mutinies; for though it be unreasonable enough to charge God with the ill effect of our own lewdness, yet it is a higher step to murmur because we have not materials to be wicked enough. And this I fear is the case with too many of us, who, though they are not so despoiled by their sins, but that they can keep up their round of vicious pleasures, yet are discontented because they think some others have them more exquisite, think their vices are not genteel enough unless they be very expensive, and are covetous only that they may be more luxurious. These are such as St. James speaks of, who" ask amiss, that they may consume it upon their lusts" (James iv. 3); and sure to be mutinous on this account is one of the highest pieces of frenzy. Would any man in his wits tell another he will cut his throat, and then expect he should furnish him with a knife for it? And yet to this amount our murmurs against God for his not giving us those things wherewith we only design to wage war with him; for surely if the discontents of mankind were closely inspected, I doubt a great many would be found of this kind. It concerns the reader, therefore, to make the inquisition in his own breast, both in this and all the former particulars; and I doubt not, if he do it with any ingenuity and uprightness, he will be abundantly convinced that for his few mites of obedience he pays to God, he receives talents of mercies (even temporal) from him; and that on the other side, God as much underpays his sins as

I

most averse.

he overpays his services: by which God does sufficiently attest how little he delights in our affliction, how gladly he takes any light occasion of caressing and cherishing, and overskips those of punishing us; which sure ought to make us convert all our displeasures against our sins, which extort those acts of severity from him to which his nature is And here, indeed, our resentments cannot be too sharp; but towards God our fittest address will be in the penitential form of the prophet Daniel, "O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face; but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him" (Dan. ix. 8, 9). And as his justice is to be revered in his inflictions, so is his wisdom also in so disposing of events to particular persons as may best consist with the universal economy and management of the world; the consideration whereof is the design of the next chapter.

HEN God made the universe, he intended not only to glorify himself in one transient act of his power, and

then leave this great and wonderful production of his, as the "ostrich her eggs" in the wilderness (Lam. iv. 3); but having drawn it out of its first chaos, he secured it from returning thither again by establishing as a due symmetry of parts, so also a regular order of motion; hence it is that the heavens have their constant revolutions, the earth its succession of determinate seasons, animals their alternate course of generation and corruption; and by this wise economy, the world, after so many thousand years, seems still in its spring and first beauty. But it had been in vain to have thus secured against the defection of the creatures, if man, for whose sake they were made, had been excluded from this care. His faculty of reason would have made him but the more fatal instrument of confusion, and taught him the more com

pendious ways of disturbing the world. Job compares him to the "wild ass's colt" (Job xi. 12), which takes its range without adverting to any thing of the common good. God has, therefore, doubly hedged in this unruly creature, made a fence of laws about him (both natural and positive); and besides has taken him into the common circle of his providence; so that he, as well as the rest of the creation, has his particular station assigned him and that not only in reference to other creatures, but himself; has put a difference between one man and another, ordained several ranks and classes of men, and endowed them with special and appropriate qualifications for those stations wherein he has set them.

2. This, as it is a work of infinite wisdom in God, so it is of unspeakable advantage to men. Without this regular disposure, the world would have been in the same confusion which we read of in the host of the Midianites, " every man's sword against his fellow" (Judges vii. 22). Nothing but force could determine who should do or enjoy any thing; and even that decision also would have been repealable by a greater force; so that we have all reason to confess the utility of that order God has set among men; and even he that bears the lowest and most despicable place in it is certainly infinitely more happy by contributing to that general harmony than he could be in any state of discord.

3. Were this now well considered, methinks it

should silence all our complaints, and men should not be so vehemently concerned in what part of the structure it pleases the great Architect to put them; for every man is to look on himself only as a small parcel of those materials which God is to put into form. Every stone is not fit for the corner, nor every little rafter for the main beam; the wisdom of the Master-builder is alone to determine that. And sure there cannot be a more vile contempt of the Divine Wisdom than to dispute his choice. Had God wisdom enough to contrive this vast and beautiful fabric, and may he not be trusted with one of us poor worms? Did he by his "wisdom make the heavens, and by his understanding stretch out the clouds" (Prov. iii. 19), and shall he not know where to place a little lump of figured earth? This is certainly the most absurd distrust imaginable; and yet this is really the true meaning of our repining at the condition he has placed us in.

4. The truth is, we are so full of ourselves that we can see nothing beyond it; every man expects God should place him where he has a mind to be, though by it he discompose the whole scheme of his providence. But though we are so senselessly partial, yet God is not so: he that comprehends at once the whole concerns of mankind, applies himself to the accommodating those, not the humouring any particular person. "He has made the great and the small, and careth for all alike" (Wis. vi. 7).