Every thing

child he knows not what he wants. distresses, nothing can please him. He never feels the joys of religion-the satisfaction of a good conscience, or the tranquillity of a peaceful mind, which alone can sooth the anxiety of misfortune, or ease the bed of sickness. Now he suffers that keen distress, which he never pitied in others-that want of assistance himself, which he never administered to them.

Thus wretched in himself, you see him in a still more disagreeable light when he mixes with others. See him when you will, he is either finding fault, or making complaint. But follow him home, and you will there find his ill-humours breaking out with double force. Miserable are all, who are thus unhappily connected with him. Instead of the mild, sweet smile of suffering piety, the softened look of tenderness, with which every offer to do him service should be received; he spurns the hand that sooths him. The kindest offers to serve him, are received

like injuries. The tenderness of relations,

the consolation of friends, instead of asswaging his ill-humours, serve only to excite them. Peevish and fretful, he distributes his own sufferings in large proportions upon his servants, dependants, and and near connections.

VOL. I.

P

And

And yet though you would imagine he was wholly out of love with life, and wished for nothing more, than to leave it with disgust, you are mistaken. He seems fonder of it, at least more loth to leave it, than the man who enjoys it most. His attachment to the expiring moments of life, is most happily expressed in the text; he not only drinks the dregs of the cup; but he keeps them to his mouth as long as he can-he sucks them out.-The most horrible sight which the world can furnish, is that of a wicked wretch on the edge of eternity; when all hope of life is over, and he has just sensibility enough to see before him the gulph of despair.Let us turn aside from a spectacle, which makes the blood run cold; and see as we proposed thirdly, how the Godly man drinks of the Lord's cup.

As the ungodly man drinks the dregs, the finer parts of the liquor are of course the portion of the Godly man. In the first place he expects to find a degree of bitterness in his cup. He sees the propriety of it, and fully acknowledges the great usefulness of this mixture of good and evil. If the potion were perfectly palatable, he fears he might drink to excess. If all things

went

went smooth and easy with him-if, in the current of life, no rubs, no stoppages, no difficulties ever occurred, what would be the consequence? He might be secure in the midst of danger. Though mortal, he might never think of mortality.

The difficulties of life-the frequent checks he meets with, are what put him continually on his guard. Disappointment corrects his passions; and shews him that he is not to imagine he must have things here as he pleases; but must expect his portion of evil. He takes the world therefore for what it is, and does not fix his happiness upon it.

All this in the sincerity of his heart, he acknowledges, and approves; and thus far even' his reason carries him. But when he opens the word of God, he finds the various dispensations of heaven placed in a still juster light. He finds' this world represented in the gospel as a state of trial, preparatory to future happiness; and the good and evil of life, as the means of this trial; contributing equally to exercise and prove his religion.

Many are the virtues which prosperity gives him room to exercise; and which he could not exercise amidst the evils of life; and many are the virtues, which are the attendants of affliction; and

some view of happiness before him, "No "the time," (he suggests to himself,) "I must guard my heart with double "Now is the time, when insolence, and

.

tonness, and pride, the attendants of a દ perous hour, are most liable to corrupt "Let prosperity soften my heart, instea "hardening it. Let me be humble, and "and condescending, and obliging to all. I "midst of my own enjoyments, let my Let me feel the misery of ot

66

expand.

" and turn my plenty, to the relief of thei "cessity."

Again, when it pleases heaven to mix bitter ingredients in his cup, still he has the sense of acting under the will of God.

he cries, "is the time, when I am to ex

patience and resignation. Now my re "is put to the test. Shall I receive go "the hand of the Lord, and not receive "-Gracious God! grant that I may im

"make my sufferings through Jesus Christ, "the means of purifying my affections. Let "me for his sake bear a trifling part of what he "bore for me; and let me keep that great pat"tern of suffering resignation always before my eyes."

Thus the Godly man drinks of the Lord's cup, and his draught, whether sweet or bitter, is wholesome to him. This blessed resignation of his own will in all instances to the will of God, regulates his affections-corrects his thoughtsand draws him back to the sober recollection of his station here; by checking each idea as it arises, of depending on worldly happiness. And. yet though his pious resignation lessens the world in his eye, it is so far from interfering with his worldly happiness, that it sheds the sunshine of cheerfulness continually in his breast.-But most of all, when the world sinks under him, he feels its blessed effects. While life is extinguishing, it is a cordial to pain; and gives tranquillity to death.

LET us then, after the Godly man's example, take the Lord's cup with all its ingredients fullmixed, into our hands. Let us always remember whose cup it is, and who pours it out. It is the