IX.

higher objects, comes forth into the world SERMON with manly tranquillity, fortified by the principles which he has formed, and prepared for whatever may befal.

As he who is unacquainted with retreat, cannot sustain any character with propriety, so neither can he enjoy the world with any advantage. Of the two classes of men who are most apt to be negligent of this duty, the men of pleasure and the men of business, it is hard to say which suffer most in point of enjoyment from that neglect. To the former every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement. To connect one plan of gaiety with another, is their whole study; till, in a very short time, nothing remains but to tread the same beaten round; to enjoy what they have already enjoyed, and to see what they have often seen. Pleasures, thus drawn to the dregs, become vapid and tasteless. What might have pleased long, if enjoyed with temperance and mingled with retirement, being devoured with such eager haste, speedily surfeits and disgusts. Hence,

these

IX.

SERMON these are the persons, who, after having - run through a rapid course of pleasure, after having glittered for a few years in the foremost line of public amusements, are the most apt to fly at last to a melancholy retreat; not led by religion or reason, but driven, by disappointed hopes, and exhausted spirits, to the pensive conclusion that all is vanity.

If uninterrupted intercourse with the world wear out the man of pleasure, it no less oppresses the man of business and ambition. The strongest spirits must at length sink under it. The happiest temper must be soured by incessant returns of the opposition, the inconstancy, and treachery of men. For he who lives always in the bustle of the world, lives in a perpetual warfare. Here an enemy encounters; there a rival supplants him. The ingratitude of a friend stings him this hour; and the pride of a superiour wounds him the next. In vain he flies for relief to trifling amusements. These may afford a temporary opiate to care; but they communicate no strength to the mind. On the

contrary,

contrary, they leave it more soft and de- SERMON fenceless, when molestations and injuries

renew their attack.

Let him who wishes for an effectual cure to all the wounds which the world can inflict, retire from intercourse with men to intercourse with God. When he enters into his closet, and shuts the door, let him shut out, at the same time, all intrusion of worldly care; and dwell among objects divine and immortal. Those fair prospects of order and peace shall there open to his view, which form the most perfect contrast to the confusion and misery of this earth. The celestial inhabitants quarrel not; among them there is neither ingratitude, nor envy, nor tumult. Men may harass one another; but in the kingdom of God, concord and tranquillity reign for ever. From such objects there beams upon the mind of the pious man, a pure and enlivening light; there is diffused over his heart a holy calm. His agitated spirit re-assumes its firmness, and regains its peace. The world sinks in its importance; aud the load of mortality and misery loses almost all its weight. The green

7

IX.

SERMON green pastures open, and the still waters IX. flow around him, beside which the Shep

1

herd of Israel guides his flock. The dis-
turbances and alarms, so formidable to those
who are engaged in the tumults of the
world, seem to him only like thunder rolling
afar off; like the noise of distant waters,
whose sound he hears, whose course he
traces, but whose waves touch him not.
As religious retirement is thus evidently
conducive to our happiness in this life, so,

In the second place, it is absolutely ne

cessary in order to prepare us for the life to come. He who lives always in public, cannot live to his own soul. The world lieth in wickedness; and with good reason the Christ in is exhorted, not to be conformed to it, but transformed by the renewing of his mind. Our conversation and intercourse with the world is, in several respects, an education for vice. From our earliest youth, we are accustomed to hear riches and honours extolled as the chief possessions of man; and proposed to us, as the principal aim of our future pursuits. We are trained up, to look with admiration on

the

IX.

the flattering marks of distinction which SERMON they bestow. In quest of those fancied blessings, we see the multitude around us eager and fervent. Principles of duty,. we may, perhaps, hear sometimes inculcated; but we seldom behold them brought into competition with wordly profit. The soft names and plausible colours, under which deceit, sensuality, and revenge, are presented to us in common discourse, weaken, by degrees, our natural sense of the distinction between good and evil. We often meet with crimes authorised by high examples, and rewarded with the caresses and smiles of the world. We discover, perhaps, at last, that those whom we are taught to reverence, and to regard as our patterns of conduct, act upon principles no purer than those of others. Thus breathing habitually a contagious air, how certain is our ruin, unless we sometimes retreat from this pestilential region, and seek for proper correctives of the disorders which are contracted there? Religious retirement both abates the disease, and furnishes the remedy. It lessens the corrupting influence of the world; and it gives

13