SWEET

SORROW.

WEET is the look of forrow for an offence, in a heart determined never to commit it more!upon that altar only could I offer up my wrongs.

SERM. XVIII. P. 64.

SIMP

SIMPLICITY.

IMPLICITY is the great friend to nature; and if I would be proud of any thing in this filly world, it fhould be of this honeft alliance.

то

COVETOUSNESS.

O know truly what it is, we must know what masters it ferves ;-they are many, and of various cafts and humours,-and each one lends it fomething of its own complexional tint and character.

This, I fuppofe, may be the cause that there is a greater and more whimsical mystery in the love of money, than in the darkest and most nonfenfical problem that ever was pored on.

Even

Even at the beft, and when the paffion feems to feek fomething more than its own amusement,-there is little-very little, I fear, to be faid for its humanity. -It may be a sport to the mifer,-but confider,-it must be death and destruction to others. The moment this fordid humour begins to govern-farewell all honeft and natural affection! farewell, all he owes to parents, to children, to friends!-how faft the obligations vanish! fee-he is now ftripped of all feelings whatever: the fhrill cry of juftice-and the low lamentation of humble diftrefs, are notes equally beyond his compafs.Eternal God! fee!-he paffes by one whom thou haft juft bruised, without one penfive reflection:-he enters the cabin of the widow whofe hufband and child thou hast taken to thy felf,-exacts his bond, without a figh!-Heaven! if I am to be tempted,-let it be by glory,-by ambition, by fome generous and manly vice :—if I must fall, let it be by fome paffion which thou haft planted in my nature, which shall not harden my heart, but leave me room at last to retreat and come back to thee!

HUMILITY.

HE that is little in his own eyes, is little too in his

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defires, and confequently moderate in his purfuit of them like another man, he may fail in his attempts, and lofe the point he aimed at ;-but that is all, he lofes not himself,-he lofes not his happinefs and peace of mind with it even the contentions of the humble man are mild and placid.Bleffed characters! when fuch a one is thrust back, who does not pity him? when he falls, who would not stretch out a hand to raise him up?

SERM. XXV. P. 193.

PATIENCE AND CONTENTMENT.

ATIENCE and Contentment,-which, like the

PATIEN

treasure hid in the field, for which a man fold all he had to purchase-is of that price that it cannot be had at too great a purchase, fince without it the best condition in life cannot make us happy,-and with it, it is impoffible we should be miserable even in the worft.

SERMON XV. P. 16.

HUMILITY

HUMILITY CONTRASTED WITH PRIDE.

HEN we reflect upon the character of Humility,

WHE

-we are apt to think it stands the most naked and defenceless of all virtues whatever, the least able to fupport its claims against the infolent antagonift who seems ready to bear him down, and all op. pofition which fuch a temper can make.

-

Now, if we confider him as ftanding alone,-no doubt, in such a cafe, he will be overpowered and trampled upon by his opposer;-but if we confider the meek and lowly man, as he is-fenced and guarded by the love, the friendship and wishes of all mankind, that the other ftands alone, hated, discountenanced, without one true friend or hearty wellwifher on his fide-when this is balanced, we shall have reason to change our opinion, and be convinced that the humble man, ftrengthened with fuch an alliance, is far from being so overmatched as at first fight he may appear ;-nay, I believe one might venture to go further, and engage for it, that in all fuch cafes where real fortitude and true perfonal courage were wanted, he is much more likely to give proof of it, and I would fooner look for it in fuch a temper than in that of his adversary. Pride may make a man violent, but Humility will make him firm:-and which of the two, do you think, likely to come off with honour?-he who acts from the changeable impulfe

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pulfe of heated blood, and follows the uncertain motions of his pride and fury;—or the man who stands cool and collected in himself;-who governs his refentments, inftead of being governed by them, and on every occafion acts upon the steady motives of principle and duty?

SERM. XXV. P. 193.

WITH regard to the provocations and offences, which are unavoidably happening to a man in his commerce with the world,take it as a rule, as a man's pride is,fo is always his displeasure; as the opinion of himself rifes,-fo does the injury,-fo does his refentment: 'tis this which gives edge and force to the inftrument which has ftruck him,—and excites that heat in the wound which renders it incuLable.

See how different the cafe is with the humble man: one half of these painful conflicts he actually escapes; the other part fall lightly on him :—he provokes no man by contempt; thrufts himself forward as the mark of no man's envy; fo that he cuts off the first fretful occafions of the greatest part of these evils; and for thofe in which the paffions of others would involve him, like the humble fhrub in the valley, gently gives way, and scarce feels the injury of those ftormy encounters which rend the proud cedar, and tear it up by its roots.

SERMON XXV. P. 190.