phatically miferable; who have no ease or fatisfaction but in guilty pleasures, or at best idle impertinent amusements. Why are men thus fo unable to converfe with others, but because they will not converfe with themselves? Why are they fo deficient in the duties, but because they delight in the impertinencies of life? because they will not exert those talents which God has intrufted to them; will not commune with their own hearts, and in their chambers, and be fill.

To their closets, therefore, let the idle and the ignorant retire; let them leave the malevolent talk of prying into or cenfuring the hearts of others, and learn to commune with their own; leave for a while the noife and tumult of a licentious world, and enjoy the new and yet untafted bleffings of tranquillity, There let them endeavour to improve their fa culties and better their understanding; to acquaint themselves with that nature which they partake of, thofe duties which are required of them, and that faith which they profefs.

Further, If frequent feparation from the world is of service to us with regard to all we do here, fo is it alfo productive of those vir tues which will infure our eternal happiness hereafter. If men can prevail on themselves to call off their hearts from the fleeting and tranfitory pleasures of this life, they will naturally fix them where only true joys are to be found. Devotion always feparates itself from noife and tumult, the better to perform its offices with that folemnity which they require,

Mofes

Mofes and Aaron afcended the high places for this purpofe; and our Saviour himself went up into the mountain to pray; from thence he delivered thofe glorious precepts, that divine morality which fo far excelled whatever had before been delivered to mankind, and in comparifon of which, all human eloquence is but as a tinkling cymbal.

If ever there was a time when it was more particularly neceffary to retire from noise and buftle, and commune with our own hearts and in our chambers, it is at this, when all the duties of life are fo apparently neglected, and the retirement recommended by the holy Pfalmift most induftriously avoided. No age was perhaps ever fo idle and trifling as this we live in the communication with our own hearts entirely cut off, and all the avenues to knowledge fhut up by a crowd of empty and frivolous employments: the fashionable world are to be found in every chamber but their own, prefer any noife however diffonant, any hurry however fatiguing, to the disagreeable neceffity of being ftill. We are got, in fhort, into a foolish and trifling way of spending our few precious hours; let us, I befeech you get out of it as faft as we can. Let us ftand in awe of that Being who created us, and not appear before our great mafter as totally ufelefs and unprofitable fervants.

There are who affert that fuch as are bleft with atfluence, have a right to spend their time and fortune as they think proper: a very ridiculous, and a very dangerous affertion! as if

thofe

those who are above the neceffities, were alfo above the duties of life! as if the rich and powerful had a right to monopolize pleasure; and to be idle and useless were amongst the privileges of the great.

Let us, I intreat you, judge more rationally: let us redeem the time, and commune with our own hearts: let not the force of bad example warp us from our duty, nor fashionable prejudices betray us to our ruin. Surlinefs and contempt of the world, is not goodness or religion; and on the other hand, a fervile compliance with its follies is unwife and unmanly. Good-breeding was meant to affift and fet off the charms of virtue, but not to rival or fupplant her: and fuch as make politeness alone the rule of their actions, are like thofe architects who to ornaments and delicacy, facrifice the strength and usefulness of their buildings. Let us then retire to our chambers, and commune with our own hearts; thofe companions we ought to be fo intimately acquainted with, and which yet, too many of us are utter ftrangers to: we may find them indeed like other acquaintance, deceitful: but it will be fome profit, fome advantage to us to know that they are fo; to know how far we may confide in them, to discover their weakneffes, to see their imperfections, and to mark their bent and inclinations, their various fhifts and windings, that we may be upon our guard, and prepared against thofe paffions which fo eafily befet us. Let us not (as too many do) com. mune fo long with the world, that we are both

unable

unable and unwilling to commune with our felves; bufy ourselves fo perpetually in the chambers of riot and debauchery, that we are afraid and afhamed to enter into our own; fo engage ourselves in the noise and folly of a tumultuous world, as to put it out of our power to be still, or ever to enjoy that peace and quiet which only the frequent communication with our own hearts can procure, and which retirement and innocence alone can bestow.

Permit me to hope that what I have advanced may have fome influence over our future conduct; that we shall immediately retire to our chambers, and commune with our own hearts. Certain it is, that when the mind is fraught with knowledge, fhe needs not external objects to furnish out the nobleft entertainment; and if she is barren and unfruitful, retirement is the fittest foil for culture and improvement. If our hearts should there reproach us for paft follies, their admonitions may be highly useful; if, on the other hand, they should approve and applaud our conduct, their converfe will be moft delightful to us. Let us, then, not be unwilling or afraid to be alone: there is a Being who will be ever with us: if in our retirement we addrefs ourselves to him, he will hear and he will anfwer us: he will dispel the fears of the diffident, awaken the attention of the careless, employ the idle, and repress the licentious mind: he will call off our thoughts from the diffipation of public, to the duties of private life; prepare our hearts for the contemplation of nobler objects, and fit us for the

converfe

converse of more perfect beings than thofe whom we now affociate with: and when our minds are exalted and capable of tafting fpiritual joys, will convey us to them, even to his own heaven, the ftate of bleffed fpirits, the region of never-fading joy, peace, and immortality.

ON ANGEL S.

SERMON XXXII.

HEBREWS I. 14.

Are they not all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who fhall be heirs of falva

tion?

AMONGST all those ridiculous and abfurd prejudices which arife from a narrow and confined way of thinking, there is not perhaps any one more capable of obftructing the human mind in its fearch after truth, than the vast opinion we are fo apt to entertain of our own nature, its dignity, consequence, and importance.

Children placed on the fummit of a little hill, who fee nothing but clouds above them, fancy the spot they ftand upon must be the highest in the whole world, though it may at the fame time, in spite of that cafual eminence,