Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye fhall find reft unto your fouls.

THE great business of man, is the regulation of his fpirit; the poffeffion of fuch a frame and temper of mind, as will lead us peaceably through this world, and in the many weary ftages of it, afford us what we fhall be fure to ftand in need of," Reft unto our fouls."

-Reft unto our fouls 'tis all we want the end of all our wifhes and purfuits: give us a profpect of this, we take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermoft parts of the earth to have it in poffeffion: we feek for it in titles, in riches and pleasures-climb up after it by ambition, come down again and ftoop for it by avarice,--try all extremes; ftill we are gone out of the way, nor is it, till after many miferable experiments, that we are convinced at laft, we have been feeking every where for it, but where there is a profpect of finding it; and that is, within ourfelves, in a meek and lowly difpofition of heart. This, and this only, will give us reft unto our fouls:-reft, from thofe turbulent and haughty paffions which disturb our quie

-reft, from the provocations and disappointments of the world, and a train of untold evils too long to be recounted, against all which this frame and preparation of mind is the best protection.

I beg you will go along with me in this argument. Confider how great a fhare of the uneafineffes which take up and torment our thoughts, owe their rife to nothing elfe but the difpofitions of mind which are oppofite to this character.

With regard to the provocations and offences which are unavoidably happening to a man in his commerce with the world, take it as a rule, as a man's pride is,-fo is always his difpleafure-as the opinion of him-: felf rifes,--fo does the injury,-fo does his refentment: 'tis this which gives edge and force to the inftrument which has ftruck him --and excites that heat in the wound which renders it incurable.

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See how different the cafe is with the humble man: one half of these painful conflicts her actually efcapes; the other part fall lightly oi im-he provokes no man by contempt; t 'fts himself forward as the mark envy fo that he cuts off the firft fretful occafions of the greatest part of these evils; and for thofe in which the paffions of others would involve him, like the humble shrub in the valley, gently gives way, and scarce feels the injury of thofe ftormy encounters which rend the proud cedar, and tear it up by its roots.

If you confider it with regard to the manydifappointments of this life, which arife. from the hopes of bettering our condition, and advancing in the world, the reasoning is the fame.

What we expect, is ever in proportion to the estimate made of ourselves; when pride and felf-love have brought us in their account of this matter,--we find, that we are worthy of all honours-fit for all places and employments:-as our expectations rife and multiply, fo muft our difappointments with them; and there needs nothing more to lay the foundation of our unhappiness, and both to make and keep us miferable. And in truth there is nothing fo common in life as to fee thousands, who, you would fay, had all the reafon in the world to be at reft, fo torn up and difquieted with forrows of this clafs, and fo inceffantly tortured with the difappointments which their pride and paffions have created for them, that though they appear to have all the ingredients of happiness in their hands,—they can neither compound or ufe them: How fhould they? the goad is ever in their fides, and fo hurries them on from one expectation to another, as to leave them no reft day or night.

Humility, therefore, recommends itself as a fecurity against thefe heart-aches, which though ridiculous fometimes in the eye of the beholder, yet are ferious enough to the man who fuffers them, and I believe would make no inconfiderable account in a true catalogue

catalogue of the difquietudes of mortal man against thefe, I fay, Humility is the best defence.

He that is little in his own eyes, is little too in his defires, and confequently mode rate in his purfuit of them like another man he may fail in his attempts, and lofe the point he aimed at, but that is all,--he lofes not himself,-he lofes not his happiness and peace of mind with it,-even the contentions of the humble mau are mild and placid.Bleffed character! when fuch a one is thruft back, who does not pity him when he falls, who would not ftretch out a hand to raife him up?

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And here, I cannot help ftopping in the midft of this argument, to make a thort ob fervation, which is this. When we reflect upon the character of Humility, we are apt to think it ftands the moft naked and defencelefs of all virtues whatever, the leaft able to fupport its claims against the infolent antagonift who feems ready to bear him down, and all oppofition which fuch a temper can make.

Now, if we confider him as ftanding alone, -no doubt, in fuch a cafe he will be overpowered and trampled upon by his oppofer; -but if we confider the meek and lowly man, as he is-fenced and guarded by the love, the friendship, and wifhes of all mankind,that the other ftands alone, hated, difcountenanced, without one true friend or hearty well-wifher on his fide; when this is balanced,

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we fhall have reafon to change our opinion, and be convinced that the humble man, ftrengthened with fuch an alliance, is far from being fo over-matched as at first fight he may appear; nay I believe one might venture to go further and engage for it, that in all fuch cafes, where real fortitude and true perfonal courage were wanted, he is much more likely to give proof of it, and I would fooner look for it in fuch a temper than in that of his adverfary. Pride may make a man violent, but Humility will make him firmand which of the two, do you think, likely to come off with honour ?-he, who acts from the changeable impulse of heated blood, and follows the uncertain motions of his pride and fury, or the man who stands cool and collected in himself; who governs his refentments, inftead of being governed by them, and on every occafion acts upon the fteady motives of principle and duty?

But this by the way; though in truth it falls in with the main argument; for if the obfervation is juft, and Humility has the advantages where we fhould leaft expect them, the argument rifes higher in behalf of those which are more apparently on its fide. Im all which, if the humble man finds, what the proud man muft never hope for in this world, that is "reft to his foul" fo does he likewife meet with it from the influence fuch a temper has upon his condition under the: evils of his life, not as chargeable upon the vices of men, but as the portion of his in heritance,