In regard to our own times, and to bring the matter home to ourselves, it is indifputable that we greatly excel our ancestors in the conveniencies and in the elegancies of life; that knowledge of every kind is become more general, fcience and literature more univerfal, than in the ages before us. But then, to our fhame and ignominy, it is equally indifputable, that we are by no means inferior to them in our corruption and depravity; that, even in an open contempt of the doctrines of the Gofpel and the revelation of God's word, vices have fprung up amongst us, which were unknown to our lefs guilty predeceffors, and crimes which would have difgraced the dark ages of barbarity and paganifm, have been referved to diftinguish the enlightened æra of Christanity.

So far was earthly wifdom and knowledge from making men wifer and better, more confcientious or religious; that it was, on the other hand, the principal caufe of that corruption and degeneracy, which prevailed in the world at the time of the Chriftian difpenfation; when God fent down his Son to confute the wisdom of the wife; when, out of the mouths of babes and fucklings he ordained Strength; when a fet of ignorant and illiterate men were infpired by the Holy Spirit, to overthrow all the fuperb edifices of vain wifdom and falfe philofophy, and by the immediate power of God to filence the ignorance of foolish men.

What then are the inferences to be drawn, or what are the determinations which will refult

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refult from the conviction of this folemn truth?

Muft we give up all our title to, and all our search after wifdom and knowledge? muft we fuffer our understandings to remain uncultivated, and our faculties to languifh and decay? muft we, in fhort, who are made in the image of God, endeavour to throw afide that divine fimilitude, and reduce ourselves to a level with the beafts that perifh? God forbid? The God of knowledge doth not command it, the God of wisdom doth not require it of us.

Whilft Learning hath Modefty for her handmaid, Humility for her companion, and Devotion for her guide, fhe is amiable, ufeful, praife-worthy; but when fhe is vain and selffufficient, if here, inftead of promoting the caufe of virtue and religion, fhe takes up arms against them, while fhe obferves the works of nature, and derides the miracles of God, inftead of adoring him for them; then doth fhe fink even beneath ignorance, and is more hateful and more contemptible, with all her knowledge and wifdom, than barbarity itself.

That knowledge which we fhould be moft folicitous to attain, we are generally moft ready to neglect and defpife: the knowledge which we ought first to learn, is the laft which we acquire, the knowledge of our own poor and imperfect felves. But the man of learning is too proud and felf-fufficient, the man of the world is too busy and fordid, the man of pleafure is too idle and voluptuous, ever to make himfelf matter of it; it is a knowledge, indeed, which will require great toil and affiduity,

duity in the fearch, and ftill greater care and folicitude in the preservation of it.

But then it is a treasure which will amply repay our labour; it is an acquifition that will fully recompence all the pains we can endure, and all the difficulties we can encounter in the purfuit of it: it will not, like other knowledge, be found infufficient, perplexing, unimproving, or unfatisfactory; but it will render us wifer and better, and therefore happier, than we were before the poffeffion of it.

Thanks be to God, we have a wifdom which Solomon could not have, and a knowledge which he could not attain unto, the wifdom of falvation by Jefus Chrift, and the knowledge of his holy Gofpel: to that wisdom and that knowledge therefore let us apply; that knowledge will not make us vain, that wisdom will not make us melancholy: he that hath it will not have grief, and he that increaseth it will not increafe forrow. Let us leave therefore this world, and the knowledge and the wisdom of it, and go in search of the knowledge of God, and the wifdom of falvation: let us put up our prayers to the Almighty, to our great Patron and Benefactor, the inexhauftible fountain of wifdom, that he would enlighten our understandings and improve our faculties: that he will bring us finally to those manfions where we shall know even as we are known, where we shall be wife as he is wife, and pure as he is pure; that he will grant us in this life knowledge of his trnth, and in that which is come life everlasting.

SERMON

ON RETIREMENT.

SER MON

PSALM IV. 4.

XXXI.

Stand in awe and fin not: commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still.

То

O check the impulfe of paffion and prevent the firft attacks of vice on the foul of man, a reverential awe of the Deity is implanted in every breaft by the gracious Author of our being. Till this faithful guard is removed by violence, or feduced and drawn away by our deceitful and corrupt affections, guilt can by no means gain admittance. Whilft the inftructions of this ufeful monitor are carefully attended to, the dictates of fin and fatan will not be regarded. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, and it is the continuance alfo of true wifdom; the moment we part from it, we are in danger of falling into error, and deviating into the paths of vice.

In the earlier part of life therefore we should endeavour to imprint this divine fignature on our minds in the most indelible characters, characters which fhould grow with our growth, and ftrengthen with our ftrength; fuch as may never be effaced by time, place or circumftance,

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and to retain always in our fouls, that which will always be their beft fecurity.

And to this end the holy Pfalmift, who well knew our obligation and neceffity of complying with the precept he gives, hath at the fame time that he enjoined, condefcended alfo to guide and direct us in the practice of it; and hath accordingly pointed out to us the most effectual means of preferving that religious awe and veneration of God, which alone can enfure our everlasting falvation. Commune with your own hearts, fays he, and in your chamber, and be still.

The royal monitor, who gives us the advice, was well acquainted both with public and private life; he had experienced the danger of courts and palaces, and he hath tafted the fweets of retirement and contemplation: to thefe laft therefore he admonifhes us to repair for that peace and tranquillity which it is not in the power of a noify venal world to beftow; to fhun that bustle and glare which is too apt to dazzle and deceive us, and feek the calm and quiet fhade of life, where we may undif turbed reflect on our duty towards God and man, and promote both our present and future happiness.

We are not, at the fame time, to imagine, that by this retirement is meant an entire feparation from our fellow-creatures, a felfifh toical contempt of them, a churlish folitary recefs from mankind, and a total abftinence from all the pleafures of focial life; for this would be acting in oppofition to the first laws.

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