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the enjoyments which follow them? Have we not courage, in our Christian race, to start fairly for the prize, only because it is necessary that we should be trained for the race, "keep our bodies under," and submit to a necessary though somewhat troublesome discipline? How can we expect " so to run that we may obtain," if we do not act up to the conditions of the course? and what cause have we of complaint, if we miss the reward appointed to those who successfully reach the goal? "Verily, there is a reward for the righteous," but they alone can obtain it who "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God."

I have said, that an arrogant assumption of rights, which under no circumstances can belong to them, is another cause among others, why many murmur against the dispensations of Heaven.

In all ages of the world, the rights of man have been maintained by some, who have chosen to imagine, or at least to assume, that human freedom is under no control, but that man has the natural privilege of exercising a discretionary power over those means which are within his reach, in order to satisfy his own desires, and to promote his own enjoyments. "They commend mirth," because, as they think, "a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry." Any interference with their self-appointed privileges, they look upon as an invasion of their moral rights. It is no wonder

that such should presume to murmur, when calamities overtake them in their blind career. They impute to God all the evils which arise from the practice of their own licentious creed, and, to themselves all the good, of which they can boast the participation. Looking upon sin as a necessary and unfailing consequence of human infirmity, and over which their wills can have no control, they exonerate themselves from the guilt of commission, by embracing the impious doctrine of universal necessity, maintaining to the very letter the well-known maxim, that whatever is, is right; yet, it will be manifest, that if this doctrine be universally true, there can be no wrong. If they suffer here, they have no remorse in ascribing their sufferings solely to Him, who "wills not that any should perish," but chastens us in his mercy that we may "cry unto him in our trouble, and He will hear us." Can there, however, be an inconsistency so manifest as that of complaining against the very troubles which they so perversely originate? Is the divine goodness to be questioned, because it does not turn their evil into good, and violate its attributes to still their complainings? Is it for them to say, "has God forgotten to be gracious," when they never take the pains to solicit his favour? We have frequently the power of removing our sorrows, if we would but patiently exercise it; and yet, we are apt to think, that the Almighty deals hardly with us by not taking our business upon

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himself. Disquietude of mind is a natural consequence of depravity of manners; and can anything be more preposterous than taxing the Almighty as the author of this evil, when its removal is so obviously within our own power? Suppose we admit it to be the punishment of sin; we have still only to remit the cause, and the penalty naturally ceases. Abstain from evil, and good must necessarily follow.

Nor is this by any means an insurmountable difficulty; since what one man can do, as far as regards spiritual determinations, may undoubtedly be done by another. And if Enoch and Elijah became sufficiently pure from spiritual defilements, to be translated from earth to heaven, without undergoing the pangs of dissolution, it is not beyond our power to become equally the objects of divine favour. "Oh Elias! how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous deeds! and who may glory like unto thee!" It is true, that both these men were great and mighty in their generations, "fearing the Lord and walking in his ways." Let us, however, remember, that the means of becoming good men, with which they were furnished, were not greater than those which we enjoy. "They were men of like passions with ourselves. They were tempted like as we are," and both lived in times of peculiar depravity; the latter especially was exposed to great difficulty and danger. They had the same "lusts of the flesh" to overcome, and only

the same motives to obedience as we have. They were exemplary in the midst of an evil generation: so may we be. They each lived under a dispensation far more imperfect than has been vouchsafed to us, and yet they walked with God, and were obedient to his laws. They were not without their afflictions: Elijah particularly endured much and often; but he bore his sufferings meekly, for the law of the Lord was written in his heart. It is, indeed, true, that calamities sometimes rest heavy upon those whose days have been past in humility of spirit, and "righteousness of life." "Both the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. All things come alike to all."

men.

The loss of friends, fortune, children, health, may fall with combined force upon the best of The obloquy of a censorious world may reach his retirement, and mingle its vexations with the sorrows of his heart. But has he, even under these united afflictions, any right to complain when his sins have deserved them all, and in the midst of his trials God is still his protector? "The Lord is our light, and our salvation, whom then shall we fear? the Lord is the strength of our life, of whom then shall we be afraid?" Is he not in a far more enviable condition than that man whom his Maker has forsaken, even though the latter should enjoy all the pleasures of earth unmixed? The heaviest of human calamities-nay, all the combined evils with which the infirmities of nature

can assail a good man, are as dust in the balance compared with the solitary horrors of a guilty conscience. Does he suffer nothing who is haunted by apprehensions, and who dares not retire to hold private communings with his own bosom, lest he should be affrighted with the testimony of his guilt recorded there? Who can lay his hand upon his heart, and say, that he has done nothing to deserve the chastisement of heaven? "If God spared not his own son, who knew no sin," why should we complain at the punishment of our transgressions?

A further cause to which I ascribed a disposition to murmur against Providence, is, closing our hearts against the awful truth that the Almighty can punish as well as forgive.

In estimating the attributes of him, who "breathed into our nostrils the breath of life," we are fondly apt to measure those only, through all their boundless influences, which establish the Almighty character as one of infinite beneficence and long suffering. We delight in the assurance, that "to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him," and often foolishly sink into security whilst the enemy is "within our gates." We dwell with ardour upon God's gracious promises; we remember with exultation his own declaration, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;" whilst we are too prone to forget the conditions upon which these promises are built. Many fancy that

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