will make them forget God, he will reduce them. He has engaged to give us whatever is conducive to our welfare-and we could have asked no more. "O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."

We also learn, from this part of our subject, that religion has a friendly influence over secular affairs. It would be cruel to intimate that every instance of failure in trade originates in vice; but it may not be going too far to say, that the generality of these deficiencies, even in good men, are not pure afflictions; but have been preceded by the neglect of some of its duties, or the violation of some of its proprieties. We have not time to enlarge here, otherwise we might show how real religion makes a man punctual, and diligent, and economical; how it makes him liberal-and "he that soweth plentifully, shall reap plentifully;" how it cuts him off from expensive vices and amusements; how it raises his character by the exercise of the moral virtues, and gains him the confidence of his fellow-creatures; how it contributes to his health, and to the improvement of his understanding, and thus helps him both to judge and to execute; how it secures him the favour of Providence and "the blessing of God maketh rich and addeth no sorrow ;' in all which instances it would appear, that it "has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come."

thither, to accomplish his wishes, and to crown his services. There is a sober sense, in which, Win and wear it, is the motto inscribed on the prize for which we run.

I hope some of you are disposed to follow the advice, the command of our Lord and Saviour, founded in a regard to your everlasting welfare. Retire, and say, O God, I bless thee that thou hast not cut me off during my guilty negligence. May thy goodness lead me to repentance! May thy long suffering be my salvation! Give me a token for good that thou hast received me graciously, and henceforth rank me with thy willing people.

Some of you have weighed both worlds, and have given the future preference. Nevertheless-these other things occupy too much even of your time and attention: and render it necessary for us to admonish you to reduce your regard. For this purpose you will do well to remember two things.

First. This undue solicitude injures your spiritual welfare. These suckers occupy the sap that should enter the boughs. These weeds exhaust the nourishment the ground requires for the plants. These cares of the world, and this "deceitfulness of riches, choke the word," and it becometh unfruitful.

Secondly. It is hurtful even to your temporal welfare. The surest way to have any temporal blessing is to be satisfied without it. When we must have certain things, God sees that our hearts are too much set upon them for us to be indulged with safety. On the other hand, when we refer ourselves to his

What use should we make of this subject? I fear the words I have endeavoured to ex-pleasure, he loves to surprise and gratify us. plain, will suit some of you in a way of ex- A remarkable instance of which we have in hortation only. For can you say that you the case of Solomon. "God said unto him, resemble this portrait and have complied with Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast this admonition? Can I bless God at the not asked for thyself long life; neither hast close of this exercise, that for once I have asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the been addressing an audience who "seek first life of thine enemies; but hast asked for his kingdom and righteousness," and leave thyself understanding to discern judgment; the addition of all other things to him? Ah! behold, I have done according to thy words: these other things-these engross you-and lo, I have given thee a wise and an underdestroy. Heaven is hid from your view. standing heart; so that there was none like Earth contains all your esteem. Your hopes thee before thee, neither after thee shall any and fears, desires and pursuits, are all con- arise like unto thee. And I have also given fined within the narrow limits of time and thee that which thou hast not asked, both sense! You came into the world you know riches, and honour; so that there shall not not why, and are going out of it you know be any among the kings like unto thee all not whither. You are dead while you live. thy days." And what a dreadful contrast You have souls; but you never ask, What have we in the history of Eli! "There must I do to be saved?" You "know not came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto what a day will bring forth;" yet you live him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear as if you were to live here always. You unto the house of thy father, when they were in have been brought up in a Christian country; Egypt in Pharaoh's house? And did I choose but your god is your belly, your glory is in him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my your shame, you mind earthly things. And priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn intherefore your end will be destruction. For cense, to wear an ephod before me? And no man ever dropped into heaven by chance; did I give unto the house of thy father all nor does God ever force a man into heaven the offerings made by fire of the children of against his will. He always makes it the Israel? Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice object of his solicitude; and brings him and at mine offering, which I have command

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ed in my habitation; and honourest thy sons | And what is the motto? "We are troubled above me, to make yourselves fat with the on every side, yet not distressed; we are perchiefest of all the offerings of Israel my peo- plexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but ple? Wherefore the Lord God of Israel not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed: saith, I said indeed, that thy house, and the always bearing about in the body the dying house of thy father, should walk before me of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far might be made manifest in our body." from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Lord hath taken away," though they were the Chaldeans and Sabeans that plundered him. God did not carry away the Jews by miracle, but by the effect of war: by the invasion and success of unprincipled and wicked conquerors. What did Tiglath-Pileser, or Shalmaneser, or Sennacherib, or Nebuchadnezzar, think of God? They were only following the calls of vanity, and of revenge. Yet, says God, "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations not a few." Whence we learn, that we are not to conclude that God has nothing to do in any work, because of the vileness of those who are engaged in it. He adapts his instruments to their employment, overrules the natural tendencies of human actions, to subserve his designs, and makes the very wrath of man to praise him. The event,

Secondly, displays the truth of God. It had been clearly foretold; it had been threatened, as early as the days of Moses: "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." It would be needless to prove how every successive prophet in the name of God renewed the threatening. But, in consequence of these denunciations, the calamity was identified with the divine veracity, and became surer than heaven and earth: for "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." The Jews imagined that they had nothing to fear: they thought that such a mighty judgment was improbable, if not impossible; and presumptuously cried, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we they leaned upon the Lord, and said, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. But the Lord is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

Thirdly. The event displays the holiness of God. His holiness is most strikingly seen in his abhorrence of sin. He is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The wicked shall not stand in his sight. He will not spare the guilty." His conduct towards this people seems severe; and it was severe. But the provocation was peculiar. Much was

given, and much was required. Their of fences were aggravated by their privileges Sin is not to be judged of by its grossness, but by its guilt; and guilt arises from know. ledge possessed, from obligations violated, from advantages abused. God has not "dealt so with any land." What wonder therefore that he should say, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

Fourthly. The event displays the wisdom of God. By their dispersion the Scriptures were diffused; and the Desire of all nations was announced and expected. The pious Jews would be in "the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord." We have reason to believe many miracles were wrought by them. We know that some were: witness the preservation of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, in the fiery furnace; and Daniel in the lions' den. These prodigies, accom panying a good conversation, would doubtless induce many to become proselytes to their religion, and to "take hold of the skirt of him that was a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

Lastly. The event displays his goodness. In the midst of judgment he remembered mercy. Though he punished them it was not to destroy, but to correct and reform: and therefore he said, "Though I make a full end of the nations, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correet thee in measure." The dispensation, therefore, was temporary and limited. Hence he said, "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive." Hence, even in the mean time, he did not leave them comfortless. It was a calamity unspeakably awful and painful to be driven from their native land, and deprived of all their civil and sacred privileges; but it was softened. And observe,

II. The ALLEVIATION.

"Thus saith the

Lord God; Although I have cast them far
off among the heathen, and although I have
scattered them among the countries, yet will
be to them as a little sanctuary in the coun-
tries where they shall come.'
He under-
takes to secure and accommodate them. He

I

engages to afford them the advantage of a refuge and a temple: so that wherever they sought him, he would be found of them; and they should see his power and his glory, so as they had seen him in the sanctuary.

The doctrine to be drawn from this part of our subject is this-That God is never at a loss to serve his people; and that he will compensate them for the want of those very things that seem essential to their welfare.

Let us consider two cases in which this truth may be exemplified.

pious female in the most distressing bereave-
ment was able to say,

"Thou dost but take the lamp away,

To bless me with unclouded day."
And a good man, who had endured the wreck
of fortune, being asked how he bore the
change in his condition so cheerfully, replied;
"When I had these good things, I enjoyed
God in all; and now I am deprived of them,
I enjoy all in God."

How many can bear witness, that He has made that condition comfortable which they once deemed insupportable; that "as the sufferings abound, the consolations abound also ;" and that the light of his countenance, the joy of his salvation, the comforts of the Holy Ghost, are effectual substitutes for every deficiency in creature-good!

Secondly. In the want of gracious ordi

The first is, in the loss of outward comforts. God does not require us to be indifferent to our substance, to our health, to our friends and relations: yea, under the removal of them he allows us to feel. But it is the duty and privilege of a Christian, to be able to say with the Church, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit benances. in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

The preaching of the word, and the observance of public worship, will always be deemed a privilege by the godly: they will therefore repair to them, not only because they are commanded, but because they are inclined. They are glad when it is said to them, Let us go into the house of the Lord: The believer may well display a superiority upon the same principle, the loss of them will When," says David, "I reover those events that keep others constantly be their grief. alarmed or distressed, since God is his por- member these things, I pour out my soul in tion; and in His unchangeableness and all-me: for I had gone with the multitude, I sufficiency he has a stock of happiness in- went with them to the house of God, with dependent of the body and its diseases, time the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude and its vicissitudes, the world and its disso- that kept holy day." lution.

The design of affliction is to wean us from creatures, and to bring us more entirely to make use of God. At first we are often ready to murmur and repine, imagining we are undone: but when we find, that, in consequence of the failure of the streams, we have been led to the fountain of living waters, we can be thankful for the exchange; and acknowledge that it is good for us that we have been afflicted.-Is not he better to us than ten sons; better than thousands of gold and silver? Is not he "the father of the fatherless, and the husband of the widow?" How pleas ing in this view is the promise, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt." When Moses was wandering with the Israelites in "the wilderness, in a solitary way, and found no city to dwell in," he familiarised God under the image of a home; and said, "Lord, thou hast been our refuge and dwellingplace in all generations." When David was driven from his palace by the rebellion of Absalom, and was obliged to keep the field, he said, "Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort." A

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God will never countenance the neglect of the means of grace; but he will make up for the want of them. And those should remember this remark, who by accident, or sickness, or the care of young children, or the duties of servitude, are wholly or partially denied the privileges of the sanctuary. When we cannot follow him, He can follow us. I have known Christians placed by Providence in situations that had very few spiritual advantages and yet they have surpassed others who were much more favoured.

The superstitious should remember this as well as the afflicted. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands: as saith the prophet; "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." He can meet with his people in any place; and wherever he holds communion with them, the place becomes sacred. "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Though there was no building near, "He was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." To which me may add,

the assurance of our Saviour to the woman | shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have 1 in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

Let us rejoice that he is accessible. Though sin carried us to such a distance from him, we are "made nigh by the blood of Christ, who once suffered for sin the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." Let us come unto God by him; saying, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." While many ask, Who will show us any good? may we pray, "Lord, lift thou the light of thy countenance upon me:" and feel a gladness to which the man of the world is a stranger, even when his corn and wine in-that-ye are not your own?" Such a mode