I. ** Why halt ye between two opinions? If DISC. "the Lord be God, follow him. But if "Baal, then follow him." Only be confiftent; let profeffion and practice go together. It is the want of this confiftency which expofes religion to the fcoff of those who hate it, and does it more hurt than all the books that ever were written against it; as the examples of thofe, who, in despite of temptations, hold them fast by God, and continue stedfaft unto the end, do it, perhaps, more good than all the books that ever were written for it. Of this, however, reft affured, that, try as long as you will, and be as cunning as you please, "you cannot "ferve God and mammon." you, " ye "Therefore (continues Chrift) I fay unto be not anxious for your life, what "fhall eat, or what ye fhall drink; nor yet "for your body, what ye fhall put on." An unreasonable anxiety and folicitude about the things of the world, even food and rai-: ment, the neceffaries of life, is plainly deemed by our Lord. to be a B 4 serving of ❝ mammon.” DISC." mammon." He who is fo intent even on I. the means of fubfiftence, as to lose all the fatisfaction of it, has but little faith. He is, in effect, an unbeliever. On the other hand, to rely fo much upon Providence, as to do nothing at all, is to tempt God. But to labour without placing our trust and confidence in our labour, expecting all from the bleffing of God; this is to obey him, to work with his Providence, to fet the fprings of it a going, and to imitate Christ and the faints by a fedate care, and an industrious confidence. He whofe mind, through the influence of religion upon it, is calm and refigned, will always exert his diligence to the beft advantage. Fretfulness and impatience not only do not affift, but they hinder. A perfon in this ftate has not the use of his powers and faculties, which he otherwise would have; befides that the Holy Spirit of God flies from fuch a temper, delighting to dwell in a meek, quiet, and contented heart. But perhaps you have not things as you could wish to have them, through fome fault, or mifmanagement of your own; and I. and it is this which troubles you. You have DISC. made fome false ftep. Nothing more probable. We all make many. The famous Marshal Turenne, who was a good man, as well as a great general, used to say, he was not more obliged to any of his friends, than to one who had given him, at his first setting out in life, the following piece of advice: "When you have made a false step, spend not a moment in vexing yourself, " and moaning over it; but confider how it may best be repaired, and inftantly fet "about it." Christ, in his divine discourse, lays down feveral reafons, why men should not difquiet a The mountainous nature of this country (the Pays "de Vaud) fubjects it to frequent torrents, which, when violent, fweep away vines, foil, and walls, in one common "deftruction. The inhabitants behold the havoc with a fteady concern, and, without giving way to the clamorous "rage of the French, or finking into the gloomy defpair "of the English, think only of the most effectual means of "repairing the lofs.-As foon as the ftorm has abated, they "begin, with admirable patience and perfeverance, to re"build the walls, to carry fresh earth on hurdles to the top "of the mountain, and to spread a new foil wherever the "old has been washed away." MOORE's View of Society and Manners in France, Swifferland, &c. I. 313. them DISC. themselves about the wants of life, or conI. cerning the future; but, having done their part, fhould repofe themfelves, in full confidence, on the goodness of God. The first reafon is the experience of greater benefits already received. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than rai"ment?" You are uneafy, left you fhould want proper food to fupport life, and proper raiment to clothe the body. Life and the body are certainly greater gifts than food and raiment. Who gave you them? God gave them; and gave them of his own will, before you could be in a capacity to ask them. Will not he, who gave the greater, give the lefs? Will not he, who gave life and the gave what you could body, take care they shall be supported and the your I. the bleffings, of various kinds, that have DISC. distinguished the feveral parts of it; the difficulties you have furmounted, the dangers you have escaped, and the favourable circumstances and connections into which you have been led. Why should you apprehend, that he, who has been with you all life long, fhould now be with you no longer? Recollect the promise, I will never leave "thee, nor forfake thee." Above all things, forget not that greatest and most stupendous of mercies, that beft and unspeakable gift of God, and the unanfwerable argument formed upon the confideration of it by the Apostle; "He who fpared not his own Son, "but gave him up for us all, how shall he "not with him alfo freely give us all things?"-Reflect on this, and " be not faithlefs, but believing." The second reafon alledged by Christ, is the example of the leffer animals, which the Providence of God feeds, without their own labour. "Behold the fowls of the "air; for they sow not, neither do they 66 reap, |