of, where whole nations have been put to the fword, or have been driven out to nakedness and famine, to make room for new comers- -Confider how great a part of our fpecies, in all ages down to this, have been trod under the feet of cruel and capricious tyrants, who would neither hear their cries, nor pity their diftreffes-Confider flavery, what it is,

how bitter a draught, and how many millions have been made to drink of it ;—which if it can poifon all earthly happiness when exercised barely upon their bodies, what must it be, when it comprehends both the flavery of body and mind;-To Conceive this, look into the history of the Romish church and her tyrants (or rather executioners) who feem to have taken pleasure in the pangs and convulfions of their fellow-creatures.-Examine the inquifition, here the melancholy notes founded in every cell. Confider the anguifh of mock trials, and the exquifite tortures confequent thereupon, merci. lefsly inflicted upon the unfortunate, where the racked and weary foul has fo often wished to take its leave-but cruelly not fuffered to depart.-Confider how many of thefe helpless wretches have been haled from thence, in all periods of this tyrannic ufurpation, to undergo the maffacres and flames to which a falfe and a bloody religion has condemned them.

If this fad hiftory and detail of the more public caufes of the miferies of man are not fufficient, let us behold him in another light with refpect to the re private caufes of them, and fee whether he is

l of trouble likewife there, and almost born to urally as the fparks fly upwards. If we con

fider man as a creature full of wants and neceffities (whether real or imaginary) which he is not able to fupply of himself, what a train of disappointments, vexations and dependencies are to be feen, iffuing from thence to perplex and make his being uneafy! -How many joftlings and hard ftruggles do wè undergo, in making our way in the world!.

How barbaroufly held back!How often and bafely overthrown, in aiming only at getting bread !

-How many of us never attain it—at least not comfortably, but, from various unknown caufeseat it all our lives long in bitterness!

If we shift the scene, and look upwards, towards thofe whole fituation in life feems to place them above the forrows of this kind, yet where are they exempt from others? Do not all ranks and conditions of men meet with fad accidents and numberless calamities in other refpects, which often make them. go heavily all their lives long!

How many fall into chronicle infirmities, which render both their days and nights restless and unsupportable? How many of the highest rank are tore up with ambition, or foured with disappointments; and how many more, from a thousand secret causes of difquiet pine away in filence, and owe their deaths to forrow and dejection of heart?—If we cast our eyes upon the lowest class and condition of life,-the fcene is more melancholy ftill.-Millions of our fellow-creatures, born to no inheritance but poverty and trouble, forced by the neceffity of their lots to drudgery and painful employments, and hard fet with that too, to get enough to keep themfelves and families alive.

So that, upon the whole, when we have examined the true fate and condition of human life, and have made fome allowances for a few fugacious, deceitful pleasures, there is fearce any thing to be found which contradicts Job's defcription of it-Whichever way we look abroad, we fee fome legible characters of what God first denounced against us, "That in forrow we should eat our bread, till we "return to the ground from whence we were ta"ken *."

But fome one will fay, Why are we thus to be put out of love with human life? To what purpose is it to expofe the dark fide of it to us, or enlarge upon the infirmities which are natural, and confequently out of our power to redress !

I answer, That the fubject is nevertheless of great importance, fince it is neceffary every creature should: understand his prefent ftate and condition, to put him in mind of behaving fuitably to it.-Does not an impartial furvey of man-the holding up this glafs to fhow him his defects and natural infirmities, naturally tend to cure his pride, and clothe him with humility, which is a drefs that best becomes a fhortlived and a wretched creature?-Does not the confideration of the fhortness of our life convince us of the wisdom of dedicating fo fmall a portion to the great purposes of eternity?

Laftly, When we reflect that this fpan of life,. fhort as it is, is chequered with fo many troubles, that there is nothing in this world springs up, or can

N. B. Most of these reflections upon the miferies of life are: taken from Woolafton.

Be enjoyed without a mixture of forrow; how infenfibly does it incline us to turn our eyes and affections from fo gloomy a profpect, and fix them upon that happier country, where afflictions cannot follow us, and where God will wipe away all tears from off our faces for ever and ever! Amen.

SERMON XI.

Evil-Speaking.

JAMES 1. 26.

If any man among you feem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain.

Or the many duties owing both to GoD and our neighbour, there are scarce any men fo bad, as not to acquit themselves of fome, and few fo good, I fear, as to practife all.

Every man feems willing enough to compound the matter, and adopt fo much of the system, as will leaft interfere with his principal and ruling paffion ; and for those parts which would occafion a more troublesome oppofition, to confider them as hard fayings, and fo leave them for those to practise, whose natural tempers are better suited to the ftruggle. So that a man shall be covetous, oppreffive, revengeful, neither a lover of truth, or common honefty; and yet, at the fame time fhall be very religious, and so fanctified, as not once to fail of paying his morning and evening facrifice to God. So, on the other hand, a man fhall live without GOD in the world, have neither any great sense of religion, or indeed