II.

The Lord, who feeth in fecret, will SER M. reward us openly; he is our fhepherd,

therefore fhall we lack nothing; we have in heaven a kind Mafter, and an indulgent Father, the great Creator and Preferver of us all; to whom our interefts are much dearer, as well as infinitely better known than to ourselves.

This thought must administer the greatest and most solid fatisfaction to a right mind in every station and circumftance of life; it is this alone which can. support us under forrow, want, pain, or any other adverfity; the blaft of public cenfure, and all the malice of an illnatured, designing world: this will soften the rigour of flavery, give a charm to health, and keep up our fpirits under sickness and anguish, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment. This will bring a man peace at the last, that peace

4

SERM.

II.

peace which neither the world, nor the importunate prayers of it, which none in fhort, but our great and perpetual Benefactor, can bestow.

On him then let us caft our care, for he careth for us; let us not pretend to guide the Moft High, or to direct the hand of the Almighty, but in all humility fubmit ourselves to his divine will, and only afk of him that which he in his wisdom shall think most proper and moft convenient for us: He who knoweth our neceffities before we afk, and our ignorance in afking, will have compaffion on our infirmities; and thofe things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot afk; this, with all that we can want, he will vouchsafe to give us, for the worthiness of his Son Jefus Christ our

Lord,

ON

VANITY.

SERMON III.

ECCLES. II. 1.

I faid in my heart, go to now; I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold! this alfo is-Vanity.

SOLOMON having

III.

COMON having proved to man- SERM. kind by fad example the vanity of human learning, that in much wisdom there is much grief, and that he who increaseth knowledge increaseth forrow, is inclined to try fome other means of happinefs; he is refolved therefore to change the scene, to quit the perplexing labyrinths of fcience, the rough and thorny roads which he had trodden fo unsuccessfully,

and