public places, an therefore in such ces retirement isa duty of nude. è grave and iccent in towing and ornament. in vorak. in your gate; warci the prophet diretsen ei feverely reproves & Ome trary behavinur: Letoniteaue de daugh ters of Shon are haughty, na vanis vitir tretched torch necks, and wantw ees,

po, and maker using

varking and muncing as they their wet: Therefore ing Lord will fmite ner with Licar on the crown of the heady and will takeaway thevery or her slingorn imagnés As the meat fooded, which temp tomachs bevon nur appetite; è allo thould pe avoid fack fpecies, tons, plays, clamour, m mutiny which cancer as not, and are befides our sona ral or moral intere. Our fenies fhould pr wanton girls, wander into markets and the out just employment; but when they by reafon, return quickly with the main modeftly at home under their

fent again.

Let all perfons be curions in osi.. wards themselves, in the handfome vertica body, and fuch as are in feir

dead. They offend agr

own, or pry into other tatto
of neceffity, or when one
permiffion. A mzee
about the body

- the

curiofity of at man m when charitate

particulars, tu 1

concernment 1

words of Fran perift in inter

The

the welfare of our immortal fouls depends upon them. Thefe confiderations on common life may be reckoned too ludicrous for the folemn meditations of Chriftians; but when we reflect how much Chriftian life is influenced by common life, we fhall find there are no moral acts fo trivial as not to be worth our informing ourfelves of their guilt or their innocence, to regulate ourselves accordingly in practifing or avoiding

them.

TH

MEEKNESS.

HOUGH meeknefs is in the main more a feminine. virtue than a mafculine, yet we must confider it with refpect to both fexes; the practice of all virtues being alike the duty of both.

Nature, which abhors every thing that is monftrous and difproportionate, teaches us that meeknefs is a property of women, whom she has made with a more fimooth and foft compofition of body, and intends doubtless, that the mind fhould correfpond with it.' Though art can reprefent in the fame face beauty in one pofition, and deformity in another; yet nature is more fincere, and never meant a ferene clear forehead should be the frontispiece to a cloudy tempeftuous heart. It is therefore to be wifhed, the fofter fex would take the admonition, and, while they confult their glaffes, whether to applaud or improve their outward form, they would caft one look inwards, and examine what fymmetry is there held with a fair outfide; whether any ftorm of paflion darkens and overcafts their exterior beauty; and ufe at least an equal diligence to refcue that, as they would to clear their face from any ftain or blemish.

We

We have feen already, "that a meek and quiet fpirit" is the characteristic of a Christian woman given by fcripture; and it must be fo to all that will not enter into difpute with God, and conteft his judgment, who has, by the apoftle, declared it to be of "great price in his fight."

Meeknefs, though it be a fingle entire virtue in itself, yet it is diverfified according to the feveral faculties of the foul, over which it has influence; for there is a meekness of the understanding, a meeknefs of the will, and a meeknefs of the affections; all which must concur to make up the "meek and quiet fpirit."

The meeknefs of the understanding confifts in a pliableness to conviction; and is directly oppofite to that fullen adherence to their own opinion, obfervable in too many, who judge of tenets, not by conformity to truth and reafon, but to their prepoffeffions and preju dices, acquired generally by education and converfation; not to mention the accidental biaffes of paffion and intereft: Thence comes bigotry, and the furious fiery fpirit of perfecution, whofe origin must be from hell, the devil being father of pride, the eternal oppofite to meeknefs. This prepoffeffion puts people on the chance of a lottery; what they firft happen to draw determines them merely on the privilege of its precedence: Had Mahomet firft feized them, his tenure would have been as indefeafible as Chrift's now is. How great the force of fuch prejudices is, we may fee by the oppofition it raifed against Christian doctrine in grofs at its first promulgation. The blind zeal of the Jews for the traditions of their fathers, engaging them in the murder, even of that very Meffias whom thofe traditions had taught them to expect; and afterwards of perfecuting his difciples and followers. Which blind zeal did in that age flame out in the female fex particularly: The Jews ftirred up the "devout and honourable women, &c.. and raifed perfecution against Paul and Barnabas." They being the weaker as well as the fofter fex, have in all times been the moft fubject to take violent prejudices of education;

H5

Education; and they should therefore see their way well before they run too fierce a career in it: Otherwise the greatest heat without light does but resemble that of the bottomlefs pit, where flames and darkness do at once cohabit. How many inftances of this blind prepoffeffion do we meet with in our time, of notions embraced for the fake of ancestry, and tenets adhered to, because they were in vogue in the times of great grandfathers? With what rage have the interefts of the moft vile and worthless perfons been efpoufed, purely because they declare their principles are the fame they were bred in?

of

What extravagances have not great ladies been guilty of to vindicate these prejudices; and where of late does the fpirit of meeknefs reign? not that men or women fhould be too eafy and flexible, like wax ready to take any impreffion; this temper is of equal, if not more ill confequence than the former. The adhering to one opinion can expofe but to one error; but a mind that lies open to the fluxes of new tenets, may fucceffively entertain a whole ocean of delufions. To be thus yielding is not a meeknefs, but a flavishnefs of understanding: It is fo great a meekness of mind, that the apoftle finks it fomewhat below the impotence f women, and refembles it to that of children; yet it feems the folly of fome women refembled that of children in this matter, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” A defcription which if we compare with our own Times, we must think prophetic. How many women have we feen led captive, being affected with the novelty, or feduced by the pretended zeal of a new teacher, to whom they have given up their understandings, and for a while this ftrong man has kept poffeffion? but when a ftronger than he has come, it has fared as with him in the gof pel; a louder zeal, a newer doctrine, foon divides his fpoils, and that by force of the very fame principle on which he fet up, which in a while determines the latter

64

alfo;

alfo; and fo on, till the poor profelyte has been hurried through all the mazes of wild error. When the Quaker Naylor first vented his blafphemies, his followers were moft of the female fex; it was the women that run after him, crying Hofanna, and ftrewing his way into the city with flowers. When of latter days, Mafon preached his whimfies to the people, the crowds that gathered about him were moftly of the fame fex; and how many of them did the raving infpirations of the modern prophets deceive? not to mention their political frenzies ; all which should make them equally watchful, against being too tenacious of old tenets, or too fufceptible of new. Some womens opinions are like the palate, diftracted by too much variety: and they at last fix upon what at first they moft decried. Some have fet out in the fierceft deteftation of popery, and have wandered fo long, like the blinded Syrians, that they have at last found themselves in the midst of Samaria; being brought by an infenfible circular motion to that religion, from which alone they defigned to fly; fo little do itching ears know whither they may be carried. Women, as they are thought more liable to feducement than men, are more particularly aimed at by feducers: For as he who is to put off adulterated wares will choose the most un-wary chapman, fo these fophifticators of divinity defire the moft undifcerning auditors. That fo many of the fex are fo, must not be imputed to any natural defect, but to the loofe notions they have of religion; of which they have perhaps fome general confufed ideas, but have fo little penetrated the depth of it, that they know not why they are Christians, rather than Turks, why of the church of England, rather than that of Rome; and while they are thus unfixed, and have no better principle than custom and compliance, they have nothing to answer to any the groffeft deceit that can be obtruded upon them; which for aught they know, or have confidered, may be as true as any thing they have formerly profeft. Now, when any one in this condition fhall

be