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many a tragical instance on record, what greater evils have been run into, merely to avoid this one.

Without this tax of infamy, poverty, with all the burdens it lays upon our flesh so long as it is virtuous, could never break the spirits of a man: all its hunger, and pain, and nakedness, are nothing to it; they have some counterpoise of good; and befides they are directed by Providence, and must be fubmitted to: but those are afflictions, not from the hand of GoD or nature" for they do come "forth of the Dust, and most properly may be said "to spring out of the GROUND; and this is the rea"fon they lay such stress upon our patience, and " in the end, create such a distrust of the world, as " makes us look up and pray, Let me fall into

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thy hands, O God! but let me not fall into the hands of men."

Agreeable to this, was the advice of Eliphaz to Job in the day of his distress" Acquaint thyself,

faid he, Now with God:" indeed his poverty feemed to have left him no other friend: the swords of the Sabeans had frightened them away-all but a few; and, of what kind they were, the very proverb, of Job's comforters says enough.

It is an instance which gives one great concern for human nature, "That a man, who always wept for " him who was in trouble ;-who never faw any perish " for want of clothing;-who never fuffered the stranger

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to lodge in the street, but opened his door to the tra

"veller:" that a man of so good a character,that he never caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

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or had eaten bis morfel by himlelf alone, and the fa

"therless had not eaten thereof; that fuch a man the moment he fell into poverty, should have occafion to cry out for quarter, - Have mercy upon me, O my friends! for the hand of God has touched me, Gentleness and humanity (one would think) would melt the hardest heart, and charm the fiercest spirit; bind up the most violent hand, and still the most abusive tongue;--but the experiment failed in stronger instance, of Him, whose meat and drink it was to do us good; and, in pursuit of which, whose whole life was a continued scene of kindness and of infults, for which we must go back to the fame explanation with which we fet out, and that is, the scandal of poverty.

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" This fellow we know not whence he is" was the popular cry of one part; and with those who seemed to know better, the quere did not lessen the disgrace:

-Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? Of Mary!-great God of Ifrael! What! of the meanest of thy people! for he had not regarded the low eflate of his hand-maiden) and of the pooreft, too! (for the had not a lamb to offer, but was purified, as Mofes directed in such a cafe, by the oblation of a turtle dove).

That the SAVIOUR of their nation could be poor, and not have where to lay his head, was a crime never to be forgiven; and though the purity of his doctrine, and the works which he had done in its support, were stronger arguments on its fide, than his humiliation could be against it, yet the offence still remained :-they looked for the redemption of Ifrael; but they would have it only in those dreams of power which filled their imagination.

Ye who weigh the worth of all things only in the goldsmith's balance! was this religion for you? -a religion whose appearance was not great and splendid, but looked thin and meagre, and whose principles and promises showed more like the curses of the law, than its bleffings! for they called for fufferings, and promised little but perfecutions.

In truth, it is not easy for tribulation or distress, for nakednefs or famine, to make many converts out of pride: or reconcile a worldly heart to the scorn and reproaches, which were fure to be the portion of every one who believed a mystery so discredited by the world, and fo unpalatable to all its paffions and pleasures.

But, to bring this fermon to its proper conclufion

If Aftrea, or Justice, never finally took her leave of the world, till the day that poverty first became ridiculous, it is matter of confolation, that the GoD of Justice is ever over us; that whatever outrages the lowness of our condition may be exposed to, from a mean and undifcerning world, that we walk in the presence of the greatest and most generous of Beings, who is infinitely removed from cruelty and straitness of mind, and all those little and illiberal paffions, with which we hourly infult each other.

The worst part of mankind are not always to be conquered; but if they are 'tis by the imitation of these qualities, which must do it: 'Tis true

as I've shown they may fail; but still all is not loft,for if we conquer not the world in the very attempts to do it, we should at least conquer ourselves, and lay the foundation of our peace (where it ought to be) within our own hearts.

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1

SERMON XVII.

The Cafe of Hezekiah and the Meffengers *.

2 KINGS XX. 15.

And he faid, What have they seen in thine house? and Hezekiah anfwered, All the things that are in my house have they feen: there is nothing amongst all my treafures that I have not shown them.

this?

AND where was the harm, you'll say, in all

"An eastern prince, the fon of Baladan, had " fent messengers with presents as far as from Babylon, to congratulate Hezekiah upon the recovery " from his fickness; and Hezekiah, who was a good "prince, acted consistently with himself: be receiv"ed and entertained the men, and bearkened unto them; " and before he sent them away, he courteoufly " showed them all that was worth a stranger's curi"ofity in his house and in his kingdom and in

this, seemed only to have difcharged himself or "what urbanity or the etiquette of courts might re

* Preached before his Excellency the Earl of HERTFORD, at Paris 1,63.

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