so various, that now there remains not many more behind; but yet those, which do remain, are such, that if God brings them upon us, they will indeed leave no work for any more. In the mean time it is surely our grand Concernment to prevent the Divine Justice, before the last and fatal Sentence goes out a gainst us; and so breaking off our crying National Sins by a commenfurate National Repentance to reconcile ourselves to our Great Judge; even that Judge, who has Mercy for relenting Sinners, but repays the obstinate, and those who hate him, to their Face......

To whom therefore be rendred and ascribed, as is most due, all Praise, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen. (TH

:

A SER

A

SERMON

ON

JAMES III. 16.

For where Envying and Strife is, there is Confusion and every evil Work

صص

: F the Sins and ill Qualities that the Corruption of Man's Nature has * poisoned and polluted his Mind * with, there is none of greater Malignity and Baseness than Envy. For the Condemnation of which we need not bring it to the Bar of Religion and Christianity; there being enough to fentence and condemn it from bare Reason and Philosophy.

For the Profecution of the Words I shall

do these four Things.

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1. I shall

1. I shall shew, what Envy is, and wherein the Nature of it does consist.

2. What are the Grounds and Causes of it. 3. What are its Effects and Consequences.

And

4. and lastly, Make some Use and Improvement of the whole.

And first for the

1st of these; what Envy is, and wherein the Nature of it does consist. And for this we shall find, that Moralists generally give us this Description of it; that it is a depraved Affection or Passion of the Mind, disposing a Man to hate or malign another for some Good or Excellency belonging to him, which the envious PerSon judges him unworthy of, and which for the most part he wants himself. Or yet more briefly; Envy is a certain Grief of Mind conceived upon the Sight of another's Felicity, whether real or Supposed: fo that we see that it consists partly of Hatred, and partly of Grief. In respect of which two Paffions, and the proper Actings of both, we are to observe, that as it shews itself in Hatred, it strikes at the Perfon envied; but as it affects a Man in the Nature of Grief, it recoils, and does Execution upon the Envier; both of them are hostile Affections, and vexatious to the Breast, which harbours them. Acts of Love indeed

haye naturally something of Pleasure still at tending

tending them, and please the Mind, while they proceed from it. But no Man perfectly enjoys himself, while he hates another; Hatred being a Quality, that fours the whole Soul, and puts all the Faculties of it (as it were) into a Posture of Offence. It is really War begun, and commonly fo, before it is proclaimed; it gives the first Charge, and strikes the first Stroke in all Acts of Hoftility. And can there be any thing of Enjoyment in all this? A Battel certainly can be no present Pleasure, though it should end in a Victory. And during a Man's actual pursuit of his Hatred, he is much in the same Condition, restless and unquiet; his Head contriving, and his Hands laying about them to do the hated Person all the Mischief he can: in a word, he lives in the Fire, fighting and fencing, and forced to carry on a constant Opposition. For Hatred being too active and mercurial a Paffion to lie still, never takes up with the bare Theory of Mischief, with fluggish Thoughts and secret Grudges, but, as Oppor tunity serves, will certainly be doing; and till such Opportunity falls in with it (which frequently it does not), it must needs afflict, and grate, and feed upon the Man himself, and make him as miferable, as he wishes others.

CABOD

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1

And

And thus Hatred having done its part to wards the Disturbance of the Mind, in which it is, the other Paffion of Grief is hereupon presently set on Work: for when any of the other Paffions are defeated about their respective Objects or Operations, then this Paffion immediately comes upon the Stage, and takes its turn to act. So that, when a Man cannot vent his Rage outwardly, he is fure to grieve and mourn, and bleed inwardly; like a Wretch falling on his own Sword, because he cannot thrust it into the Body of his Enemy. This is the Nature of Envy, always exerting itself in and by these two afflicting Paffions; first, in the way of Hatred carrying its. mischievous Influence abroad, and then in they way of Grief playing the Tyrant at home; but whether in the one or in the other, Guilt and Sadness are its inseparable Companions: it being utterly impoffible upon all Principles both of Nature and Religion, for an envious Person to have either a good Confcience or a chearful Mind.

But to shew the Malignity of this ill Quality yet farther, it is observable, that in all or most of the other Paffions of the Mind there is, as to the general Nature of them, an Indifference to Good or Evil; as being, under that Confideration, determined to neither. Thus, for Instance, we find it, in the fore