recourse to his goodness, till we have felt his indignation. When we meet with forrow and affliction in this world therefore, it naturally and inevitably turns our thoughts towards another. If then afflictions are the kind chastise. ments of a tender father, let us receive them as fuch, and fubmit to them with patience and refignation; if they are the meffengers of God, fent by him to inform us of our ftate and condition, and to teach us our duty, let us remember from who they came, and treat them as the ambaffadors of heaven; if we confider forrow as a punishment, it is a punishment we all deferve; if as a warning, it is a warning we all ftand in need of. Have we not reafon then, in fpite of all our murmurings and complaints, to acknowledge that the poifon of forrow (if fuch we will efteem it) may be chang. ed into a most powerful medicine, and even pain and fickness become the means of health and pleafure, if we make a proper use of the important leffons they convey to us; if the forrows and calamities which we meet with in this life, have that effect on us which they ought to have; if they make us more humane and compaffionate, more humble and more patient, more ferious and more devout.

To conclude then, let us no longer be fo fond of treading in the fashionable circle of vanity and pleasure; let us quit for a while the guilty fcenes of riot and diffipation, to look into the house of forrow, and learn fome inftructive leffon in the wholesome school of affliction; let us leave that which will in

fenfibly

fenfibly deprave and corrupt, for that which will better and improve the heart; the more we habituate ourselves to an acquaintance with the forrows of others, the lefs fenfibly fhall we feel our own; the fadnefs of the countenance in this world may be the means of covering it with fmiles and chearfulnefs in the next; and if forrow makes the heart better here it will certainly render it much happier hereafter.

ON A WOUNDED SPIRIT.

SERMON VII.

PROVERBS XVIII. 14.

The Spirit of a man will fuftain his infirmity; but a wounded Spirit who can bear?

W HEN the great Father and Creator of

all things did from his almighty wifdom determine, and from his unfpeakable goodness condefcend, to call us into being, to raise us from annihilation to light and life, he was graciously pleased to form us even in his own divine fimilitude, and to make us after his own image. To man, therefore, he imparted a rational and immortal foul, capable of happiness and improvement in this world, and am

bitious

bitious of eternal joy and perfection in the next: he gave him a foul, to prefide over the weak frame of his Body, to fubdue his lufts and affections, to arm him against the changes and chances of human life, to fuftain his infirmities, to fupport him under all his trials and afflictions, to turn him afide from the paths of vice and folly, and lead him into the road of virtue. To keep in order therefore this chief fpring which actuates the whole machine, is our great and most important bufinefs; for if this be once difturbed or impaired, the fubordinate wheels muft of courfe be interrupted in their motion. Whilft the mind preferves her power, her dignity, and authority, we are sure of health and fafety; the kingdom cannot be totally fubverted, whilft the fovereign maintains her power; it may indeed be weakened by the attacks of vice, disturbed by the rebellion of the paffions, fhaken or difordered by fickness or misfortune; but whilft the ruler is herself unhurt, fhe may in time reftore order, and re-establish peace and tranquillity in her dominion; but if once fhe becomes herself weak and impotent, if the fuffers herself to be caft down, degraded and dethroned, the ftate indeed is then in very imminent danger, and will scarce exhibit any but a fcene of anarchy and confufion. Spirit of a man, fays Solomon, will fuftain his infirmities; but a wounded Spirit who can bear?

The

Man, we know, is born unto forrow, even as the fparks fly upwards; an heavy yoke is laid upon the fons of Adam, from him that fitteth upon a throne of glory to him that is humbled in earth and afhes.. The bread of calamity

muft

must be eaten, and the bitter cup of affliction must be tafted by all. Sicknefs, misfortune, loffes, difappointments, temptations; these are wounds which pierce every fpirit, these are the fiery trials which we muft pafs through, which we muft fuftain, if ever we hope for glory or reward: these are the touchstones of our faith and virtue, and these as we fubdue, or are fubdued by, as we fink under, or rife fuperior to them, muft determine in a great meafure our happiness in this life, and recommend or deprive us of the favour of the Almighty in that which is to come. A wounded fpirit, fays the wife man, who can bear? Certain it is, that the moft excruciating tortures which diftemper can inflict on the body, are by no means comparable to the anguifh of a wounded fpirit. The fufferings of the body arise only from prefent immediate fenfations, whilft the foul embitters herself by a reflection on past misfortunes, and the anticipation of future misery; the diseases of the one may receive comfort from the hand of art, but thofe of the other are often beyond the power of human medicine to remove. Many indeed and great are the misfortunes and forrows which difquiet the mind, and wound the fpirit of poor, mortal, dependent beings. When, after a long feries of affluence and profperity, poverty com. eth like an armed man, and feizeth upon it; when comparifon embittereth, and reflection heightens the calamity, then all our ftrength and all our refolutions are neceffary to ftem the torrent. When the body is weakened and emaciated

E

1

emaciated by pain and fickness; when all the remedies which are adminiftered are vain and ufelefs; when the eye can no longer be delighted with any object, nor the ear pleased with any found, then must the spirit of man exert all its powers to fuftain its infirmities. Amongst the most cruel of all thofe forrows which wound the spirit of man, muft doubtless be the deaths of thofe we love. When the mind hath been long endeared to a particular object, and the affection fettled on it, what can equal the anguifh and difquietude of that mind which is obliged to part from it? This is a wound. which it is not in the power of human nature to heal; in this diftrefs nothing can fupport the fpirit of man, but that which is alone fuperior to it-the spirit of God;-the divine grace, and that alone, can intervene to fave our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling. But the great fource of anguifh, the principal and almost overflowing fountain of human dif quietude, is guilt: this is the great disturber of our peace, and the interrupter of our harmony. The fpirit perhaps may not feel the wound when it is firft given; but the instant that reflection draws forth the arrow, the pain is exquifite. Hiftory hath recorded a cruel tyrant whose table was fpread, in all the pomp of luxury, with all the dainties that the earth, or air, or fea, could produce: but the same history informs us, that whilft the fword hung over his head, he had little relish to the banquet: and thus it is with all the great and wicked of this world; guilt embitters the cup of grandeur,

and