of squares to the tesselated pavement. It is not an inconsistency common to every member of this sect, to wish that the portion of his life which is gone by had been spent in virtue, while this wish is too feeble to stimulate his future days to those pursuits in which he laments the past were not spent?

You do not act thus inconsistently by any necessity of nature; depraved as the will is, in common with our other faculties, it does not necessarily rob you of the power of determining; it does not take from you the ability of imploring the strength you want. To choose the good, and to refuse the evil, is yet left to your option. Why do the Scriptures make such repeated and solemn appeals to the will, if its agency were so utterly involuntary? On this will there is no irresistible compulsion. On the supposition that this were not the case, all human laws would be unreasonable, all courts of judicature not only unjust but preposterous; all legal executions absurd as well as inhuman; for would it not be barbarous to punish crimes which the perpetrator was not left at liberty to avoid? In this case Ravaillac would have been guiltless, and Bel. lingham excusable.

we may be assured that our sins are not forgiven, if they are not mortified. We need not pry into our destination in the inscrutable decrees of the Almighty, but in our own rectified affections, our own subdued will. Let us never remit our diligence by any persuasion of our security, nor slacken our obedience by any fond conceit that our names are written in heaven.

But alas! the soul is full of the body, the intellect is steeped in sense. The spiritual life is immersed in the animal. Reason and appetite, instead of keeping their distinct natures, are in many instances so mixed and incorporated, that it is not always easy to decompose and reduce them to their separate principles. It is in want of cordial sincerity which prevents truth from being sought, and where she is not sought, she will not be found. Internal purity of heart, and sanctity of spirit, afford a fairer exhibition of religion, than the most subtle dogmas, and the most zealous debates.

If we seek peace in God, we shall never fail of finding it; if we look for it in the world, it is to look for a clear stream from a polluted source. We have a spirit within us that will occasionally, though unbidden, remind us of our high Nor is it your reason which dissuades you original, from what height fallen.' How widely from religion. If you would consult its sound have we wandered in search of the good we have and sober dictates, it would point to religion as lost! We have sought for it in the tumults of naturally as the eye points to the object it would ambition, in the pleasures of voluptuousness, in investigate, as the needle to its attracting point. the misleadings of flattery, in our own high imaIt is not your reason but your corruptions which ginations, in the self-gratulations of pride, in turn away your heart from religion, because it the secret indulgence of that vanity, which, protells you that something is to be done in opposi-bably, it has been one part of our pride not to tion to their sway, something to be opposed contrary to their nature, something to be renounced congenial with their gratification.

It is a fatal mistake to expect to get rid of an evil by trying to become insensible to it. To divert the attention in order to stupify the conscience, is almost imitating the malefactor about to be executed, who swallows cordials, which, if they allay his terrors, do so only by deadening his sensibility. Take, then, a distinct view of your state, and of your prospects. Deliberation is valuable, were it only on this ground, that while you are deliberating, there is an intermis. sion of passion, there is an interval of appetite: as these intermit, better feelings have time to rally, better thoughts to come forward, better principles to struggle for operation.

cure but to conceal. Let us begin to seek for it where alone it is to be found, where alone God has promised it-in the way' which he has opened, in the 'truth' which he has revealed, and in the life' which he has quickened.

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Do not, then, any longer make religion an incidental item in your scheme of life. Do not turn over the consideration of it to chance; make it a part of your daily plan; take it up as a set. business; give it an allotted portion in the distribution of your daily concerns, while you admit it as the pervading principle of them all. You carry on no other transaction casually; you do not conduct your profession or manage your estate by fits and starts. You do not expect your secular business will go on well without minding it. You set about it intently; you transact it with a fixed design; you consider it as a definite object. You would not be satisfied with it, if it brought you no return, still less would you be satisfied not to know whether it brought any return or not. Yet you are contented as to this great business of life, though you perceive no evidence of its progress. see no absurdity in a religious profession which leaves you as indigent as it found you. Does it not look as if your sincerity, in one case, did not keep pace with your earnestness in the other; as if your religion was a shadow, and your secular concerns were the only reality?

You

If with hearts naturally inclined to evil (as what heart is not ?) and in a world abounding with temptation, you have strayed widely from the strait path, you are not compelled to pursue it. We need continue in sin no longer than we love it. Close not then your heart against that grace which is offered to all; it will perfect the work it has once begun, if we do not wilfully oppose its operations. Let us not therefore lay all the blame on our natural conceptions as if we were compelled to sink under them. They will, indeed, continue to impede our progress, but unless aided by our inclinations, they will not finally obstruct it. But wilfully to sin on, Begin then to be distinct in your purposes, and yet expect pardon through the merits of our explicit in your designs, sincere in your pursuits. Redeemer, looks like an impious plot to blind You profess to read the Scriptures occasionally; the eyes of Omniscience, and to tie the hands of if the perusal has hitherto produced no sensible Omnipotence. We shall always have this in-effect, this is only an additional motive for making fallible criterion by which to judge of our state; the incidental practice habitual. Do not inter

Reflections of an inconsistent Christian after a that understanding on which I value myself, if,

THE only doctrinal truth,' says bishop Sanderson, which Solomon insisted on, when he took the whole world for his large but barren text, was, that all is vanity.'-This was not the verdict of a hermit railing from his cell at pleasures untasted, or at grandeur unenjoyed. Among the sons of men, not one had sought with more unremitted diligence, or had wider avenues to the search, for whatever good either skill or power could extract out of the world, Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief! Con- than Solomon. No one could judge of the sweets vert my dead faith into an operative principle! which can be drawn from this grand Alembic, Let my sluggish will be quickened, let my re- with higher natural abilities, or with deeper exuctant desires give some signs of life. Let it | perimental wisdom. He did not descant on the

vising the best speculative scheme of life, to the adoption of which there is little probability of his ever being appointed.

vanity of the world so eloquently till he had con- actual state and condition, is clearly more prosidered it accurately, and examined it practi-fitable than to waste his time and spirits, in decally. He was not contented, like a learned theorist to collect his notions from philosophy, or history, or hearsay; he well knew what he said, and whereof he affirmed.' All upon which he so pathetically preached he had seen with his eyes, heard with his ears, and, in his widely roving search, had experienced in his own dis. appointed mind, and felt in his own aching heart. He goes on to prove, by an induction of particulars, the grand truth propounded in his thesis, the vanity of the world. He shows in a regular series of experiments, how he had ransacked its treasures, exhausted its enjoyments, and even to satiety revelled in its honours, riches, and delights. He had been an intellectual as well as sensual voluptuary, and had emptied the resources of knowledge as well as of pleasure. Then reverting in the close of his discourse to the point from which he had set out, he again pronounces, that all is vanity.

'The conclusion of the whole matter' which he draws from this melancholy argument, as finely exhibited as pensively conceived, is a solemn injunction to others to remember, what it is to be feared the preacher himself had sometimes forgotten, that the whole duty of man is to fear God, and keep his commandments: winding up his fine peroration with a motive in which every child of Adam is equally, is awfully concerned, because God shall bring every work into judgment.'

We were not sent into this world with orders to make ourselves miserable, but with abilities, and directions, and helps, to search out the best possibilities of happiness which remain to beings, fallen from that state of moral and mental rectitude in which man was created; to make the best of the ruins of that perfect world whose beauty he had marred, and whose capacity of confering felicity he had fatally impaired. Human life, therefore, abounding as it does in blessings and mercies, is not the blissful vision which youthful fancy images, or poetry feigns, or romance exhibits. It is in a considerable measure compounded of painful and dull realities, and not a splendid tissue of grand events or brilliant exploits; it is to some an almost unvaried state of penury, to many a series of cares and troubles, to all, a state of probation. But the primeval punishment, the sentence of labour, like the other inflictions of Him who in judg ment remembers mercy, is transformed into a blessing. And whether we consider the manual industry of the poor, or the intellectual exertions of the superior classes, we shall find that diligent occupation, if not criminally perverted from its end, is at once the instrument of virtue and the secret of happiness. Man cannot be safely trusted with a life of leisure.

and it is almost equally beyond supposition, that persons who are actually so engaged, will cast their eyes on a book whose tendency is serious.

May not every real Christian, while his heart As the character about to be briefly consideris touched with the affecting truth of the text, ed is presumed to be a real Christian, it would be admonished by this solemn valedictory de- be superfluous, for two reasons, to insist that claration? May he not learn the lesson incul. his vocation in the world must be lawful. It is cated at less expense than it was acquired by not to be supposed that a religious man will this great practical master of the science of wis-ever engage in an employment that is illicit; dom? If another sovereign was told there was no royal way to geometry, the King of Israel has opened a royal way to a more divine philosophy. By the benefit to be derived from contemplating this illustrious instance of how little are the great,' the Christian may set out where Solomon ended. He may be convinced of the vanity of the world at a price far cheaper than Solomon paid for it, by a way far safer than his own experience. He may convert the experiment made by the royal Preacher to his own personal account. He may find in the doctrines of the Gospel a confirmation of its truth, in its precepts a counteraction to its perils, in its promises a consolation for its disappointments.

In this world, such as Solomon has vividly painted it, the Christian is to live-is to live, through divine assistance, untainted by its max. ims, uncontaminated by its practices. Man being obviously designed by his Creator for social life, and society being evidently his proper place and condition, it seems to be his duty not so much to consider what degree of possible perfection he might have attained in that state of seclusion to which he was never destined, as how he may usefully fill his allotted sphere in the world for which he was made; how he may conscientiously discharge the duties to which he is plainly called by providential ordination. To think how he may acquit himself well in his

But the most unexceptionable profession is not exempt from dangers. It requires strict watchfulness, not only to conduct the most useful undertaking in a right spirit, and with a constant eye to Him, to whom every intelligent being is accountable; it requires not only constant vigilance against the allurements of avarice and the baits of ambition, but it requires caution against the unsuspected mischiefs of embarking so widely, or plunging so deeply in any temporal concern, as almost necessarily to deteriorate the character. He embarks too widely, and plunges too deeply, however honourable be the undertaking, if it absorb the whole man-if it so crowd his mind with interfering schemes, and complicated projects, as to leave no time and no thought, and gradually no inclination for that reference which should be the ultimate end of all human designs.

It can never be too often repeated, however writers tire with saying, and readers with hearing it, that it is scarcely more necessary to address serious suggestions to men sunk in gross pursuits, than to that large, important, and valuable class, whose danger lies in the very credit, and dignity, and usefulness of their engage. ments. A thousand dissertations have been written, and yet the theme is not exhausted, on

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plicable to the special concerns of every man, whatever be his occupation. He will find in it the right direction to the right pursuit, the straight road to the proper end; the duty of a pure intention; and the prohibition of false measures to attain even a laudable object. No hurry or engagement will ever make him lose sight of that sacred aphorism so pointedly addressed to men of business, He that maketh haste to be rich shall hardly be innocent.' The cautionary texts he admired in his closet, he will not treasure up as classical mottos to amuse his fancy, or embellish his discourse, but will every worldly transaction, whether commercial, forensic, medical, military, or whatever else be his professed object. He will not adjust his scale of duty by the false standard of the world, nor by any measure of his own devising; he has but one standard of judging, but one measure of conduct-the infallible word of God. This rule he will take as he finds it, he will use as he is commanded; he will not bend it to his own convenience, he will not accommodate it to his own views, his own passions, his own emolument, his own reputation.

that hackneyed but neglected truth, that we are undone by lawful things, by excess in things right in themselves, and which only become wrong by being inordinately pursued pursued to the neglect of things more essential; when what is even laudable is exclusively sought, to the forgetfulness of what is indispensable. Things may not only be comparatively, but positively, good, and yet not be things which accompany salvation.' They may not only be intended to be instrumental, but actually be so, both in advancing the prosperity, and in restraining the disorders of this world, and so far be highly valuable, and yet the act may be sub-adopt as rules of conduct, and bring them into stituted for that principle which should be its inspiring motive. The fault, however, is not *in the thing, but in the mind, when useful actions are not done with a reference to the highest end. Of this reference a Christian will aim never to lose sight. He will, before he engage in the concerns of the day, prepare his mind by fervent devotion; not only imploring direction in the common course of action, and the expect ed occurrences of the day, but strength to meet those unknown occasions and unsuspected events, which, in human life, and especially in a life of business, so frequently occur. Without this panoply, he will not venture to engage with the world; but the armour which he put on in solitude, he will not lay aside in the field of battle; it was for that warfare he had buckled it on.

As the lawyer has his compendium of cases and precedents, the legislator his statutes, the soldier his book of tactics, and every other pro. fessor his vade mecum to consult in difficulties, the Christian to whichever of the professions he may belong, will take his morning lecture from a more infallible directory, comprehending not only cases and precedents, but abounding also with those seminal principles which contain the essence of all actual duty from which all practical excellence is deducible. The spirit of laws differ from all legal institutes, some of which, from that imperfection inseparable from the best human things, have been found unintelligible, some impracticable, and some have become obsolete. The divine law is subject to no such disadvantages. It is perfect in its nature, intelligible in its construction, and eternal in its obligation.

Here it may be asked, Why is not Scripture more explicit in description, more minute in detail? We find our self-love perpetually furnishing subterfuges for evading duties, and multiplying exceptions to rules. God, who knows all hearts, and foresaw their captiousness, might, it may be said, have guarded against it by more enlarged instructions. The holy Spirit, however, did not see fit to descend to such minutiæ, but, having given the principle, left man to the exercise of his reason, in the application of the general law to his particular case; for if he is left to the use of his judgment, it is not that he may pervert truth, but apply it. His understanding and rectitude are perpetually called into joint exercise, for that which is im mediately the duty of one man, another may not be called to perform.

Not to distress the mind, therefore, with unnecessary scruples, nor to perplex it by a mul tiplicity of circumstances, some things are left indefinite. An incumbered body of institutes would have been too vast and complicated for general use; that time would be taken up in selecting them, which is better employed in This sacred institute he will consult, not oc- acting upon them. Even were every particular casionally, but daily. Unreminded of general of every duty, in all its bearings, circumstanduty, unfurnished with some leading hint for tially ramified, it would not so much direct the the particular demand, he will not venture to conduct, as furnish new pretences for neglectrush into the bustle, trial, and temptation of the ing it. Then, as now, it would be seen rather day. Of this aid he will possess himself with that the will is perverse, than the understanding more ease, and less loss of time, as he will not unsatisfied. More amplification would not have have to ransack a multiplicity of folios for a de-lossoned objections. Those who complain now, tached case, or an individual intricacy; for, though he may not find in the Bible specific instances, yet he will discover in every page some governing truth, some rule of universal application, the spirit of which may be brought to bear on almost every circumstance; some principle suited to every purpose, and competent to the solution of every moral difficulty. Scripture does not, indeed, pretend to include technical or professional peculiarities, but it exhibits the temper and the conduct which may be made ap

that the rule is not explicit, would complain then, that it was tedious. A fuller exposition would neither have cleared doubts nor prevented disputes. It would then have been charged with redundancy, as it is now with defectiveness.

If the world carries contamination to the heart, it carries also to the right-minded a preservative; as the viper's blood is said to be an antidote for its bite. The living world is to such persons an improving exemplification of