or Hazards which may attend us in this Race of doing Good, look up daily unto Jefus, till our Faith be turned into Vision; and make Heaven our Meditation, till God make it our Reward: To whom be Glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The

The Sixth Sermon.

PSALM cxii. 7.

He fhall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trufting in the Lord.

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His Pfalm preferits us with the Character and Blessings of a righteous Man His Bleffings, according to the ftile of the old Teftament, which we must exalt by the Spirit of the New, are Riches, Victory, long Life, a flourishing Pofterity, an honourable and lasting Memory. His CharaEter is made up of a Conftellation of Vertues : First, the Fear of God, as the Fountain and Principle of all the rest ; then a delight in his Commandments, Difcretion, Justice, Mercy, Beneficence, Bounty; and last-, ly, Faith, or Confidence in God, which unites his Character and his Blessings together: For as it is defcrib'd in my Text, I can hardly tell whether it partakes more of the one or the other, whether I ought to call it the Vertue or N the

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the Happiness of the Righteous Man; He fhall not be afraid, &c. In handling these words, I'll observe this Method.

1. I'll make fome Reflection upon the commonnefs and unavoidableness of Evil, which is fuppofed in my Text, the righteous Man not being exempt from evil Tidings.

2. I'll show you that the Favour and Patronage of God is the only Support and Comfort of Man against Evil. This is that which fortifies the righteous Man in my Text against Evil Tidings, his heart is fixed, trufting in the Lord.

3. I'll conclude with an Exhortation to Righteousness, as that alone which can entitle us to the Favour of God, and warrant our Confidence in him.

1. Of the commonness and unavoidableness of evil. Were there no fin to merit evil, no God, or none concern'd to inflict it, yet confidering the state and nature of this World, a wife man could not promise himself much from it. All things without us, are mixt, empty, uncertain, transitory, and we our felves confift of mortal Bodies, and mutable Minds, Diseases infect the one, and Paffions the other, fo that er

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rour and ignorance, baffles and difappointments, loffes, changes, fickness, death, reign every where, difquiet and disturb every ftate. But if we carry our thoughts a little further, if we confider what variety of Evils is neceffary to exercife and train up Vertue; to reform Man, and vindicate the Sanctity and Juftice of God: If we look upon the World as the Theatre of God and Man, on which the Wife Man too often acts his Mistakes and Follies, the Fool and Sinner his Luft, Rage, Avarice, Ambition, Subtilty, Cruelty, Hypocrify, Bigottry, and the like. And God delights to display his Wisdom, Power and Goodness, in the various Scenes of Lovingkindness, Righteousness and Judgment, Fer. 9. If, I fay, we confider all this, we shall be apt to wonder, why Evils are not more numerous and more grie vous than they are. Man when full and at ease, when standing on high, on heaps of Honours and Offices, Dignities and Preferments, is a proud, infolent, vain, fenfual, unthinking thing; how many Disgraces, Mortifications, Revolutions, are, neceffary to make this poor Creature know God and himself, to make him humble, modeft, wife, and vertuN 2

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ous; a lively Image of this we have in the People of Ifrael, Ifa. 2. 7, 8. Their land is full of filver and Gold, neither is there any end of their treafure; their land alfo is full of Horfes, neither is there any end of their Chariots. And what was the natural result of this, even what follows in the next words of the Prophet, Their Land alfo is full of idols, they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And this was a wantonness not to be cured, but by Afflictions; nor could any thing effectually convince them of the Vanity of Stocks and Stones, or the need they stood in of the living and true God, but Calamities and Diftreffes. And as these are often neceffary to convert a Sinner, fo are they no lefs neceffary to train up a Convert, and perfect even a Righteous Man: even these have their Dross, which cannot be purg'd but with fire; there is Remifness in themselves, Connivance and Compliance with the fins of others; there is their Carnal Diffidence and World. by Politicks; ah too too remote all from the Simplicity, the Zeal and Faith of a Chriftian. In one word, good Men too often adhere too much to the World,and have too much fondness for the Interest

and