SERM.

And, 1. Let us often confider fuch ArguXVII. ments, to move us to the Pursuit after it, Was I have before mentioned: How eafy, and fe

date, and happy, it will make us in the inward State, and the fecret Receffes, of our own Minds; how beneficial it will be in its Influences upon the Public; how many Miferies it might have prevented; how many Happineffes it would procure, were it univerfally practifed. Let us then confider of how bad Confequence, and of what wretched Influence the Temper contrary to it muft neceffarily be, upon Society; what Wrath and Anger, what Malice and Ill-will; what Outrages, and Tumults, and Wars, and Maffacres, it has been, and ever will be, the Occafion of; A deep Sense of these, and of the great Duty of imitating God in our Tempers and Practice, will help us in the obtaining and poffeffing this divine Virtue. And

2. In order to this, it is abfolutely neceffary that we should free ourselves from Hatred and Malice, Pride and Arrogance. Love and Humility are the proper Road to this Virtue; but Uncharitableness and Pride lead us into Paths quite diftinct from, and oppofite to it. For the more we love our Neighbour, the more ready fhall we be to defign and promote his Happinefs; and the more defirous and ftudious we are of that, the more fhall we be willing to

+ yield

S

yield all leffer Points up to it; to comply in any s ER M. thing of no great Importance, when that de- xvII. mands it. And then, the more humble we are, the lefs Opinion and Value we fet upon Ourfelves; the lefs fhall we be fenfible of any undervaluing of ourselves by Compliance and Yielding; the more ready fhall we be to submit to all good Offices; to recede from what we might, perhaps, in Juftice, claim, and to fhew a Pattern to all about us, of Moderation and Condefcenfion. But, on the other fide, if we have conceived, or do nourish, any Prejudices against Mens Perfons; if we hate and abhor Men, because they do not fall in with us in all things; or entertain any fort of Ill-will against them; this will make us glad to displease and incenfe them, to heighten their Prejudices already embraced, but is never likely to make us confult their Good at any Time, or prefer it before the least Advantage, or most infignificant Humour, of our own; or to make us follicitous in our Endeavours after a Frame of Mind, which confifts in a Readiness to yield and comply, for the fake of our common Good and Happiness.

And therefore, if our Breafts be filled with Pride, with an overweening Conceit of Ourfelves, of our own Abilities, and our own Way ; if we be too arrogant to hear of any Alteration in Ourselves; if we think it beneath our Dignity to

stoop

SERM. gainst the like deplorable Calamities ; nor XVII. tranfmit those ineftimable Bleffings of Religi

ous and Civil Liberty, we at prefent enjoy, (under the wife Government of Those who appear to know the Value of this Virtue) fafe, and unviolated, to future Times: And this, I am fure, ought to be the hearty Endeavour of every Proteftant Englishman, of what Denomination foever.

SER

SERMON XVIII.

Preached at St. Swithin's Church, on Sept. 2, 1702, being the Faft-day obferved in Remembrance of the Fire of London, 1666.

LUKE XIX. 41, 42.

And when he was come near, he beheld the City, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy Day, the Things that belong unto thy Peace! But now they are hid from thine Eyes.

T

HE City our bleffed Lord thus wept s E R M. over, was Jerufalem; efteemed, by the xvIII. Jews, as the Glory of the whole

Earth. But he wept not over it, as a Collection of fine Buildings; but as it was the Capital City, and principal Resort, of the whole Jewish Nation; as it contained in it a vaft Number of that People whom God had chofen out of the World to be his own: an ungrateful and rebellious People, that had had all MeBb thods

SER M. thods tried with them, to make them better XVIII. and happier, but could not be reclaimed by

any; that had killed and stoned the Prophets God had fent to them, and now were going to reject and kill his Son; and fo were deftined, through their own Wickedness, to a great and remarkable Ruine and Destruction. The Thought and Forefight of this moved the Compaffion of our Lord, who came to fave them. When he was near, He beheld the City; and that View brought to his Mind those difmal Calamities the Inhabitants of it were calling down upon themselves: And he wept over it, expreffing his tender Regard to it's Inhabitants in this Wish, If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy Day, i. e. if, in this your last Trial, now at this Time when I am fent to You with the last Offers of God's Mercy, the Things that belong to thy Peace! If You, the Inhabitants, had understood what is your true and real Interest, your Duty and your Happiness! But now they are hid from thine Eyes, i. e. from this Time, If You, the People highly favoured of God, are refolved to perfist in Infidelity, and even to reject Me your long-expected Meffiah, whom God has fent to you, with his laft Offers; there can be no more Hopes. God Almighty moft justly now gives you over, to be led by that perverfe Spirit

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