ble qualities, which we imagine ourselves to possess in a high degree, while in other points of virtue we are relaxed and deficient. True virtue must form one complete and entire system. All its parts are connected; piety with morality, charity with justice, benevolence with temperance and fortitude. If any of these parts be wanting, the fabric becomes disjointed; the adverse parts of character correspond not to each other, nor form into one whole. It is only when we have respect unto all God's commandments, as the Psalmist speaks, that we have reason not to be ashamed. The apology for many of those breaches of consistency is always at hand, that the transgression is small, and can easily be repaired on a future occasion; and small sins, we imagine, may be compensated by great and distinguished virtues. But no seduction is more dangerous, than this distinction which men are so ready to make between great and small sins. Nothing is more difficult, than to draw the line of this distinction with any warrantable precision. Wherever inclination gives a strong bias to any indulgence, we may be assured that we shall be always misled in measuring the quantity of guilt. No sin is to be accounted small, by which the dictate of conscience is counteracted, and its authority is weakened and impaired. It may soon draw consequences after it which will affect our whole conduct. Supposing the matter of these transgressions to be ever so small in its own nature, yet the moral characters of men become stained and bloated by their frequent accumulations; just as many small ulcers, when allowed to form and spread, will grow by degrees into a great disease. At the same time, when I thus advise you to study entire and consistent virtue, and to guard strictly against small transgressions, let me

warn you,

V. Against unnecessary austerity, as forming any part of religious wisdom. This is the meaning of the precept of Solomon, Be not righteous over-much; neither make thyself overwise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? (Eccles. vii. 16.) Too strict and scrupulous, indeed, we cannot be in our adherence to what is matter of clear duty. Every dictate of conscience is to be held sacred, and to be obeyed without reserve. But wisdom requires that we study to have conscience properly enlightened with respect to what really belongs to duty, or infers sin. We must distinguish with care the everlasting commandments of God, from the superstitious fancies and dictates of men. We must never overload conscience with what is frivolous and unnecessary, nor exhaust on trifles that zeal which ought to be reserved for the weightier matters of the law. In all ages, it has been the great characteristic of false pretenders to piety and religion, to arrogate to themselves uncommon sanctity, by affected strictness and severity of manners; paying tithes, like the Pharisees of old, of mint, anise, and cummin, while they overlook righteousness, judgment, and mercy. That religion which is connected with true wisdom, leads to a very different spirit. It will teach us to be neither rigid in trifles, nor relaxed in essentials; not to aim at impracticable heights, nor to fall below the standard of attainable duty; never to make ostentation of our righteousness, nor to set ourselves up as patterns and standards to others, but to be gentle and unassuming; without harshness in our manners, or severity in our censures, when others depart in some particulars from our mode of thinking on religious subjects.

At the same time, we are to remember, that in order to avoid austerity, it by no means follows that we should

run into an unlimited compliance with the manners of others around us. This is a danger to which they are often exposed, whose tempers are mild, and whose manners are condescending. In that mixed and various intercourse, which the present state of society forces upon us, few things, indeed, are more difficult, than to ascertain the precise degree of compliance with the world which virtue allows. To preserve a just medium between a formal austerity on the one hand, and that weak and tame facility on the other, which betrays men into many vices, is one of the most important and arduous exercises of religious wisdom. A manly steadiness of conduct, is the object which we are always to keep in view; stu dying to unite gentleness of mauners with firmness of principle, affable behaviour with untainted integrity.

VI. In order to walk wisely in a perfect way, it is of importance that we study propriety in our actions and general behaviour. There are few precise rules of conduct that can be applied alike to all men. In some of the fundamental virtues, indeed, no circumstances can admit the least variation. There are no situations, for instance, in which truth, justice, and humanity are not required equally from all. But, in a great number of the duties of life, the manner of discharging them must vary, according to the different ages, characters, and fortunes of men. To suit our behaviour to each of these, to judge of the conduct which is most decent and becoming in our situation, is a material point of wisdom. Without this attention to propriety, virtue will lose much of its grace and efficacy; nay, good dispositions may degenerate into mere weaknesses and follies. behaviour, for instance, which would be engaging in youth, is unsuitable to advanced years. What is innocent

The

gaiety in the one, becomes culpable levity in the other; and to assume in youth that authority and dignity to which years only give any title, is impertinent affectation. In like manner, to the different ranks of men in society, there belongs a different strain of manners. Whatever is either above or below that line of life in which Providence has placed us, hurts every impartial observer, and suits not the propriety of virtue. What is proper dignity in one station, may, in another, be presumptuous arrogance; and while suitable dependance belongs to those of inferior rank, it ought not to sink into a degrading servility. With a change in the situation of our fortunes, our duties obviously change. What was commendable frugality in one condition, may become sordid parsimony as our estate rises; and the generosity required of the affluent, turns into extravagance and injustice when our circumstances are impaired.-In all those attentions to propriety, some regard will of course be had to the opinions which the world forms of us. No man has a title to despise altogether what the world thinks, and what it expects from him. But this regard to the sentiments of others, must never go so far as to encroach on what a man's own conscience tells him it is his duty either to do, or to forbear doing. In the scale by which we measure the propriety of our conduct, the opinion of the world must never be the preponderating weight. -Let me recommend,

VII. The observance of order and regularity in the whole of conduct. (Vide on this subject, Serm. XVI.) This may, at first appearance, seem an article of inferior importance, and hardly deserving to be ranked among moral duties. But I am persuaded that it is more nearly connected with virtue, than many persons imagine; and that it maintains an important

place in that wisdom which directs a perfect way. If ever you mean to carry a consistent line of virtue throughout your conduct, you must allot to every transaction its place and its season. Hurry and tumult, disorder and confusion, are both the characteristics of vice, and the parents of it. Let your time be regularly distributed, and all your affairs be arranged with propriety, in method and train. Thus, and thus only, can you be masters of yourselves; your time and your life will be your own; and what is serious and important, will not be jostled out of its place by that crowd of inferior cares, which are for ever pressing on the disorderly, and frustrating the plans which they had formed for the wise and proper regulation of life. Consider, too, that, if order be not studied, there can be no prudent economy in the management of your fortune and worldly affairs; and economy, be assured, is a great guardian of all the private and domestic virtues. When order and economy are neglected, you are in hazard of being first involved in distresses, and then inveigled into crimes; whereas, under the direction of regular conduct, both your worldly and your religious concerns will be more in the course of prospering.-I have now only to add,

VIII. That we should give attention to all the auxiliary means which religion offers for assisting and guiding us to walk wisely in a perfect way. These open a large field to the care of every good man. We must always remember, that virtue is not a plant which will spontaneously grow up and flourish in the human heart. The soil is far from being so favourable to it; many shoots of an adverse nature are ever springing up; and much preparation and culture are required for cherishing the good seed, and raising it to full maturity. Among the means, for this purpose, let me

first mention the serious reading of the Holy Scripture. That sacred book, as the standard of our belief and practice, claims, on every account, our frequent perusal. In the New Testament, the brightest display of our Lord's energetic example, joined with his simple, affecting, and instructive discourses, illustrated by the writings of his inspired followers; in the Old Testament, the variety of matter, the ardent glow of devotion in some parts, and the mysterious sublimity of others; all conspire to affect the mind with serious and solemn emotions. Passages impressed on the memory from those sacred volumes, have often, from their recurrence, had a happy effect. In our early years, most of us were accustomed to look with respect upon those venerable records; and woe be to them, who, looking back upon the days of their father's house, can trample with scorn on the memory of those whose pious cares were employed in forming them to good principles, and teaching them to reverence the word of God?-Let me next recommend a serious regard to all the established means of religious instruction; such as attending regularly the preaching of the word, partaking frequently of the Holy Sacrament, and preserving a sacred reverence for the Lord's day. Whenever all regard to the Lord's day becomes abolished; when on it we are allowed to mingle without any distinction in our common affairs, and even in our ordinary diversions and amusements; we may account this a certain symptom of declining virtue, and of approaching general immorality. We have beheld in a neighbouring kingdom, how fatally it proved the forerunner of an entire dissolution both of moral and civil order in society.

Whatever disregard certain modern refiners of morality may attempt to throw on all the instituted means of public religion, assuredly

they must, in their lowest view, be considered as the outguards and fences of virtuous conduct; and even in this view must deserve the esteem and respect of all good men. We know and are often enough told, that the form of godliness may subsist without the power of it. But depend upon it, wherever the form of godliness is entirely gone, the ruin of its power is not far off. Whoever has studied the human mind, may soon be satisfied of this truth.

Besides attention to the public means of religious improvement, much will depend on our own private exercises of devotion and serious thought. Prayer, in particular, operates to our high advantage, both by the immediate assistance which we may hope it will procure from Him who is the author and inspirer of virtue, and by its native influence in softening, purifying, and exalting the heart. In vain would he attempt to behave himself wisely in a perfect way, who looks not frequently up to God for grace and aid; and who would presumptuously attempt to separate moral virtue from devotion, its natural and original ally. Besides the exercises of

religious worship, both public and private, seasonable returns of retirement from the world, of calm recollectionand serious thought, are most important auxiliaries to virtue. He who is without intermission engaged in the bustle of society and worldly occupation, becomes incapable of exercising that discipline over himself, and giving that attention to his temper and character, which virtue requires. Commune with your own hearts on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. (Psal. iv. 4, 5.).

By the observance of such rules and maxims as have been now pointed out, it may be hoped, that through Divine grace, we may be enabled to behave ourselves wisely in a perfect way, until, in the end, we receive the reward of such behaviour. The wisdom here spoken of, as conjoined with virtue, is that wisdom from above, which is appointed by God to enlighten and guide the course of integrity. It opens to us that path of the just, which is now as the shining light, and which will shine more and more until the perfect day.

THIS passage presents to us in one view the nature of our present earthly state, and the future object of the Christian's hope. The style is figurative; but the figures employed are both obvious and expressive. The body is represented as a house inhabited by the soul, or the thinking part

of man. But it is an earthly house, a tabernacle erected only for passing accommodation, and to be dissolved; to which is to succeed the future dwelling of the just in a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here then are three great objects presented to our