to be, and what they are ; and that all, without exception, are " living to themselves, and not unto their God." The different orders of men are, in his eyes, only like different parts of one great army; differently habited indeed, and difierently em- ployed ; some under the very garb of friends, whilst others are arrayed as open and determined foes : but all are acting, in their respective places, for the establishment of Satan's king- dom, rather than of Christ's. This, I say, the godly man sees, in perfect correspondence with what St. Paul has declared : " There is none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that understandeth ; there is none that seeketh after God : they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable : there is none that doeth good, no, not one^"]
2. The real happiness of man —
[The world at large conceive of this as consisting in tem- poral enjoyment. Pleasure, riches, honour, are looked upon as the great sources from whence happiness must flow : and where these are not eagerly coveted, there is something of a temporal nature substituted in their place : some fond conceit, or a mere state of carnal ease, devoid either of any strong emotions, whether of pain or pleasure. But the godly man knows that there is no happiness but in God — in a sense of his favour, in a performance of his will, in a prospect of his glory. There is in his views, and those of an ungodly man, a most perfect contrast with respect to this matter; each coveting what the other despises, and each regarding as contemptible what the other desires. Our blessed Lord's words will put this
matter in the clearest light^ The rich, the gay, the
honoured, are by the one regarded with admiration and envy ; by the other, with pity and compassion. The poor weeping and persecuted saint, on the contrary, is by the one despised ; whilst the other affects the experience of such an one with the fondest delight. In a word, whilst to the inquiry, " Who will shew us any good?" the ungodly man says, ' Give me a sup- ply of corn, and wine, and oil;' the godly man pours out his soul in that petition of the Psalmist, " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me*^."]
3. The proper tendency of all that God is doing in the world —
[God is seen both in his word and works ; and both in the one and in the other does he appear, to an ungodly world, to obstruct, rather than to advance, the happiness of his crea- tures. The word is too strict in its requirements to suit our fallen state ; and the dispensations of his Providence are calculated only to embitter life by continual troubles or
a Rom. iii. 10—12. i' See Luke vi. 20—26. = Ps. iv. 6.