duce their Effects, grievous Diftreffes to Particulars, from Time to Time, must be the Confequence. Therefore we should learn to respect the Regulations of Providence, though occafionally we fuffer by them. We honour, if we are at all reasonable, whatever Laws of our Country we know to be for the common Good, though often greatly oppofite to our own private Intereft and furely lefs Honour cannot be due to the Laws of Heaven.

He, who could make fuch a World as this, may doubtless have, throughout his Conduct of it, wife and good Ends in his View, of which we cannot poffibly form any Conception. Were God to queftion us, as once he did Job; Where waft thou, when I laid the Foundations of the Earth? declare, if thou haft Understanding" : our Answer must be, what one of his Friends acknowledged, We are of Yesterday, and know Nothing or as the Book of Wisdom expreffes it more largely; What Man is he, that can know the Counsel of God? or who can think, what the Will of the Lord is? For the Thoughts of mortal Men are miferable, and our Devices are but uncertain P. Indeed Creatures of our

own Rank, only of Abilities

perhaps a little

p Wifd. ix. 13. 14.

fuperior,

fuperior, lay Schemes of which we should never have the least Notion, and compass them by Methods which we should never suspect, if we were not told them. Now God hath not told us all his Ways, and all the Reasons of them. Therefore with Refpect to many Things, we must apprehend him to say to us, as the bleffed Jefus did to Peter: What I do thou knoweft not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. If we obferve with Attention, and enquire with Humility, we fhall find, fooner or later, in various Inftances, even while we continue on this Earth, that feeming Evil is real Good in fome Respect or other. But a future Life will draw back the Veil from Multitudes of the divine Difpenfations, and fhew us Beauty and Order, where Nothing appeared to us but Horror and Confufion. Yet even then we must not expect to know the Whole: nor are the higheft Angels capable of fathoming all the Depths of the universal Providence of the only wife God.

Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen": and implicit Faith is one of the first and greatest Duties of Creatures to their Creator. it to Men like ourselves every Day: and

We

pay

contentedly truft our Fortunes, our Healths, our Lives with them, in Confequence of it; notwithstanding they may often mistake, nay fometimes mean us Ill.

out a fingle Murmur, Hesitation, we may truft

Surely then, withwithout the leaft every Thing, truft

Body and Soul with God. For are they wifer and better, are we wifer and better, than he? Are we not fafer in his Hands, than in our own? He doth not do all for us, that we wish. But perhaps we wish indiscreetly for what would be much Harm to us. Or if not, we think it very fitting, that our Servants and Inferiors, when we command them, should undergo a great deal for the Accomplishment of our Purposes; and that Multitudes of Persons, when required by Authority, fhould rifque every Thing dear to them, for the general Welfare: why is it not fitting then, that we, in our Turn, fhould both give up Satiffactions, and bear Uneafineffes, to serve the good Purposes of God? We are willing, I hope, to fuffer more than a little for our Friends, for our Country, for our Prince: why should we not be as willing to fuffer every Thing for the Sake of Mankind, and the Syftem of which we are Part, when the Sovereign of all demands it? We fee not indeed perhaps, in

what

what Manner our Sufferings or our Disadvan tages benefit others, or make the general State of Things better. But here is the Patience and the Faith of the Saints'. Thus they have the Means of fhewing Patience in every Situation, built on the Faith, that all Things are conducted well. So far they are conducted well for us, that in our lowest and most afflicted Condition, when the Face of God feems hid from us, his Eye watches over us; and while his Hand is heaviest upon us, it is leading us to our proper Share of Happiness. Therefore, as the Apostle exhorts, be content with fuch Things as ye have: for he hath faid, I will never leave thee, nor for fake thee ". But all Matters are conducted in the highest Degree well for the Whole and doubting it is thinking ill of our heavenly Father; for which we can never have Caufe. Nothing can win upon him to do Wrong, Nothing deter him from doing Right, Nothing refift his Power; Nothing mislead his Judgement, Nothing efcape his Attention, who fees through the Universe at once. He hath fixed the proper Laws and Limits for every Part, and we have no Claim to be exempted. Therefore when we feel our

felves inclined to object, to be moved with Indignation, and tear ourselves in our Anger, as Job's Friends accuse him of doing, we should check our Vehemence, as they check his, by afking, Shall the Earth be forfaken for Thee, and the Rock be moved out of its Place"? Shall the Foundations, on which the great System of Nature ftands, and by which its good State is preserved, be fhaken for the feeming, or the real, Benefit of this or that Perfon? If of any one, why not of every one: for what are we more than others? And then Nothing can follow, but univerfal Inconfiftence and Confufion.

Still the Duty of Submiffion to God's good Pleasure doth not require from us Infenfibility; for we cannot be infenfible, of what we undergo, or what we want, or what superior Advantages others enjoy. It doth not forbid us to think the prefent State of Things, were we not to look beyond it, irregular and diforderly; provided we look on it as Part of a regular Whole, that is worthy of its Author. For the Afflictions and Inequalities of this Life, are a strong Argument for a future one. And though entertaining too low an Opinion * Job xviii, 4.