people appointed by the soldiers to give them; he must not read, or what is the same, he must not judge for himself. It is not so with you: you may read, and think, and act, and do any thing but disturb society. In this view I call even a confused account of Christ a comparative benefit, because any thing is better than being "dead in trespasses and sins," and every thing that sets men a thinking on religion does good, at least may do good.

Confused rumours sometimes stir men up to action, and invitations to do wrong sometimes rouse men to do right. When David was in the decline of life, the infirmities of age took up so much of his thought, that he neglected or forgot to settle the affairs of his own family and the kingdom. He had a favourite son to whom he had never said, "Why hast thou done so ?" who availed himself of the opportunity, and prepared to make himself king. A confused rumour of this excited Bathsheba, Nathan, and David to crown Solomon, and to crush a conspiracy that would have drenched a whole kingdom in blood. Thus in the present case, if zeal for error and superstition, excites emulation for truth and virtue, the noise made in favour of the former may strengthen and confirm the latter. I allow it is a low motive to duty; but any is better than none, and Scripture gives us many arguments of this kind. There was a people among the ancient Jews called Rechabites from Rechab, one of their ancestors. These people, in compliance with the advice of one of their Fathers, abstained from wine, and dwelt in tents without any fixed property. The prophet Jeremiah, to engage his countrymen to serve God their Father, invited some of the heads of these people into a chamber of the temple, and set before them "pots and cups full of wine," and intreated them to drink. No, said they, "we will drink no wine," for "our Father commanded us and our sons to drink no wine forever, and we have done all that our Father commanded us." With this lesson, by the command of God, the prophet goes to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and says, Will ye not receive instruction ?" The Rechabites "perform the words of their Father un

to this day; but I the Lord, have spoken unto you early," and "I have also sent unto you prophets; but you have not hearkened unto me." There are many argu

ments in Scripture of this kind.

not."

Among all the clouds and darkness of error, which involve us poor mortals, there may be a ray of saving truth; at least God often makes, I perceive, merciful distinctions, where man would least think of them. The Jewish hermits just now mentioned, were blessed by him, though they exposed themselves to more severity than the laws of temperance required. Abimelech was forgiven for violating the laws of hospitality, and God allowed half his excuse, that "in the integrity of his heart," though not in the " innocency of his hands," he had done it; he approved the first and forgave the last. God girded Cyrus, though Cyrus "knew him He pitied the Ninevites, and "turned away from his fierce anger," though it was not repentance but superstition that starved the innocent cattle, and "covered beasts with sackcloth," the people exciting sorrow in themselves by the lowing of oxen, and braying of asses for want of meat. Naaman was pardoned, though his office at court obliged him to "bow in the house of Rimmon;" for God distinguished between waiting on a master and worshipping an idol, and knew," he offered neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto any other God but unto the Lord." When God showed Nebuchadnezzar himself, his family, and his kingdom, under the similitude of a "high, strong, spreading, fruitful tree," and gave command, "Hew down the tree, cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, scatter his fruit, and let the beasts and the fowls get away," he added, "Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth," and secure it "with a band of iron and brass, till seven years pass over him," to show that haughty monarch, that his kingdom should be "sure unto him, after he should come to know that the heavens do rule," and that "those who walk in pride, God is able to abase." God only is equal to distinctions of all kinds and in all cases; but while charity inclines us to hope the best, we should use all possible means to avoid the worst.

We conclude, then, that in a state of things, which we cannot alter, we should take pains to act properly. What can frail man do? Every thing hath been tried, but nothing hath succeeded except a wise and moderate course of action. Riches have been tried; but they corrupt religion; or, to speak more properly, bribe mercenary men to corrupt it. Honours have been tried; but they only give bad men credit to do mischief, and turn the church into a worldly sanctuary, where cabal and intrigue take place of religion and the fear of God. Amusements have been employed; but they turn the church into a play-house, and banish truth, gravity, and sobriety of manners, to make room for levity and pastimes. Power hath been used, and cruelties have been exercised; but reason, to say nothing of religion, hath blushed at the sight. When our King Harry the Eighth attempted to make himself head of the church of England, which he could not do without the consent of the house of convocation, a sort of Parliament of clergy, he sent some noblemen to state the business, and to take their answer. The bishop of Rochester objected to make the king head of the church, and asked, What if the king should alter religion, where is our remedy? What if he should oppress us, must we sue to the king against himself? What if a woman or an infant should succeed to the crown, can they be heads of the church? This would be to make the church no church, the Scripture no Scripture, and at last Jesus no Christ. The clergy felt this, and sent the king word, that they would agree to his being head of the church "as far as was agreeable to the word of God." When the noblemen returned with this answer to his Majesty, and told him, the clergy would agree to his demand as far as was consistent with Scripture, the king fell into a violent passion, and said with an oath to the noblemen, "Go back again, and let me have the business done without any as fars and so fars. I will have no as fars nor no so fars in the business; but let it be done." Doth not reason blush at such an unbounded power over religion and conscience in the hands of such a man? Let the perse, cuted answer. Such a remedy for enthusiasm is worse than the disease itself.

The proper method is a wise moderation. I will explain myself. By a wise moderation I mean a calmness of mind, that doth not proceed from ignorance or indifference, but from a cool and judicious consideration of the whole of the matter. It would be a sad misfortune to a man in trade not to know a guinea from a shilling, or a light guinea from one that was full weight; but it would be a much worse not to know truth from error, virtue from vice, religion from superstition, the voice of the shepherd from the noise of strangers. It would be a melancholy thing to be cold and indifferent to truth and error; to behold food and poison, my Father and my murderer, the God of truth and the father of lies, with equal feelings. Remember the saying of the apostle John, "No lie is of the truth." On the other hand, it would be very unpleasant to lose evenness of temper, for we never do so without pain, and seldom without guilt. A conduct made up of a wise discernment of truth from error, with a firm profession of the one and a hearty hatred of the other, together with a calm and gentle temper, is what we think deserves to be called a course of wise moderation. The advice of our Lord, when he sent forth his disciples as sheep in the midst of wolves, was, "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves." The wisdom of the serpent alone is a dan gerous subtlety, and the innocence of the dove alone is a pliableness to folly; but the union of the two in equal proportions makes a perfect Christian.

Our conduct should be prudent as well as wise and moderate. By prudence, I mean wisdom applied to practice. It is not enough that we can distinguish truth from error, we must endeavour to diminish error and vice, and to promote truth and virtue. Ills, which cannot be entirely removed, may however be abated by a prudent application of proper means, and circumstances must determine what means are proper. A ruler of the Jews besought Jesus to restore his daughter to life; when Jesus came into the house, and " saw the minstrels and the people making a noise," he only said, Give place, why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead but sleepeth :" but when they" laugh

It re

ed him to scorn, he put them all out, except Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden." The crowd were not in a temper to profit by the sight of a miracle, which they had the arrogance to condemn without examination. Prudence requires us to give an example of affection for truth in distinction from error. It requires us to encourage and embolden all the friends of truth in opposition to error. quires us to use all proper means to inform the ignorant. It requires us not to conceal our hearty approbation of the one, and utter dislike of the other. It requires us to conciliate the esteem of the wandering in order to allure them into the right way. In a word, prudence requires us, while we "bear all things, hope all things," and "endure all things," "to do nothing against the truth but for the truth."

Lastly, our conduct should be patient, and we should bear with the evil for the sake of the good. Let me expound this case by another. Our Lord commands us to "love our enemies." Most men complain of the difficulty of this duty, and think it harder than all the Ten Commandments: but would not a little attention to the meaning make this hard thing easy? When a neighbour becomes an enemy, we forget every thing of him except his enmity: that day, that one fatal day, that action, that unjust, that unkind action, that word, that cruel word, occupies the whole of our attention: that we hate, and it deserves hatred, and the Lord doth not require us to love enmity, injustice, and ingratitude, those black and dismal crimes. Now could we find temper to consider the whole of the man, we should find something lovely in him; and that lovely action we ought to esteem, even in the person of an enemy. What! Is virtue nothing, because the man who doth it does not happen to be my friend? Perhaps I love virtue only for the sake of the benefits I derive from it, and perhaps I should find in my heart to dislike an angel, who should pass my door and visit my neighbour who is an enemy to me. The man is not all enmity, he loves his wife and family, and many people; he loves his country, and perhaps his God too, though he doth not hap