is that the best of men are yet subject to wants, diseases, and death ; so that how holy soever they may be, they must yet partake of the bitter consequences of sin. But the advantages enjoyed by the godly over all the rest of mankind are exceeding great.
First, The godly are delivered from the dominion of evil passions, which agitate all the rest of mankind. — See what the state of the world is by reason of pride, envy, malice, wrath, revenge : see what evils abound by reason of covetousness, ambition, lewdness, and selfishness, in ten thousand forms : mark the jealousies of rival kingdoms ; the contentions in smaller societies ; the feuds in families ; and the workings of evil tempers in individuals : see how almost every human being- has his life embittered by something inflicted by others, or brooding in his own bosom : and then say, Whether he has not the advantage, who has learned to " mortify his earthly members," and to " crucify his flesh with its affections and lusts ?"
Next, The godly are enabled to live under the influence of love : — and need I say what a source of comfort that is ? Read the description of love as set forth in the 13th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, and judge, whether the exercise of such dispositions be not conducive to the hap- piness of the soul.
Again ; The godly are freed from numberless temptations, into which the ungodly rush without restraint. — The ungodly, by their intercourse with each other, are walking, either in the midst of thorns and briers, where they constantly receive or inflict some painful wound ; or, if their path be more pleasant, they only countenance each other in ways, which bring guilt upon their souls, and involve each other in irremediable ruin. The godly, on the contrary, by keeping at a distance from such snares, avoid the evils connected with them ; and by their mutual intercourse promote the edification of each other in faith and love, in peace and holiness.
Add to all this, The godly enjoy peace zvith God, and a blessed prospect beyond the grave. — Oh! who can estimate this advantage ? Who can tell what joy a sense of God's pardoning love brings into the soul ? Who can declare what the believer feels in his secret walk with God ; in pouring out his soul before him, in apprehending and pleading God's gracious pro- mises, in surveying the fulness of righteousness and grace which is treasured up for him in Christ Jesus, in contemplating every event as ordered for his spiritual and eternal good, and in looking forward to an eternity of bliss in heaven ? Who, I say, can calculate these advantages, which are the exclusive portion of the godly ?
If it be said, that this description of the believer's advantages