ed and brightened the Profpect before SERM. II. them.

For Riches oft beget in us a Fondness for the prefent Scene of Things, and a Deadness of Affection to God and heavenly Things. But Afflictions fet the Soul free, and leave it difencumbered in the Purfuit of Heaven. Convinced by melancholy Proof of the Infufficiency of worldly Things, we take Sanctuary in the Fulnefs of the divine. Sufficiency. Finding ourfelves difconfolate in a barren and dry Land, where no Water is ; we defire thofe Rivers of Pleasure, which flow at God's Right Hand for ever

more.

Prayer is a natural Motion of the Soul to God in any deep Diftrefs; it becomes then our neceffary Refuge, even though it might not be our free Choice before: which proves, that Religion, however it may be ftifled in Profperity, is interwoven in our Frame. A Man greatly aggrieved by oppreffive Power, without a Profpect of having his Grievances redreffed below, cannot but make his humble, filent Appeal to the Great God of Heaven, as to the laft Refort of Juftice, who helpeth them to Right, that fuffer wrong. We cannot help look

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ing

SERM. II. ing up to that Being, the Father of Mercies, and the God of Comforts, from whom our Help cometh; when we fee ourselves abandoned and forlorn, when we look around us, but there is none to fave us from imminent Ruin.

Then, whatever inborn Vigour of Mind we may have; we fly to God and beg an additional Strength from him to fupport us under our Calamities, Grace to turn them to our Advantage, and eternal Happiness to reward them. Then we chiefly value this Life, as it has a Connexion with a future; a Life in which we should be unwilling, were the Choice given us, to tread the fame Round over, and to measure Time back again; and yet Man goes on, ftill deceived by paft Pleasures, ftill depending on thofe to come; till his Days are run out to the very Dregs: Whereas the obvious Thought is: If fo little Satisfaction is to be had, and fo much Pain to be undergone in the Greennefs and Verdure of Youth; what shall be done in the dry Tree?

To a Man at Eafe in his Poffeffions, the Dread of Diffolution, which sometimes poifons all his Enjoyments, fhall be often a greater and more painful Ill, than his Diffo

lution,

lution, confidered in itself, and the Sha- SERM. II. dow of Death fhall be more formidably large than the Reality: But a good Man in Distress could wish, if it were confiftent with the Will of his Creator, to be diffolved, and to be with Chrift: He wants to render unto God, what is God's, viz. his Soul, which bears that Image and Imprefs of the Deity, which it has been his Business to preferve bright and unfullied: He thinks it would not be worth his while to live a Moment here, if he were not to live for ever hereafter.

I have been led into this Train of Reflections by the Death of a Perfon, whom we all know, and to whom I have particular Obligations. The Lofs of even an inoffenfive Perfon, with whom we constantly travelled together in the common Road of Life, without any other Circumftance to endear his Memory, cannot but in fome measure affect an humane Heart. Every Place where he generally was, fuggests the Idea of him: We mifs him there, and scarce at first recollect, that he is now no more; but as foon as we do, that very Recollection brings a melancholy Thought across the Mind; till, by Degrees, the Im

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preffion

SERM. II. preffion wears off, and the Idea of him is

disjoined from that of the Place, which muft know him no more. How much more then ought fome of us here to be affected, who have lately been deprived of a very worthy and esteemable Acquaintance, right in his Principles, regular in his Practice, and eafy and affable in his Conversation?

Frank, open and ingenuous by Nature, cautious and prudent by his Knowledge of the World, ever ready to oblige; he lived without a formed Design of difpleafing any Body, and yet without the vain chimerical Hopes of pleafing every Body.

He was a very proper Perfon to have Recourfe to upon any intricate Emergency. For he at once preferved the cool Judgment of a difinterested Perfon, and yet entered as heartily and thoroughly into the Affair, as if he had been perfonally interested in it; fruitful of Expedients, with the good Senfe to fix upon that which was beft, and most to the Purpose.

He had fo eftablished a Character for Punctuality, Fairness and Honesty, in his Bufinefs, that People loved to have to do with a Man of his unfufpected Veracity; above thofe indirect Arts, which a great

Soul defpifes, and a good one detefts; the SERM.II. little temporary Expedients of Men, who

want to serve a prefent Exigency, and procure some short lived Advantages; but have not Senfe enough to confider the remote Confequences of an Action, and to think of the Prophet's Question, What will ye do in the End thereof? For certain it is, that Knavery cannot long be concealed, nor Honefty counterfeited: and the Lip of Truth is established for ever, but a lying Tongue is but for a Moment. There was a Dignity in his Afpect, Weight in his Words, and an Opennefs and Simplicity in his Actions, which engaged Men's Esteem for him, and made them repose a firm Confidence in him. It feemed to be his Opinion, that in complicated Cafes our fecond Thoughts were better than our firft; and that we ought to deliberate long, before we proceed to Action: But that in plain Cafes our first Sentiments, the Sentiments of genuine, untainted Nature, were better than our fecond; and that to deliberate, was only to endeavour to find out fome fpecious Refinements and artful Gloffes, by which we might, with much ado, reconcile those Practices to our Confcience, to which it was

at