Did Chriftians carry this great truth continually in their thoughts, with what care fhould we fet guards at all the avenues of our fenfes to keep off temptation? With what refolution fhould we encounter it? We fhould tie up our paffions (like flaves) to their duty, and not encourage their fallies by careffes, but fupprefs them by the severity of force and difcipline. But alas! tho' this article find a place in our creed, it has none in our thoughts, and fo we live like thofe infidels, who fuppofe God a meer idol, who neither has eyes to see our trefpaffes, nor power to chastise them.

Seeing therefore our treasure is lodged in heaven, let us send up our hearts thither alfo, and never condemn them to the love of earthly concerns. Be not follicitous either for the good or evil things of this world. You can neither enjoy thofe, nor fuffer these long; fo that thofe are unable to render you happy, or these miserable.

And because we are too weak to make one step towards heaven, unless God ftrengthens us by his grace; In every thing, by prayer and fupplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Place all your confidence in God's goodnefs, and all your ftrength in his grace; return him thanks for past favours, which is the most effectual way to obtain new ones.

And, if you are fo happy as to follow the apoftle's advice, The peace of God which passeth all understanding will keep your hearts. You will carry a paradise about you, a peace of mind, only to be exprefs'd by thofe, who feel fuch a perpetual ferenity, that neither the tempefts of fear, nor hope, can overcaft; a pleasure that glides not indeed fmoothly upon the organ, but that affects the foul, and gives it a tafte of heaven upon earth. Oh the pleasure of a good confcience, that furnishes all contentments, befides those that are brutal! he,

who

who has no domestick enemy within, laughs at all those foreign alarms, that ftartle the wicked, and ftretch the guilty on continual racks; he neither burns with love, nor fhivers with hatred; neither fwells with hope, nor fhrinks with despair; he envies not the rich, nor contemns the poor; covets not profperity, nor dreads adverfity; he has the fame indifference for life and death; that has no charms for him, and this no horror.

Oh my God! feeing by the mouth of thy apoftle, thou commandeft me to rejoice, I fubmit to thy orders: but thy goodness alone shall be the object of my joy. I will take no complacency in any advantage either of nature or fortune: for alas! I may be miferable with them, and happy without them: But I will rejoice, because thou haft taken me into the number of thy children, and raised me to the dignity of heir apparent to heaven; this is an honour vile man could never expect, much less hope; yet thy bounty exceeds both expectation and hope, and has even abafed thy Son, to raise a flave. O compleat thy work; and fo fupply me with refolution from above, that I may fubdue my enemies, and conquer the happy Canaan thou haft affigned

me!

GOSPEL of St. John, Chap. i. Verse

19. And this is the record of John, when the Jews fent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask bim, who art thou?

20. And be confessed, and denied not: but confelled, I am not the Chrift.

21. And they asked him, what then? Art thou Elias? And he faith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And be answered, no.

22. Then

22. Then faid they unto him, who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that fent us: what fayeft thou of thy felf?

23. He faid, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ftraight the way of the Lord, as faid the prophet Efaias.

24. And they which were fent, were of the Pharifees.

25. And they asked him, and faid unto him, Why baptizeft thou then, if thou be not the Chrift, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26. John answered them; faying, I baptize with water: but there ftandeth one among you, whom ye

know not:

27. He it is, who coming after me, is preferred before me, whofe fhoes latchet I am not worthy to unloofe.

28. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

T

The MORAL REFLECTION.

HE Jews were in continual expectation of their Meffias. A stranger fat in the throne of David, which, according to Jacob's prophecy, was to remain in the line of Juda, till Shiloh came, Gen. xlix. 10. The apparition of the wonderful star, that led the Magi to Jerufalem, and their enquiry after the new born King, alarmed the tyrant, and raised a firm perfuafion in the priests and people, that their long look'd for Saviour was come. The

admirable life of the baptift ftruck them with amazement; they fuppofed his perfon was no less extraordinary than his conduct; and that his nature was as divine as his behaviour. The feraphick exhortations he made in the defart drew unto him whole fhoals of profelytes, and his baptifm put the whole nation into a ferment. So that the priests, together D

with

with the people, concluded this was the man defigned by Providence to knock off the chains of the Roman fervitude, and to restore the kingdom to its ancient fplendor.

The clergy fent a folemn embaffy to the faint to clear the point; that is, to know from his own mouth if he was really the Meffias. Who art thou? This question put John's virtue to the teft. To esteem ourselves little, when others esteem us less to affect a low ftation, when a higher is out of our reach, is no hard task: but to contemn our merits, when others admire them; to refuse honour, when it's thrown upon us; is all that can be expected from the most refined virtue.

Pride is the hereditary vice of all mankind; it is the darling paffion both of the prince and peasant ; it waits on us thro' all the different ftations of life; it is the first that attacks us, and the laft that leaves us: and whofoever fubdues this paffion, may easily mafter all the others. Had St. John acknowledged himself the Meffias; the hearts and hands of all the Jews would in all probability have made good the ufurp'd dignity.

But he was fo far from afpiring to the dignity of Meffias, that he anfwered, I am not the Chrift. Nay, he refused the very title of prophet. Art thou that prophet? He anfwer'd, No. He would be great in the fight of God, not in that of men; and therefore he would not make himself lefs by arrogating too much.

But God permitted the deputies to redouble their affaults, that the fore-runner's humility might appear more illuftrious, and his victory more compleat. They fuppofed he declined the dignity out of a principle of modefty, and his baptizing the multitude feemed to warrant their mistake. For they had learn'd out of Ezechiel and Zechariah, that baptizing made part of the Meffias's character.

Then

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you fball be clean from all your iniquities, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. In that day there fhall be a fountain open'd to the boufe of David, Zec. xiii. 1. They redouble therefore their inftance, and peremptorily ask, by what authority he baptizes, if he be not Chrift. But this faint answers, they miftook the meaning of the fcriptures, and apply'd to his baptifm, what only belongs to Chrift's. In fine, they prefs upon him the title with eagerness, and he refuses the honour with heat and earnestness.

The faint reads us here a very profitable leffon; and, would we take pains to learn it, men might poffibly live more happily, I am fure more chriftianly. We are fo far from refufing honour, that we pursue it under all shapes, even to the pitch of folly and dotage. We charge through all the ties of blood and friendship, through all the principles of confcience, and, what is ftrange, of honour alfo, to carry off this imaginary fantome: as if guilt were the ready way to glory, and the most degrading quality the moft dignifying. Can any thing be imagined more foolish (childish I would say, were it innocent) than to clap one's body on the rack, to pawn heaven and leap into hell, for a petty applaufe, that feldom is fincere, and never lafting, and always infignificant? That leans on the bare courtesy of men, who judge at random, and cannot be fufficiently blamed themselves? Who are as inconftant in their verdict, as the wind to the fame corner, and, upon the leaft turn of fortune, drown their Hofanna's with the outrageous outcries of Crucify him, crucify him.

Thefe people fhould put the fame question to themselves the Jews did to the Baptift. Who am I? Holy Job has drawn an exact picture of mankind, that anfwers the question. Man that is born of a woman, bath but a short time to live, and is D 2

full