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for it,the fame benevolence of heart altered only in its courfe, and the difference of objects towards which it tends. Take a fhort view of him in this light, as acting under the many tender claims which that relation lays upon him,— fpending many weary days, and fleepless nights utterly forgetful of himself,intent only upon his family, and with an anxious heart contriving and labouring to preserve it from diftrefs, against that hour when he fhall be taken from its protection. Does fuch a one live to himself? He who rifes early, late takes reft, and eats the bread of carefulnefs, to fave others the forrow of doing fo after him. Does fuch a one live only to himself? swer this question for him.

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How oft have your cafe,-your pleasures, nay, the very comforts of your lives, for the fake of your children? -How many indulgencies have ye given up? What felf-denials and difficulties have ye chearfully undergone for them?-In their fickness, or reports of their misconduct? How have ye gone on your way forrowing? What alarms within

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you, when fancy forebodes but imaginary misfortunes hanging over them?- but when real ones have overtaken them, and mifchief befallen them in the way in which they have gone, how fharper than a fword have ye felt the workings of parental kindness? In whatever period of human life we look for proofs of selfishnefs,-let us not seek them in this relation of a parent, whofe whole life, when truly known, is often little elfe but a fucceffion of cares, heart-aches, and difquieting apprehenfions,-enough to fhew, that he is but an inftrument in the hands of GOD to provide for the well-being of others, to serve their intereft as well as his own.

If you try the truth of this reasoning upon every other part or fituation of the fame life, you will find it holds good in one degree or other; take a view of it out of these clofer connections both of a -friend and parent.-Confider him for a moment, under that natural alliance, in which even a heathen poet has placed him; namely that of a man- and as fuch, to his honour, as one capable of ftanding unconcerned,in whatever concerns

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his fellow creatures.-Compaffion has fo great a share in our nature, and the miseries of this world are fo conftant an exercife of it, as to leave it in no one's power (who deferves the name of man) in this refpect, to live to himself.

He cannot stop his ears against the cries of the unfortunate.-The fad story of the fatherless and him that has no helper must be heard.-7 be forrowful fighing of the prifoners will come before him; and a thousand other untold cafes of diftrefs to which the life of man is fubject, find a way to his heart.-Let intereft guard the paffage as it will, if he has this world's goods, and feeth his brother have need, be will not be able to shut up his bowels of compaffion from him,

Let any man of common humanity, look back upon his own life as fubjected to these ftrong claims, and recollect the influence they have had upon him. How oft the mere impulfes of generofity and compaffion have led him out of his way? -In how many acts of charity and kindnefs, his fellow-feeling for others has

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made him forget himfelf?-In neigh bourly offices, how oft he has acted against all confiderations of profit, convenience, nay fometimes even of justice itfelf?Let him add to this account, how much, in the progress of his life, has been given up even to the leffer obligations of civility and good manners?-What reftraints they have laid him under? How large a portion of his time, how much of his inclination and the plan of life he could most chufe,, has from time to time been made a facrifice, to his good nature and difinclination to give pain or disgust to others ?

Whoever takes a view of the life of man, in this glafs wherein I have fhewa it, will find it fo befet and hemmed in with obligations of one kind or other, as to leave little room to fufpect, that man can live to himself: and fo clofely has our creator linked us together, (as well as all other parts of his works) for the prefervation of that harmony in the frame and fyftem of things which his wifdom has at firft established,-That we find this bond of mutual dependence, however relaxed,

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is too strong to be broke, and I believe, that the most selfish men find it is fo, and that they cannot, in fact, live fo much to themselves, as the narrowness of their own hearts incline them. If these reflections are just upon the moral relations in which we ftand to each other, let us clofe the examination with a fhort reflecgreat relation in which we

tion upon the ftand to GOD..

The first and most natural thought on this fubject, which at one time or other will thruft itself upon every man's mind, is this,: That there is a God who made me, to whofe gift I owe all the powers and faculties of my foul, to whose providence I owe all the bleflings of my life, and by whofe permiffion it is that I exercife and enjoy them; that I am placed in this world as a creature but of a day, haftening to the place from whence I fhall not return.-That I am accountable for my conduct and behaviour to this great and wifeft of beings, before whofe judgment feat I muft finally appear and receive the things done in my

body,

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