they rebel, they rage, they despair, and the torments of time lead on to those of eternity. Such is the state of things in the world. Let us reflect,

Secondly, how it came to be still less cause of complaint.

so, and we shall find

The misery of man

proceeded not originally from God; he brought it upon himself. "God formed him upright;" and, while upright, happy; but he "sought out inven

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tions," he followed his own imaginations, and became miserable. What the wise man says of death, is equally true of affliction; "God made it not, neither "hath he pleasure in the destruction," nor the suffering of the living. For he created all things, that "they might have their being, and the generations "of the world were healthful, and there was no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of "death upon the earth; for righteousness is immor"tal-But ungodly men, with their works and words, "called it to them." You see how exactly this harmonizes with the doctrine of the apostle; "death”— and, in like manner, trouble "came upon all men, "for that all had sinned." Whatever, therefore, our sufferings may be, we suffer no more than we deserve; we must bow down under the mighty hand of God; we must kiss the rod, exclaiming, in the words of Nehemiah, "Thou art just, O Lord, in all that is "brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we "have done wickedly "."

a

The Scriptures inform us, that by one man's transgression moral evil entered into the world;

a Nehem. ix. 33.

death and every other kind of natural evil entered with it. To find our way through all the mazes of that labyrinth of disputation which the subject has occasioned, may be difficult; to explain clearly and unexceptionably every particular in that concise history given us by Moses, may not be easy: but the fact is sufficient, related in the Old Testament, acknowledged and built upon in the New. And it is the only clew that can unravel, the only key that can open, every thing. Grasp it firmly, and suffer no man, either by fraud or force, to wrest it from you. Without it, all is dark and inexplicable. You will be driven, either to deny there can be a wise and gracious God who governs the world, which is the madness of the Epicureans; or, to affirm that evil is good, which is the absurdity of the Stoics.

But though it be most undoubtedly an absurdity to call evil good, there is no absurdity in holding, that good may be brought out of evil. Natural evil may be converted into a remedy for moral evil, which gave it birth. Sin produced sorrow; and sorrow may contribute, in some measure, to do away sin. That the crosses we meet, the pains and the troubles we suffer through life, are by the providence of God intended, and by his grace rendered effectual, for this purpose shall be our

Third observation; and I am confident it will give full satisfaction and rest to your minds, as touching the matter in discussion.

From what we feel in ourselves, and what we see and hear of others, every person, who has thought at all upon the subject, must have been convinced,

that, circumstanced as we are, "it is good for us to "be afflicted." Naturally, man is inclined to pride. and wrath, to intemperance and impurity, to selfishness and worldly-mindedness; desirous to acquire more, and unwilling to part with any thing. Before

he can enter into the kingdom of heaven, he must become humble and meek, temperate and pure, disinterested and charitable, resigned, and prepared to part with all. The great instrument employed by Heaven to bring about this change in him, is the cross. Affliction will make him humble and meek, by showing him how poor and weak a creature he is, and how little reason he has to be proud, or to be angry; it will render him temperate and pure, by withdrawing the fuel which has nourished and inflamed base lusts; it will cause him to become disinterested and charitable, as teaching him, by his own sufferings, to sympathize with his suffering brethren, and to grant that relief, which he perceives himself to want; he will die to the world, which is already dead to him, and live to God, in whom alone he finds every blessing and comfort. Contented and resigned, he will have but one wish-" to depart, and to be with "Christ."

Such is the process which, at different times, and in different manners, must take place in us. The maladies to be healed are inveterate, and not without much difficulty eradicated. The process, therefore, must be long, and it must be painful; but there is good reason for it: the corruption of our nature makes it necessary, and is the real cause of the pain we endure in the operation. The surgeon applies

not the knife where the flesh is sound; but when it is otherwise, the application must be made, and made in proportion to the depth of the wound, and the danger of a mortification. In such case, is it cruelty in him, when he cuts to the quick? No; it is affection, it is skill; it is the manner in which he would treat his only son. Does the father hate his child, whom he chastises? No; it is the best proof he can show of his love. So saith our heavenly Father of his children: "Whom the Lord loveth he "chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he re"ceiveth"."

In this light, then, are we to view the troubles of life; not only those of the more notorious and heavier kind, as poverty and persecution, sickness, pain, and the loss of persons who are dearest to us; but those also which are of less moment, and pass in secret, unobserved by the world; the little rubs and vexations arising from the ingratitude and froward dispositions of others, the conflict of passions in our own minds, or that languor, that tædium vitæ, as it is called, which destroys the relish of our enjoy ments, and even of life itself. All these, which constitute the daily cross mentioned in the text, are designed to cure the surfeit of prosperity; to intimate, that earth is not the seat of unmingled and permanent happiness, that here we have no abiding city, but expect, and should seek after one, to come.

How finely is this touched by the hand of our great poet"Consideration, like an angel, came,

"And whipt th' offending Adam out of him."

Nothing happens without the providence of God. Known unto him are all his works from the beginning. He created all, he governs all, and to every thing he has given to be what it is. He numbers the hairs of our heads, the leaves of the wood, the grains of sand upon the shore, and the drops that compose the mighty ocean; each atom, at the creation was measured and weighed by his eternal wisdom. Acquainted with the state and temper of every person, and having the whole chain of events before him, he has prepared a series of them, to detach us, by degrees, from the world, and from ourselves; to train us, by a holy and salutary discipline, for better things; to hew and to polish us as precious stones, that shall have place in his celestial temple. And he has allotted to every man his cross, his own cross, that cross which is proper for him, and best calculated to effect in him so great and beneficent a purpose. Let him first consider what it is, and then "take it 66 up, and bear it." To point out, in few words, the manner in which this may best be done, shall employ the remainder of our time.

When our Lord was led forth to be crucified, the Jews, we are told, laid hold on "one Simon, a Cyre"nian, coming out of the country; and on him they "laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus." This stranger seems designed to appear upon this occasion, as the representative of us all, exhibiting in his person, thus loaded with the cross, or a part of it, the very same instruction conveyed by our Lord himself in the words of the text; "let him take up his "cross and follow me:" we are to follow him, to tread