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DISCOURSE VII..

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GALATIANS vi. 9.

And let us not be weary in well-doing: For in due Seafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

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HE Text, and other like Paffages of Scripture, are founded in this known Truth, That God does not ordinarily dispense the Rewards and Punishments due to Virtue and Vice in this Life; but that he has appointed another Time and Place, how far diftant we know not, in which all Accounts fhall be fet right, and every Man receive according to his Works. What Force the Objects of Senfe have upon the Minds of Men, how far they outweigh the distant Hopes of Religion, is Matter of daily Experience. The World pays prefently; but the

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Language of Religion is-We fhall reap, if we faint not. It may be thought perhaps,

that it would have been better for the Caufe of Religion, if the Rewards of it had been immediate, and more nearly related to our Senses; and, the Cafe being otherwise, proves in fact a great Prejudice to Virtue. But, if we can take leave of our Imaginations a little, and attend to Reason, we fhall fee, that this Difpenfation of Providence was ordained in Wisdom. Were the Case otherwife; were Men to receive a due Recom→ pence of Reward in this World for the Good they do, there would be no Reason why they fhould grow weary in well-doing, no Caufe for their fainting under the Work, which would fo abundantly and immediately repay all their Labour and Pains.

It is natural for Men, when they have before their Eyes flagrant Inftances of Wickedness and Impiety, to make a secret Demand upon God in their own Hearts, for Justice against fuch notorious Offenders. If their Demands are not answered, (and they rarely are) but the Wicked continue to flourish, and the Good to fuffer under their Oppreffion; they, rightly judging that they were mistaken in their Expectations, and not rightly

rightly judging where to charge the Mistake, are apt to conclude, that they have cleanfed their Hearts in vain, and in vain have they washed their Hands in Innocency.

Whenever the Hopes and Expectations are raised beyond all Probability of being anfwered in the Event, they can yield nothing but Uneafinefs, Anger and Indignation against the Course of Things in the World: And yet, who is to blame? Not he that appointed this natural Order, but he who understood it fo little, as to expect from it, what it was never intended to produce. Would you pity the Husbandman, fhould you fee him lamenting his Misfortune, because he could not reap in Spring, when all the World knows the Time of Harvest is not till Summer? The Cafe is the fame in all other Inftances: If Men anticipate the Reward of their Labour by the Eagerness and Impatience of their Hopes, they will be disappointed indeed; but not because their Labour is in vain, which in due Time will bring its Reward, but because their Expectations are vain and unreasonable, and outrun the Order of Nature, which cannot be tranfgreffed.

You fee then of what Confequence it is to us rightly to balance our Expectations, and

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to adjust them to that natural Course and Order of Things, which Providence has eftablished in the World. We may easily lose the Fruit of our well-grounded Hopes, by giving ourselves up to the Delufion of false ones. If we grow fick of our Work, because our untimely Wishes are disappointed, we shall forfeit the Reward, which patient Continuance in well-doing would, in the natural Course of Things, bring with it. And this I take to be the Foundation and Ground of the Apostle's Exhortation in the Text, Let us not be weary in well-doing: For in due Seafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

It is no uncommon Thing, I know, to prefs Men to a virtuous Behaviour, in Profpect of the Rewards which fuch a Behaviour is entitled to in this World; and there is, as well Experience, as Scripture, to justify the fo doing: For, if Peace and Tranquillity' of Mind here, and Hopes full of Comfort with respect to hereafter, are Ingredients in human Happiness; and furely they are the greatest these are to be had, and only to be had, from a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Man. But this Argument is fo little concerned with the external Good and Evil of the World, that it is

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applicable to Men of all Fortunes and Conditions. Thus we preach to the Prince, and thus we preach to the meaneft of his Subjects: One cannot enjoy his Greatness, nor the other bear his Diftrefs, without those Supports, which Innocence and Virtue can only administer. The Pleasures of Life are a joyless Fruition to a Mind fick of Guilt; and the Evils of it are too sharp to be endured by a wounded Spirit.

Thus far we tread fafely in promifing a present Reward to Virtue; we exceed not the Order appointed by God, who, if he has given us fome Defires, which, in our present State of Degeneracy, often prove Temptations to Imiquity, has given us also so much Reason and Understanding, that we cannot be wicked and happy in ourselves at the fame Time: How much farther than this we may go, shall presently be confidered. But if Men, when they hear of an Happinefs due as the Reward of Virtue in this Life, will conceive Hopes of obtaining Honour, Power, and Riches from God in Recom→ pence of their Obedience, they raise an Expectation which was never yet generally anfwered, and, I fuppofe, for very good Reasons, never will; and whilft they pursue

VOL. III.

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