been his support through life, will not fail to strengthen him in the agonies of nature and the painful hour of death.

Such then, upon a general view, are the dif ferent situations of the righteous and the wicked; such their respective claims to the happiness of the present life! But I mean not to stop here; I will carry my enquiry still farther, and endeavour to show, that in every situation, both in prosperity and adversity, godliness is the greatest gain, and the good man has the fairest title to those blessings upon which the happiness of life depends.

And first, in comparing together the situation of the righteous and the wicked, with regard to the enjoyment of the blessings of prosperity, I will begin with health, the great cordial of life, and foundation of every other blessing: And here, should I ask, who has the greatest probability of enjoying this inestimable blessing, the man who moderates his appetites, who keeps his passions in subjection to his reason, and is never ruffled by the violence of rage or resentment; or he, who is a slave to lust and intemperance; I believe no one here present would be at a loss what answer to return. For look round the world, and examine the common effects of a

sinful

sinful life upon the body: whence proceed the shaking hand and rheumy eye, the haggard look, the tottering limbs and premature old age, with all their ghastly train of evils and misfortunes, which too often descend even to a man's innocent posterity? Come they not from drunkenness and intemperance, from the circle of folly, from enervating pleasures and irregular hours, those slow but never-failing destroyers of the strongest constitution? This the wise king of Israel long ago observed and declared to the sons of men in these expressive words: "who "hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath

babbling, who hath wounds without cause, "who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry

long at the wine, they that go to seek mixt "wine." So that he had just reason for giving his son this important lesson of advice;

my

son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days "and long life shall they add unto thee."

Nor, secondly, hath the righteous man less advantage over the wicked with regard to theacquisition of riches and the enjoyment of a good reputation. For though the wicked may sometimes prosper and have riches in possession; and though the righteous may, for wise reasons, be afflicted with poverty and disgrace; yet surely

no

no one can doubt, but that integrity of heart and uprightness of dealing are in general the surest means of advancing a man's fortune and reputation in the world. For, though fraud, injustice, and rotten hypocrisy may succeed long, they will not always; men are naturally led by their own interests to find out and detect them ; and where they are once detected, to expose and abhor them: so that there is not a truer maxim in the world than that old, though too often neglected proverb, "that honesty is the best "policy." And indeed there cannot be a stronger testimony than that which the heaven-inspired Psalmist bears to this point in various places; "what man is he that feareth the Lord: his soul "shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit "the earth. O fear the Lord; for there is no "want to them that fear him: the young lions "do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek "the Lord shall not want any good thing. Evil "doers shall be cut off; but those that wait

upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Nay, the same royal Psalmist even tells us, that this blessing of God upon the labours of the righteous shall extend to his latest posterity: "I have been young," says he, "and now am "old," that is, I have long had opportunities. of observing God's dealings with mankind, and I am now able to declare from my own know

ledge,

1

ledge, "that I never saw the righteous forsaken, "nor his seed begging their bread."

But how different and how terrible a fate does another inspired writer pronounce upon the wicked and his posterity; which he introduces with this solemn preface! "I will teach you by "the hand of God; that which is with the "Almighty will I not conceal. This is the

portion of a wicked man with God, and the "heritage of oppressors, which they shall re"ceive of the Almighty: If his children be

66

multiplied, it is for the sword; and his off"spring shall not be satisfied with bread: those "that remain of him shall be buried in death, "and his widows shall not weep: Though he "heap up silver as the dust, and prepare rai"ment as the clay; he may prepare it, but the

66

just shall put it on, and the innocent shall "divide the silver: his strength shall be hunger," bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his "side it shall devour the strength of his skin; "even the first-born of death shall devour his "strength his remembrance shall perish from

the earth, and he shall have no name in the "streets he shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings they that come after him shall be

:

"astonished at his day, as they that went before

were

were affrighted: surely such are the dwellings "of the wicked, and this is the place of him "that feareth not God."

Thus we see then, that in prosperity the righteous man hath every advantage over the wicked, which health and reputation, which the enjoyment of present fortune and the hope of leaving behind him a flourishing and happy posterity, can possibly give. And if we shift the scene, and compare together the righteous and the wicked in the day of adversity, we shall find the superiority of the righteous still more noble and apparent. If, in this vale of tears, misfortunes surround him, he knows that afflic tions spring not from the dust, but are directed by the hands of an almighty Father, for the wise and gracious purposes of correction, or for a trial of his faith and constancy; and therefore patiently and chearfully bears them. If sickness invades him, he has no guilty fears and apprehensions, to increase his torments and double his pain, and therefore submissively waits to glorify God, whether it be by life or by death. And when that last and awful moment approaches, which shall curtain of mortality from before his with the shield of faith, and having on the breast plate of righteousness, he can safely bid defiance

draw the

eyes,

armed

to