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Ponder the path of thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established. Who weighs, who calculates, who connects and separates before he believes and judges, before he esteems and acts? The least probability persuades us; the least object, that sparkles in our eyes, dazzles us; the least appearance of pleasure excites, fascinates, and fixes us. We determine questions on which our eternal destiny depends, with a levity and precipitancy, which we should be ashamed of in cases of the least importance in temporal affairs. Accordingly, the manner in which we act, perfectly agrees with the inattention with which we determine the reason of acting. We generally spend. life in a way very unbecoming intelligent beings, to whom God hath given a power of reflecting, and more like creatures destitute of intelligence, and wholly incapable of reflection.

In order to obey the precept of the wise man, we should collect our thoughts every morning, and never begin a day without a cool examination of the whole business of it. We should recollect ourselves every night, and never finish a day without examining deliberately how we have employed it. Before we go out of our houses each should ask himself, Whither am I going? In what company shall I be? What temptations will assault me? What opportunities of doing good offer to me? When we return to our houses, each should ask himself, Where have I been? What has my conversation in company been? Did I avail myself of every opportunity of doing good?

My brethren, how invincible soever our depravity may appear, how deeply rooted soever it may be, how powerful soever tyrannical habits may be over us, we should make rapid advances in the road of virtue, were we often to enter into ourselves; on the contrary, while we act, and determine, and give ourselves up without reflection and examination, it is impossible our conduct should answer our calling.

My brethren, shall I tell you all my heart? This meditation troubles me, it terrifies me, it confounds me. I have been forming the most ardent desires for the success of this discourse; and yet I can hardly entertain a hope that you will relish it. I have been exhorting you with all the power and ardour of which I am capable; and, if you will forgive me for saying so, with the zeal which I ought to have for your salvation; I have been exhorting you not to be discouraged at the number and the difficulties of the duties which the wise man prescribes to you; but, I am afraid, I know you too well to promise myself that you will acquit yourselves with that holy resolution and courage which the nature of the duties necessarily demands.

May God work in you, and in me, more than I can ask or think! God grant us intelligent minds, that we may act like intelligent souls! May that God, who hath set before us life and death, heaven and hell, boundless felicity and endless misery, may he so direct our steps, that we may arrive at that happiness which is the object of our wishes, and which ought to be the object of all our care! God grant us this grace! To him be honour and glory for everAmen.

SERMON XII.

The Necessity of progressive Religion.

1 CORINTHIANS, ix. 26, 27.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.

MY BRETHREN,

THAT was a fine eulogium, which was made on one of the most famous generals of antiquity. It was said of him, that he thought there was nothing done while there remained any thing to do. To embrace such a system of war and politics, was to open a wide field of painful labour; but Cæsar aspired to be a hero, and there was no way of obtaining his end, except that which he chose. Whoever arrives at wordly heroism, arrives at it in this way. By this marvellous secret the Roman eagles flew to the uttermost parts of Asia, rendered Gaul tributary, swelled the Rhine with German blood, subjugated Britain, pursued the shattered remains of Pompey's army into the desarts of Africa, and caused all the rivers that fell into the Adriatic sea, to roll along the sound of their victories. My brethren, success is not ne

cessarily connected with heroism; the hero Cæsar was a common misfortune, all his heroism public robbery, fatal to the republic, and more so to Cæsar himself. But, in order to be saved, it is necessary to succeed; and there is no other way of obtaining salvation, except that laid down by this great general, think nothing done, while there is any thing to do. Behold, in the words of our text, behold a man, who perfectly knew the way to heaven, a man most sincerely aspiring to salvation. What doth he to succeed? What we have said; he accounted all he had done nothing, while there remained any thing more to do. After he had carried virtue to its highest pitch, after he had made the most rapid progress, and obtained the most splendid triumphs in the road of salvation, still he ran, still he fought, he undertook new mortifications, always fearing lest lukewarmness and indolence should frustrate his aim of obtaining the prize which had always been an object of his hope; "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away."

St. Paul lives no more. This valiant champion hath already conquered. But you, you christians, are yet alive; like him, the race is open before you, and to you now, as well as to him formerly, a voice from heaven crieth, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne," Rev. iii. 21. Happy, if animated by his example, you share with him a prize, which loses nothing of its excellence, by

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