VIII. where no fallacious hopes fhall any longer SERM. allure, no smiling appearances fhall betray, no infidious joys fhall fting; but where truth shall be infeparably united with pleafure; and the mists which hang over this preliminary state being diffipated, the perfect knowledge of good fhall lead to the full enjoyment of it for ever. SERMON SERM ON IX. On RELIGIOUS RETIREMENT. PSALM iv. 4. Commune with your own heart, upon your bed, and be ftill. SERM. MUCH communing with themselves IX. there has always been among mankind; though frequently, God knows, to no purpose, or to a purpose worse than none. Could we discover the employments of men, in retirement, how often fhould we find their thoughts occupied with fubjects, which they would be afhamed to own? What a large fhare have ambition and avarice, at fome times. the groffeft paffions, and at other times the meaneft trifles, in their folitary mufings? IX. They carry the world, with all its vices, SERM, into their retreat; and may be faid to dwell in the midst of the world, even when they feem to be alone. This furely is not that fort of communing which the Pfalmift recommends. For this is not properly communing with our heart, but rather holding fecret intercourse with the world. What the Pfalmift means to recommend, is religious recollection; that exercise of thought which is connected with the precept given in the preceding words, to ftand in awe, and fin not. It is to commune with ourfelves under the character of fpiritual and immortal beings; and to ponder those paths of our feet, which are leading us to eternity. I fhall in the first place, fhow the advantages of such serious retirement and meditation: and fhall, in the second place, point out fome of the principal fubjects which ought to employ us in our retreat. The advantages of retiring from the world, to commune with our heart, will be found IX. SERM. found to be great, whether we regard our happiness in this world, or our preparation for the world to come. LET us confider them, firft, 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 ftations of life would not permit this; and there are few stations which render it neceffary. 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 amidft his fellow-creatures, he is trained up for heaven. A total retreat from the world, is fo far from being, as the Roman Catholic Church holds, the perfection of religion, that fome particular cafes excepted, it is no other than the abuse of it. But though entire retreat would lay us afide from the part for which Providence chiefly intended us, it is certain, that IX. that without occafional retreat, we muft SERM. act that part very ill. There will be neither consistency in the conduct, nor dignity in the character, of one who fets apart no fhare of his time for meditation and reflection. In the heat and bustle of life, while paffion is every moment throwing false colours on the objects around us, nothing can be viewed in a juft light. If you wish that Reafon fhould exert her native power, you must step afide from the crowd into the cool and filent fhade. It is there that, with sober and steady eye, fhe examines what is good or ill, what is wife or foolish, in human conduct; fhe looks back on the past, she looks forward to the future; and forms plans, not for the prefent moment only, but for the whole of life. How fhould that man difcharge any part of his duty aright, who never fuffers his paffions to cool? And how fhould his paffions cool, who is engaged without interruption, in the tumult of the world? This inceffant ftir may be called, the perpetual drunken nefs |