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SERM. if we do, we shall expose ourselves

X.

to the Contempt of all Wife Men, who will fay, It is Time enough for us to complain of others, when we afe without Fault ourselves; and that we fhould not pretend to pull the Mote out of our Brother's Eye, till we have taken the Beam out of our own Eye. 'Tis an eafy thing to fay that no Times were ever fo bad as the prefent, but then it is not so easy to prove it: Fact and Experience are againft it: But allowing it to be true, would not it prove too much? Would not it prove that we are bad too? But the Infatuation lies here. Every one makes this Complaint more or less: I would fain know then, who thefe People are that we all complain of? Are they not our own felves? If the Times are bad, why do we not rather help to make them better? But it is a popular Subject: The Wickedness of the Age is a Topic that will be fure to please, because People are glad to have others thought worse than themfelves. Some talk of it out of Heedlefsnefs of Temper,

to

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to fhew how little they think, and how SERM. little they have to fay, as People are wont to talk of the Weather for want of a more proper Subject: I would advise these People to stick to this laft Old Topic till they can find a better.

Others exclaim against the Times out of a malicious Habit that they have got; not that they think what they fay to be true, or that they are really forry that the Times are bad, but that they are no worse. Thus are their whole Lives not

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only. fo many Years of Vanity, but of Difcontent and Ill-humour. Indeed they

can hardly be faid to live at all: But the the troublesome Hours pafs dreadfully over their Heads while prefent; and as they roll off in the Tide of Time, they flide out of their Remembrance, and are fucceeded with fresh ones ftill as troublefome as the others.

Thirdly, Another Rule, whereby we may acquire a happy Frame and Tem per of Mind, is to leave the Management of the World, where it ought to be left, in the Hands of God. Suppofe the for

mer

SERM.mer Times were never fo good, and the

X.

prefent never so bad, it is none of our Bufinefs to enquire into the Causes of these things. 'Tis not our Business to infpect Providence, but to fubmit to it. Shall Man, who is but of yesterday, who came a perfect Stranger into the World, he hardly knows how or when, no fooner come into the World, but immediately set up for a Judge, and claim the Dominion of it?

Whatever

the World does, or however it goes with it, we may be fure God knows it, and permits it to go on; and continues to fend his Rain on the Just and on the Unjuft: And would we have him stop the Course of his Providence, and work Miracles for nothing in the World but to keep us in Humour.

To conclude: Let us all endeavour to leave off this murmuring complaining Temper, which tends to nothing but to make bad Chriftians and bad Subjects. 'Tis an Argument of a weak Mind, a Mind not accuftom'd to thinking, and is a Difgrace to Human Na

ture

ture, as well as to Religion. 'Tis high SERM. Time now to exert the Dominion of X. Reason over Fancy and Opinion. However it goes with the World without us, let us remember that we are Men and Chriftians. Let us not be fuch Cheats to ourselves as to make imaginary Evils real ones, but confider that we have a Mind to look after, which will determine our Happiness or Mifery, according as we accuftom it to a right or a wrong way of thinking. In a word, As long as we live in this World, let us endeavour to make ourselves and others as

happy as we can. We have many Vices and Infirmities, as well as other People, and therefore we ought to bear with one another, and not conclude a Peace with our own Follies, and at the fame time proclaim War against those of other People. In fhort, let us furnish our Minds with true Religion, which will give us fuch a chearful and eafy Deportment in every Condition of Life, as will make us truly happy; for her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness, and all her Paths

aré Peace.

SER

SERMON XI

GEN. iv. IO.

And He Said, What haft thou done? The Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the Ground.

SERM.

XI.

I

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N this Chapter we have a fhort Account of Cain and Abel, and the firft propagating the World after Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradice: It is very concife indeed, tho' it is as long as the Nature of the Thing would admit of: For it cannot reafonably be expected, that the Scripture should give, a particular Account of every thing; that would have been neither neceffary nor useful: Not neceffary, because the Intent and Design of it was not to teach

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