most transcendent accomplishment of our nature, so it is most universal. Whatever disparity there may be between man and man in other respects, yet in this all are equal. The poor beggar at the gate has a soul as capacious of eternal happiness, as he whose crumbs he begs for, nay, sometimes better prepared for it, as that parable shews, Luke xvi. 21. And though the dignities of earth are the prize of the rich and noble, the subtle and designing, yet heaven is as easily mounted from the dunghill as the throne; and an honest simplicity will sooner bring us thither than all the Machiavellian policy. Nay, God has not only designed us to so glorious an end, but has done all on his part to secure us of it-sent his Son to lead us the way, his Spirit to quicken us in it. We need not dispute how universal this is; it is sure it concerns all to whom I am now speaking,—those that are within the pale of the Church and if it should prove confined to them, the more peculiar is their obligation, that are thus singled out from the rest of the world, and the greater ought to be their thankfulness. The heathen philosopher made it matter of his solemn acknowledgment to Fortune, that he was born a Grecian, and not a barbarian; and sure the advantages of our Christianity are of a much higher strain, and ought to be infinitely more celebrated. The apostle we find often applauding this glorious privilege, as that which makes us "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" (Eph.,

ii. 19); nay, which elevates us to a higher state, "the adoption of sons" (Gal. iv. 5); nor only sons, but "heirs also of God, and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. viii. 17). And what ambition is there so greedy which this will not satisfy? Yet this is our common state, the birthright of our regeneration, if we do not degrade ourselves, and, with Esau, basely sell our title.

18. And now methinks every man may interrogate himself in the same form wherein Jonadab did Amnon: " Why art thou, being the king's son, thus lean from day to day ?" (2 Sam. xiii. 4.) Why should a person who is adopted by the King of kings thus languish and pine? What is there below the sun worthy his notice, much less his desires, that hath a kingdom above it? Certainly did we but know how to estimate ourselves upon this account, it were impossible for us with such sordid condescensions to court every petty worldly interest, and so impatiently vex ourselves when we cannot attain it. Alas! how unworthily do we bear the name of Christians, when that which carried the forefathers of our faith through the most fiery trials cannot support us under the disappointment of any extravagant desire! They had such

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respect to the recompense of the reward" (Heb. xi. 26), as made them cheerfully expose their fame to ignominy, their goods to rapine, their bodies to the most exquisite tortures, and their lives to death. Yet the same hopes cannot work us to any tolerable

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degree of patience, when we suffer but the smallest diminution in any of these. What shall we say? Is heaven grown less valuable, or earth more, than it was then? No, surely, but we are more infatuated in our estimates; we have so long abetted the rivalry of the handmaid, that the mistress, like Sarah, appears despicable. Like Jonah, we sit down sullen upon the withering of a gourd, never considering that God has provided us a better shelter, a building of God, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. v. 1). Indeed, there can be no temporal destitution so great which such an expectation cannot make supportable. Were we in Job's condition, sitting upon a dunghill, and scraping ourselves with a potsherd, yet as long as we can say with him "our Redeemer liveth" (Job xix. 25), we have all reason to say with him also, "blessed be the name of the Lord" (ch. i. 21). What a madness is it then for us to expose ourselves to be pierced and wounded by every temporal adversity, who have so impenetrable an armour! nay, what an ungrateful contumely is it to that goodness of God, to shew that we cannot make him a counterpoise to the most trivial secular satisfaction! on which account sure he may again take up that exprobrating complaint we find in the prophet, " A goodly price that I was valued at by them" (Zech. xi. 13).

19. But how mean soever he is in our eyes,

5 To exprobrate,-to charge upon with reproach.

though Christ seem the same to us in his glory which he did in his abjection, to have no beauty that we should desire him; yet he puts another rate upon himself, and tells us that he "that loves father of mother, son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me" (Matt. x. 37). Now our love and our joy are passions coincident; and therefore whatever we joy more in than we do in him, we may be presumed to love better; and if he cannot endure the competition of those more ingenuous objects of our love he here mentions, how will he suffer that of our vanities, our childish, wanton appetites? And yet those are the things after which we so impatiently rave. For I believe I may truly affirm, that if there were a scrutiny made into all the discontents of mankind, for one that were fastened upon any great considerable calamity, there are many that are founded only in the irregularity of our own desires.

20. By what has been said, we may justly conclude in the prophet's phrase, " God hath not been to us a wilderness, a land of darkness" (Jer. ii. 31), but has graciously dispensed to us in all our interests. Yet the instances here given are only common, such as relate to all, or at least the far greater part of mankind; but what volumes might be made, should every man set down his own particular experiences of mercy! In that case it would be no extravagant hyperbole we find John xxii. 25, "that even the world itself could not contain

the books which should be written."

God knows our memories are very frail, and our observations slight in this point; yet abstracting from all the forgotten or neglected favours, what vast catalogues may every man make to himself, if he would but yet recollect what effects he has had of God's bounty in giving, of his providence in protecting, of his grace in restraining and exciting, of his patience in forbearing! And certainly all these productions of the Divine goodness were never designed to die in the birth. The Psalmist will tell us, "The Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance" (Ps. cxi. 3). Let every man then make it his daily care to recount to himself the wonders God hath done, as for the children of men in general, so for himself in particular. When the Israelites murmured under their bondage, Pharaoh imputes it to their idleness, and prescribes them more work as the readiest cure: a piece, indeed, of inhuman tyranny in him, but may with equity and success be practised by us upon ourselves. When we find our appetites mutinous, complaining of our present condition, let us set ourselves to work-impose it as a task upon ourselves to recollect the many instances of God's mercies. And surely, if we do it sincerely and with intention, we cannot have passed through half our stages before our sullen murmurs will be beat out

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6 Intention, eagerness of desire, closeness of attention, deep thought.