SERM. souls. The duties which relate to our XX.

fellow-creatures I have already laid before you; to those due from us to God, and which have for their object the salvation of our souls, I shall beg your attention at present.

The first of these which I shall mention is patience. This virtue is the more necessary for us to practise, inasmuch as without it we shall be totally unable to practise any other. Turbulence or despondency under our pains and danger will equally unfit us either for performing, or even perceiving, what we ought to do. To be resigned to our afflictions, be they of what kind they may, is likewise the express command of God, and that in such a multitude of places in the scripture, that it is not necessary to mention them: in conformity with this command, all the most eminent personages whose history is recorded in the sacred writings were re

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markably distinguished by their patient sub- SER M. mission to the evils which befel them. You remember the numberless, heavy calamities which were experienced by Job; what were his sentiments under them ?" The "Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken

away; blessed be the name.of the Lord!" And when to the other evils, with which he was oppressed, the most loathsome and painful disease was added, how nobly does he support himself under it! The recollection of the past blessings, which he had enjoyed, engaged his gratitude more than his present sufferings excited his affliction. Shall we receive good (exclaimed he) at "the hands of God, and shall we not re

ceive evil ?" You have not forgot the resigned answer of Eli to the prophetic threatnings of Samuel:-" It is the Lord, "let him do what seemeth him good." Indeed this consideration-that our suffering is from God, as it should reconcile us

SERM. to all other afflictions, loss of property,

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reputation, friends,-so also should it reconcile us to the loss of health, and to the apparently approaching loss of life, not only when it pleases God to deprive us of our substance, to cross us in our hopes and expectations, and to snatch from us our nearest connexions; but when, in language of scripture," he puts forth his hand, and "touches our bone and our flesh, and "threatens to take from us that breath "which he bestowed, even then ought we "to bend submissively to his decrees."But patience under the pains of sickness is not only our duty, it is our interest also, and that both with regard to this world and the next. To fret, to repine, to give encouragement either to peevishness or despondency, will greatly increase any evil with which we may be afflicted, and more particularly sickness; while, by an opposite behaviour, we may frequently

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alleviate it, and that not only in idea, but SERM. in reality. It is our interest to be patient, likewise, with a view to our condition in the next world; whatever evils befall us here are capable of being converted into the greatest good to us hereafter by our conduct under them; and of all proper conduct, resignation is the ground and foundation. Another duty which I shall mention as necessary for the sick to exercise, is self-examination. This is required of us at certain seasons during the whole course of our lives, but it is more particularly our duty, when the last opportunity of making our peace with God is apparently arrived; then, especially, it behoves us to search what sort of persons we are, and what is our chance of eternal salvation.This self-examination is made by comparing our conduct with the rule of our duty; by asking ourselves, whether we have been habitually pious towards God? whether we

SERM. have offered our prayers and thanksgivings

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to him regularly at his house, on his own peculiar day? and whether we have been constant in the performance of the same pious offices, morning and evening, at our own homes?

We must inquire, likewise, whether we have behaved to our fellow-creatures as we could reasonably expect that they should behave towards us; whether we have been just, charitable, gentle, forgiving. This self-examination may to too many be a melancholy task; but this ought to be a strong argument with us not to act wrong in health, for if we do, we must take the consequences; and it is better for us to feel the most bitter remorse, and to undergo the most alarming terrors in this world, while they may possibly be the means of bettering our condition hereafter, than to stifle all thought and reflection, and die with all our unrepented sins upon our heads.

For