363 SERMON XXXIV. P'S ALM. XLII, 14, Why art thou fo vexed, O my foul, and why art thou fo difquieted within me? F we look through the whole crea- SERM. tion, and observe the various orders of beings, we shall perceive, to our shame and confufion, that every one feems fatisfied with that share of life and happinefs which God hath appointed for it, man alone excepted, who has the strongest reason to adore the goodness of his Maker, and yet seems leaft fenfible of it. Pleased with nothing that his bounty imparts, unless bleffed with every thing that XXXIV. XXXIV. SERM that his power can beftow; oppreffed beyond measure with real, and even finking under imaginary misfortunes; repining at the decrees of Providence, and refufing to enjoy what he has, through a ridiculous and perpetual defire of what he has not. And yet, as much as the difcontented and ungrateful man complains of the ills of life; great and repeated are the favours, many and folid the bleffings, which God, of his infinite goodness and mercy, every day and every hour, pours down upon us. Man, as the Pfalmift fays, nevertheless walketh in a vain fhadow, and difquietetb himself in vain. Amidst all the bleffings of this life, he is ftill unhappy. Now and then indeed he is forced, as it were in fpite of himself, to lofe fight of this dreary profpect, to turn his thoughts inward, and reflect on his condition, to acknow XXXIV. acknowledge the goodness of God towards SERM. him, to reproach his own heart for his unjuft complaints, and to cry out with David, Why art thou fo vexed, O my foul! The goodness of God doth fo graciously provide for our neceffities, prevent our wants, and turn aside our calamities, that we must be obliged, in spite of all our cafual afflictions, to acknowledge with the Pfalmift, that the queftion in the text is not easy to be refolved, Why art thou fo vexed, O my foul, and why art thou fo difquieted within me? A thousand unthanked for bleffings, a thousand undeferved favours, are conferred on us where one fenfe is defective, another is more excellent; where one bleffing is withheld from us, it is generally supplied by another no lefs defirable. Our lives indeed are not to be paffed over without ever tasting the cup of sorrow; but |