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Secondly and lastly, a constant endeavour to wean our affections from this world, and to fix them firmly on a better. Happiness, in general, we all pursue; eagerly, constantly, incessantly. Thus far we all agree, down from the prince to the peasant. But then we divide in the choice of the means or of the object; some pursuing eternal happiness, most temporal only, or however chiefly: and these subdivide again into almost as many kinds as the world affords vanities. All the difference between an evil man and a good man is, that the evil man makes this world his chief or only aim; while the good man makes the world to come his principal concern, and religion is the reigning passion of his heart. The different degrees of goodness depend very much upon keeping the eye more or less fixed upon that, the ultimate end and design of all their labours and endeavours. Such as lean with all the weight and tendency of their minds towards heaven, are of course solicitous and anxious to know whether their principles and practices agree together. They will not suffer themselves to be imposed on in a matter of so great importance: but carefully watch and guard against all those little fallacies which thoughtless men are drawn in by, to make particular judgments contrary to their standing persuasions. In a word, as worldly men are solicitous to secure a firm and strong title to their estates or honours; so the children of light are particularly watchful to make their "calling and election sure." All this naturally flows from a heart fixed upon heaven and eternal happiness: and such a disposition once firmly rooted and grounded, hardly needs any farther rules. We easily perceive what we have to do, after we have fixed our aims and settled our main designs. All the sins and irregularities, either of our passions or our lives, ultimately terminate in our inclination to some temporal good, or aversion to some temporal evil; that is, in our love of this present world. There lies the root and source of all the distempers of our minds. Wherefore the true, the only remedy must be, to disentangle the mind, as much as possible, from things

below, and to seek those things which are above. If it be asked, how this must be done? the ready answer is; by retirement, by recollection, by reading, and especially by praying. This is the way to make distant things have the same force upon us as if they were near at hand, and things to come as if they were now present.

If want of leisure be pleaded by men of action and business, it is a shrewd presumption that they have never yet seriously considered what everlasting happiness and everlasting misery import. However, it is not to be expected that either all or the greater part of our time should be laid out in religious exercises, properly so called. A great deal less may suffice. God designed us for action and business our circumstances here, the health of our bodies, and the vigour of our minds require it, and can hardly be kept up without it. If the heart be once set right, and the aim well directed; business itself is but another kind of religious exercise, and doing good in our station is serving God. It is the intention which sanctifies it, while the end proposed is the glory of God and the good of mankind.

To conclude: let us be ever careful so to use and so to enjoy this world, as neither to be enchanted nor enamoured with it; always remembering, that it is an introduction only to another, that it will soon be over, and that eternity hangs upon it.

SERMON V.

Wicked Men, the providential Instruments of Good.

The First Sermon on this Subject.

PROV. xvi. 4.

The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

THIS wise saying of king Solomon, if it be but rightly

understood, is full of excellent matter, and most useful instruction, such as every good man will constantly have upon his mind. But the words, as they run in our version, are not altogether so clear as they might have been; for which reason it will be necessary, here in the entrance, first to open and explain the meaning of the text; that so we may come at the subject-matter to be discoursed upon. The verse going before the text, having a relation to it, will be of use to point out to us its real and full meaning. "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts "shall be established." Which words are an exhortation to us to repose our whole trust and confidence in God's good providence, and to submit all our thoughts and resolutions to him, as upon whom alone the success of them and their accomplishment depend. Then follows; "The "Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the "wicked for the day of evil:" that is, for executing vengeance where God pleases. All things are in God's hands, and he makes use of all things as he pleases; for he

created them all: yea even the wickedest and worst of men, they are his creatures too, and under his direction and control: however they may be set upon mischief, they can proceed no farther than God permits; being instruments only in his hand to afflict others, and to bring evil upon them. When he is disposed to shield and protect good men, then he restrains and ties up those engines of mischief: but at other times, when he is pleased either to exercise good men with trials, or to punish the wicked, he then lets loose those ministers of wrath to execute his discipline or his vengeance in the earth. And because all the instruments of mischief are thus in God's hands, and must have commission or leave for every step they take; therefore all kinds of calamities or disasters that befall mankind are ascribed to God as their sovereign Author, being the supreme arbitrator and disposer of all events. To which purpose God says by his prophet Isaiah, “I "form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and "create evil a." And by the prophet Amos, "Shall there "be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it b?" In the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah it is expressed thus: "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when "the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the "most High proceedeth not evil and good?" By which it is intimated, that both prosperous and calamitous events are to be ascribed to God's overruling providence. The same thought occurred to holy Job under his troubles; "Shall we receive good," says he, "at the hand of God, "and shall we not receive evil d?" The same thing is frequently inculcated in several other places of holy Scripture, too long to mention: and the main design of all was to instil this instructive lesson into the minds of men; that as, on one hand, they could have no reason to hope for any thing good but from God; so, on the other hand, they could have no just ground to fear any evil but from the same Divine Being. Mankind were very apt to suspect,

* Isa. xlv. 7.

b Amos iii. 6.

Lam. iii. 37, 38.

d Job ii. 10.

that there were two opposite powers in the world, one the fountain of good, and the other the fountain of mischief : this notion appears to have been very ancient among the Persians, and among the Egyptians before them. The consequence of which was, that they thought themselves obliged to worship and adore both the rival powers; one, in expectation to receive good from him; and the other, as it is said of the Indians at this day, for fear he should do them harm. This is a superstitious and dangerous notion, which the Scripture every where obviates, by teaching that both good and evil, both prosperity and adversity, proceed from the same fountain, and are both to be ascribed to one and the same God. For though evil angels, or wicked men, may be the contrivers and executors of innumerable mischiefs; yet, considering that they are God's creatures, and both contrive and act under restraint, and under correction, as God sees fit, they are to be looked upon as God's instruments in all that they effect; as much as wild beasts, or fire, or storms, or floods, or any thing of like kind: they are but the ministers of God's wrath in all that they accomplish, while they see not the end which God aims at in it, but pursue their own wicked devices. They do not understand how God makes use of their rage or malice to serve his own wise purposes: they have quite other views and designs from what God has, and imagine only that they are serving their own ends in all: but it is true nevertheless, that God serves himself of them as his instruments, and permits them to act no farther than he can turn to good. "The Lord hath made,' and the Lord ordereth, "all things for himself," to serve the ends of his providence; yea, even the wicked are his creatures, and were both made at first, and are still preserved, to execute, in a certain sense, God's good pleasure. They are the instruments which God makes use of in the day of evil, in the day when he sends his judgments upon others for their sins. Enough hath been said to show what the general doctrine of the text is. In discoursing farther, my design is,

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