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ties of life chiefly fall. There the storm spends its violence, and there the thunder breaks; while, safe and unhurt, the inhabitant of the vale remains below. Retreat, then, from those vain and pernicious excursions of extravagant desire. Satisfy yourselves with what is rational and attainable. Train your minds to moderate views of human life and human happiness. Remember and admire the wisdom of Agur's wish. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. (Prov. xxx. 8, 9.)—Let me recommend,

II. Moderation in our pursuits. Wishes and desires rest within. If immoderate and improper, though they taint the heart, yet society may not be affected by them. The obscure and harmless individual may indulge his dreams, without disturbing the public peace. But when the active pursuits in which we engage rise beyond moderation, they fill the world with great disorders; often with flagrant crimes. This admonition chiefly respects the ambitious men of the world. I say not that all ambition is to be condemned; or that high pursuits ought, on every occasion, to be checked. Some men are formed by nature for rising into conspicuous stations of life. In following the impulse of their minds, and properly exerting the talents with which God has blessed them, there is room for ambition to act in a laudable sphere, and to become the instrument of much public good. But this may safely be pronounced, that the bulk of men are ready to overrate their own abilities, and to imagine themselves equal to higher things than they were ever designed for by nature. Be sober, therefore, in fixing your aims and planning your destined

pursuits. Beware of being led aside from the plain path of sound and moderate conduct, by those false lights which self-flattery is always ready to hang out. By aiming at a mark too high, you may fall short of what it was within your power to have reached. Instead of attaining to eminence, you may expose yourselves to derision; nay, may bring upon your heads manifold disasters. I say to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.. (Rom. xii. 3.)

Whatever your aims be, there is one exercise of moderation which must be enjoined to those of the greatest abilities, as well as to others; that is, never to transgress the bounds of moral duty. Amidst the warmth of pursuit, accustom yourselves to submit to the restraints which religion and virtue, which propriety and decency, which regard to reputation and character, impose. Think not, that there are no barriers which ought to stop your progress. It is from a violent and impetuous spirit that all the evils spring, which are so often found to accompany ambition. Hence, in private life, the laws of truth and honour are violated. Hence, in public contest, the peace and welfare of nations have been so often sacrificed to the ambitious projects of the great. The man of moderation, as he is temperate in his wishes, so in his pursuits he is regulated by virtue. A good conscience is to him more valuable than any success. He is not so much bent on the accomplishment of any design, as to take a dishonourable step in order to compass it. He can have patience. He can brook disappointments. He can yield to unsurmountable obstacles; and, by gentle and gradual progress, is more likely to succeed in the end, than others are by violence and impetuosity. In his highest enterprise, he

wishes not to have the appearance of a meteor, which fires the atmosphere; or of a comet, which astonishes the public by its blazing eccentric course; but rather to resemble those steady luminaries of heaven, which advance in their orbits with a silent and regular motion. He approves himself thereby to the virtuous, the wise, and discerning; and, by a temperate and unexceptionable conduct, escapes those dangers which persons of an opposite description are perpetually ready to incur.

III. Be moderate in your expectations. When your state is flourishing, and the course of events proceeds according to your wish, suffer not your minds to be vainly lifted up. Flatter not yourselves with high prospects of the increasing favours of the world, and the continuing applause of men. Say not within your hearts, My mountain stands strong, and shall never be moved; I shall never see adversity. To-morrow shall be as this day, and more abundantly.-You are betraying yourselves; you are laying a sure foundation of disappointment and misery, when you allow your fancy to soar to such lofty pinnacles of confident hope. By building your house in this airy region, you are preparing for yourselves a great and cruel fall. Your trust is the spider's web. You may lean on your house, but it shall not stand. You may hold it fast, but it shall not endure. For, to man on earth | it was never granted to gratify all his hopes; or to persevere in one track of uninterrupted prosperity. Unpleasing vicissitudes never fail to succeed those that were grateful. The fashion of the world, how gay or smiling soever, passeth, and often passeth suddenly away.

By want of moderation in our hopes, we not only increase dejection, when disappointment comes, but we accelerate disappointment; we bring forward, with greater speed, disagree

able changes in our state. For the natural consequence of presumptuous expectation, is rashness in conduct. He who indulges confident security, of course neglects due precautions against the dangers that threaten him; and his fall will be foreseen and predicted. He not only exposes himself unguarded to dangers, but he multiplies them against himself. By presumption and vanity, he either provokes enmity or incurs contempt.

The arrogant mind, and the proud hope, are equally contrary to religion and to prudence. The world cannot bear such a spirit; and Providence seldom fails to check it. The Almighty beholds with displeasure those, who, intoxicated with prosperity, forget their dependance on that Supreme Power which raised them up. His awful government of the world has been in nothing more conspicuous than in bringing low the lofty looks of man, and scattering the proud in the imaginations of their minds.

Is not this the great Babylon which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? (Dan. iv. 30, 31.) Thus exclaimed the presumptuous monarch in the pride of his heart. But, lo! when the word was yet in his mouth, the visitation from Heaven came, and the voice was heard; 0 Nebuchadnezzar ! to thee it is spoken; thy kingdom is departed from thee.-He that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. (Luke xiv. 11.) A temperate spirit, and moderate expectations, are the best safeguard of the mind in this uncertain and changing state. They enable us to pass through life with most comfort. When we rise in the world, they contribute to our elevation; and if we must fall, they render our fall the lighter.

IV. Moderation in our pleasures is an important exercise of the virtue which we are now considering. It

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is an invariable law of our present |
condition, that every pleasure which
is pursued to excess, converts itself
into poison. What was intended for
the cordial and refreshment of human
life, through want of moderation we
turn to its bane. In all the pleasures
of sense, it is apparent, that, only
when indulged within certain limits,
they confer satisfaction. No sooner
do we pass the line which temperance
has drawn, than pernicious effects
come forward and shew themselves.
Could I lay open to your view the
monuments of death, they would read
a lecture in favour of moderation,
much more powerful than any that
the most eloquent preacher can give.
You would behold the graves peo-
pled with the victims of intemperance.
You would behold those chambers of
darkness hung round, on every side,
with the trophies of luxury, drunken-
ness, and sensuality. So numerous
would you find those martyrs of ini-
quity, that it may safely be asserted,
where war or pestilence have slain
their thousands, intemperate pleasure
has slain its ten thousands.

While the want of moderation in pleasure brings men to an untimely grave, at the same time, until they arrive there, it pursues and afflicts them with evils innumerable. To what cause, so much as to this, are owing faded youth, and premature old age; an enervated body, and an enfeebled mind; together with all that long train of diseases which the indulgence of appetite and sense have introduced into the world? Health, cheerfulness, and vigour, are known to be the offspring of temperance. The man of moderotion brings to a U the natural and innocent pleasures of life, that sound, uncorrupted relish, which gives him a much fuller enjoy. ment of them, than the pallid and vitiated appetite of the voluptuary allows him to know. He culls the flower of every allowable gratifica

tion, without dwelling upon it until
the flavour be lost. He tastes the
the flavour be lost.
sweet of every pleasure, without pur-
suing it till the bitter dregs rise.
Whereas the man of opposite cha-
racter dips so deep, that he never
fails to stir an impure and noxious
sediment, which lies at the bottom
of the cup.-In the pleasures, be-
sides, which are regulated by mode-
ration, there is always that dignity
which goes along with innocence.
No man needs to be ashamed of them.
They are consistent with honour;
with the favour of God, and of man.
But the sensualist, who disdains all
restraint in his pleasures, is odious in
the public eye. His vices become
gross; his character contemptible;
and he ends in being a burden both
to himself and to society. Let me
exhort you once more,

V. To moderation in all your passions. This exercise of the virtue is the more requisite, because there is no passion in human nature but what has, of itself, a tendency to run into excess. For all passion implies a

violent emotion of mind. Of course it is apt to derange the regular course of our ideas; and to produce confusion within. Nothing, at the same time, is more seducing than passion. During the time when it grows and swells, it constantly justifies to our apprehension the tumult which it creates, by means of a thousand false arguments which it forms, and brings to its aid. Of some passions, such as anger and resentment, the excess is so obviously dangerous, as loudly to call for moderation. He who gives himself up to the impetuosity of such passions, without restraint, is universally condemned by the world; and hardly accounted a man of sound ud. But, what is less apt to be

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ded to, some even of those passions which are reckoned innocent, or whose te, ndency to disorder and evil is not appa. "ent, stand, nevertheless,

in need of moderation and restraint, as well as others. For such is the feebleness of our nature, that every passion which has for its object any worldly good, is in hazard of attaching us too strongly, and of transporting us beyond the bounds of reason. If allowed to acquire the full and unrestrained dominion of the heart, it is sufficient, in various situations, to render us miserable; and almost in every situation, by its engrossing power, to render us negligent of duties which, as men or Christians, we are bound to perform.

Of the insidious growth of passion, therefore, we have great reason to beware. We ought always to have at hand, considerations, which may assist us in tempering its warmth and in regaining possessions of our souls. Let us be persuaded, that moments of passion are always moments of delusion; that nothing truly is, what it then seems to be; that all the opinions which we then form, are erroneous; and all the judgments which we pass, are extravagant. Let moderation accustom us to wait until the fumes of passion be spent; until the mist which it has raised begin to be dissipated. We shall then be able to see where truth and light lie; and reason shall, by degrees, resume the ascendant. On no occasion let us imagine, that strength of mind is shewn by violence of passion. This is not the strength of men, but the impetuosity of children. It is the strength of one who is in the delirium of a fever, or under the disease of madness. The strength of such a person is indeed increased. But it is an unnatural strength; which, being under no proper guidance, is directed towards objects that occasion his destruction. True strength of mind is shewn in governing and resisting passion, not in giving it scope; in restraining the wild beast within; and acting on the most trying occa

sions, according to the dictates of conscience, and temperate reason.

Thus I have pointed out, in sèveral instances, how moderation ought to be displayed; moderation in our wishes; moderation in our pursuits; moderation in our hopes; moderation in our pleasures; moderation in our passions. It is a principle which should habitually influence our conduct, and form the reigning temperature of the soul.

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The great motive to this virtue is suggested by the words immediately following the text; the Lord is at hand. The Judge is coming, who is to close this temporary scene of things, and to introduce a higher state of istence. The day is at hand, which will place the great concerns of men in a point of view very different from that in which they are at present beheld; will strip the world of its false glory; will detect the vanity of earthly pursuits; and disclose objects which have the proper title to interest a rational mind. Objects acquire power to engage our passions only in proportion as they are conceived to be great. But great or little, are no more than terms of comparison. Those things which appear great to one who knows nothing greater, will sink into a diminutive size, when he becomes acquainted with objects of a higher nature. Were it oftener in our thoughts that the Lord is at hand, none of those things which now discompose and agitate worldly men would appear of sufficient magnitude to raise commotion in our breasts. Enlarged views of the future destination of man, and of the place which he may hope to possess in an eternal world, naturally give birth to moderation of mind. They tend to cool all misplaced ardour about the advantages of this state; and to produce that calm and temperate frame of spirit, which becomes men and Christians. They give no ground for en

tire disregard of earthly concerns. While we are men, we must feel and act as such. But they afford a good

reason why they who believe the Lord to be at hand, should let their moderation appear and be known unto all men.

SERMON XLIII.

ON THE JOY AND THE BITTERNESS OF THE HEART.

The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.-Prov. xiv. 10.

It is well known, that men have always been much inclined to place their happiness in the advantages of fortune, and the distinctions of rank. Hence these have been pursued by the multitude with such avidity, that every principle of honour, probity, and virtue, have been sacrificed to the attainment of them. At the same time, many circumstances might have convinced men, that supposing them to be successful in the pursuit, it by no means followed that happiness was to be their reward. For if happiness be, in truth, essentially connected with splendid fortune, or exalted rank, how comes it to pass, that many, in the inferior stations of life, visibly spend their days with more comfort, than they who occupy the higher departments of the world? Why does the beggar sing, while the king is sad? A small measure of reflection on our nature might satisfy us, that there are other principles of happiness or misery too often overlooked by the world, which immediately affect the heart, and operate there with greater force and power than any circumstances of rank or fortune. This is the observation of the wise man in the text; and what I now purpose to illustrate. I shall take a view of the chief sources of that bitterness which the heart knoweth, and of that joy with which a stranger doth not intermeddle; and then shall point out the proper improvements to be made of the subject.

If we inquire carefully into the sources of the joy or bitterness of the heart, we shall find that they are chiefly two: that they arise either from a man's own mind and temper; or from the connexion in which he stands with some of his fellow-creatures. In other words, the circumstances which most essentially affect every man's happiness are, his personal character and his social feelings.

I. Every man's own thind and temper is necessarily to himself a source of much inward joy or bitterness. For every man, if we may be allowed the expression, is more connected with himself, than with any external object. He is constantly a companion to himself in his own thoughts; and what he meets with there, must, of all things, contribute most to his happiness, or his disquiet. Whatever his condition in the world be, whether high or low, if he find no cause to upbraid himself for his behaviour; if he be satisfied that his conduct proceeds upon a rational plan; if, amidst the failings incident to humanity, his conscience be, in the main, free from reproach, and his mind undisturbed by any dismal presages of futurity; the foundation is laid for a placid and agreeable tenor of life. If to this you add a calm and cheerful temper, not easily fretted or disturbed, not subject to envy, nor prone to violent passion, much of that joy will be produced,

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