that he is as ready, as he is able, to do every thing that is needful for us, and that, without his permiffion and appointment, no fnare can entrap us, no calamity can crafh us, no evil can approach to hurt us; had we always upon our minds, I fay, a deep and lively sense of these truths, it were impoffible that a concern for future events fhould much difquiet us; we fhould certainly, according to the advice of St. Peter, caft our care upon God, if we in good earnest believed, that he cared for us. I do not fay, that fuch a perfuafion would render us indifferent to all events, and wholly unconcerned at the probable appproach of impending dangrers; but it would in good measure take off the edge and fting of our forebodings; it would compofe and calm us into a patient refignation of ourselves to the divine will and appointment; it would make us hope the beft that there is room to hope in every cafe, and expect the worfe that could happen with tranquillity and evennefs.

By the light of nature we learn, God is infinitely wife and good: And what greater fecurity can we have, than to be under the protection of infinite Wifdom and Goodness? Ought we in reafon to disturb ourselves with an eager defire of avoiding what infinite Goodnefs fhall be pleafed to lay upon us? Do we not know, and feel, that we depend upon God, originally, for what we are, and every moment for his continued prefervation? That in him we" live, move, and have our being?" Acts xvii. 28. And can we doubt, whether he, who gave us the greater gift, being itfelf, will afford us the lefs, whatever is abfolute

ly

ly requifite to our well-being? The argument is our Saviour's" Take no thought" (fays he) "for your life, what ye fhall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye fhall put on: Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Matth. -vi. 25.

The fame plain leffon we learn alfo from the obfervation of God's perpetual care and providence over the feveral ranks of lower and less noble creatures; over the birds of the air, and the beafts of the field, and the very plants that flou-rifh on the face of the earth. "Thefe all wait upon him, who giveth them their meat in due feafon," Pfal. civ. 27. He feeds them within, and he clothes them without, either ufefully, or fplendidly, as feemeth beft to him: His overflowing bounty fupplies them with whatever is fuitable to their natures and wants: "He openeth his hands, and filleth all things living with good" And shall he, who provides thus liberally for anferior beings, neglect any ways to take care of -man, the heir of all his bleffings, and lord of the creation? Thus hath the fame divine Preacher, with admirable fimplicity and force angued in the -fame chapter: Matt. vi. 26. Confider the fowls of the air" (fays he) "for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not mugh >better than they?" "And why take ye thought - for raiment ? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I fay unto you, that Salemon, in all his glory, ,was not arrayed like one of thefe. Where-fore if God fo clothe the grafs of the field, which

to

to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the oven, fhall he not much more clothe you, Oye of little faith?" ver, 28, 29, 39.

But I forbear to enlarge further on this point, that I may have room for thofe confiderations that belong to my

II. Second general Head, under which I proposed to fhew, that an anxious concern for tomorrow, is as deftitute of all pretences to wifdom as goodness.

A cenfure, that will not easily be allowed! fince the looking forward to the probable events of things hath been ever efteemed one of the firft and chiefeft inftances of prudence. It hath fo, and with good reafon; when that fagacity is employed in a proper manner, and within its due bounds; when it gives the mind a calm and clear forefight of the difficulties it is likely to meet with, and leaves it at liberty, under that view, to prepare itfelf every way for the encoun ter: But when it ferves only to difarm us of our courage, and deprive us of our reafon; to create vexations to us, and to multiply dangers; it is then the very folly of folifhnefs, as ma may appear from the enfuing reflexions. For,

1. The talk we fet ourfelves in this cafe, is infinite and endlefs. And after all will not anfwer the defign, for which it is intended. He who makes uncertain may-be's the object of his concern, has taken care to fupply his mind with perpetual matter of difquiet; has pitched upon a fruitful fubject of uneafinefs, which can never be exhaufted. The poffible evils and calamities VOL. IV.

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of life are without number; and in vain therefore should we attempt to reckon them up: Or could we number them, it would be a still vainer attempt, to forecaft, with ourselves particularly how we might avoid them: Which yet is perhaps the only wife reason that can be given for our mufing much upon them. Did the affairs of this world proceed in an even and regular course, fo that we might eafily trace effects from their caufes, and judge furely of the future by the prefent; it might be reasonable and prudent often to employ our thoughts and concern on times and things at a distance, and endeavour to forfee, what were poffible to be forfeen, in order to make the wifeft ufe and advantages of it. But alas! we have no fure clue to guide us in fuch fearches as thefe: the events of life are to the utmost degree uncertain, and depend often on fuch fecret fprings and motions, as lie without the reach of our obfervation; and therefore fall out often fo crofly, and so contrary to common rules, that it is but loft labour to draw long fchemes beforehand, and form nice conjectures upon them. "I returned and faw under the fun" (fays a very experienced obferver)" that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the ftrong, neither yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of fkill; but time and chance happeneth to them all,” Eccl. ix. 11. There is scarce any man, perhaps, who is not fenfible, that the greateft turns that have happened to him in his fortunes, have been owing to fuch lucky hits, and to fuch a fett of confpir ing circumftances, as he could not any ways

have

have forfeen, nor can yet account for: And few there are, 1 believe, who have not, by the fame happy co-incidence of things, without their foreknowledge or care, efcaped great dangers. And what therefore is fo very uncertain, as future events are, ought not to be the objects of any great concern or paffion But were it poffible to guefs at a remote event with fome degree of affurance, yet it is impoffible to know, whether we Qurfelves thall live to fee it. It may happen, as we prefage But, ere it happens, we may be fnatched from the world; and that is all one to us, as if it were never to happen at all. And why then fhould fuch a fhort-liv'd thing as man, lengthen his cares to no purpose? Why should a creature of "to-day take thought for the morrow?"

Either the evil we fear, will come, or it will not: If it will, then the faying of our Lord takes place, "fufficient for the day" (that is, for the day of vifitation) "is the evil thercof:" It is time enough to bear it, when it doth befal us; but it is unpardonable folly to invite it to "come and "torment us before our time;" to add imaginary to certain afflictions, and to fuffer a thing a thoufand times over in our thoughts, because we must once fuffer it in reality. But if it will not come, then our fear of it is our only evil: And furely fuch a fear is "vanity and vexation of fpirit," in the utmost propriety of the expreffion. Anxiety of mind, therefore, makes us feel a thoufand afflictions, which will never overtake us, and multiplies thofe which certainly will. And how can a worse character poffibly be given of any thing, that fets up for prudence? Nay,

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2. It