of mind which enabled him to behave well in the days of his prosperity, should equally enable him to behave well in the days of his adversity :-that it was the property only of weak and base spirits, who were insolent in the one, to be dejected and overthrown by the other; whereas great and generous souls were at all times calm and equal-As they enjoyed the advantages of life with indifference, they were able to resign them with the same temper, and consequently-were out of the reach of fortune. All which, however fine, and likely to satisfy the fancy of a man at ease, could convey but little consolation to a heart already pierced with sorrow ;-nor is it to be conceived how an unfortunate creature should any more receive relief from such a lecture, however just, than a man racked with an acute fit of the gout or stone, could be supposed to be set free from torture, by hearing from his physician a nice dissertation upon his case. The philosophic consolations in sickness, or in afflictions for the death of friends and kindred, were just as efficacious: --and were rather in general to be considered as good sayings than good remedies.-So that, if a man were bereaved of a promising child, in whom all his hopes and expectations centered,—or a wife were left destitute to mourn the loss and protection of a kind and tender husband, Seneca or Epictetus would tell the pensive parent and disconsolate widow-that tears and lamentation for the dead were fruitless and absurd; that to die was the necessary and unavoidable debt of nature!—and as it could admit of no remedy,-'twas impious and foolish to grieve and fret themselves upon it.

Upon such sage counsel, as well as many other lessons of the same stamp, the same reflection might be applied, which is said to have been made by one of the Roman emperors; to one who administered the same consolations to him, on a like occasion,--to whom advising him to be comforted, and make himself easy, since the event had been brought about by a fatality, and could not be helped, he replied, "That this was so far from lessening his trouble, that it was the very cir cumstance which occasioned it."-So that upon the whole-when the true value of these, and many more of their current arguments, have been weighed and brought to the test,- -one is led to doubt, whether the greatest part of their heroes, the most renowned for constancy, were not much more indebted to good nerves and spirits, or the natural happy frame of their tempers, for behaving well, than to any extraordinary helps, which they could be supposed to receive from their instructors. And therefore I should make no scruple to assert, that one such instance of patience and resignation as this, which the Scripture gives us in the person of Job, not of one most pompously declaiming upon the contempt of pain and poverty, but of a man sunk in the lowest condition of humanity, to behold him when stripped of his estate, his wealth, his friends, his children-cheerfully holding up his head, and entertaining his hard fortune with firmness and serenity;-and this, not from a stoical stupidity, but a just sense of God's providence, and a persuasion of his justice and goodness in all his dealings-such an example, I say, as this, is of

more universal use, speaks truer to the heart, than all the heroic precepts which the pedantry of philosophy has to offer.

SERMON XV.

OPINION.

WE are perpetually in such engagements and situations, that 'tis our duties to speak what our opinions are-but God forbid that this should ever be done but from its best motive-the sense of what is due to virtue, governed by discretion, and the utmost fellow-feeling: were we to go on otherwise, beginning with the great broad cloak of hypocrisy, and so down through all its little trimmings and facings, tearing away without mercy all that looked seemly -we should leave but a tattered world of it. SERMON XVII.

OPPOSITION.

THERE are secret workings in human affairs, which over-rule all human contrivance, and counterplot the wisest of our counsels, in so strange and unexpected a manner, as to cast a damp upon our best schemes and warmest endeavours.

SERMON XXXIX.

OPPRESSION.

SOLOMON says, Oppression will make a wise man mad. What will it do then to a tender and ingenuous heart, which feels itself neglected,-too full of reverence for the author of its wrongs to complain? See, it sits down in silence, robbed by discouragements, of all its natural powers to please, born to see others loaded with caressesin some uncheery corner it nourishes its discontent, and with a weight upon its spirits, which its little stock of fortitude is not able to withstand,-it droops and pines away.- -Sad victim of caprice!

SERMON XXII.

PATIENCE AND CONTENTMENT.

PATIENCE and Contentment,-which, like the treasure hid in the field, for which a man sold all he had to purchase-is of that price that it cannot be had at too great a purchase, since without it the best condition in life cannot make us happy,-and with it, it is impossible we should be miserable even in the worst.

SERMON XV.

PITY.

IN benevolent natures, the impulse to pity is so sudden that, like instruments of music, which ●bey the touch-the objects which are fitted to

excite such impressions, work so instantaneous an effect, that you would think the will was scarce concerned, and that the mind was altogether passive in the sympathy which her own goodness has excited. The truth is the soul is generally in such cases so busily taken up and wholly engrossed by the object of pity, that she does not attend to her own operations, or take leisure to examine the principles upon which she acts.

SERMON III.

PREJUDICE.

How difficult you will find it to convince a miserly heart, that any thing is good which is not profitable! or a libertine one, that any thing is bad, which is pleasant!

SERMON XXIII.

PRIDE.

THE proud man,- -see!-he is sore all over: touch him-you put him to pain; and though, of all others, he acts as if every mortal was void of sense and feeling, yet is possessed with so nice and exquisite a one himself, that the slights, the little neglects, and instances of disesteem, which would be scarce felt by another man, are perpetually wounding him, and ofttimes piercing him to the very heart.