with more vigour to the exercises of piety. An uniform perseverance in these holy practices, will produce a steady confidence in the Divine favour, and that confidence will complete his happiness. To which that we may all attain, God of his infinite mercy grant, for the merits of Jesus Christ, our Saviour; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour, adoration, and praise, now and ever! Amen.
SERMON VIII.
"Be not wise in your own conceits." Rom. xii. 16, last part.
It has been observed by those who have employed themselves in considering the methods of Providence, and the government of the world, that good and evil are distributed, through all states of life, if not in equal proportions, yet in such degrees as leave very little room for those murmurs and complaints, which are frequently produced by superficial inquiries, negligent surveys, and impatient comparisons.
Every condition has, with regard to this life, its inconveniencies, and every condition has likewise its advantages; though its position to the eye of the beholder may be so varied, as that at some times the misery may be concealed, and at other times the happiness; but to judge only by the eye is not the way to discover truth. We may pass by men, without being able to distinguish whether they are to be numbered among those whose felicities, or whose sorrows, preponderate; as we may walk over the ground, without knowing whether its entrails contain mines of gold, or beds of sand.
Nor is it less certain, that, with respect to the more important prospects of a future state, the same impartiality of distribution may be generally remarked; every
