was created; to make the best of the ruins is indispensable. Things may not only be of that perfect world whose beauty he had comparatively, but positively, good, and yet marred, and whose capacity of conferring not be things which accompany salvation.' felicity he had fatally impaired. Human life, They may not only be intended to be instrutherefore, abounding as it does in blessings mental, but actually be so, both in advanand mercies, is not the blissful vision which cing the prosperity, and in restraining the youthful fancy images, or poetry feigns, or disorders of this world, and so far be highly romance exhibits. It is in a considerable valuable, and yet the act may be substituted measure compounded of painful and dull re- for that principle which should be its inspiralities, and not a splendid tissue of granding motive. The fault, however, is not in events or brilliant exploits; it is to some an the thing, but in the mind, when useful acalmost unvaried state of penury, to many a tions are not done with a reference to the series of cares and troubles, to all, a state of highest end. Of this reference a Christian probation. But the primeval punishment, will aim never to lose sight. He will, before the sentence of labour, like the other inflic- he engage in the concerns of the day, pretions of Him who in judgment remembers pare his mind by fervent devotion; not only mercy, is transformed into a blessing. And imploring direction in the common course of whether we consider the manual industry of action, and the expected occurrences of the 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.

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 character about to be briefly considered is presumed to be a real Christian, it would be superfluous, for two reasons, to insist that his vocation in the world must be As the lawyer has his compendium of calawful. It is not to be supposed that a reli- ses and precedents, the legislator his statutes, gious man will ever engage in an employ- the soldier his book of tactics, and every othment that is illicit; and it is almost equally er professor his vade mecum to consult in beyond supposition, that persons who are ac-difficulties, the Christian, to whichever of tually so engaged, will cast their eyes on a the professions he may belong, will take his book whose tendency is serious.

morning lecture from a more infallibie diBut the most unexceptionable profession rectory, comprehending not only cases and is not exempt from dangers. It requires precedents, but abounding also with those strict watchfulness, not only to conduct the seminal principles which contain the essence most useful undertaking in a right spirit, and of all actual duty, from which all practical with a constant eye to Him, to whom every excellence is deducible. The spirit of laws intelligent being is accountable; it requires differs from all legal institutes, some of which, not only constant vigilance against the al- from that imperfection inseparable from the Jurements of avarice, and the baits of ambi- best human things, have been found uninteltion, but it requires caution against the un-ligible, some impracticable, and some have suspected mischiefs of embarking so widely, become obsolete. The divine law is subject 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.

to no such disadvantages. It is perfect in its nature, intelligible in its construction, and eternal in its obligation.

This sacred institute he will consult, not occasionally, but daily. Unreminded of general duty, unfurnished with some leading hint for the particular demand, he will not venture to rush into the bustle, trial, and temptation of the day. Of this aid he will possess himself with more ease, and less loss It can never be too often repeated, how-of time, as he will not have to ransack a ever writers tire with saying, and readers multiplicity of folios for a detached case, or with hearing it, that it is scarcely more ne- an individual intricacy; for, though he may cessary to address serious suggestions to not find in the Bible specific instances, yet men sunk in gross pursuits, than to that he will discover in every page some governlarge, and important, and valuable class, ing truth, some rule of universal application, whose danger lies in the very credit, and the spirit of which may be brought to bear dignity, and usefulness of their engage-on almost every circumstance; some princiments. A thousand dissertations have been ple suited to every purpose, and competent written, and yet the theme is not exhausted, to the solution of every moral difficulty. on that hackneyed but neglected truth, that Scripture does not, indeed, pretend to inwe are undone by lawful things, by excess clude technical or professional peculiarities, in things right in themselves, and which on- but it exhibits the temper and the conduct ly become wrong by being inordinately pur- which may be made applicable to the special sued pursued to the neglect of things more concerns of every man, whatever be his ocessential; when what is even laudable is ex-cupation. He will find in it the right direcclusively sought, to the forgetfulness of what tion to the right pursuit, the straight road to VOL. II.

23

the proper end; the duty of a pure inten- tion of the moral les-ons of history. If we tion; and the prohibition of false measures apply to our own improvement the recorded to attain even a laudable object. No hurry excellences or errors of which we read; or engagement will ever make him lose sight if we are struck with the successes or deof that sacred aphorism so pointedly address- feats of ambition; the pursuits or disappointed to men of business, He that maketh ments of vanity; the sordid accumulations haste to be rich shall hardly be innocent.' of avarice, or the wasting ravages of prodiThe cautionary texts he admired in his clos-gality; if we are moved with instances of et, he will not treasure up as classical mot-vice and virtue in men of whom we know tos to amuse his fancy, or embellish his dis- nothing but what the historian is pleased to course, but will adopt as rules of conduct, tell us, and of whom he perhaps knew not and bring them into every worldly transac- much more; if we read with interest of the tion, whether commercial, forensic, medical, violence of parties, of which both the leadmilitary, or whatever else be his professed ers and the followers have been long laid in object. He will not adjust his scale of duty the dust; if we are affected, as every intelby the false standard of the world, nor by ligent mind cannot but be affected, with any measure of his own devising; he has these pictures of things, how much benefit but one standard of judging, but one meas- may a well-directed mind derive from seeing ure of conduct-the infallible word of God. them realized: from seeing the old scenes This rule he will take as he finds it, he will acted over again by living performers; from use as he is commanded; he will not bend living himself among the dramatis persona it to his own convenience, he will not ac- as one of the actors; from taking a personal commodate it to his own views, his own interest in a repetition of things which he passions, his own emolument, his own repu- condemned or applauded when only coldly tation. presented to his understanding, and at which his principles revolted or rejoiced, even in the dead letter of narrative. He now sees the same sentiments embodied, the same passions brought into action, similar opinions operating upon actual conduct.

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 If he is deeply touched when history precaptiousness, might, it may be said, have sents to his view the errors of high and heroguarded against it by more enlarged instruc-ic minds, when it exhibits the aberrations of tions. The holy Spirit, however, did not see superior genius, how much more lively will fit to descend to such minutiæ, but, having be his regret, when he sees, among his own given the principle, left man to the exercise acquaintance, the ardour of a noble and inof his reason, in the application of the gene- genuous mind exclusively consumed on obral law to his particular case; for if he is left jects, which might indeed be accounted to the use of his judgment, it is not that he great, if this world were all, but which nevinay pervert truth, but apply it. His under-er gives any practical intimation that there standing and rectitude are perpetually cal- is another. But how much more pungent led into joint exercise, for that which is immediately 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 multiplicity 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 acting upon them. Even were every particular of every duty, in all its bearings, circumstantially ramified, it would not so much direct the conduct, as furnish new pretences for neglecting it. Then, as now, it would be seen rather that the will is perverse, than the understanding unsatisfied. More amplification would not have lessened objections. Those who complain now, 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 exemplifica

will be his sorrow, when he observes lofty and sagacious spirits neglecting to make the most even of this brief state of being ;when he sees men who might have made the world a better thing than they found it, had they employed their superior powers of intellect in studying how they might please God, by promoting the best interests of his creatures; when he sees such understandings clouded by intemperance, such minds absorbed in studying the qualities of a race horse, or calculating the chances of a gaming table!

In another and a more estimable class of characters, he is struck with mingled admiration and concern, in observing what good and resembling imitations of religion are made by honour, sense, and spirit, how respectably moral honesty, kindness, and generosity may, to superficial observers, personate Christianity, may even execute the act of piety with an utter destitution of the principle. He sees in certain minds some masterly strokes of natural beauty, which at once dignify and embellish them, so as, on some occasions, to tempt him to forget that they are not religious. But these brilliant qualities are not infused into the entire character, the excellence is limited to a few shining points, and the hollows are proportioned to the

Beights. Rich in some splendid virtues, there should lose money by him; while he toleris no uniformity in the principle; there is ates in his character every vice which will perhaps some allowed sin in the practice; not interfere with his pecuniary transactions. while in the character of the real Christian, It is his aim to reconcile that charity though there may be much infirmity, there which believeth all things, with that discrimis a desire of consistency-there is no delib-ination of character which shows us, not only erate transgression-there is even no unre- so many who are bad, but so much imperpented error. fection, we may say, so much evil, in the These living lessons the pious observer comparatively good. To love and serve will turn to account. The impression thus those in whom we at the same time perceive made on his heart, from actual observation, no little moral defect, is turning our spiritual will sink deeper, and be more durable, than discernment to a practical account. This the instruction to be obtained by a mere in- principle, while it serves to preserve us tellectual view of mankind, from informa- from an undue admiration of others, will tion collected from writers, who are obliged teach us to suspect these, or other defects, in to pick up facts, not from having witnessed ourselves.

them, but as they find them in preceding The Christian in the world, anxious to imwriters; men who know little of the causes prove his scanty leisure, will rescue from of which they describe the effects, or the mere diversion those hours which cannot motives of the actions they record. History prudently be subtracted from business. To paints men, acute observation anatomizes them.

a man thus circumstanced, the Sunday is felt to be indeed a blessing; to him it is emphatIf he regret that his necessary duties in ically 'a delight.' Instead of appropriating the world french on the time he would glad- it as a day of premeditated convivality, he ly devote to religious pursuits, let him take converts it into a stated season of enjoyment comfort that these regrets, if sincere, are an of another kind. He hardly needs the inearnest of his safety. The very corruptions junction to remember' to keep it holy, to which he is witness, will experimentally though he is not unmindful, that, of the ten convince him of the truth of a doctrine, commandments, it is the only one prefaced which is no where more completely learned with that admonition. He considers the obthan in the bustle of life. The perception of servance as almost more his privilege than this evil in others, makes him watch against his duty. The expectation of its return similar tendencies within; tendencies which cheers him under the perplexities of the only the grace daily invoked by him pre- week. He anticipates it as a rest here, and vents from breaking out into action. This as a foretaste of eternal rest. He enlarges deep conviction of man's corruption, instead his pious exercises with the more satisfaction, of imparing his benevolence, will improve it. as he is clearly assured that he is not on this It will teach him not to expect too much day in danger of trenching on his professionfrom so imperfect a being, as well as to bear al duties; and, from this reflection, his heart with the errors which his belief of the doc- more warmly expands in gratitude to Him trine had led him to expect. This, together whose day it more immediately is. He feels with his intercourse with the world, will that, if it were barely a season ordained by cure him of that mistake so common to per- some public act, a royal proclamation ensons who have not lived in it, that of expect-joining it as a necessary interval between the ing no faults in those which a fond imagina- labours which close one week, and those tion, on a first acquaintance, had led them to which begin another, a contrivance of ease, believe perfect, and who, on the inevitable a measure of political prudence or personal discovery, become too strongly disgusted with errors and imperfections, on which they ought to have reckoned. He will never use his full conviction of the truth of which we have been speaking to the purposes of unworthy distrust, or base suspicion. On the contrary, though he will exercise his discernment in the knowledge of men, and his discretion as to the confidence to be placed in them, he will not be ever on the look out to detect, much less to expose their errors. Though he loves not the world' in the Scripture sense of the term, he loves the individuals of whom it is composed, with the affection of sympathy. He will put a large and liberal construction on their actions, but he will not stretch that latitude to the vindi- cool; his hurried mind to regain its tranquil cation of any thing that is corrupt in princi-tone; his whole internal state to be regulaple, or criminal in conduct. Nor will he be ted; his mistakes to be reviewed; his temper always on the defensive in his intercourse to be new set; his piety to be braced up to with them he will not act with the narrow the pitch from which it may have been sunk selfiseness of the sordid trader, who is jealous in the atmosphere he had been breathing. of every man with whom he has business to The pious man of business relishes his family transact, on no higher ground than lest he society and fireside enjoyments with a keen

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tenderness to prevent the bodily machine and the overlaboured mind from wearing out, he would be grateful for its institution: but to him the day comes fraught with benefits and blessings of a still higher kind. It is an appointment of God; that entitles it to his reverence; it is an institution of spiritual mercy; it is the stated season for recruiting his mental vigour; for inspecting his accounts with his Maker; for taking a more exact survey of the state of his heart; for examining into his faults; for enumerating his mercies; for laying in, by prayer, fresh stores of faith and holiness; for repairing what both may have lost in the turmoil of the week. His heated passions have leisure to

ness not always felt by others. If the harp, ground, but is increasing with a frightful raand the tabret, and the viol,' are not always pidity? If we have, perhaps, never heard of heard in his feasts, he does what those who a truly religious man engaged in a duel,* it listen to them do not always remember to do, is not that, with all his caution, he is not liafor he considers the works of the Lord, and ble to provocations and insults, as well as regards the operations of his hands.' It is other men; nor that he has no quick sense not enough for the devoted Christian that his of injuries, no spirit to repel attacks, and no life is dedicated to him who gave it, his spirit courage to defend himself. He who bears is, as it were, exhaled in his service.* insults is made of like passions with him who revenges them; his pride longs to break out if it dared; for even a good man, as the prelate quoted in the last chapter observes, has more to do with this one viper, than with all

CHAP. XXIV.

Difficulties and advantages of the Christian his other corruptions.' in the world.

But, among other causes, his safety lies in this, that he has always endeavoured to keep THERE are two things of which a wise clear of those initiatory offences which lead man will be scrupulously careful, his con- to this catastrophe; it is because he has been science and his credit. Happily they are habitually governed by principles of a dialmost inseparable concomitants; they are rectly contrary tendency, and has not the commonly kept or lost together; the same lesson of forbearance to learn, when he is things which wound the one, usually gives a called upon to practice it: because he has blow to the other: yet, it must be confessed, not indulged himself in those habits, and as that conscience and a mere worldly credit little as may be in those societies which lay are not, in all instances, allowed to subsist a man open to the consequences of which untogether. God and our hearts-we speak of governed appetites are the source: because hearts which are looked into and examined he has always considered pride and passion -always condemn us for the same things as the possible seeds of murder; an impure things, perhaps, for which we do not suffer in glance as the first approach to that crime the opinion of the world: the world, in re- which is the ordinary source of duelling-the turn, not seldom condemns us for actions, combined violation of these two commandfor which we have the approbation of God ments, being as closely connected, in pracand our consciences. Is it right to put the tice, as is their position in the Decalogue. verdict of such opposite judges on an equali-It is observable, that while the shifts and ty, nay to abide by that which will be less than nothing when his sentence, whose fa vour is eternal life, shall be finally pronouneed?

stratagems to which a man is commonly driven by illicit connexions, so often lead to duelling, yet that the charge of that crime itself, or of any other equally atrocious, far Between a wounded conscience and a more rarely provokes a challenge, than the wounded credit there is the same difference charge of the lie, to which the crime has as between a crime and a calamity. Of two compelled him to resort. Can there be a inevitable evils, religion instructs us to sub-more striking instance of the false estimate mit to that which is inferior and involuntary. As much as reputation exceeds every worldly good, so much, and far more, is conscience to be consulted before credit-if credit that can be called, which is derived from the acclamations of a mob, whether composed of the great vulgar or the small.'

Yet are we not perpetually seeing, that, to secure this worthless fame, peace and conscience are sacrificed? For to what but a miserably false estimate of the relative value of these two blessings; what but the preference of character to duty-in support, too, of a rotten part of it— is it, that the wretched system of duelling not only maintains its

of character and virtue, than that the offence is not made to consist in the falsehood itself, but in the accusation of it.

The man of mere worldly principles keeps himself in the broad way, which, should events occur, and temptations arise to irritate him, may at any time lead to such a termination. His habits of life, his choice of associates, his systematic resolution to revenge every insult, makes his common path a path of danger. His pride is always ready primed; he carries the inflammable matter in his habit, and the first spark may cause an explosion; while the man of principle, in addition to all the other guards before enumerated, wants, indeed, but this single consid*It is to be regretted, that the members of aeration to deter bim from the spirit of duellearned and honourable profession, and which has produced so many exemplary characters, shoulding; that it is the act of all others which stands in the most determined opposition to appoint their consultations on Sundays. It is urged in excuse, that they cannot clash with any pub- the law of God, and the spirit of the Gospel ; lic courts or sittings on that day. The leading men, by this custom, force some of those whose practice is less established into a breach of their duty, against which their consciences perhaps revolt. Might not one of these two sacrifices obviate the necessity which is pleaded in its vindication? Might they not either reject such a superfluity of business as induces it-or, if that be too much to expect, might they not subtract the time from their social and convivial hours?

* Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the first of our deistical writers, and the last hero of our ancient chivalry, with that fantastic combination of devotion and gallantry which characterized the profession of knighthood, tells us, in the memoirs of his own life, that he strictly maintained the religious observance of the Sabbath, except when called out to fight a duel for a point of honour, which he seemed to have thought à paramount duty.

that it is a studied, deliberate, premeditated lead him constantly to oppose principle to subversion of one of the most imperious du- expediency. Of this incommodious integties of Christianity, by making it infamous to rity, he must abide the censure and the conforgive injuries. sequences. He will have no share in the crooked arts and intrigues by which some men rise so fast, and become so popular. He will detest craft almost as much as fraud, and the pitiful shifts of a narrow policy, as much as he will love the light and open path of truth and honesty.-He does not slacken in his undeviating strictness. though he is aware, that this is the quality which peculiarly exposes him to misrepresentation. Exertion, struggle, conflict, these are the trials for which he prepares himself. Thankful for tranquility when it can be honestly obtained, enjoying repose when he has fairly earned it; be yet knows that this is not the world in which they are to be looked for with any certainty, or enjoyed with any continuance; and this conviction of its instability and fluctuation is one of the many arguments with which he seeks to arm himself against the fear of death.

And even if a man be more correct in his habits, still if the maxims of the world, and not those of Christianity, govern him, he loses sight of the great principles which would restrain excesses in temper, as well as in conduct. He first loses sight of these, perhaps by negligence in private devotion possibly by a careless attendance on public worship. Thus freeing himself from these observances, he loses sight of the obligations of religion, and losing this strongest muzzle of restraint,' it is the less wonder that a small provocation tempts him to offer bloody sacrifices to that fantastic but cruel idol, worldly honour. It is the less wonder that a neglected, even where there is not a perverted principle, should end in the murder of a friend, and the destruction of his own soul; for of a merely convivial friendship, a duel is no very uncommon termination.

But to return. In the ordinary pursuits of life, the good man differs but litle from others, in the keenness with which he embarks in enterprize, or in the diligence with which he prosecutes it; but he carries it on in another spirit; he is not less solicitous in the pursuit, but there is less perturbation in his solicitude; he makes no undue sacrifices to attain his object. He seeks the divine blessing, not that he may slacken his own exertions, but that he may be directed in them, supported under them. Sanguine, perhaps, by nature, he yet takes into the account the probabilities of disappointment: this, when it occurs, he bears as one, who, though careful of the motive and mode of his conduct, had put the affair into the hands of the Master of events. His failure does not discourage him from fresh exertions, when occasions equally right present themselves. He is grateful for success, but not intoxicated by it. Under defeat he is resigned, but not desponding He measures the intrinsic value of an object by asking his own mind, though he thinks so highly of its importance now, what he shall probably think of it when his ardour is cooled, and especially, what he shall think of it when all things shall be brought into judgment. This question settled, either moderates or augments the interest he takes in it.

Knowing that whatever he proposes in the way of public good, is liable to be suspected of imprudence, or mistaken zeal, he turns this exposure to suspicion to his own advan tage. It leads him to examine his project more accurately to spy out its weak side, if it have any; and to anticipate, by the opera tion of a well exercised judgment, the objections which bis opponents are likely to make. Foreseeing the points which may create opposition, he guards against it, either by altering his plan, if defective, or preparing to defend it, if sound. One of his great difficulties, and yet it is his only security, will be his custom of referring all matters in debate, to the law and to the testimony.' This will

The unequal distribution of the good things of this life, the inferior success of men of more virtue, higher talent, and a better outset, than others of his acquaintance, whose beginning was low, and whose deserts equiv ocal, remind him that prosperity is no sure test of merit, and that the favour of heaven is not to be estimated by success. God, he recollects, has made no special promise of prosperity to his children. When given, it is to be esteemed no certain mark of his approbation; when withdrawn, it is often in mercy; when withheld, it is because God has higher designs for his less prosperous servants. As to himself, the events of every day teach him, that he bad expected more from human life than it had to bestow, and that bis disappointments arise not less from his own sanguine temper, than from the deceits of that world which it had overrated.

The world, especially, we may here remark, the commercial world, particularly in these awful times, is calculated to teach forbearance far more than sequestered life, because men often suffer so severely in their fortune and credit by the errors or misfor. tunes of others. If the good man suffer by his own fault, he will find a fresh motive for humility; if by the fault of another, for patience; if more directly from the hand of God, for submission. Whatever be the fluctuations of his fortune, his faith will gain stability, for he will discern an invisible hand directing all events for his ultimate good. If he is placed in a state of peculiar agitation, God intends to lead him by it to seek his rest where only it can be found. If in a state of singular difficulty, it is to show him his own weakness, and his immediate dependance on him, who gives strength to the weak. This principle admitted, will furnish new motives to watchfulness and prayer, without any diminution of activity or spirit.

His observations on the gradual process, by which the love of money monopolizes the hearts of others, teach him to guard his own against its encroachments. He sees that the