256 The Happinefs of the Righteous S E R M. There was no more to be found among the XI. /ews, the mighty man, and the man of war, `"".`) the judge and the prophet, . the prudent and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the ho- nourable man, the counfèllor, the cunning artificer, and the cloquent orator. What could be expected but immediate ruin to fuch a country ? And the prophet attributes it to the jufi providence of God punifhing that degenerate people for their iniquities ; for, fays he, verle 8, q. ferufalem is ruined, and fudah is fallen, becaufe their tongue and their doings are againfl the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory ; the Phew of their coun- tenance doth witn fs again fl them, and they declare their fin as Sodom. But notwithftanding all this evil, and indeed whatever confufion may happen at any time in the world, what- ever diftrefs may come upon particular men, or any number of them, the cafe of man- kind is not abfolutely and univerfally un- happy : It (hall be well with fome, and the difference of mens conditions principally de- pends on their moral characters. As this is clearly infinuated in what I already ob- ferved from the prophet's account of the mifery of the yews, and the ruin of their nation by their crimes, it is exprefsly and very
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