33g r proper Improvement S E R M. for a feafon, and they end in extreme mifer7, XII. that the rewards of true piety are exceeding great and everlafting, that the light afiftions which are but for a moment work for good men an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. By a ferious and affectionate medi- tation on thefe, and fuch like doarines, which are moll: affuredly believed among chriftians, and which are the fundamentals ofchriftianity, we fhould be able to fee the important dif- ference between the falfe and true riches, that the former are upon a comparifon indeed the leafs, and the other much. We may farther obferve upon this head, that God hath wifely ordered the circum- fiances of this life in fubordination to another. The enjoyments of our prefent flate are the means of trying our verme, and the occafions of exerciuing it, that fo by a due improvement of them to that purpofe, we may be prepared for the perfeflion of virtue, and compleat happinefs hereafter. The powers of the human foul, the better part of our conílitution, are naturally capable of improvement, and we cannot fet limits to that meafure of improvement which they may attain ; but this we know, that the mind is making continual progrefs in its moral con- dition good or bad, that is, it is either grow-
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