tion and society, and the endearing intercourse of domestic love? How we deserved these nothings, it would be difficult for us to say, which ought alone to repress our complaints when they are withdrawn from us. Of some indeed, and these much the most valuable, we cannot be deprived but by ourselves, and if we will but retain these, they will amply compensate and console us for the loss of the others. There are, therefore, many positive pleasures in this life, the greatest of which all either do or might enjoy; pleasures which, for the most part, far exceed, both in duration and weight, the proportion of woes which are intermixed with them. Is it not then the highest ingratitude, after we have been, for a long time, experiencing great and unmerited favours at the hands of God, if the scene a little varies and presents us with darker prospects, to be impatient and discontented?

But still farther, if the matter be accurately examined, we shall find that many of the evils, which are the subject of our hasty complaints, are brought on us by our own imprudence: disappointments frequently arise from unreasonable expectations; that degree of poverty, which is -highly oppressive and disgraceful, is the general product of idleness: sickness is, in many instances, caused by intemperance; the loss of reputation, by vice or folly in these cases, shame, one would think, should silence our murmurs, and prevent us from attributing to the constitution

of human affairs, what is only to be imputed to ourselves.

Instances indeed may be met with, where the misery of particular individuals greatly overbalances their happiness, and where, perhaps, it could have been prevented by no exertions of prudence or of virtue: those, however, to whose lot this may fall, are not (as I have shewn in the beginning of this discourse) without abundant reasons for consolation; though woe be their present portion, it will arise from their own negligence, if it be not converted into bliss; heaviness may endure for a night, but, by patience and piety, joy cometh in the morning.

Let us then enjoy, with moderation and gratitude, the bounties of God, and let us submit with manly firmness to his chastisements; let us esteem them, as they are, but as different modes of his goodness; let us understand them, as they are meant, as trials of our virtue, and correctors of our hearts; and let us rest assured, that if we carry ourselves under them with truly religious resignation, we shall entitle ourselves to the benediction pronounced by our Saviour on those who mourn; and at the great day of retribution shall, in return for transitory pain and sorrow, be recompensed with an eternity of bliss and glory.

SERMON XXXV.

THE IMPROPRIETY OF JUDGING OF THE MISFORTUNES OF OTHERS.

ST. LUKE XIII. 3.

I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

THE Occasion, on which these words were spoken, was this; it had just been related to our Saviour, that Pilate, the Roman governor, had mingled the blood of some Galileans with their sacrifices, i. e. that he had put them to death whilst they were sacrificing at the altar; from which account Jesus takes an opportunity (as was usual with him on most occurrences) to inculcate on his followers some useful religious instruction. Suppose ye (says he) that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay, but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

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Two instructive lessons are to be drawn from hence; first, that when we see misfortunes fall

on our neighbours, it is very wrong in us to interpret them into judgments-to conclude that they have happened to them on account of their sins; and, secondly, that the right use to make of them would be (without considering them at all as relating to others, or endeavouring to pry curiously into God's dispensations) to apply them to ourselves, to take warning by them, and to break off our sins by repentance, lest the same, or worse, calamities overtake us.

Our Saviour well knew the heart of man; for it is certain that we are very much inclined to assign the sufferings which others undergo, to some sins, either open or secret, of which they have been guilty: whether it be that we are induced to it from a desire of attributing our own exemption from the same misfortunes to our innocence, or whether we are flattered with appearing to understand God's dispensations, or whether we think it a mark of piety to censure those whom the Almighty afflicts ;--the fact is, that it is greatly the custom among men, when any one is attacked by some remarkable calamity, to be immediately searching for, and endeavouring to discover the occasion of it in his iniquities. From whatever cause this practice proceeds, it is very presumptuous and unreasonable, and not only so, but it is most probably in general unjust; since our Saviour peremptorily denies that any such conclusions can, with certainty, be collected :Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners

above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things; or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them," (alluding to another late occurrence) "think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you, Nay."

If we look into the history of past times, we shall find that many of those characters, who endured the greatest calamities, so far from being more wicked than those who lived at the same time, were eminently distinguished for their piety and virtue; and yet, even some of these were reproached for suffering in consequence of their sins. The misfortunes of Job, you know, were caused by his virtue; it was that which drew on him the envy and malice of the devil; yet his friends, seeing what he underwent, although they could not, with all their ill-natured penetration, discover an open stain in his life and manners, and, although they had been witnesses of his continued piety and uprightness, yet they would have it that he was vicious in secret; that, though his actions were apparently virtuous, his principles and his heart were corrupt. When, after the shipwreck of St. Paul, the viper fastened on his hand, how ready were the people amongst whom he was, to cry out, " No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." They looked when he should have experienced the usual effects of the bite of a venomous beast," when he should