SERM. I.

Art thou then proud of Knowledge? Alas! the dim light of human Reason looks feeble and languid at the firft Thought and Contemplation of that Father of Lights, in whom there is no Darkness at all. Doft thou pride thyfelf upon thy Power? All the little Grandeur we can boast, is loft in the Confideration of that only Potentate, who dwelleth in Light which no one can approach to. Art thou elate Art thou elate upon the account of an ample Fortune? Confider him to whom the whole World belongs, and all that is therein; who wanting nothing himfelf, fupplies the Wants of every other Being. All human Pride shrinks into nothing, when we contemplate that great Being, who is All in All. And the Man, who is poffeft with just Notions of an all-perfect God, will never make a God of any thing else, much less of himself.

Doft thou value thyfelf upon popular Applaufe, and a great Name? Think how many that have made a diftinguished Figure in the World, are dead and unregarded, as if they never had been; their Deaths unlamented, their Vacancy filled up, their Perfons miffed no more, than a Drop of Water, when taken from the whole

whole Ocean. And is it worth our while SERM. I. to ftrive to please a vain fantastic World,' which will foon difregard us, and think itself full as well without us; instead of laying out our Endeavours to please that Almighty Being, whose inexhauftable Power and Goodness will make his Servants happy to all Eternity? How ridiculous are all our Aims; except this be the grand Aim, in which all the reft center! A Man, for Inftance, makes it his Bufinefs to enfure to himself a Name after Death; that is, to fave four or five Letters (for what is a Name befides?) from Oblivion; and yet fhall be neglectful of fecuring immortal Happiness He fhall be fond of an ima ginary Life after Death; and yet make no Provifion for that real Life, which is to laft for ever and ever;

his Name written and

folicitous to have

preferved in any

Book, but in that Book, where it will only be of Service to him, the Book of Life. O Virtue! when this folemn Pageantry of earthly Grandeur fhall be no more, when all Diftinctions, but moral and religious, fhall vanish; when this Earth fhall be diffolved, when the Moon fhall be no more a Light by Night, nor the Sun by Day;

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thou

SERM. I. thou shalt still survive thy Votary's immortal Friend, thou shalt appear, like thy great Author, in perfect Beauty; thy Luftre undiminished, and thy Glory unperishable.

Let him therefore that glorieth, glory in the Lord. He alone, who gave and upholds all the Powers of Soul and Body, he alone deferveth the Glory of them. As we are Creatures, the Work of God's Hands, we have nothing to glory of: But as we are Sinners, and, in that refpect, the Work of our own Hands, we have much to be ashamed of. We then give the greatest Proof to God of our Worthinefs, when we have a deep Senfe, and make an humble Confeffion, of our own Unworthinefs.

To God therefore, and to Him only,
Be afcribed, as is most due, all
Might, &c.

SERMON

On the Advantages of Affliction.

Being a SERMON occafioned by the Death of Mr. Burton, of Montpelier-Row, in Twickenham.

Preached in Twickenham-Chapel, on Midlent Sunday, 1742; and published at the Request of the Audience.

PSALM LXXVII. 3.

When I am in Heaviness, I will think upon God.

T

HE whole Pfalm is written with SERM. II. a very beautiful Spirit of Poetry;

and if we confider it merely as an

human Compofition, may juftly challenge
our highest Admiration. In the former
Part, the Pfalmift vents an Heart over-
charged with Grief, and writes with the
deepest Emotions of Sorrow. In the Day
VOL. II,
D

of

SERM. II.of my Trouble I fought the Lord, my Sore ran in the Night and ceafed not, my Soul refufed to be comforted. And again, at the feventh Verse, Will the Lord abfent himself for ever, and will he be no more favourable? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath be in Anger shut up his tender Mercies? Thus does he discharge the Fulness of his Soul; 'till, by a very natural, and yet very surprising Tranfition, from a Rehearfal of his own Woes, he paffes on to celebrate the marvellous Acts of God. For, to relieve himself under the Preffure of his prefent Afflictions, he has Recourfe to the former Mercies, which God had vouchfafed to the Ifraelites. Surely I will remember thy Wonders of old. This ushers in those fublime Flights of Poetry, which are peculiar to the Genius of the Eaftern Nations. The Waters Saw Thee, O God; the Waters Saw Thee: They were afraid: The Depths alfo were troubled, &c. Then, to represent the Unfearchableness of God, he compares him, by a very beautiful Allufion, to a Being walking upon the Waters, the Traces of whofe Feet could not therefore be discovered: Thy Way is in the Sea, and thy Paths in the great Waters, and thy Footfeps are not known.

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If