and do often betray him to the very things he groundlessly suspected; for it is not seldom seen that men have incurred real mischiefs by a fond solicitude of avoiding imaginary ones. I do not question but this is a state calamitous enough, and shall acknowledge it very likely that such persons shall have little or no truce from their troubles, who have such an unexhausted spring within themselves ; yet we may say to them as the prophet did to the house of Jacob, "Is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings?" (Mic. ii. 7.) Such men must not cry out that God's hand lies heavy upon them, but their own; and so can be no impeachment to the truth of our observations, that God's blessings are of a longer duration, keep a more fixed steady course than his punishments. The result of all is, that the generality of mankind have good things (even as to temporals), which do in the three respects forementioned exceed the ill. I mean the true and real ills which God sends, though not those fanciful ones they raise to themselves.

20. And now why should it not appear a reasonable proposition, that men should entertain themselves with the pleasanter parts of God's dispensations to them, and not always pore upon the harsher; especially since the former are so much a fairer object, and perpetually in their eye, why should we look on the more saddening spectacles of human frailty or misfortune through all the magnifying optics our fancies can supply, and perversely turn

away our eyes from the cheerfuler?

Yet this,

God knows, is too much the case with most of us. How nicely and critically do we observe every little adverse accident of our lives; what tragical stories of them do our memories present us with, when, alas, a whole current of prosperity glides by without our notice! Like little children, our fingers are never off the sore place, till we have picked every little scratch into an ulcer. Nay, like the lewder sort of beggars, we make artificial sores, to give us a pretence of complaint. And can we then expect God should concern himself in the cure? Indeed, in the course of his ordinary providence, there is no cure for such people, unless it be by revulsion, the making them feel the smart of some very great and pressing affliction. They therefore put themselves under an unhappy dilemma, either to continue their own tormentors, or to endure the severest course of God's discipline. It is true the last is the more eligible; but I am sure the best way is to prevent both, by a just and grateful sense of God's mercies, which will be yet farther illustrated if we compare

them with our own demerits.

T is the common fault of our nature, that we are very apt to be partial to ourselves, and to square our expectations more by what we wish than by what we deserve. Something of this is visible in our dealings with men. We oft "look to reap where we have not sown" (Matt. xxv. 26), expect benefits where we do none: yet in civil transactions there are still remaining such footsteps of natural justice, that we are not universally so unreasonable; all traffic and commerce subsisting upon the principle of equal retribution, giving one good thing for another equivalent; so that no man expects to buy corn with chaff, or gold with dross. But in our dealings with God we put off even this common equity, are vast in our expectations, but penurious and base in our returns; and as if God were our steward,

not our Lord, we require of him, with a confidence proper only to those who ask their own: whilst in the interim, what we offer to him is with such a disdainful slightness, as if we meant it rather an alms than an homage.

2. God is indeed so munificent, that he " prevents us with his blessings" (Ps. xxi. 3), gives us many things before we ask: had he not done so, we could not have been so much as in a capacity of asking. But though the first and fundamental mercies are absolute and free, yet the subsequent are conditional; and accordingly we find in Scripture, that God makes no promise either concerning this life or a better, but on condition of obedience. The Jews, who had much larger proposals of temporal happiness than Christians have, yet never had them upon other terms. God expressly articled for the performance of his commands, and made all their enjoyments forfeitable upon the failure,-as -as we may see at large in the book of Deuteronomy. And under the Gospel, St. Paul appropriates the "promises as well of this life as of that to come" unto godliness (1 Tim. iv. 8). It will therefore be a material inquiry for every man, whether he have kept his title entire, and have not, by breach of the condition, forfeited his claim even to the most common ordinary blessings: for if he have, common reason will tell him he can challenge none; and that the utmost he can hope for must be only upon a new score of unmerited favour.

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3. And here certainly "every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God" (Rom. iii. 19). For, alas, who is there that can say his obedience has been in any degree proportionable to his obligation? It is manifest we have all received abundantly from God's hand; but what has he had from ours? I may challenge the best man to cast up the account of his best day, and tell me whether his receipts have not infinitely exceeded his disbursements; whether, for any one good thing he has done, he has not received many. Nor is the disparity only in number, but much more in value. God's works are perfect, all he does for us, like the first six days' productions, "are all very good" (Gen. i.); but, alas, our very "righteousness is as filthy rags" (Is. lxiv. 6). We offer him "the blind and the lame" (Mal. i. 8); a few yawning, drowsy prayers perhaps, wherein he has the least share; the fuller current of our thoughts running towards our secular or sinful concerns. We drop, it may be, a scanty alms, wherein it is odds our vainglory scrambles for a share with him, if it do not wholly engross it. We sit an hour at a sermon, but it is rather to hear the wit or eloquence of the preacher than the word of God. Like the duller sort of animals, we like well to have our itching ears scratched; but grow sturdy and restive when we should do what we are there taught. In a word, all our services at the best are miserably maimed and imperfect, and too often corrupt and unsound.