into the difficulties of coming not only at the true characters of men,--but likewise of knowing either the degrees of their real happiness or misery in this life.

The first of thefe will teach us candour in our judgments of others; the fecond, to which I fhall confine myfelf, will teach us humility in our reafonings upon the ways of God.

For though the miseries of the good, and

the profperity of the wicked, are not in general to be denied ;—yet I fhall endeavour to fhew, that the particular inftances we are apt to produce, when we cry out in the words of the Pfalmift, Lo! thefe are the ungodly,thefe profper, and are happy in the world ;I fay, I fhall endeavour to fhew, that we are fo ignorant of the articles of the charge,—and the evidence we go upon to make them good is fo lame and defective,-as to be fufficient by itself to check all propensity to expostulate with God's providence, allowing there was no other way of clearing up the matter reconcileably to his attributes.

And, first, - what certain and infallible marks have we of the goodness or badness of the bulk of mankind?

If we truft to fame and reports,-if they are good, how do we know but they may proceed from partial friendship or flattery?--when bad, from envy or malice, from ill-natured furmises and conftructions of things?-and, on both fides, from fmall matters aggrandized through mistake,-and fometimes through the unfkilful relation of even truth itfelf?-From