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SERM. hastily approaching, and at which some of XX. us, most probably, shall very soon arrive.

Such meditations, frequently repeated, will

be the most powerful motives with us so to conduct ourselves, as can alone give us fortitude to support the bodily pains to which we may be doomed, and alone enable us to meet our dissolution undisturbed by anguish and terror, and inspire us with a decent confidence to stand before our judge, and afford us a well-grounded expectation of receiving a favourable sentence.

SERMON

SERMON XXI.

OF CASTING YOUR CARE UPON GOD.

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Casting all your care upon him, for he careth

for you.

To cast their care upon God, is one of the SERM. duties which the Apostle enjoins his disci- XXI. ples, towards the conclusion of this epistle; and he persuades them to the observation of the injunction by the strongest of all arguments" for God careth for you."

In the following discourse, I shall explain what is meant by casting your care upon

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XXI.

SERM. upon God; secondly, what you are to understand by God's caring for you; and, lastly, I shall endeavour to shew the force which there is in God's caring for you, to induce you to cast your care upon him.

No command can be so plainly given but that some will mistake it; and there have been persons who have imagined that, by being ordered to cast their care upon God, as meant that they should take no care or trouble, themselves, of any kindthat they should be altogether idle-and not in any shape concern themselves with earthly affairs;-but this is both contrary to reason and to many express commands of scripture:-it is contrary to reason, to suppose that we should be sent into this world and be required to pay no attention to its concerns-it is contrary also to reason to suppose that so many faculties, so many talents, so many passions, so much ability to be useful to our fellow-creatures,

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should

should have been bestowed on us to no SERM. end; and it is contrary to many express

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commands of scripture, by which we are enjoined to provide for ourselves and our families, and to be industrious, that we may have it in our power to be charitable; neither of which can be done without some sort of care. God expects from us ertions of this kind, and has made it a part of our duty to use them; but the care which the text commands us to part from, is that over solicitude, that anxiety about the things of this world, which entirely absorbs our attention and takes it off from the things of the next-this the apostle exhorts us to banish, and to leave the object of it to the providence of God. We may, with propriety, do all we innocently can, to procure the good and avoid the evil of this life: but when we have done all, we must leave the event to heaven, and not disquiet and torment ourselves about

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XXI.

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SERM. about it. The nature and meaning of the XXI. command of "casting our care upon God,"

being thus shortly explained, the argument by which we are persuaded to obey it, follows" for he careth for you."-God observes, minutely, the affairs of men, and orders them for the best; we ought, therefore, to leave our concerns in his hands, and to rest contented with his disposal of them.

If you allow that there is a God, and that he made the world, I think it will follow, of course, that he governs it; for is it credible that a being who has been at the pains of raising such a magnificent structure, who has furnished it with such an infinite variety of creatures so admirably suited to the use and service of each other, should, as soon as he had finished it, entirely desert his own work:-is it not rather to be concluded that he still continues to superintend it, that he still continues to per

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