I7o Of a Confcience void of Once. S E R M. to every man for himfelf ; it requires there= VII. fore the moft affectionate concern and the ``yJ moft afliduous application. The wife author of nature has fitted the various kinds of beings he has formed for their proper ends ; animals are determin'd to purfue theirs, by inftinäs which are planted in them ; but man, who is indued with larger underftanding, and a capacity of difcerning the nobler defign of his creation, and the true perfeáion of his rational nature, is left to profecute it in the moft fuitable manner, that is, by the beft and moft vigorous exercife of all his higher powers. What can be more congruous to reafon than that our happinefs fhould depend on ourfelves ; and that, as we generally find it even in the low affairs of the prefent life, fo it fhould be throughout, in virtue, in moral perfeâion, and rational enjoyment, that the hand of' the diligent maketh rich? But, efpecially, as this is our Rate of trial and preparation for a future exiftence, God is pleas'd now to commit to us that which is in comparifon little, according to our Slpiour's parable, Luke xvi. and that which is another's, that by an induftrious improvement we may be the better fitted for much, and what fhall be our own for ever. This is the principal point
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