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are afflictions not from the hand of God or Nature" for they do come forth of the DUST, and most properly may be faid to fpring out of the GROUND. And this is the reafon they lay fuch Aress upon our patience, and in the end create fuch a diftruft 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."

SERM. XVI. P. 29.

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CURIOSITY.

HE love of variety, or curiofity of feeing new things, which is the fame, or at least a fifter paffion to it,-feems wove into the frame of every fon and daughter of Adam; we ufually fpeak of it as one of nature's levities, though planted within us for the folid purposes of carrying forwards the mind to fresh inquiry and knowledge: ftrip us of it, the mind (I fear) would dofe for ever over the prefent page; and we fhould all of us reft at eafe with fuch objects as prefented themselves in the parish or province where we first drew breath.

It is to this fpur, which is ever in our sides, that we owe the impatience of this defire for travelling the paffion is no way bad,---but as others are, in its mismanagement or excess; →→→ order it rightly, the advantages are worth the

purfuit;

purfuit; the chief of which are to learn the languages, the laws and customs, and understand the government and intereft of other nations,--to acquire an urbanity and confidence of behaviour, and fit the mind more eafily for converfation and difcourfe-to take us out of the company of our aunts and grandmothers, and from the track of nurfery mistakes; and by fhewing us new objects, or old ones in new lights, to reform our judgments-by tafting perpetually the varieties of nature, to know what is good-by obferving the addrefs and arts of men, to conceive what is fincere, and by feeing the difference of fo many various humours and manners,-to look into ourselves and form our own.

SERMON XX. P. 104.

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INJURY.

N injury unanswered in courfe grows weary of itself, and dies away in a voluntary remorfe.

In bad difpofitions capable of no reftraint but fear it has a different effect the filent digeftion of one wrong provokes a fecond.

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SERM. XVI. P. 24.

INSOLENCE.

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HE infolence of bafe minds in fuccefs is boundlefs; and would fcarce admit of a comparifon, did not they fometimes furnish us with one in the degrees of their objection when evil returns upon them-the fame poor heart which excites ungenerous tempers to triumph over a fallen adverfary, in fome inftances feems to exalt them above the point of courage, finks them in others even below cowardice.Not unlike fome little particles of matter struck off from the furface of the dirt by funshine-dance and fport there whilft it lafts-but the moment 'tis withdrawn-they fall down---for dust they are---and unto duft they will return---whilst firmer and larger bodies preserve the stations which nature has affigned them, fubjected to laws which no change of weather can alter.

SERMON XVI. P. 25.

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WE

VICE.

E all of us talk fo loud against vicious characters, and are fo unanimous in our cry against them, that an unexperienced man, who only trufted his ears, would imagine the whole, world was in an uproar about it, and that mankind were all affociating together, to haunt vice

utterly

utterly out of the world-Shift the scene,--and let him behold the reception which vice meets with,--- he will fee the conduct and behaviour of the world towards it fo oppofite to their declarations, he will find all he heard fo contradicted by what he faw,---as to leave him in doubt which of his fenfes he is to truft,---or in which of the two cafes mankind were really in earneft. Was there virtue enough in the world to make a general stand against this con tradiction;---that is,---was every one who deferved to be ill-fpoken of---fure to be ill-looked on--too; was it a certain confequence of the lofs of a man's character,---to lose his friends,--to lofe the advantages of his birth and fortune,, ---and thenceforth be univerfally fhunned, univerfally flighted.

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Was no quality a shelter against the indecorums of the other fex; but was every woman without diftinction,---who had justly forfeited her reputation, from that moment was she sure to forfeit likewife all claim to civility and refpect

- Or, in a word, could it be established as a law in our ceremonial,-that wherever charac-' ters in either fex were become notorious,-it fhould be deemed infamous, either to pay or receive a vifit from them, and that the door fhould be shut against them in all public places, till they had fatisfied the world, by giving tefti

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mony of a better life.A few fuch plain and honeft maxims, faithfully put in practice, would force us upon fome degree of reformation. Till this is done, it avails little that we have no mercy upon them with our tongues, Since they escape without feeling any other inconvenience,

We all cry out that the world is corrupt,and I fear too juftly;but we never reflect what we have to thank for it, and that our open countenance of vice, which gives the lie to our private cenfures of it, is its chief protection and encouragement.To thofe, however, who ftill believe that evil speaking is fome terror to evil doers, one may anfwer, as a great man has done upon the occafion,-that after all our exhortations against it-it is not to be feared but that there will be evil fpeaking enough left in the world to chaffife the guilty and we may fafely trust them to an ill-natured world, that there will be no failure of juftice upon this fcore. The paffions of men are pretty fevere. executioners, and to them let us leave this ungrateful tafk;-and rather ourselves endeavour" to cultivate that more friendly one, recommended by the apostle,-of letting all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil fpeaking, be put. away from us ;-of being kind to one another, -tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Chrift's fake forgave us.

SERM, XI. P. 225. ¡
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