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have already more than my wants require, when shall I hope to do it? - Or how should I expect, that even this increase of honour or fortune would fully satisfy and content my ambition, should I now give way to it?"

So engaging an instance of unaffected moderation and self-denial, deserves well to be considered by the bustlers in this world; - because if we are to trust the face and course of things, we scarce see any virtue so hard to be put in practice, and which the generality of mankind seem so unwilling to learn, as this of knowing when they have enough, and when it is time to give over their worldly pursuits: - Ay! but nothing is more easy, you will answer, than to fix this point, and set certain bounds to it. "For my own part, you will say, I declare, I want and would wish no more, but a sufficient competency of those things, which are requisite to the real uses and occasions of life, suitable to the way I have been taught to expect from use and education." - But recollect how seldom it ever happens, when these points are secured, but that new occasions and new necessities present themselves, and every day as you grow richer, fresh wants are discovered, which rise up before you, as you ascend the hill ; so that every step you take, every accession to your fortune, sets your desires one degree farther from rest and satisfaction; that something you have not yet grasped, and possibly never shall; that devil of a phantom unpossessed and unpossessable is perpetually haunting you, and stepping in betwixt you and your contentment. - Unhappy creature! to think of enjoying that blessing without moderation! - or imagine that so sacred a temple can be raised upon the foundation of wealth or power! - If the ground-work is not laid within your own mind, they will as soon add a cubit to your stature, as to your happiness. - To be convinced it is so, — pray look up to those who have got as high as their warmest wishes could carry them in this ascent, - do you observe they live the better, the longer, the merrier, — or that they sleep the sounder in their beds, for having twice as much as they wanted, or well know how to dispose of? - Of all rules for calculating happiness, this is the most deceitful, and which few but weak minds, and those unpractised in the world too, ever think of applying as the measure in such an estimation. - Great, and inexpressible may be the happiness, which a

moderate fortune and moderate desires with a consciousness of virtue will secure. Many are the silent pleasures of the honest peasant, who rises cheerful to his labour ; - why should they not? - Look into his house, the seat of each man's happiness; has he not the same domestic endearments, the same joy and comfort in his children, and as flattering hopes of their doing well, to enliven his hours and gladden his heart, as you could conceive in the highest station? - — And I make no doubt in general, but if the true state of his joys and sufferings, could be fairly balanced with those of his betters, whether anything would appear at the foot of the account, but what would recommend the moral of this discourse. - This, I own, is not to be attained to, by the cynical stale trick of haranguing against the goods of fortune they were never intended to be talked out of the world. - But as virtue and true wisdom lie in the middle of extremes, on one hand, not to neglect and despise riches, so as to forget ourselves, and on the other, not to pursue and love them so as to forget GoD; to have them sometimes in our heads

but always, something more important in our hearts.

SERMON XIV

SELF-EXAMINATION

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, -my people doth not consider.

TIS

ISAIAH i. 3.

a severe but an affectionate reproach of the prophet's, laid against the Israelites, which may safely be applied to every heedless, and unthankful people, who are neither won by God's mercies, nor terrified by his punishments. - There is a giddy, thoughtless, intemperate spirit gone forth into the world, which possesses the generality of mankind, - and the reason the world is undone, is, because the world does not consider, - considers neither awful regard to God- or the true relation themselves bear to him. Could they consider this, and learn to weigh the causes, and compare the consequences of things, and to exercise the reason, which GOD has put into us for the government and direction of our lives, - there would be some hopes of a reformation: - but as the world goes, there is no leisure for such inquiries, and so full are our minds of other matters, that we have not time to ask, nor a heart to answer the questions we ought to put to ourselves.

Whatever our condition is, 'tis good to be acquainted with it in time, to be able to supply what is wanting, — and examine the state of our accounts, before we come to give them up to an impartial judge.

The most inconsiderate see the reasonableness of this, - there being few, I believe, either so thoughtless, or even so bad, but that they sometimes enter upon this duty, and have some short intervals of self-examination, which they are forced upon, if from no other motive, yet at least to free themselves from the load and oppression of spirits they must necessarily be subject to without it. But as the scripture frequently intimates - and observation confirms it daily, - that there are many mistakes attending the discharge of this duty,

I cannot make the remainder of this discourse more useful, than by a short inquiry into them. I shall therefore, first, beg leave to remind you of some of the many unhappy ways, by which we often set about this irk

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