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REASON.

THE judgments of the more disinterested and impartial of us, receive no small tincture from our affections: we generally consult them in all the doubtful points; and it happens well if the matter in question is not almost settled before the arbitrator is called into the debate ;-but in the more flagrant instances, where the passions govern the whole man, 'tis melancholy to see the office to which reason, the great prerogative of his nature, is reduced: serving the lower appetites in the dishonest drudgery of finding out arguments to justify the present pursuit.

To judge rightly of our own worth, we should retire a little from the world, to see its pleasures -and pains too, in their proper size and dimensions: this, no doubt, was the reason St. Paul, when he intended to convert Felix, began his discourse upon the day of judgment, on purpose to take the heart from off this world and its pleasures, which dishonour the understanding, so as to turn the wisest of men into fools and children. SERMON XIX.

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RELIGION.

THERE are no principles but those of religion to be depended on in cases of real distress; and these are able to encounter the worst emergencies, and to bear us up, under all the changes and chances to which our life is subject.

SERMON XV.

REGULATION OF SPIRIT.

THE great business of man is the regulation of his spirit; the possession of such a frame and temper of mind, as will lead us peaceably through this world, and in the many weary stages of it, afford us, what we shall be sure to stand in need,— Rest unto our souls.

Rest unto our souls!-'tis all we want-the end of all our wishes and pursuits: give us a prospect of this, we take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth to have it in possession: we seek for it in titles, in riches, and pleasures-climb up after by ambition,-come down again, and stoop for it by avarice,-try all extremes; still we are gone out of the way; nor is it, till after many miserable experiments, that we are convinced at last, we have been seeking every where for it, but where there is a prospect of finding it; and that is, within ourselves, in a meek and lowly disposition of heart. This, and this only, will give us rest unto our souls:-rest from those turbulent and haughty passions which disturb our quiet :-rest from the provocations and disappointments of the world, and a train of untold evils too long to be recounted, against all which this frame and preparation of mind is the best protection.

SERMON XXV,

REPENTANCE.

WHEN the edge of appetite is worn down, and the spirits of youthful days are cooled, which hurried us on in a circle of pleasure and impertinence,

-then reason and reflection will have the weight which they deserve;-afflictions, or the bed of sickness, will supply the place of conscience :and if they should fail,-old age will overtake us at last, and show us the past pursuits of life,and force us to look upon them in their true point of view. If there be any thing more to cast a cloud upon so melancholy a prospect as this shows us, it is surely the difficulty and hazard of having all the work of the day to perform in the last hour of making an atonement to God when we have no sacrifice to offer him, but the dregs and infirmities of those days, when we could have no pleasure in them. Whatever stress some may lay upon it—a death-bed repentance is but a weak and slender plank to trust our all upon.

SERMON XXXVII.

SELFISHNESS AND MEANNESS.

THAT there is selfishness and meanness enough in the souls of one part of the world, to hurt the credit of the other part of it, is what I shall not dispute against; but to judge of the whole from this bad sample, and because one man is plotting and artful in his nature; or, a second openly makes his pleasure or his profit the whole centre of all

his designs; or, because a third strait-hearted wretch sits confined within himself,—feels no misfortunes, but those which touch himself: to involve the whole race without mercy under such detested characters, is a conclusion as false as it is pernicious; and were it in general to gain credit, could serve no end, but the rooting out of our nature all that is generous, and planting in the stead of it such an aversion to each other, as must untie the bands of society, and rob us of one of the greatest pleasures of it, the mutual communications of kind offices; and by poisoning the fountain, rendering every thing suspected that flows through it.

SERMON VII.

SHAME AND DISGRACE.

THEY who have considered our nature, affirm, that shame and disgrace are two of the most insupportable evils of human life: the courage and spirits of many have mastered other misfortunes, and borne themselves up against them; but the wisest and best of souls have not been a match for these; and we have many a tragical instance on record, what greater evils have been run into, merely to avoid this one.

Without this tax of infamy, poverty, with all the burdens it lays upon our flesh-so long as it is virtuous, could never break the spirits of a man; all its hunger, and pain, and nakedness, are nothing to it, they have some counterpoise of good; and besides, they are directed by Providence, and

must be submitted to: but those are afflictions not from the hand of God or nature-" for they do come forth of the DUST, and most properly may be said to spring out of the GROUND, and this is the reason they lay such stress upon our patience,and in the end creates such a distrust of the world, as makes us look up-and pray, Let me fall into thy hands, O God! but let me not fall into the hands of men."

SERMON XVI.

SIMPLICITY.

SIMPLICITY is the great friend to nature; and if I would be proud of any thing in this silly world, it should be of this honest alliance.

SERMON XXIV.

SLANDER.

Or the many revengeful, covetous, false, and illnatured persons which we complain of in the world, though we all join in the cry against them, what man amongst us singles out himself as a criminal, or ever once takes it into his head that he adds to the number?~or where is there a man so bad, who would not think it the hardest and most unfair imputation, to have any of those particular vices laid to his charge?

If he has the symptoms ever so strong upon him, which he would pronounce infallible in another, they are indications of no such malady in

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