carelessly, sporting with it as we do with other terrors, yet, he that sees this enemy fairly, and in his most frightful shape, will need no long remonstrance to make him turn out of the way to avoid him. Sermon xx.

DISTRESS.

Nothing so powerfully calls home the

mind as distress: the tense fibre then relaxes, the soul retires to itself,-sits pensive and susceptible of right impressions. If we have a friend, 'tis then we think of him; if a benefactor, at that moment all his kindnesses press upon our mind. Sermon xx.

IMPOSTURE.

What a problematic set of creatures does simulation make us! who would divine that-that anxiety and concern, so visible in the airs of one half of that great assembly, should arise from nothing else, but that the other half of it may think them to be men of consequence, penetration, parts, and conduct? What a noise amongst the claimants about it! Behold Humility, out of mere pride; and Honesty, almost out of knavery :-Chastity never once in harm's way; and Courage, like a Spanish

soldier upon an Italian stage-a bladder full of wind.

Hark! that, the sound of that trumpet,let not my soldier run,- -it is some good Christian giving alms. O, Pity! thou gentlest of human passions! soft and tender are thy notes, and ill accord they with so loud an instrument.

Thus something jars, and will for ever jar in these cases.

Imposture is all dissonance, let what master soever of it undertake the part: let him harmonize and modulate it as he may, one tone will contradict another; and whilst we have ears to hear, we shall distinguish it 'tis truth only which is consistent, and ever in harmony with itself: it sits upon our lips, like the natural notes of some melodies, ready to drop out, whether we will or no ;-it racks no invention to let ourselves alone, and needs fear no critic, to have the same excellency in the heart, which appears in the action. Sermon xvii.

CONTENTMENT.

There is scarce any lot so low, but there is something in it to satisfy the man whom it has befallen; Providence having so ordered things, that in every man's cup, how Ditter soever, there are some cordial drops

-some good circumstances, which, if wise ly extracted, are sufficient for the purpose he wants them—that is, to make him contented, and, if not happy, at least resigned.

Sermon xv.

EVILS.

Unwillingly does the mind digest the evils prepared for it by others;-for those we prepare ourselves,-we eat but the fruit which we have planted and watered : -a shattered fortune,-a shattered frame, so we have but the satisfaction of shattering them ourselves, pass naturally enough into the habit, and, by the ease with which they are both done, they save the spectator a world of pity: but for those, like Jacob's, brought upon him by the hands from which he looked for all his comforts,-the avarice of a parent,-the unkindness of a relation, the ingratitude of a child, they are evils which leave a scar; besides, as they hang over the heads of all, and therefore may fall upon any ;-every looker-on has an interest in the tragedy;-but then we are apt to interest ourselves no otherwise, than merely as the incidents themselves strike our passions, without carrying the lesson further :-in a word-we real

ize nothing:-we sigh-we wipe away the tear, and there ends the story of misery, and the moral with it. Sermon xxii.

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 caresses-in 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!

VIRTUE AND VICE.

Sermon xxii

Whoever considers the state and condition of human nature, and, upon this view, how much stronger the natural motives are to virtue than to vice, would expect to find the world much better than it is, or ever has been ;-for who would suppose the generality of mankind to betray so much folly, as to act against the common interest

of their own kind, as every man does who yields to the temptation of what is wrong?

Sermon xxxiii.

WISDOM.

There is no project to which the whole race of mankind is so universally a bubble, as to that of being thought wise and the affectation of it is so visible, in men of all complexions, that you every day see some one or other so very solicitous to establish the character, as not to allow himself leisure to do the things which fairly win it :expending more art and stratagem to appear so in the eyes of the world, than what would suffice to make him so in truth.

It is owing to the force of this desire, that you see, in general, there is no injury touches a man so sensibly, as an insult upon his parts and capacity: tell a man of other defects, that he wants learning, industry or application, he will hear your reproof with patience.Nay, you may go farther; take him in a proper season, you may tax his morals, you may tell him he is irregular in his conduct,- -passionate or revengeful in his nature,-loose in his principles;-deliver it with the gentleness of a friend, possibly he will not only but, if ingenuous, he will

bear with you,