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That man then was created in the image of God, and that he ftill retains this divine fimilitude, is a truth which fcripture has afferted, and reafon and experience do, I hope, fufficiently confirm: in the remainder of this difcourfe, therefore, I fhall endeavour to point out to you, in what manner a thorough conviction of it may be of fervice to us in our life and

manners.

And First, then, It is incumbent on us to have a good opinion of ourselves, and of the dignity of our nature; to confider whom we reprefent, and fhew our gratitude to him; to maintain our rank of reasonable beings, and not by our vices and our lufts degrade ourselves to brutes. In the works of human artifts, the most diftant likeness of those we love, is fure to meet with our approbation; how, then, if we really love God, ought we to admire the picture of him drawn by his own hand, and reprefented to us in the lovlieft colours? Though we do not, with the church of Rome, bow down to and worship, yet doubtlefs ought we to reverence and efteem the image of God in our fellow-creatures. Let us not then look al

ways through the wrong end of the perfpective, magnify the faults and blemishes, diminifh and fet at a distance the virtues of men; but rather, like fkilful painters, conceal the deformities, and only expofe to view the perfections of human nature.

Secondly, We must all remember, that it is not in the body, but in the foul, in the more refined and spiritual part, is placed our chief refem

refemblance to God: let this teach us, therefore, not to value ourselves on the external qualities and perfections of our bodies, not on youth, ftrength, or beauty, but on works of charity, patience, and benevolence; let us improve and imprint ftronger on ourselves this image of God; let us meditate on, purfue, and copy after, the divine attributes, till we tranfplant them one by one into our own fouls; till we are pure as he is pure. And here it may not be improper to obferve, that of all the marks of fimilitude between the creature and the Creator, there is not a more diftinguishing one than that which God has pleased to impart to us, of his eternal existence: the foul of man is not as pure, as wife, or as powerful, but it is as immortal as the author of it: a glorious happiness this to the good, a dreadful warning to the wicked, that if we do not make it our glory and our pleasure to imitate him in this life, it must be our mifery and our torment in

the next.

Thirdly, If men are the images of God, let it teach us to behave towards them with that respect and kindness, that tenderness and affection, which we owe to them as brethren, and which are due to their noble extraction. Doubtlefs God made us with a defign to love what he loves; to be like him, active, generous, and beneficent. The confideration of this fhould influence all ranks and all degrees of men, high and low. Let it add to the tendernefs of the parent for his offspring, that his children are not only the image of himself,

but,

but of God alfo; let it add to the zeal of the magiftrate, to reflect that thofe committed to his care, and dependent on his protection, are the copies of that great magiftrate, who cherifhes, loves, and protects us all; let it reprefs the pride of the rich man, that the poor is as much the image of God as himself, and he therefore that oppreffeth the poor, reproacheth. his Maker; let it correct the infolence of the mafter, to call to mind that the flave he tramples on and defpifes, is the image, and perhaps a far better one than himfelf, of one common Lord and Mafter, the Creator of them both. When God forbids the crime of murder, and denounces vengeance againf it, it is faid, Whofo fheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be fhed; and the reafon immediately follows; for in the image of God made he man.

of

Let the princes and great ones of the world then, who facrifice millions to the wantonnefs power and ambition, whilft they impiously call on God for fuccefs and victory, remem. ber it is his fons whom they opprefs, his image whom they destroy.

Laftly, Let this great truth convince those whom fortune and titles have exalted to a fu perior rank, that nothing but virtue can beftow true nobility; that there is in human nature no real pre-eminence but that of goodness; that all men, in all other things, once were and will foon again be on a level; that an hour muft one day come, and a place must be vifited, when and where, without the leaft regard to title, rank or profeffion here, every man will

meet

meet with that reward which he deferves, when God the father fhall reward thofe only of his fons, who, as he created them in his image, have made it the bufinefs of their lives to preferve that divine fimilitude.

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF AFFLICTION.

SER M MON VI,

ECCLES. VII. 3.

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the fadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

S

OLOMON, the fuppofed author of the Book of Ecclefiaftes, though exalted to the highest rank of human life, and placed on the throne of Ifrael, was no ftranger to forrow and affliction, but had experienced no doubt their advantages, which with the utmoft gratitude he doth, in the words of my text, fairly and candidly acknowledge: he had toiled through the whole round of pleafure, had indulged himself in the unlimited gratification of all his wifhes and defires, and given the reins to every paffion: the natural confequence of this indul. gence was that which will always arife from fuch a conduct, the melancholy confeffion which he himself makes, that all was vanity and vexation

vexation of fpirit. He begins at last to recollect his fcattered reafon, to be ftruck with the conviction of his folly, and pierced with the confcioufnefs of his guilt; he quits therefore with eagerness thofe fcenes of mirth and gaiety which grew irkfome and difagreeable, and flies for relief to thofe which one would not at first imagine could beftow it, to fcenes of mifery and diftrefs, and concludes, from the inward fatisfaction that he felt, and the folid advantages which he had received from them, that It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feafting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.

Sorrow, fays he, is better than laughter, for by the fadness of the countenance the heart is made better. If, therefore, the fchool of affliction could better the heart of Solomon, it is furely worth our while to enquire whether it may not improve our own. A few feriaus reflections on the truth delivered in the text, may turn us afide from that love of pleasure which feems fo univerfally to prevail amongst us, and direct us to that profitable affliction which may fave, and that godly forrow which may relicve us.

And firft, then, I fhall endeavour to prove to you, in confirmation of Solomon's opinion, that forrow is better than laughter;

Becaufe, Firft, It gives us a more humble, and therefore a better heart:

Secondly, It gives us a firmer, fteadier, and more noble, and therefore a better heart:

And

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