there were no creaturé for him to protect and love but you. No person, however little or insignificant, who regards him, can be unregarded by Him, who, with one glance of thought can know every thing; and with one motion of his will can do every thing.

Instead of letting your heart fail you for fear, and for looking after those things that are to come upon the earth, when wickedness and irreligion prevail; let it be a matter of joy and comfort to you, that amidst all the confusion and madness of the world, men cannot faster perplex and entangle things than God can unravel them; or embroil the world, than he can bring order out of confusion; that the wicked are under the secret control of his providence; that the Lord is king, be the people never so impatient; he silleth between the cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet; that he can make the machinations of the wicked an accidental occasion of good, and serve his gracious designs, in opposition to their own.

Lastly, Let us never do any thing to throw ourselves out of his protection. Let us consider how vain are all schemes of happiness, out of which He, the fountain of happiness, is left; who can dash the joys of prosperity with such unpalatable ingredients, and qualify the bitterness of poverty with such infusions of joy and gladness. Then, and not till then, are we irremediably undone, when God has cast out our soul; cast it from his presence, from the comforts of his presence. For his pre

sence is every where: but yet to the good and to the wicked is it precisely what it was to the Israelites and to the Egyptians: to the former a pillar of light to lighten up every thing around them; to the latter a cloud and darkness to trouble and disquiet them. While we enjoy the light of the divine countenance, we need not be dejected at the frowns of the whole world: for, if God be FOR us, who shall be AGAINST us? Our communication and intercourse with our nearest and dearest relations may be intercepted by our MISFORTUNES: but our intercourse with the nearest object of all, even Him, in whom we live and move, and have our being, cannot be intercepted but by our VICES. He who never faileth them that seek him, will never forsake us, till we forsake him and virtue. According to the expressive description of St. John, He is Light and Love: pure, unclouded light, without any mixture of darkness and ignorance; and pure, unalloyed love, without any tincture of malice and hatred He knows whatever is really good for us; and will do whatever, in his unerring judgment, is most effectually conducive to our good; making every disastrous incident finally terminate in our benefit.

SERMON XXXVII.

FROM BUTLER *.

JAMES i. 26.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

THE import of the text, which is rather ambiguous in the translation, may be thus stated; he who fancies himself to be religious, and yet bridles not his tongue, but deceives himself in that respect, this man's religion is vain.

In treating upon this subject, I shall consider, first, what is the vice to which the text refers.

The tongue, undoubtedly, may be employed to serve ALL the purposes of vice; in tempting and deceiving, in perjury and injustice but the thing here referred to, is TALKATIVENESS-a disposition to

* Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, was born 1692, and died 1752.

be talking, abstracted from the consideration of little or no regard to doing

what is said; with either good or harm. And let not any one imagine this to be a matter of slight importance; till he has considered, what evil is implied in it, and the bad effects which follow from it. It is true, perhaps, that they who are addicted to this folly would willingly confine themselves to trifles. But, as they cannot be for ever talking of nothing, as common matters will not afford a sufficient fund for perpetual conversation; when subjects of this description are exhausted, they will proceed to defamation, scandal, divulging secrets, their own secrets as well as those of others; any thing rather than be silent. They are hurried on, by the heat of talking, to say things very different from what they at first intended, and which, afterwards, they may wish unsaid.

There are some, however, who, not content with merely talking, will invent to engage attention; and, when they have heard the least hint of an affair, will, out of their own head, add the circumstances of time and place, to make out their story, and give the appearance of probability to it: not that they have any concern about being believed, otherwise than as a means of being heard.

When persons, who indulge themselves in these liberties of the tongue, are in any degree offended with another, they are also too apt to allow themselves to defame him beyond all bounds; though

the offence may be so slight, that they would not do, or perhaps even wish him, an injury in any other way. In this case, it is evident, that their scandal and revilings are chiefly owing to talkativeness, and not bridling their tongue; and therefore come directly under our present subject. The least occasion whatever will make the humour break out either in this way or another. It is like a torrent, which must and will flow; but at first the least thing imaginable will give it a direction, and turn it indifferently into any channel: or like a fire; whose nature is to spread and lay waste all around; but any of a thousand little accidents will occasion it to burst out either in this part or in that.

The subject, then, before us, though it can scarcely be treated as distinct from all others, certainly need not be so blended with them as it often is. A faculty may be used as the instrument of premeditated wickedness, merely as the most proper and effectual means of executing such design. If, then, a man, from malice or revenge, should meditate a falsehood, with a design to ruin his neighbour's reputation, and should, with coolness and deliberation, spread it; surely no one would say of him, that he had no GOVERNMENT of his tongue. For a man may use the faculty of speech as an instrument of false-witness, who yet has so entire a command over that faculty, as never to speak but from forethought and design. Here, therefore,