The Favour of God obtained by Wifdom. 127 to the dignity of a man ? So in the fame fpe- S E R M. cies, as there is wifely appointed an inequa- V. lity, we need go no farther than the fame `°Y1 fovereign freedom of providence as the caufe of it, without any confideration of merit in the creatures. In a great houfe, as the apoftle faith, 2 Tina. Í. 20. There are ,veffels of gold and fiver, a fo of wood and earth; fame to honour, and fome to difhanour. But, indeed, the belt men have fin enough to juftify all the feverity they meet with. If the moral attributes of God require that a very important diftin &ion fhould be made between bad and good men, which laft cha- rader really means no more than the fincere- ly though imperfe&ly religious, it is reafon- able to expert there fhould be a difference between the latter and the perfectly inno- cent; and fnce there is not a juft man that liveth upon the earth and finneth not, the providence of God is fufficiently vindicated in appointing to all men vexation, and tra- vel, and grief ,under the fun ; which, how- ever, when the whole of our exiftence and our molt important interefts are taken into confideration, may well be called a light of lition, and but for a moment. Here it is that God vifiteth the faults of his children with
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