fore whofe judgment-feat I muft finally appear, and receive the things done in my body, whether they are good, or whether they are bad. Can any one doubt, but the most inconfiderate of men sometimes fit down coolly, and make some such plain reflections as these upon their state and condition?or that, after they have made them, can one imagine they lofe all effect?—As little appearance as there is of religion in the world, there is a great deal of its influence felt in its affairs-nor can one fo root out the principles of it, but, like nature, they will return again, and give checks and interruptions to guilty purfuits. There are seasons when the thoughts of a juft GOD overlooking, and the terror of an after-reckoning, has made the most determined tremble, and ftop fhort in the execution of a wicked purpofe; and if we conceive that the worst of men lay some restraint upon themselves from the weight of this principle, what fhall we think of the good and virtuous part of the world, who live under the perpetual influence of it, who facrifice their appetites and paffions from a confcience of their duty to God; and confider him as the object to whom they have dedicated their fervice, and make that the first principle, and ultimate end of all their actions? How many real and unaffected inftances there are in the world of men thus governed, will not concern us so much to enquire, as to take care that we are of the number : which may God grant for the fake of Jefus Chrift. Amen. SERMON VIII. Time and Chance. ECCLESIASTES IX. II. I returned and faw under the fun, that the race is not to the fwift, -nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wife, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all. WHEN a man cafts a look upon this melancholy description of the world, and fees, contrary to all his gueffes and expectations, what different fates attend the lives of men, how oft it happens in the world, that there is not even bread to the wife, nor riches to men of understanding, &c.he is apt to conclude with a figh upon it,-in the words,-though not in the sense of the wife man, that time and chance happeneth to them all.That time and chance,apt feasons and fit conjunctures have the greatest fway, in the turns and difpofals of men's fortunes : and that, as these lucky hits (as they are called) happen to be for, or against a man, they either open the way to his advancement against all obstacles,or block it up against all helps and attempts ;-that, as the text intimates, neither wifdom, nor understanding, nor skill, shall be able to furmount them. However widely we may differ in our reafonings upon this observation of Solomon's, the authority of the observation is ftrong beyond doubt, and the evidence given of it in all ages fo alternately confirmed by examples and complaints, as to leave the fact itfelf unquestionable,— -That things are carried on in this world fometimes fo contrary to all our reasonings, and the seeming probabilities of fuccefs,-that even the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,-nay, what is ftranger ftill-nor yet bread to the wife, who should least stand in want of it, nor yet riches to men of understanding, who you would think best qualified to acquire them,nor yet favour to men of skill, whose merit and pretences bid the fairest for it, but that there are fome fecret and unfeen workings in human affairs, which baffle all our endeavours, and turn afide the course of things in fuch a manner,- -that the most likely causes disappoint and fail of producing for us the effect which we wished and naturally expected from them. You will fee a man, of whom, was you to form a conjecture from the appearances of things in his fa vour, you would fay was fetting out in the world, with the fairest prospect of making his fortune in it; -with all the advantages of birth to recommend him, of perfonal merit to speak for him-and of friends to help and pufh him forwards: you will behold him, notwithstanding this, disappointed in every effect you might naturally have looked for, from them; every step he takes towards his advancement, fomething invifible shall pull him back, fome unforeVol. V. E feen obftacle shall rife up perpetually in his way, and keep him there.In every application he makes-fome untoward circumftance shall blaft it,-He shall rife early, late take reft,and eat the bread of carefulness, yet some happier man fhall ftill rife up, and ever step in before him and leave him ftruggling, to the end of his life, in the very fame place in which he first began it. The history of a second, shall in all refpects be the contraft to this. He fhall come into the world with the most unpromifing appearance,-shall fet forwards without fortune, without friends, without talents to procure him either the one or the other. Neverthelefs, you will fee this clouded profpect brighten up infenfibly, unaccountably before him; every thing prefented in his way fhall turn out beyond his expectations ;—in fpite of that chain of unfurmountable difficulties which firft threatened him,-time and chance hall open him a way ;- a feries of fuccefsful occurrences fhall lead him by the hand to the fummit of honour and fortune; and, in a word, without giving him the pains of thinking, or the credit of projecting it, fhall place him in safe poffeffion of all that ambition could wish for. The hiftories of the lives and fortunes of men are full of inftances of this nature,- -where favourable times and lucky accidents have done for them, whạt wisdom or fkill could not; and there is fcarce any one who has lived long in the world, who, upon boking backwards, will not discover such a mixture of thefe in the many fuccefsful turns which have happened in his life, as to leave him very little rea fon to difpute against the fact, and, I fhould hope, as little upon the conclufions to be drawn from it. Some, indeed, from a fuperficial view of this representation of things, have atheistically inferred,that because there was fo much of lottery in this life and mere cafuality feemed to have fuch a share in the difpofal of our affairs,-that the providence of GOD flood neuter and unconcerned in there several workings, leaving them to the mercy of time and chance to be furthered or disappointed as fuch blind agents directed. Whereas in truth the very oppofite conclufion follows. For confider,-if a fuperior intelligent Power did not sometimes crofs and over-rule events in this world, then our policies and defigns in it would always anfwer according to the wisdom and ftratagem in which they were laid, and every caufe, in the courfe of things would produce its natural effect, without variation. Now as this is not the cafe, it neceffarily follows from Solomon's reafoning, that, if the race is not to the fwift, if knowledge and learning do not always fecure men from want,-nor care and industry always make men rich, -nor art and skill infallibly make men high in the world; that there is fome other cause which mingles itself in human affairs, and governs and turns them as it pleases; which cause can be no other than the First Cause of all things, and the fecret and overruling providence of that Almighty GoD, who though his dwelling is fo high, yet he humbleth him. felf to behold the things that are done in earth, raising up the poor out of the duft, and lifting the beggar from the dunghill, and, contrary to all hopes, putting |