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ens to the utmost all the nobler Satisfactions of the Mind: that of fincere Good-will to all Men; that of tender Complacency in those, to whom we are united more nearly: whence proceed honourable Efteem, and affectionate Returns. Or, though we miss the Regard we deferve from Men, we fhall have a reviving Confcioufnefs, that we have acted worthily, that we have laboured to promote Goodness and Happiness on Earth, that the Sins and Sufferings of our Fellow-creatures are not owing to us. This applauding Teftimony of our Hearts will indeed be mixed with the Grief of many Failings but also, with the Affurance, that our heavenly Father forgives them, for the Sake of our gracious Redeemer; with the Experience, that he is enabling us to overcome them, by the Grace of our inward Sanctifier, and preparing us daily for the Bleffedness, to which he invites us. For fuch Mercies we cannot but love him: and whoever doth fo, is in Proportion beloved by him. The Senfe of this must give us great Compofure about every Thing worldly, Difdain of every Thing vicious, and Comfort in going through the very lowest and hardest Acts of Duty. We fhall pass the Days of our Pilgrimage in as much Delight as

the

the Nature of it affords: and when we come to our final Abode, every Capacity of spiritual Enjoyment, to which we have improved ourfelves here, fhall be inconceivably augmented, and completely filled: we shall be abundantly Satisfied with the Fatnefs of God's Houfe, and drink of the River of his Pleafures". For in his Prefence is the Fullness of Joy, and at his right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore‘.

*Pfal. xxxvi. 8,

1 Pfal. xvi. II.

SER

SERMON VI.

HEB. xii. 2.

Looking unto fefus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith: who, for the foy that was set before him, endured the Cross, defpifing the Shame, and is fet down at the right Hand of the Throne of God.

D

IRECTING our Eye is neceffary for guiding our Steps; and therefore the Apostle here directs the Eye of our Mind to Jefus Chrift: whom if we fo contemplate, as to learn what he was, and expects us to be, Nothing will be wanting to carry us happily through the Journey of Life. And it ufeful to begin with confidering his familiar Manifestation of himself on Earth, whence we shall naturally be led to confider his higher and more awful Glories.

may

be

Now in this lowest View, we shall find him to have been the most amiable and the most

venerable

venerable Perfon, beyond all Comparison, that the World ever knew. Meditate only with serious Attention on the evidently artless Account given of him in the Gospels, and you will fee, with an Admiration continually increafing, how perfect his Character was in every Point: how warm his Sentiments, yet how just his Notions, of Piety to his heavenly Father; how ftrong and affectionate his expreffions of it; yet how rational, and how peculiarly fuitable to his very peculiar Situation: how compofed his Refignation, though with the acuteft Feeling of all that he underwent ; and how firm his Truft in God even at the Hour of Death, under the most painful Senfe of the Light of his Countenance being withdrawn from him: how regular his Practice of the Whole of Religion, yet how accurate his Preference of one Part of it to another: how active and bold and perfevering his Zeal; yet how completely free from all the Weaknefs, and all the Bitterness, with which Zeal is too often accompanied; how intimately tempered with Patience towards the flow of Apprehenfion; Efteem for the well meaning though erroneous; Pity for the bad, though perverfe and incorrigible; what perpetual

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