the fame Reason, viz. for want of en- SERM. quiring wifely concerning this.

Complaints upon the Times are not more unjust than they are common; but to build them upon a Suppofition that the former Times were all good, and the prefent nothing but Evil, is to suppose what is not true; 'tis to take that for granted, which is the Matter in difpute, and to argue from a Suppofition, which is falfe in Fact, and wants to be proved. If the former Days were so very good in Comparison of these, it must appear by fome Account of Perfons, who lived in those Days. But how does that appear? Where have we any fuch Account? On the contrary, there were the fame Complaints in former Times as there are now; and tho' this may not be allow'd by a wife Man, as an Argument of the Badness of thofe Times, yet it is at least an Argument, that the Complainers in thofe Days thought them fo; and therefore must be allow'd to hold good against the Murmurers of thefe Days, even upon their own Principles. For if they

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SERM. they are willing to hear their own Com plaints pafs for certain Tokens of the Badnefs of the Times, they must by the fame Rule, and upon the fame Principles, think the fame of former Ages, and allow the Complaints of the People in those Times to have the fame Weight.

Now it is well known, that the Poets many hundred Years ago feigned the World to be divided into three different Ages, the Golden, the Silver, and the Iron Age; the two former of these they imagined to be in a different Degree, very happy and profperous, but the laft they looked upon as very unhappy and miferable; yet they always took Care to place their own Times under the laft, as if all before were Golden Days, and their's were the only unhappy and troublesome Ones; and the fame Humour has prevailed ever fince, and will continue to do fo as long as we neglect to confider wifely concerning this. We find likewife from the Text, that there were the fame Complaints as far back as Solomon's Days, and no doubt of it in all Ages of the World.

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Now either these Complaints were true SERM. or they were false. 'Tis all one, as to the Matter in Hand, which of these it be; for if they were true, the Point is gained; and if they were never fo false and groundless, yet ftill they will ferve the Purpose they are brought for; they are fufficient to fhew, that whatever good Opinion the Complainers of latter Ages may have of the former Times, they that lived in those Times thought otherwise, and made that the Subject of Complaint which others have fince made the Subject of their Approbation.

But the Truth of the Matter is this: The Times are generally the fame, and I believe it will readily enough be granted, that they are always worse than a good Man could wish them to be; but then to afk why the former were better, generally proceeds upon a Suppofition, that former Times were better purely because they are past, and therefore will ferve no Manner of Purpose, but to prove the Folly of the Enquirer. It has been the Complaint of our Forefathers, fays Seneca,

(De

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SERM. (De Ben. Fol. p. 268.) that Virtue and Good Manners are rooted up and destroy'd; that all Manner of Wickedness prevails, and triumphs in the Room of them; and that the Times are worse than ever, we complain of the fame Thing, fays he, and our Pofterity will do the fame; whereas these Things are much the fame now as they were then, and fo they will be for the future: They only move a little to and fro, fometimes inclining to one Kind of Vice, fometimes to another; for Vices don't prevail always alike, and continue in one Stay, but are moveable, and as they differ widely, they become tumultuous, and drive and fly from one another: However, this we ought always to fay of ourfelves, that we are evil, that we have been fo, and I am unwilling to add, fays he, we shall continue to be fo.

We find in the early Ages of the World, that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth; and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually. David in many Places gives an Account of the Wickedness

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of the People in his Days; and St. Paul, SERM. talking of the People in his Days, tells the Galatians, that as heretofore, be that was born after the Flesh perfecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. So that it is true enough, that the Times are wicked and bad, but then it is what they have ever been, and as long as bad Men live in them, it is what they always will be. There will be the fame Rapine, Fraud, Injustice, and Oppreffion, as long as there are the fame Paffions to create them; for the fame Causes will produce the fame Effects; and as long as we fet up a falfe Happiness to ourselves, fo long fhall we cherish the fame Paffions, and keep alive the fame Evils; and thus it has always been. Is there any thing whereof it may be faid, See, this is new! it has been already of old Time which was before us. The Thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which fhall be done, and there is no new Thing under the Sun.

But