The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

cfous ?'*The church and people of God may be longin diftrefs alfo. Thws the Ifraeiites were for a longtime borne down and oppreffed in Egypt. " They{ighed by reafon of the bondage, and they cried ; andtheir cry came up unto God, by reafon of the bondage."So alio the fame people, in their long captivity,« By the riversof Babylon, (fay they) there wefat down, yea, we wept w2ien we remembered Zion.We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midfcthereof." Why a fober and feemingly virtuous individualis fometimes long in paia or in adverfity, orwhy in war, for inltance, thofe who contend for theintereft of liberty, of virtue, of the public good, ofthe human fpecies, are often i*iifuccefsful, is amongthefe fecret things which belong unto God. WhyCaefar was.vi(£toriou3 at Pharfalia; why Oclavlus andAntony prevailed againft Caffius and the amiabljBrutus, on the plains of Philippi •, why God, in hisprovidence, hath fuiYered the Mahometans to enthralfofair aud-fo great a part of the ancient world j whythe popilh powers have lo long and 10 much fucceededin trampling down the proteilants, and checkin.^the progrefs of the reformation ; thefe, and manythings of the like kind, are the myflerious ways otHeaven ; " the ways of that God, who '^^iveth netaccount of any of his mattetsJ^ In private life, ^* the.tabernacles of robbers profper ;" and in public, thofjfocieties or nations v/hich to us feem to be the nioii:fober, and innocent, and deferving, are. diLippoiiitedof fuccefs, and are made to groan under a heavy burden,of diftrefi.But, my brethi-en, we are perhaps very often andvery widely miftaken in the eftimate we make of the 'comparative merit of individuals or of focietie-s; .'.Blo/t^certainly the ways of God are right, and religion; if*It reftrain its votaries from daring crimes Vvhich might:^levate them at once to worldly greatnefs, is the way.to. pafi. through the wo,rId with fecurity and eafe ^