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SERMON XIII.

The Event of Things not always anfwerable to Second Causes.

[ A Faft-Sermon.]

ECCLES. ix. II.

I returned, and faw under the Sun, that the Race is not to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong, neither yet Bread to the Wife, nor yet Riches to men of Underftanding, nor yet Favour to men of Skill; but Time and Chance happeneth to them All.

T

HERE are fome fort of per- S ER M. fons in the World fo floth XIII. ful and negligent in their

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own Affairs, fo hardly pre

vailed upon to undertake any

thing that requires labour and diligence,

SER M. fo eafily difcouraged by any appearance XIII. of ill Success, or fo heedlefs and unactive

ch. xx. 4.

ye

in the prosecution of whatever they are about; as if they were of opinion even in temporal matters, what in fome Systems of Religion has been abfurdly affirmed concerning Spirituals, that God does every thing in men and for men, leaving nothing for them to do for themselves; or as if they thought That Precept to be literal and univerfal, which our Saviour spake, with the Latitude of a moral admonition, to the Apostles only, and upon an extraordinary Occafion; Take no Thought for the morrow, what ye fhall eat, or what fball drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed. Such perfons as thefe, the wife Man elegantly defcribes in his Book of Proverbs: The Sluggard, faith he, will not plow by reafon of the Cold; therefore fhall be beg in Harvest, and have nothing: The fothful man faith, There is a Lion without; I fhall be flain in the Streets; Prov, xxii. 13: And ch. xxiv. 30; I went by the Field of the flothful, and by the Vineyard of the man void of understand ing; And lo, it was all grown over with

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Thorns,

Thorns, and Nettles had covered the FaceS ERM. thereof, and the Stone-Wall thereof was XIII. broken down; ~ So fhall thy Poverty

come as one that travelleth, and thy Want as an armed man. Nor is his Reproof and Admonition to those who are guilty of this Folly, lefs elegant than his Defcription of them; ch. vi. 6; Go to the Ant, thou fluggard; confider her ways, and be wife; Which having no guide, overfeer, or ruler, yet provideth her meat in the Summer, and gathereth her Food in the Harveft. And in the Words immediately before my Text, Eccles. ix. 10; Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with all thy Might; do it with Diligence; do it with Attention, Industry, and Care.

THERE are Others, in a contrary Extreme; who rely with fuch confidence on the Effects of their own Wisdom and Industry, and fo prefumptuously depend upon the natural and regular Tendencies of fecond Caufes; as if they thought, either there was no Superior Cause at all, on which the Frame of Nature depended; or at leaft, that the Providence of God did not condefcend to direct the

SER M. Vents of Things, in this lower and uncerXIII. tain World. And Thefe, are elegantly

Sun, that the

nor the Battle Bread to the of Understand

reproved in the words of my Text; I re-
turned, and faw under the
Race is not to the Swift,
to the Strong, neither yet
Wife, nor yet Riches to men
ing, nor yet Favour to men of Skill; but
Time and Chance happeneth to them All.

I RETURNED: That is; In that vaft Compass of Knowledge which Solomon had, in being able to furvey the whole Extent of Nature, and to obferve the Tempers and Difpofitions of men, and the different Events of Things in all variety of Times and Circumftances; he turned his Thoughts and Obfervations from one Subject to another. In the verfe before the Text, he views the careless or negligent part of mankind, and exhorts them to diligence: And then I returned, faith he, in the Words of the Text; that is, he turned his View the other way, towards the confident or prefumptuous; And them he bids to take notice, that the Race is not always to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong; (that is,) that the Events

of

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