If we fhould fet afide the Sanction of SERM. II.

divine Authority, which stamps an additional Value upon the Pfalm; yet it could not fail to affect every Reader of a refined Tafte. And when we either confider those melting Strains, in which he defcribes his own Woes; or that exalted Vein, in which he reprefents the Majefty of God; we shall be at a Lofs, whether to admire more the Greatnefs of that Genius, which could acquit itfelf with fo masterly an Hand in both the pathetic and fublime Way of Writing; or the Juftness of that Judgment, which could with fo dextrous an Addrefs, with so easy, and I had almost said, so natural an Art, glide from the one to the other.

The Author of the Pfalm had a Mind deeply tinctured with Piety. When his Heart was in Heaviness, he thought upon God: But to think on him then with Pleafure, he must have fet God constantly before him in the fmooth Seafons of Life. This will lead me to fhew,

It, The Happiness and Reafonableness of turning our Thoughts to God in gene

tal.

D 2

IIdly,

SERM. II.

Ildly, The peculiar Advantages of Affiction, to bring us to a just Sense of God, and our Duty.

Ist, I am to fhew the Happiness and Reasonableness of turning our Thoughts to God in general.

To repair to God only, when under Affiction, is to ufe Him as fome conceited Philofophers have done, who never have Recourse to Him, and take Him into their Schemes, but when they are in Distress, when they meet with fome Difficulty, which they cannot plaufibly account for or get over, without calling Him in to their Aid.

Befides, never is there more Occafion for Good-Humour, Chearfulness, and an undisturbed Serenity of Mind, than when we form our religious Notices.. For, though the brightest ideas of the Deity may be retained and cherished under any Indispofition of Mind or Body; yet, to retain and cherish them at that Juncture, they must be imprinted in indelible Characters on the Soul, when it was in an eafy Situation: Otherwife, Religion will not brighten up our Minds, and lighten the Darkness of

them;

them; our Minds will darken and difco- SERM. II. lour Religion. And what has given fome

People a Diftafte for it, is; that having never applied themselves feriously to it, but when they were in a dull, joyless, fullen Humour, which reprefented every Thing they were converfant about to be dull and joyless; the Notions of Religion, and of a joyless State, have been, however unduly connected, ever after infeparable. By meditating on God only, or even chiefly, in a melancholy Hour, you will affociate the Idea of Gloominefs and Horror with that of Religion: You will view Him, just as He was worshipped in old Gothic Buildings, in a dim folemn Light, which sheds a penfive Gloom over, and faddens every Object. You will not ferve Him with that Gladness which he requires: For God loveth a chearful Worshipper, as well as a chearful Giver. But you will repair with Reluctance and Conftraint to that Ser

vice, which is perfect Freedom.

We are indigent Creatures, infufficient of ourselves for our own Happiness, and therefore ever seeking it fomewhere else. But where we shall effectually feek for it, is the Question. Unless the Thoughtful

SERM. II. and the Pensive direct their Thoughts to, and caft their Cares upon God; there will be little Difference between Them and the Gay and Unthinking, befides this; that the Latter will have more of the Vanity of Life; but They themfelves more of the Vexations of it. If there were not another Life, our Bufinefs would be, not to alarm the Thinking Faculty, but to lay our too active and unquiet Thoughts to Reft. The Mind would be like a froward Child, ever fretful when fully awake; and therefore to be played and lulled asleep as fast as we Our main Happiness would be to forget our Mifery and ourselves; to forget, that we are a Set of Beings, who, after we have toil'd out the live-long Day, of human Life, in Variety of Hardships; arc, instead of receiving our Wages at the Clofe of it, to fleep out one long eternal Night in an utter Extinction of Being.

can.

If Man had an ample Fund of Happiness in himself, without any Deficiency; whence is it, that he is continually looking out abroad for foreign Amusements; Amusements, which are of no other Ufe, but to keep off troublesome and ungrateful Impreffions, and to make us infenfible of

the

the Tediousness of Living; Amusements, SERM. II. which rather fufpend a Senfe of Uneasiness, than give us any fubftantial Satisfac-. tion, and keep the Soul in an equal Poise between Pleasure and Pain? And is this the great End which we have in View? Suppofing we could compass it; yet if it be better not to be at all, than to be miferable; then certainly just not to be miferable, without any pofitive Happiness, is much at one, as not to be at all. Whence is it, that that restless Thing the Soul, too enterprizing to trace every Thing else, yea the deep Things of God; is yet too cowardly to enquire into itself, and to view the Workings of that ever-loved, yet everavoided Object? Whence is it, that the Mind, whose active Energy prompts her to give a free and unconfined Range to her Thoughts on other Subjects, nay, to make, if it were poffible, the Tour of the whole Universe; yet, when she comes to dwell at home, and to furvey the little World within, flags in her Vivacity, feels herfelf in a forlorn Condition, and finds a Drowfinefs and melancholy Gloom hanging upon her? Whence is it, but that the Soul, whenever it turns its Thoughts inD 4 ward,