Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Grafping at fhadows, let the substance flip;
But you, my Lord, renounc'd Attorneyship
With better purpose, and more noble aim,
And wifely played a more fubftantial game.
Nor did Law mourn, blefs'd in her younger fon,

For MANSFIELD does what GLOSTER would have done.

Doctor, Dean, Bishop, Glofter, and My Lord, If haply these high Titles may accord

With thy meek Spirit, if the barren found
Of pride delights Thee, to the topmost round
Of Fortune's ladder got, defpife not One,
For want of smooth hypocrify undone,
Who, far below, turns up his wond'ring eye,
And, without envy, fees Thee plac'd fo high,
Let not thy Brain (as Brains lefs potent might)
Dizzy, confounded, giddy with the height,
Turn round, and lofe diftinction, lose her skill
And wonted pow'rs of knowing good from ill,
Of fifting Truth from falfhood, friends from foes;
Let GLOSTER well remember, how he rofe,

Nor turn his back on men who made him great;

Let Him not, gorg'd with pow'r, and drunk with

ftate,

Forget

Forget what once he was, tho' now so high; How low, how mean, and full as poor as I.

Cetera defunt.

It is prefumed the fudden death of the Author will fufficiently apo

logize for the Dedication remain

ing unfinished. J. Chhill

SERMON I

JAMES V. 16th.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

FOR

OR the particular occafion on which these words were spoken, and the relation they bear to what preceded, I fhall refer you to the chapter from whence they are taken, and at prefent confider them as they stand independently, and affure us, that the duty of prayer, when practised by a righteous man, and offered up in a proper manner, is of great efficacy to avert miffortunes,

B

fortunes, and procure bleffings; premising only, that, by a righteous man we are not to understand one who is perfectly pure, and free from fin, but one who performs his duty to the utmost of his power, and makes up for any infirmity in his Obedience, by the ftrength of his Faith, and the fincerity of his Repentance.

The duty of prayer is in the present age by many entirely neglected, or imperfectly obferved, and by fome openly decried. There are many who difallow any other application to God than that of the mind, and not a few who, however conftant in the outward forms of prayer, do yet by their lives but too plainly fhew that their minds are unaffected. Some too there are, who run into the contrary extreme, who are so unwarrantably attentive to the performance of this duty, as to neglect obligations which are of much greater import, which are more immediately necessary for their own good, and the benefit of fociety, and which of confequence must be more agreeable to

the

« AnteriorContinuar »