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On the Advantages of Affliction.

Being a SERMON occafioned by the Death of Mr. Burton, of Montpelier-Row, in Twickenham.

Preached in Twickenham-Chapel, on Midlent Sunday, 1742; and published at the Request of the Audience.

Pfalm LXXVII. 3.

When I am in Heaviness, I will think upon God.

HE whole Pfalm is written with SERM. II. a very beautiful Spirit of Poetry; and if we confider it merely as an human Compofition, may justly challenge our highest Admiration. In the former Part, the Pfalmift vents an Heart overcharged with Grief, and writes with the deepest Emotions of Sorrow. In the Day VOL. II.

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SERM. II of my Trouble 1 fought the Lord, my Sore ran in the Night and ceafed not, my Soul refufed to be comforted. And again, at the feventh Verfe, Will the Lord abfent himself for ever, and will be be no more favourable? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in Anger shut up his tender Mercies? Thus does he discharge the Fulness of his Soul; till, by a very natural, and yet very surprising Tranfition, from a Reherfal of his own Woes, he paffes on to celebrate the marvellous Acts of God. For, to relieve himself under the Preffure of his present Afflictions, he has Recourse to the former Mercies, which God had vouchfafed to the Ifraelites. Surely I will remember thy Wonders of old. This ushers in those fublime Flights of Poetry, which are peculiar to the Genius of the Eaftern Nations. The Waters faw Thee, O God the Waters faw Thee: They were afraid: The Depths alfo were troubled, &c. Then, to represent the Unfearchableness of God, he compares him, by a very beautiful Allufion, to a Being walking upon the Waters, the Traces of whofe Feet could not therefore be discovered: Thy Way is in the Sea, and thy Paths in the great Waters, and thy Footsteps are not known.

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If we should fet afide the Sanction of SERM. JI. divine Authority, which ftamps an additional Value upon the Pfalm; yet it could. not fail to affect every Reader of a refined Taste. And when we either confider those melting Strains, in which he defcribes his own Woes; or that exalted Vein, in which he represents the Majefty of God; we shall be at a Lofs, whether to admire more the Greatness of that Genius, which could acquit itself with fo mafterly an Hand in both the pathetic and fublime Way of Writing; or the Juftness of that Judgment, which could with fo dexterous an Addrefs, with so easy, and I had almost said, so natural an Art, glide from the one to the other.

The Author of the Pfalm had a Mind deeply tinctured with Piety. When his Heart was in Heaviness, he thought upon God: But to think on him then with Pleafure, he must have set God constantly before him in the fmooth Seafons of Life. This will lead me to fhew,

Ift, The Happiness and Reasonableness of turning our Thoughts to God in gene

ral.

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IIdly,

SERM. II.

IIdly, The peculiar Advantages of Affliction, to bring us to a juft Sense of God, and our Duty.

Ift, I am to fhew the Happiness and Reasonableness of turning our Thoughts to God in general.

To repair to God only, when under Affiction, is to use Him as fome conceited Philofophers have done, who never have Recourse to Him, and take Him into their Schemes, but when they are in Distress, when they meet with fome Difficulty, which they cannot plaufibly account for, or get over, without calling Him in to their Aid.

Befides, never is there more Occafion for Good-Humour, Chearfulness, and an undisturbed Serenity of Mind, than when we form our religious Notices. For, though the brightest Ideas of the Deity may be retained and cherished under any Indifpofition of Mind or Body; yet, to retain and cherish them at that Juncture, they must be imprinted in indelible Characters on the Soul, when it was in an eafy Situation : Otherwife, Religion will not brighten up our Minds, and lighten the Darkness of

them;

them; our Minds will darken and difco- SERM. II. lour Religion. And what has given fome People a Distaste for it, is; that having never applied themselves feriously to it, but when they were in a dull, joyless, fullen Humour, which reprefented every Thing they were converfant about to be dull and joyless; the Notions of Religion, and of a joyless State, have been, however unduly connected, ever after infeparable. By meditating on God only, or even chiefly, in a melancholy Hour, you will affociate the Idea of Gloominefs and Horror with that of Religion: You will view Him, just as He was worshipped in old Gothic Buildings, in a dim folemn Light, which fheds a penfive Gloom over, and faddens every Object. You will not ferve Him with that Gladness, which he requires: For God loveth a chearful Worfhipper, as well as a chearful Giver. But you will repair

with Reluctance and Conftraint to that Service, which is perfect Freedom.

We are indigent Creatures, infufficient of ourselves for our own Happiness, and therefore ever feeking it fomewhere elfe. But where we fhall effectually feek for it, is the Question. Unless the Thoughtful

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