from pursuing steadily the invariable rule of moral rectitude. As sure as God himself is all purity and perfection, there is such a thing as real purity of heart and life; and it is one of the most exalted virtues that can dignify human nature. It gives that strength and vigour and masculine firmness to the mind, which is the foundation of every thing great and excellent. It has produced some of the noblest struggles and most heroical exertions of soul that the world ever saw, and is, perhaps, a more convincing, more unequivocal proof of our sincerity in religion than even benevolence itself. When it is considered how many inducements, how many temptations, there are to acts of humanity, to which nature prompts, to which fashion draws, to which vanity, interest, popularity, ambition, sometimes lead us, one cannot always be sure that they proceed from a truly christian principle. But he who combats his darling passions, and gives up the fondest wishes of his soul; who keeps a constant guard upon all his thoughts, words, and actions; intrepidly withstands the most alluring temptations, and takes up his cross to follow Christ; this man cannot well be influenced by any thing but a strong sense of duty, and an undissembled conviction that he is bound to obey even the severest precepts of the gospel. good actions are neither seen nor applauded of men. They are performed in secrecy and in silence, without ostentation, without reward, save only the approbation of that all-seeing God, who is witness to the bitter conflicts of his soul, and will one day make him ample amends in the sight of angels and of men.

His

Let it not, however, be supposed, that any thing here said is meant to depreciate that most heavenly virtue, charity, or to rob those that exercise it of that fair name, that heartfelt satisfaction, and those glorious rewards hereafter, which cannot fail to recompense their generous labours. May every branch and species of benevolence for ever flourish and abound. May its divine and blessed influence spread continually wider and wider, till it takes in every creature under heaven, and leaves not one misery unalleviated, one grievance unredressed. But all excellent as it is, let not this, let not any single virtue engross our whole attention. Let us not confine ourselves to the easy, the delightful, the reputable works of beneficence, and neglect the other great branch of moral duty, self-denial; no less necessary and important, but much more difficult, and which, therefore, stands in need of every possible argument in its favour to recommend and support it. Let us no longer make invidious and unjust distinctions between these two kindred virtues. In nature, in reason, in the sight of God, in the gospel of Christ, self government is of equal value with social duties. They equally tend to the perfection of our own minds, and the comfort of our fellow creatures. The same rewards are in scripture promised to both; the same penalties are denounced against the violation of both; and there is so strict and intimate a union between them, that the cultivation or neglect of the one must necessarily lead, and has, in fact, always ultimately led, to the improvement or depravation of the other. What then God and nature, as well as Christ and his

apostles, have joined together, let no man dare to put asunder. Let not any one flatter himself with the hope of obtaining the rewards, or even escaping the punishments of the Gospel, by performing only one branch of his duty. Let him not imagine that the most rigorous severity of manners can excuse him from the exercise of undissembled love to God and to mankind; nor, on the other hand, let him suppose that under the shelter either of devotion or of benevolence, he may securely indulge his favourite passions; may compound, as it were, with God for his sensuality by acts of generosity, and purchase by his wealth a general licence to sin. Let him not, in short, content himself with being only half a Christian. Let him visit, as often as he pleases, the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. Let his piety be fervent, and his faith sincere. But let him, at the same time, take care, as he values his salvation, that he keep himself unspotted from the world.

BISHOP PORTEUS.

THE INFAMY OF SLANDER.

THIS delusive itch for slander, too common in all ranks of people, whether to gratify a little ungenerous resentment;-whether oftener out of a principle of levelling, from a narrowness and poverty of soul, ever impatient of merit and superiority in others;-whether from a mean ambition, or the insatiate lust of being witty (a talent in which ill nature and malice are no ingredients); -or lastly, whether from a natural cruelty of

disposition, abstracted from all views and considerations of self; to which one, or whether to all jointly, we are indebted for this contagious malady, thus much is certain, from whatever seeds it springs, the growth and progress of it are as destructive to as they are unbecoming a civilized people. To pass a hard and ill natured reflection upon an undesigning action ;-to invent, or, which is equally bad, to propagate a vexatious report without colour and grounds; to plunder an innocent man of his character and good name, a jewel which, perhaps, he has starved himself to purchase, and probably would hazard his life to secure ;-to rob him at the same time of his happiness and peace of mind, perhaps his bread, -the bread, may be, of a virtuous family; and all this, as Solomon says of the madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, Am I not in sport? all this out of wantonness, and oftener from worse motives, the whole appears such a complication of badness, as requires no words or warmth of fancy to aggravate. Pride, treachery, envy, hypocrisy, malice, cruelty, and self-love, may have been said, in one shape or other, to have occasioned all the frauds and mischiefs that ever happened in the world; but the chances against a coincidence of them all in one person are so many, that one would have supposed the character of a common slanderer as rare and difficult a production in nature as that of a great genius, which seldom happens above once in an age.

STERNE.

ON THE ORIGIN AND PREVALENCE OF CALUMNY.

ALMOST one half of our time is spent in telling and hearing evils of one another; some unfortunate knight is always upon the stage; and every hour brings forth something strange and terrible to fill up our discourse and our astonishment, "How people can be so foolish!"—and it is well if the compliment ends there; so that there is not a social virtue for which there is so constant a demand, or, consequently, so well worth cultivating, as that which opposes this unfriendly current. Many and rapid are the springs which feed it; and various and sudden, God knows, are the gusts which render it unsafe to us in this short passage of our life! Let us make the discourse as serviceable as we can, by tracing some of the most remarkable of them up to their

source.

And, first, there is one miserable inlet to this evil, and which, by the way, if speculation be supposed to precede practice, may have been derived, for aught I know, from some of our busiest inquirers after nature; and that is, when with more zeal than knowledge we account for phenomena before we are sure of their existence. "It is not the manner of the Romans to condemn any man to death" (much less to be martyred) said Festus;" and doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth ?" cried Nicodemus; " and he that answereth or determineth a matter before he has heard it,-it