secret voice. When he looks up to heaven, he rejoices in the thought that there dwells that God whom he serves and honours; that Saviour in whom he trusts; that spirit of grace from whose inspiration his piety and his charity flow. When he looks around him on the world, he is soothed with the pleasing remembrance of good offices which he has done, or at least has studied to do, to many who dwell there. How comfortable the reflection, that him no poor man can upbraid for having withheld his due; him no unfortunate man can reproach for having seen and despised his sorrows; but that on his head are descending the prayers of the needy and the aged; and that the hands of those whom his protection has supported, or his bounty has fed, are lifted up in secret to bless him!

Life, passed under the influence of such dispositions, naturally leads to a happy end. It is not enough to say, that faith and piety, joined with active virtue, constitute the requisite preparation for heaven. They, in truth, begin the enjoyment of heaven. In every state of our existence, they form the chief ingredients of felicity. Hence, they are the great marks of Christian regeneration. They' are the signature of that Holy Spirit, by which good men are said to be sealed unto the day of redemption. The text affords a striking proof of the estimation in which they are held by God. Amidst that infinite variety of human events which pass under his eye, the prayers and the alms of Cornelius attracted his particular notice. He remarked the amiable dispositions, which rose in the heart of this good man. But he saw that they were yet imperfect, while he remained unenlightened by the principles of the

Christian religion. In order to remove this obstruction to his rising graces, and to bring him to the full knowledge of that God whom he sought to honour, he was favoured with a supernatural message from heaven. While the princes of the earth were left to act by the councils of their own wisdom; while without interposition from above, generals conquered or fell, according to the vicissitude of human things; to this good centurion an Angel was commissioned from the throne of God.

What can I say more or higher in praise of this blessed character, than that it is what God delights to honour? Men single out, as the objects of distinction, the great, the brave, or the renowned. But he who seeth not as man seeth, passing by those qualities which often shine with false splendour to human observation, looks to the inward principles of action; to those principles which form the essence of a worthy character, and which, if called forth, would give birth to whatever is laudable or excellent in conduct. Is there one, though in humble station, or obscure life, who feareth God and worketh righteousness; whose prayers and alms, proceeding in regular unaffected tenour, bespeak the upright, the tender, the devout heart? Those alms and prayers come up in memorial before that God who is no respecter of persons. The Almighty beholds him from his throne with complacency. Divine illumination is ready to instruct him. Angels minister to him. They now mark him out on earth as their future associate; and for him they make ready in paradise the white robes, the palms, and the sceptres of the just.

To this honour, to this blessedness, let out hearts continually aspire; and throughout the whole of life,

let those solemn and sacred words with which I conclude, sound in our ears, and be the great directory of our conduct.* He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly and love mercy—and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah, vi. 8.

16

SERMON II.

On the Influence of RELIGION upon

ADVERSITY.

PSALM XXVii. 5.

In the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion ; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock.

THE
HE life of man has always been a very mixed
state, full of uncertainty and vicissitudes, of
anxieties and fears. In every religious audience,
there are many who fall under the denomination of
the unfortunate; and the rest are ignorant how soon
they may be called to join them. For the prosperity
of no man on earth is stable and assured. Dark
clouds may soon gather over the heads of those
whose sky is now most bright. In the midst of the
deceitful calm which they enjoy, the storm that is
to overwhelm them has perhaps already begun to
ferment. If a man live many years, and rejoice in
them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness,
for they shall be many.*

Hence, to a thoughtful mind, no study can appear more important, than how to be suitably prepared for the misfortunes of life; so as to contemplate them in prospect without dismay, and, if they must befal, to bear them without dejection. Throughout every

Eccles. xi. 8.

age, the wisdom of the wise, the treasures of the rich, and the power of the mighty, have been employed, either in guarding their state against the approach of distress, or in rendering themselves less vulnerable by its attacks. Power has endeavoured to remove adversity to a distance; Philosophy has studied when it drew nigh, to conquer it by patience; and Wealth has sought out every pleasure that can compensate or alleviate pain.

While the wisdom of the world is thus occupied, Religion has been no less attentive to the same important object. It informs us in the text, of a pavilion, which God erects to shelter his servants in the time of trouble; of a secret place in his tabernacle, into which he brings them; of a rock on which he sets them up; and elsewhere he tells us, of a shield and a buckler, which he spreads before them, to cover them from the terrour by night, and the arrow that flieth by day. Now of what nature are those instruments of defence which God is represented as providing with such solicitous care for those who fear him? Has he reared up any bulwarks, impregnable by misfortune, in order to separate the pious and virtuous from the rest of mankind, and to screen them from the common disasters of life? No; to those disasters we behold them liable no less than others. The defence which religion provides, is altogether of an internal kind. It is the heart, not the outward state, which it professes to guard. When the time of trouble comes, as come it must to all, it places good men under the pavilion of the Almighty, by affording them that security and peace which arise from the belief of Divine protection. It brings them into the secret of his tabernacle, by opening to them sources of con