tity, never once in harm's way! and Courage, like a Spanish foldier upon an Italian ftage, a bladder full of wind!-Hark! that, the found of that trumpet, let not my foldier run; 'tis fome good Chriftian giving alms. O, Pity! thou gentleft of human paffions! foft and tender are thy notes, and ill accord they with fo loud an inftrument!!

Thus fomething jars, and will for ever jar in thefe cafes: Impofture is all diffonance, let what mafter foever of it undertake the part; let him harmonize and modulate it as he may, one tone will contradict another; and whilft we have ears to hear, we fhall diftinguifh it; 'tis Truth only which is confiftent and ever in harmony with itfelf: it fits upon our lips, like the natural notes of fome melodies, ready to drop out, whether we will or no-it racks no invention to let ourselves alone, and needs fear no critic to have the fame excellency in the heart which appears in the action.

It is a pleafing allufion the Scripture makes ufe of in calling us fometimes a houfe, and fometimes a temple, according to the more or lefs exalted qualities of the fpiritual gueft which is lodged within us. Whether this is the precife ground of the diftinction, I will not affirm; but thus much may be faid, that, if we are to be temples, 'tis truth and fingleness of heart which muft make the dedication: 'tis this which muft firft diftinguish them from the unhallowed pile, where dirty tricks and impofitions are practifed by the host upon the traveller,

traveller, who tarries but for a moment, and returns not again.

We all take notice, how clofe and referved people are; but we do not take notice, at the fame time, that every one may have fomething to conceal, as well as ourselves; and that we are only marking the diftances and taking the measures of felf-defence from each other in the very inftances we complain of. This is fo true, that there is fcarce any character fo rare as a man of real, open, and generous integrity, who carries his heart in his hand,who fays the thing he thinks, and does the thing he pretends. Though no one can diflike the character, yet Difcretion generally fhakes her head,-and the world foon lets him into the reason.

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"O that I had in the wilderness a lodging "of way-faring men! that I might leave fuch "a people, and go from them!"-Where is the man of a nice fenfe of truth and ftrong feelings, from whom the duplicity of the world has not at one time or other wrung the fame with? and where lies the wilderness to which fome one has not fled from the fame melancholy impulfe?

Thus much for those who give occasion to be thought ill of.-Let us fay a word or two unto those who take it.

But to avoid all common-place cant as much as I can on this head, I will forbear to fay, because I do not think it, that 'tis a breach of Chriftian charity to think or speak evil of our neighbour, &c. Q 2

-We

-We cannot avoid it: our opinions must follow the evidence; and we are perpetually in fuch engagements and fituations, that 'tis our duty to fpeak what our opinions are;but God forbid that this ever fhould be done but from its beft motive,-the fenfe of what is due to virtue, governed by discretion, and the utmost fellow-feeling. Were we to go on otherwife, beginning with the great broad cloke of Hypocrify, and fo down through all its little trimmings and facings, tearing away, without mercy, all that looked feemly, we fhould leave but a tatter'd world of it.

But I confine what I have to fay to a character lefs equivocal, and which takes up too much room in the world:-it is that of those who, from a general diftruft of all that looks difinterested, finding nothing to blame in an action, and perhaps much to admire in it,-immediately fall foul upon its motives: "Does Job ferve God for nought?" What a vile infinuation! Befides, the queftion was not, Whether Job was a rich man or a poor man?-but, Whether he was a man of integrity, or no? and the appearances were ftrong on his fide. Indeed it might have been otherwife; it was poflible Job might be infincere, and the Devil took the advantage of the dye for it.

It is a bad picture, and done by a terrible mafter; and yet we are always copying it! Does a man, from a real conviction of heart, forfake his vices?-the pofition is not to be allowed. No; his vices have forfaken him.

Does