ference; though in the fight of the world the end of both was taken to be mifery. The fame holds true with respect to private perfons: God can correct them without breaking in upon the ordinary course of his providence. If a man wants to be bowed down by afflictions, fevers and agues, and all the tribe of diftempers, ftand ready to obey the order of Providence: but there is no mark to know a fever fo fent from another; there is no appearance of the execution of judgment upon a perfon fo vifited; the phyfic may be fent, because it is wanted, but the hand that adminifters it does not appear.

Thus much is faid to prevent mistakes: but the forementioned reasons remain ftill in force against the expectations, which men are too apt to raise, of some immediate recompence to be bestowed on them by the interpofition of Providence upon account of their virtue and goodness.

Let us now proceed to confider what experience teaches in this cafe. That good and evil are not dispensed in this life in proportion to the merits of men, appears fo plainly to all men of fenfe and reason, that the fact, I think, has never been difputed. The world has never been without complaints upon this head. The righteous in all times have lamented their cafe; their hearts have been even ready to fail under the oppreffion of the ungodly. On the other fide, the wicked, seeing their own profperity, have been hardened, and grown fecure in their iniquity, upon the foolish prefumption, that God regarded not them, nor their doings. To abate these presumptions on one hand, to

filence the fears and clamours on the other, has found work for good and wife men in all ages; yet none of them called in queftion the truth of the cafe, though all condemned the perverse use made on all fides of this administration of Providence. Because fentente, fays the Preacher, against an evil work is not executed fpeedily, therefore the heart of the fons of men is fully fet in them to do evil. That the cafe was fo, he acknowledges: For all this I confidered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wife, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that facrificeth, and to him that facrificeth not: as is the good, fo is the finner; and he that fweareth, as he that feareth an oath. But this is indeed a very plain thing, and needs not to be infifted on; we may leave it to every man to judge for himself by what he can observe in the world, and he will foon find, that in fact God has not made this a place for diftributing rewards or punishments, but that one event happeneth alike to all.

Laftly, Let us inquire how far this experience is confirmed by what the Scripture teaches us to expect.

There are some paffages of holy writ, which at first hearing, and before they are duly weighed, may feem to promise more to the righteous in this life than we have been able to find either reafon or experience to juftify. Let us hear the Pfalmift: I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not feen the righteous for

faken, nor his feed begging bread. How! his fon Solomon saw a different scene in his days; then there were just men unto whom it happened according to the work of the wicked. Again, there were wicked men to whom it happened according to the work of the righteous. In the days of our Saviour and his Apoftles, there were fome righteous in Ifrael who begged their bread by the way-fide, and at the doors of the temple. Among these we find some, who had faith enough in the Son of God to be made whole of their infirmities: an evidence, I think, that they were not in a worse condition than others, because they were worse men. The truth is, that this paffage in the Pfalms relates not to our present purpose; it defcribes a general cafe of providence over good men in providing them the neceffaries of life, whilft they endeavour to serve God, but of a juft reward for them in this world it says nothing: The feed of the righteous, says the Pfalmift, Shall not beg their bread. Take it literally, and make the most of it, it will bear no resemblance to a juft reward for their goodness: for, if the rightcous and the wicked were to be diftinguished in this life by temporal profperity and adverfity, we might expect to hear of much better promises to the good than this, That their feed fhould not beg their bread; we might expect to hear of crowns and fceptres to be given them: but of this we hear nothing. As to the providential care of God over the righteous in fupplying their natural wants, our Saviour has given us great reafon to expect it: Seek ye firft, fays he, the kingdom of God, and his righteoufness, and all these things fhall be added unto you. Upon

whofe authority likewife St. Paul tells us, that godlinefs has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Nay, farther, there is great reason to think, that God often bleffes the honest endeavours of the virtuous in this world: but then there is no appearance that the rules of juftice are at all concerned in fuch difpenfations; for the righteous often fuffer, nay, under the Gospel they are called to fuffer; for which reafon the invitation to us is, To take up our cross, and follow Chrift. But, to come to the point of rewards and punishments, the parable of the tares in the thirteenth of St. Matthew is decifive. The meaning of which parable our Saviour has expounded: it represents to us the state of the world, in which the good and bad flourish together; and though men cease not to call upon God for a diftinction to be made between them, yet he, who feeth not as man fees, has otherwife determined. In this world he permits them to flourish and live together; but the time is coming, that great harveft of the world is approaching, when a full diftinction fhall be made; when the wicked shall be caft into a furnace of fire, and the rightcous shine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father.

Thus, you fee, reason, experience, and scripture, all confenting to teach us not to look for the reward of our labour in this world, but to wait with patience God's appointed time, when the great Judge of the world will do righteoufly, and recompenfe to every man the things which he has done.

Let us look back then to the text, and take from thence the proper exhortation arifing from this con

clufion; Since we plainly fee that this world is no place of rewards and punishments, let us not be fo foolish as to look for our reward here, and be difcouraged if we receive it not. If we raise in ourfelves fuch idle expectations, and imagine that to be good is a certain way to be rich, great, or prosperous, we lay a foundation for great difappointments, and shall be in danger of growing fick of our work, when our hopes forfake us. But if we look to the appointed time of reward, and give ourselves up contentedly to the providence of God in this world, and to that lot, be it what it will, which he has provided for us, our hopes will never fail; we shall be steadfast and unmoveable, knowing that our labour, however difficult here, fhall not be in vain in the Lord: for in due feafon we fhall reap, if we faint not.