thy toil and affiduity? whether thou wilt be fure of happinness if thou haft them, or muft of neceffity be miserable if thou haft them not? And above all, remember to afk thy felf this important queftion, whether fuch poor and tranfitory blifs as they can afford, fhould be purchased at the dear expence of thy innocence and virtue?

But another and that no inconfiderable ad. vantage arifing from the practice of this duty, is that inward complacency and fatisfaction of our own minds, which it never fails to produce.

The joy which arifeth from fenfual gratifications is momentary and tranfient, confined within the narrow limits of a fhort fruition; whilft the performance of this, and of every other focial virtue, carries with it a pleafing reflection that extends itself to futurity, and every time it recurs, creates fresh pleasure and added fatisfaction; to a mind therefore rightly difpofed, the house of mourning is a fairer habitation than the gorgeous tents of ungodlinefs: the kind and benevolent repofe themfelves with as much ease on a bed of fickness, as on the couch of luxury and intemperance; in the cup of affliction there is always fomething fweet thrown in by the hand of Providence; and the very tears of Virtue can ad minifter more true and folid fatisfaction, than Vice and Folly have it in their power to beftow.

Compaffion, we must acknowledge, is a debt which we all owe to our fellow-creatures when under the rod of affliction, and like

other

But

other debts will always leave an uneafinefs on the mind of every honeft and confcientious man, till he has faithfully discharged it. when it is paid as it ought to be, that felfapplause and secret fatisfaction which ariseth from it will make us ample retribution.

But if the motives of reafon and religion are not of themselves (and too often it happens that they are not) fufficient to perfuade us to the practice of this duty, that felf-love and felf-intereft which reign in every breaft, will moft powerfully exhort us to the execution of it.

The tear which we refufe to fhed over the miseries of others, God, and God only, knows how foon we may ourselves ftand in need of: how often doth an unexpected stroke of ficknefs put an end to the enjoyment of every human happinefs, and change the cheerful fcene of joy and comfort into a melancholy ftate of mifery and defpair! In one day, nay in one hour, the luftre of the eye fhall be extinguished, the bloom of health shall wither, and the voice of mirth and gladness fhall be fuppreffed. If therefore we do not vifit and compaffionate those who are in sickness and forrow, when we ourselves are overtaken by them, who fhall pity or compaffionate us? Then fhall we call to mind perhaps the afflictions of Jofeph, and fay as his brethren did, when they came into trouble: We are very guilty concerning our brother, in that we faw the anguifh of his foul when he befought us, and would not hear, therefore is this diftrefs come upon us.

How

How great an averfion foever the gay and unthinking part of mankind may have to all that carries with it the appearance of grave or melancholy, it may notwithstanding with truth be afferted, that he who is a ftranger to forrow, is a ftranger alfo to the beft emotions, the nobleft feelings which the human heart is capable of receiving.

There is, we must have obferved, in fome perfons a remarkable tenderness of difpofition, and a delicacy of fenfation which thofe whom we falfely term the brave and refolute never experience; a difpofition which however we may fometimes ridicule and defpife, is what in the end will most intimately unite and endear them to us. Thofe qualities which in the wantonnefs of health and profperity are apt to raise our laughter and contempt, in the hour of fickness or adverfity, fhall meet with our esteem and approbation. The truth indeed is, the value of this bleffing, like that of every other, is found only by its abfence; and we feldom know the true value of humanity and compaffion, till we come to feel the want of

them.

But laftly, and to conclude.

If we are kind, tender, and affectionate to our friends and neighbours in the trying hours of ficknefs and adverfity, we fhall not only meet in return with their pity and attendance on us, when we fall into the like calamity, but we fhall alfo find a better and more powerful friend than this world can afford to aid and fupport us. Our bleffed Saviour hath himself affured

affured us, that in as much as we fhew this tenderness and humanity towards our fellowcreatures, we fhew it unto him. If the naked whom we have clothed fhould not remember the benefit bestowed, he will himself discharge the debt, and repay us for them. If the fick whom we have visited, when restored to health, ungratefully forget the friendly vifitor, he will not forget, but will come himself to return the obligation; the Lord himself will make our bed in ficknefs; he will enable us with courage to bear with ftrength, perhaps to conquer, the disease, when we have struggled through forrow, pain, fickness and adverfity. He will lead us to a blessed habitation, where there fhall be no pain or adverfity, no diseases to afflict the body, no forrow to deprefs the mind, where joys untainted and incorruptible fhall meet, where health unimpaired and uninterrupted fhall finally and everlastingly reward us.

To thofe glorious and eternal manfions of celeftial happiness, after all our fickness, pain, and forrow here, may the God of peace, health, and joy, conduct us all, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON

ON PRAYER.

SERMON

MARK X. 38.

XXXVI.

Jefus faid unto them, Ye know not what ye afk.

HESE words of our bleffed Saviour are

THE

a fevere rebuke on two of his difciples. James and John, the fons of Zebedee, came unto him, faying, Mafter, we would that thou Shouldeft do for us whatsoever we shall defire; and he faid unto them, what would ye that I fhould do for you? and they faid unto him, grant unto us that we may fit one at thy right hand, and the other at thy left hand, in thy glory. Not content, it feems, with the humble hopes of future happiness in the manfions of the bleft, they were for afpiring to the highest and most exalted station, to be placed on each fide the throne of glory, and next in honour and dignity to their great Redeemer; a request which he, no doubt, thought highly unrcafonable. And, accordingly, fays St. Mark, he faid unto them, ye know not what ye afk; by which he gave them to understand, that he thought their demands exorbitant; that the kingdom of heaven was not a thing to be acquired with fo much eafe, or fo readily to be granted, as their vanity and felf-conceit feemed to flatter

them;