my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my presence. Such was the wisdom that assisted him to continue in a perfect way. · This wisdom requires farther,

IV. THAT consistency and uniformity be preserved in character; that not by pieces and corners only we study goodness, but that we carry one line of regular virtue through our whole conduct. Without this extensive regulation of behaviour, we can never hold on successfully in a perfect way. Almost all men, even the loose and profligate, lay claim to some one virtue or other, and value themselves on some good moral disposition, which they boast of possessing. It is in vain, therefore, that we rest our character on one or a few estimable 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. Whereever 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 overmuch; neither make thyself over-wise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself? * 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,

* Eccles. vii. 16.

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; studying to unite gentleness of manners 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 part 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. The behaviour, for instance, which would be engaging in youth, is unsuitable to advanced years. What is innocent 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 dif ferent 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 dependence 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.* 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 affairs

your

* Vide on this subject, Vol. i. Serm. XVI.