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SERMON V.

HAB. if. 17, 18.

ALTHOUGH THE FIG-TREE SHALL NOT BLOSSOM, NEITHER SHALL FRUIT BE IN THE VINES, THE LABOUR OF THE OLIVE SHALL FAIL, AND THE FIELDS SHALL YIELD NO MEAT, THE FLOCK SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM THE FOLD, AND THERE SHALL BE NO HERD IN THE STALLS: YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL JOY IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION.

T is very easy to conceive and allow,

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that, if vice and virtue were indiffefent to the author of nature, he would not have distinguished the one from the

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other by any particular marks of approbation and dislike. And yet, it is very vifible, even amidst the prefent diforder of the world, that he has established a very great and effential difference between them: a difference, not lying in flight occafional effects or temporary confequences, (for this might be refolved into mere accident) but fixed deep in the very frame and conftitution of things; which could proceed only from purpose or defign.

THE World could not fubfift without the practice of virtue. Happiness, as far as we can enjoy it in this imperfect ftate, is wholly the effect of virtue: vice is the cause of our principal and worst distreffes. If a nation flourishes, it is virtue, that exalteth it; if a private man is great, and eminent, and ufeful, it is virtue that forms the character. If, on the contrary, provinces are defolated and fenced cities laid into. ruinous heaps, it is vice that occafions

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the devastation; if a man is a burden or fcourge to the earth, it is the indulgence of fome vicious propensity that puts his mischievous powers in motion. Kingdoms, we fee, rife and fall, families flourish and decay, in perpetual fucceffion.* Examine into the causes, and you will find, that induftry, temperance, justice and other virtues have occafioned the profperity -while théfe virtues continue, and adminifter, as it were, their vital juices to the root, the plant continues to flourish and bless the world with its useful produce

but as

these virtues fail, and floth, and luxury, and diffipation take place, the fcene gradually fades away, disgrace and misery enfue.

We cannot have a better proof, that the author of nature is engaged in ge

* IMPERIUM facilè iis artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum eft. Verúm, ubi pro labore defidia, pro continentiâ et equitate libido atque fuperbia invafere; fortuna fimul cum moribus immutatur.

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SAL.

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neral on the fide of virtue. As to the particular instances, where the righteous and wicked fare alike, where the wicked flourish and the righteous fall into affliction, this shakes not a wife man's faith: fecret things belong to GOD: he may have a thousand reafons for the prefent ways of his Providence. Our business is to confide, that he, who wants not the means or power to fulfil his purposes, will amply do it, some time or other, in every inftance, and rectify every inequality.

SUCH a reliance on an Almighty and gracious Providence is abfolutely neceffary to prefent happiness. Though it enables us not to pass with uninterrupted comfort through life, yet it is the best preparative for all its chances and changes. It heightens every bleffing, brightens every prospect, and alleviates every calamity. It is almost health upon the bed of fickness, riches amidst the wants of poverty, liberty amidst the

chains of bondage, and hope in the deepest scenes of distress.

A PARADOX as it feems, we are however taught this leffon by the holy prophet. He imagines a dreadful affemblage of the worst of human evils : Although, fays he, the fig-tree shall not bloffom, neither fall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no berd in the falls. Amidst all this accumulated diftrefs, he is ftill happy; not, as philofophic ease and fpeculation affect to speak, because virtue is sufficient to its own happiness, ftripped of all rewards, all foreign confolations; but because he trufts in GOD. It is from the gracious author of the world, he expects the removal of its prefent diforders

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I will rejoice, fays he, IN

*PAUPERIEM fine dote quæro.

HOR.

THE

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