who does not lay the chief stress upon his matter, and em-` ploy such ornaments of style to recommend it, as are manly, not foppish: „Majore animo," says the writer whom I have so often quoted,,,aggredienda est eloquentia; quæ si toto „corpore valet, ungues polire et capillum componere, non exi➡ „stimabit ad curam suam pertinere. Ornatus et virilis et for„tis, et sanctus sit; nec effeminatam levitatem, et fuco ementitum colorem amet; sanguine et viribus niteat *).

5) ADVANTAGES OF RETIRING FROM THE WORLD, (Fragment of a Sermon on religious retirement.) Psalm IV, 4.

Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.

-The advantages of retiring from the world, to commune with our heart, will be found to be 'great, whether we regard our happiness in this world, or our preparation for the world

to come.

Let us consider them, first, with respect to our happiness in this world. It will readily occur to you, that an entire retreat from worldly affairs, is not what religion requires; nor does it even enjoin a great retreat from them. Some stations of life would not permit this; and there are few stations which render it necessary. The chief field, both of the duty and of the improvement of man, lies in active life. By the graces and virtues which he exercises amidst his fellowcreatures he is trained up for heaven. A total retreat from the world, is so far from being, as the Roman Catholic church holds, the perfection of religion, that, some particular cases 'excepted, it is no other than the abuse of it.

But, though entire retreat would lay us aside from the part for which Providence chiefly intended us, it is certain, that, without occasional retreat, we must act that part very ill. There will be neither consistency in the conduct, nor

*) „A higher spirit ought to animate those who study elo,,quence. They ought to consult the health and soundness of ,,the whole body, rather than bend their attention to such trif,,ling objects as paring the nails, and dressing the hair. Let orna„ment be manly and chaste, without effeminate gaiety, or artifi,,cial colouring; let it shinewith the glow of health and strength."

dignity in the character, of one who sets apart no share of his time for meditation and reflection. In the heat and bustle of life, while passion is every moment throwing false colours on the objects around us, nothing can be viewed in a just light. If you wish that Reason should exert her native power, you must step aside from the crowd, into the cool and silent shade. It is there that, with sober and steady eye, she examines what is good or ill, what is wise or foolish, in human conduct; she looks back on the past, she looks forward to the future; and forms plans, not for the present moment only, but for the whole of life. How should that man discharge any part of his duty aright, who never suffers his passions to cool? And how should his passions cool, who is engaged, without interruption, in the tumult of the world? This incessant stir may be called, the perpetual drunkenness of life. It raises that eager fermentation of spirit, which will be ever sending forth the dangerous fumes of rashness and folly. Whereas he who mingles religious retreat with worldly affairs, remains calm and master of himself. He is not whirled round, and rendered giddy, by the agitation of the world; but, from that sacred retirement, in which he has been conversant among higher objects, comes forth into the world 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 sole study; till, in a very short time, nothing remain 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 rapid 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 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 pensive conclusion, that all is vanity.

If uninterrupted intercourse with the world wears 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 the 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, they leave it more soft and defenceless, when molestations and injuries renew their attack.

Let him who wishes for an effectual cure to all the wounds which the world can afflict, retire from intercourse with men, to intercourse with God. When he enters in 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; and the load of mortality and misery loses almost all its weight. The green pastures open, and the still waters flow around him, beside which the Shepherd of Israel guides his flock. The disturbances 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 conductive to our happiness in this life, s0,

In the second place, it is absolute necessary in order to prepare us for the life to come. He who lives always in The world lieth in

We

public, cannot live to his own soul. wickedness; and with good reason the christian 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 flattering marks of distinction which 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 worldly 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. often meet with crimes authorized 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 opportunity for better principles to exert their power. He who is accustomed to turn aside, and commune with himself, will, sometimes at least, hear of truths which the multitude do not tell him. A more sound instructor will lift his voice, and awaken within the heart those latent suggestions, which the world had overpowered and suppressed.

The acts of prayer and devotion, the exercises of faith and repentance, all the great and peculiar duties of the religion of Christ, necessarily suppose retirement from the world. This was one chief end of their institution, that they might be the means of occasionally sequestering us from the great scene of vice and folly, the continued presence of which is

so hurtful. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion hath, in every age, chosen for her own. There her inspiration is felt, and her secret mysteries elevate the soul. There, falls the tear of contrition; there, rises towards heaven the sigh of the heart; there, melts the soul with all the tenderness of devotion, and pours itself forth, before him who made, and him who redeemed it. How can any one, who is unacquainted with such employments of mind, be fit for heaven? If heaven be the habitation of pure affections, and of intellectual joy, can such a state be relished by him who is always immersed among sensible objects, and has never acquired any taste for the pleasures of the understanding and the heart?

The great and the worthy, the pious and the virtuous, have ever been addicted to serious retirement. It is the characteristic of little and frivolous minds, to be wholly occupied with the vulgar objects of life. These fill up their desires, and supply all the entertainment which their coarse apprehensions can relish. But a more refined and enlarged mind leaves the world hehind it, feels a call for higher pleasures, and seeks them in retreat. The man of public spirit has recourse to it, in order to form plans for general good; the man of genius, in order to dwell on his favourite themes, the philosopher, to pursue his discoveries; the saint, to improve himself in grace. Isaac went out to meditate in the fields, at the evening tide. David amidst all the splendour of royalty, often bears witness both to the pleasure which he received, and to the benefit which he reaped, from devout meditation. I communed with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search. I thought on my ways, feet unto God's testimonies. In the multitude of thoughts within me, his comforts delight my soul. Our blessed Saviour himself, though of all who ever lived on earth he needed least the assistance of religious retreat, yet, by his frequent prac tice, has done it signal honour. Often were the garden, the mountain, and the silence of the night, sought by him, for intercourse with heaven. When he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain, apart, to pray,

and turned my