gether for their Good, and unite to form an infallible Plan for increafing their final Felicity. Never will Society grow gloomy, but inexpreffibly the cheerfuller, for being compofed of fuch Perfons as thefe: and fuch ought the religious naturally to be.

ances;

your

Wear no

Therefore you, who are truly religious, appear in Character, and do Credit to your Cause. Defpife with Good-humour and pity the impotent Ridicule of the inconfiderate: let the World fee that you are happy, and that Belief in God is the Ground of it. dejected Looks, put on no forbidding Appearbe affable, be courteous, be joyful. Avoid improper Amusements; guard against Fondness for those in which occafionally you may do well to join: but exprefs a decent and modeft, a mild and compaffionate, not an angry or cenforious, Difapprobation of the common Exceffes in them; fhew that you can relish Life perfectly well without them, by engaging with Alacrity in the proper Bufinefs of your Station, improving yourselves, and doing Good to others. Never unfeasonably magnify in Talk, but affiduously demonftrate in Fact, the Comfort you have in obferving the Precepts and

• Rom. viii. 28.

expecting

expecting the Rewards of the Gofpel. Manifeft, whenever Opportunities prefent themfelves, yet without any Oftentation, the benevolent Serenity which Christian Faith inspires, your Enjoyment both of Converfation and Solitude in their Seafons, your Composure under Doubts and Uncertainties, your Fortitude under Croffes and Afflictions, and your fettled Perfuafion, that you fhall ever be enabled to poffefs your Soul in Gladness of Heart", and rejoice in the Lord alwaya.

Such Behaviour will furely convince even the vicious and the prejudiced, if they have any Réflexion, that to feek their own Advantage with Succefs, they muft feek the Things which are Jefus Chrift's. And if they ever intend it, the present Time is always the best: but this present Time is peculiarly fo. Decency prohibits now the ufual Diverfions: apply your vacant Hours to a better Purpose. The Offices of the Week throughout exprefs in the most affecting Manner, what your gracious Redeemer hath done and fuffered for you think deliberately in it, what you ought to do for him, indeed for yourselves. Think what you have been, and are, and what the

Faith you profess requires you to be: confider what fatal Confequences will follow, perhaps very foon, if you neglect to amend, and how you shall accomplish this neceffary Work. Read with Reverence the Rules and Declarations of God's Word; read with Attention other awakening, yet prudent Books, reflecting as you go along; and engage fome pious, but judicious Friend, to excite, fupport, direct, and, if there be Occafion, reftrain you. Form difcreetly by their Helps needful Refolutions; and beg earnestly of God Strength to fulfil them: elfe they will all prove ineffectual. But remember, that the Piety of the Week, however ftrict, is not to end with it; and cannot be really Chriftian, if it doth. You are called to Recollection now, that you may practife Vigilance all the reft of your Days. Temporary, periodical Goodness, that is like the Morning Cloud, and as the early Dew goeth away', will be of no Avail to any one; but they, who, by patient Continuance in well-doing, feek for Glory and Honour and Immortality, are fecure of obtaining eternal Life'.

r Hof. vi. 4.

• Rom. ii.

7.

SER

SERMON VII.

GAL. vi. 14.

But God forbid that I should glory, fave in the Cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift: by whom the World is crucified unto me, and I unto the World.

E must have some Foundation, real or

WE

imagined, for thinking well of ourfelves and our Condition; or we must be wretched. And innumerable are the Methods which Men take to procure the Efteem of their own Minds. Too many glory in their Shame: are proud of Notions and Discourses, which misrepresent facred Truths, degrade human Nature, and tend to diffolve human Society; of gratifying their Paffions, their Appetites, their Fancies,whatever Mischiefs it produces; of doing what vifibly hurts, and must finally ruin, their Characters, their Fortunes, their Healths, their Souls. Others value themselves on more plausible, yet infufficient, Pretenfions: on the Luftre of an ancient Fa

mily, which perhaps they disgrace; on the Inheritance or Acquisition of Wealth, which they employ to little or no good Purpose; on Agreeableness of Perfon, which makes them vain and imprudent the fhort Time it continues, and miserable when it decays; on Liveliness of Wit, which either provokes Enemies, or invites dangerous Friends; on Depth of Knowledge, often falfely fo called and pernicious, often wholly foreign to their true Bufinefs; on Elegance of Tafte in smaller Matters, while they are contemptibly injudicious in the greatest; on Pomp and Shew, which give a Pleasure as fleeting as it is childish; on making a Figure in the idle Hurry of Amusements, which encroaches on every valuable Purpose of Life, and wears out the Spirits under Pretence of raifing them; on the Favour of the Great, by whatever Arts attained, and however precarious; or on the feemingly more folid Poffeffion of Power, which it is hard to abstain from ufing ill, and extremely hard to ufe in a due Measure well; which disobliges by the Exercise of it many more than it can poffibly oblige; is accompanied with perpetual Fatigue and Uneafinefs, yet with perpetual Envy; caufes innumerable Vexations while

3