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feveral turnings and windings of the heart, and detect it through all the fhapes and appearances which it puts on.

SERMON IV. P. 72.

HOUSE OF MOURNING.

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ET us go into the house of mourning, made fo by fuch afflictions as have been brought on, merely by the common trofs accidents and difafters to which our condition is expofed,-where, perhaps, the aged parents fit broken-hearted, pierced to their fouls with the folly and indifcretion of a thankless child- the child of their prayers, in whom all their hopes and expectations centered :—perhaps a more affecting scene-a virtuous family lying pinched with want, where the unfortunate fupport of it, having long ftruggled with a train of misfortunes, and bravely fought up against them,is now piteously borne down at the last-overwhelmed with a cruel blow which no forecaft or frugality could have prevented. O God! look upon his afflictions-Behold him diftracted with many forrows, furrounded with the tender pledges of his love, and the partner of his cares-without bread to give them, unable, from the remembrance of better days, to dig;-to beg, afhamed.

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When we enter into the house of mourning fuch as this it is impoffible to infult the unfortunate even with an improper look-Under whatever levity and diffipation of heart, fuch objects catch our eyes,they catch likewife our attentions, collect and call home our, fcattered thoughts, and exercise them with wisdom. A tranfient fcene of diftrefs, fuch as is here sketched, how foon does it furnish materials to fet the mind at work! how neceffarily does it engage it to the confideration of the miferies and misfortunes, the dangers and calamities to which the life of man is fubject! By holding up fuch a glass before it, it forces the mind to fee and reflect upon the vanitythe perishing condition, and uncertain tenure of every thing in this world. From reflections of this ferious caft, how infenfibly do the thoughts carry us farther and from confidering what we are-what kind of world we live in, and what evils befal us in it, how naturally do they fet us to look forwards at what poffibly we fhall be,- for what kind of world we are intended- -what evils may befal us there and what provifions we should make against them here, whilft we have time and opportunity! If these leffons are fo infeparable from the house of mourning here fuppofed-we shall find it a still more inftructive school cf wisdom when we take a view of the place in that more affecting light in which the wife man seems to confine it in the text; in which, by the house of mourning, I believe he means that particular scene of forrow, where there is lamenta

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tion and mourning for the dead. Turn hither, I befeech you, for a moment. Behold a dead man ready to be carried out, the only fon of his mother, and the a widow! Perhaps a more affecting fpectacle, a kind and indulgent father of a numerous family, lies breathlefs-fnatched away in the ftrength of his agetorn in an evil hour from his children and the bofom of a difconfolate wife! Behold much people of the city gathered together to mix their tears, with settled forrow in their looks, going heavily along to the houfe of mourning, to perform the last melancholy office, which, when the debt of nature is paid, we are called upon to pay each other! If this fad occafion which leads him there, has not done it already, take notice to what a ferious and devout frame of mind every man is reduced, the moment he enters this gate of affliction. The busy and fluttering spirits which in the houfe of mirth were wont to transport him from one diverting object to another-fee how they are fallen! how peaceably they are laid! In this gloomy manfion full of fhades and uncomfortable damps to feize the foul,-fee, the light and easy heart, which never knew what it was to think before, how penfive it is now, how foft, how fufceptible, how full of religious impreffions, how deeply it is fmitten with a sense and with a love of virtue ! Could we, in this crifis, whilft the empire of reafon and religion lafts, and the heart is thus exercifed with wifdom, and bufied with heavenly contemplations--could, we fee it naked as it is-stripped of its paffions, un

fpotted by the world, and regardless of its pleasures-we might then fafely reft our caufe upon this fingle evidence, and appeal to the most fenfual, whether Solomon has not made a just determination here in favour of the houfe of mourning? not for its own fake, but as it is fruitful in virtue, and becomes the occafion of fo much good. Without this end, forrow, I own, has no ufe but to fhorten a man's days-nor can gravity, with all its ftudied folemnity of look and carriage, serve any end but to make one half of the world merry, and impose upon the other,

SERM. II. P. 33.

FRAILTY.

THE beft of men appear fometimes to be strange compounds of contradictory qualities; and, were the accidental oversights and folly of the wifest man, the failings and imperfections of a religious man, the hafty acts and paffionate words of a meek man; were they to rise up in judgment against them, -and an ill-natured judge be suffered to mark in this manner, what has been done amifs-what character fo unexceptionable as to be able to ftand before him?

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It is

INSENSIBILITY.

is the fate of mankind, too often, to seem infens fible of what they may enjoy at the easiest rate.

SERM. XLII, P. 126.

UNCERTAINTY.

HERE is no condition in life so fixed and per

THERE

manent as to be out of danger, or the reach of change and we all may depend upon it, that we fhall take our turns of wanting and defiring. By how many unforeseen caufes may riches take wing!-The crowns of princes may be fhaken, and the greatest that ever 'awed the world have experienced what the turn of the wheel can do. That which hath happened to one man, may befal another; and, therefore, that excellent rule of our Saviour's ought to govern us in all our actions,-Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you alfo to them likewife.-Time and chance happen to all; and the most affluent may be ftript of all, and find his worldly comfarts like so many withered leaves dropping from him.

SERM. XLI. P. 209.

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