the Ornaments of Life do greatly depend. Each of the Sundry Fruits of Virtue Defervedly Challengeth our Regard, and fhould Excite us to Adore the Riches of His Goodness, who hath thus Impregnated our Duty with Comfort and Delight.

A man Armed with Virtue and Religion can ftand Firm and Immoveable, whilst the moft Violent and raging Waves of Misfortune Dash against him: His Strength is equal to the Heaviest Affliction, and he Bravely Repels, or Cheerfully Receives the Keenest Arrows that are Level'd at him, till his Soul, which Nothing could Crush, or Conquer upon Earth, takes its Triumphant Flight into Heaven. This mighty Prowefs of Virtue, One of the Nobleft Gifts of God, ought to be a Principal Subject of our Thoughts and Thanksgivings. But, Difficulties and Distress not being Eligible, we have reason to Rejoyce, that the Best means of Supporting us under them, are likewise the Best means of Preferving us from Them. For Virtue, in its own Native state, is fo Attractive of ExterX 4 nal

nal Advantages, that it can scarce fail of Drawing them Effectually after it, unless they should, in their Motion, meet with an Interruption, or Impediment, from that Sovereign Hand, by which this Glorious Law of Attraction was given. Varieties of Temporal Bleffings are in the Poffeffion and Difpofal of true Wisdom; And she does Usually and Eafily, where no Extraordinary Providence Intervenes, Defend, Preferve, and Adorn the Manfions of her own Abode. And how Little reafon Good men have to apprehend, that the Streams of Providence fhall run in Oppofition to them, will appear if we confider

III. Thirdly, that Abstracting from the natural Tendency of Things, God does frequently, by his Special Providence, vouchSafe to his Faithful Servants, the Advantages mention'd in the Text; And fuch Advantages, when placed in the hands of Good men, may be Properly accounted Bleffings. And under this Head, Each of the Advantages mention'd in the Text fhould be Distinctly confider'd. The

1. First

1. First of them is Length of Days. And fometimes God is pleased, by an Extraordinary Dispensation, to multiply those Years, which, in his Ordinary course of Providence, are allotted to a Good man's Life. Thus were fifteen years, by the Divine favour and Indulgence, added to the Life of Hezekiah, even after the Prophet had brought this Moving meffage from Heaven to him; * thus faith the Lord, fet thine houfe in order, for thou fhalt die, and not live:

Sometimes God is pleafed to Prolong Good men's Lives, by proper Acts of Deliverance from those External dangers, which would, Otherwise, prove Fatal to them. Thus was St. Paul deliver'd from the Confpiracy laid against him by the Jews; And a more remarkable Providence fruftrated an Attempt made upon the Life of St. Ambrofe, Bishop of Milan; who was no lefs Famous for his Works of Piety and Charity, than he was for his Noble Extraction.

The Gracious Providence of God does oftentimes prolong the Lives of his Servants, by proper Acts of Prefervation. For this must be meant by these, * and other Parallel expreffions in Scripture; Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou Shalt preferve them. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord fhall preferve thee from all evil. He shall defend thee under his Wings. There shall no evil happen unto thee. Inftances of Good men's providential Deliverances may be more Signal, and strike a Deeper Impreffion upon us; But Inftances of their Prefervation are more Frequent, or, rather to be accounted Conftant and Perpetual: An Invisible Divine Power is Always Defending them from the Invifible and unknown Designs of Evil Men, or, from Impending Evil Accidents, which would, otherwise, fall upon Life, and break it in pieces. It is Applicable to the Prefervation of Life, as well as the other circumstances of Good Men, that all things work together for good to them that love God: A Paffage of

*Pf. xii. 7. cxxi. 5, 7. xci. 4.

Rom. viii. 28.

Scripture

Scripture, ever supplying Comfort to the. Expectations, and ever Confirmed by the Experience of Good Men. This Paffage is faid to have been Particularly recollected with high fatisfaction, by that great Example of Faith and Beneficence, Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis, in the Clofe of his Life, which was then drawn out to the Length of about a Hundred years.

Who can be fo Unjuft, as to withhold that Veneration, which is a Debt Indifpenfably due to Old Age thus crown'd with Virtue? Or, who can Doubt that This is a Scene of Delight and True Happiness? For if a Man's Happiness effentially confifts in his Firm Dependence on the Divine Favour, grounded upon a sense of his own Virtue and Goodness; then the Longer his Experience, and the more Extenfive the Effects, and the more Clear and Full the Teflimonies of his own Goodness are, the Greater must the measures of his Happinefs be. A Long Life thus Improved, thus Accomplished, thus Bleffed, is no Faint Refemblance of That Immortality,