6. The importance of fully viewing the danger which arises from the difficult and apparently conflicting duties which we have to perform towards those around us. I say apparently conflicting, because no duties can really oppose each other. There is imminent peril of losing the spirit of religion and imbibing a worldly temper under such circumstances. Plain questions are most easily resolved. The world cannot so readily perplex the mind with regard to them. But when we are called on to unite various difficult duties, a spirit of indifference to religion often succeeds in stealing in upon us. The judgment hesitates. The affections incline to a favourite point. The heart is betrayed under the pretence of duty.-For instance, we are invited to co-operation in publie measures for the propagation of truth. How difficult to unite ha bitually with this the deep and unaffected humility of the Christian character! We are called to ex ercise kindness and benignity to all men. How seldom do we entirely avoid in such cases sinful compliances! We are required to please our neighbour for his good to edification. How difficult is it to join with this, faithful and plain admonition! We are to be prudent and diligent in managing our worldly concerns. How easy is it to be at times quite absorbed and lost in them! We are commanded to attend to family duties:-who can always hope to escape from anxious cares and oppressive distraction? We have connections in society and relations to whom some regard is due; but what is the measure? Our station in life has changed, and with it many of our duties; but where and when do the former daties cease? And how is the transition to be made with the least danger of vanity and display? We are ministers of God's church, and are to instruct our parishioners as they are able to bear it; to become all things to all men; to be

wise to win souls;-how difficult to use, at the same time, great plainness of speech, to keep back nothing profitable, to be pure from the blood of all men! We are required to deal tenderly with the weak, the feeble-minded, and the tempted; we are to be "patient towards all men, in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves"-and yet we are not to conceal truth, or to palliate our views of what is erroneous and destructive.Such points as these might be indefinitely multiplied on almost every branch of Christian practice. They occur to every conscientious servant of God. And the danger of the heart yielding to plausible compromises, temporizing expedi ents, worldly schemes, or a low and secular frame of spirit, is obvious. To take broadly one side of these and similar questions, or to inveigh in a coarse and general manner on coming out from the world, when such topics are proposed, is, in fact, doing nothing to the purpose; it only increases the real difficulty. Our concern should be, not to sacrifice one branch of duty to another which we may happen to like better, or which may be disposed of more easily by a single maxim, but to unite them all and in this union of duties the peril of which I speak chiefly lies.

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7. May I venture to suggest here the peculiar difficulty of avoiding a worldly frame of heart in the acquisition and use of human learning?-How difficult is it to join Christian humility and spiritualmindedness with habits of close reading and study! The Christian minister must be a man of thought, of laborious and diligent thought. Some measure of human learning is essential for unlocking and enriching the powers of his mind. But in prosecuting his studies, whether literary or directly theological, how quickly is a vain, secular, trifling spirit generated! A minister may be quite as foolish and dissipated as to his state of mind, when sur

rounded with his books, as the man of pleasure when immersed in his worldly amusements. Instead of pursuing his inquiries for the glory of God, and directing them conscientiously to those topics which his immediate duties render important, how easily does he sink into a spirit of literary indolence or prurient curiosity, or wandering fickleness, or unprofitable investigation! For weeks he does nothing, or worse than nothing. Prayer and painful preparation for the pulpit are forgotten. A discursive, useless, frittering away of time ensues. His mind is weakened by trifling over inferior or temporary authors, instead of being nourished and in vigorated by deep and solid acquisitions. His affections are chilled, and his judgment poisoned by a half-learned and sceptical philosophy, instead of being inflamed and elevated by contemplations of Divine truth. The cultivation of the heart, and a diligent walk before God are sacrificed to taste and refinement, and a fastidious and morbid spirit of criticism. The mind is inflated with a false notion of the enlargement of its powers, just when it is in fact the most unfitted for all the higher and more holy duties of the Christian mini stry. I speak strongly on this point; because nothing, on the one hand, is so important as real and manly study; for what can an ignorant, rash, and uncultivated mind effect in many of the more arduous and difficult concerns of the ministry of the church? And, on the other hand, nothing so soon destroys the simplicity and meekness of the Christian character; nothing leaves the heart so exposed to the very worst species of worldly vanity and folly, as an indolent, unsettled, vagrant literary spirit. Let us study, but let it be in direct subserviency to our usefulness. What ever keeps God and the soul apart is worldly and pernicious. Learning is long, and life is short. Let all our reading, then, be strictly

directed to the honour of God, and be ever united with an entire reliance on the grace and blessing of the Holy Ghost.

8. But I proceed to notice, in the next place, that a consideration of his own disposition and circum stances, is essential to the Christian's getting further out of the world, and more into the spiritual church.-Self-knowledge must lie at the foundation of all religious improvement. And as the immense varieties of points comprehended under the term, world, will be found chiefly to consist, so far as the true Christian is concerned, of things in themselves indifferent, an examination of our own particular temper of mind and our own circumstances will commonly be es sential to a right determination. Many things, it is obvious, may be quite unlawful to one, which are perfectly harmless to another; as all food may be in itself indifferent, and yet such and such viands may not suit a particular constitution or state of health. Duties will vary with our tempers. The meek, the sanguine, the irrascible, the timid, the forward, the hasty, the slothful, the considerate, the morase, the distrustful, have each their different temptations, and will each require some peculiarity of discipline in order to escape more from the temper of the world. If such and such habits, or scenes, or company, or relaxation, or studies, or engagements prove uniformly hostile to our purity or peace of mind, the case is clear. Others may lawfully continue in the use of them, if their turn of character exempt them from the temptations which seduce us; but we shall feel it necessary to relinquish them. Instead of glorifying God and benefiting our neighbour, we injure the cause of both. We must retire, then, to ground which we may be able to occupy and defend, aud leave the exposed territory to hardier combatants. The mortification of the body of sin very much

consists in such acts of selfdenial in points in themselves indifferent. Nor will the Christian forget to weigh his own circumstances, as well as his natural disposition. Some Christians may evidently be placed by Providence in situations which, though eminently dangerous, are at the same time eminently important. We must each consider our special situation, and endeavour to oppose a worldly spirit; not in shrinking from our duties, but in Conscientiously discharging them. Many true servants of God may seem to be extremely secular, to those who view them at a distance, whilst perhaps a most obvious regard to their duty has placed them in the circumstances which give rise to the mistake, and their state of heart may be most upright and spiritual; whilst others, again, may be little known, may glide through life in a tranquil course, and appear to the observation of others quite out of the spirit of the world, and yet may be, in fact, immersed and lost in its cares or pleasures. In things which are not in themselves sinful, we must not be too ready to judge for others; it will be as much as we shall accomplish to determine rightly for our selves. To consider the world as it surrounds those much above us in station, or those much below us, will be of little benefit. Our concern is to learn the dangers which immediately affect our own safety. The rocks and currents of those parts of the ocean which are an hemisphere distant, are less important to us. It is our chief interest to become acquainted with the shoals and quicksands which abound in that part where our vessel is about to sail.

9. Permit me to suggest, as a further means of promoting a spiritual state of mind, the importance of knowing the marks of a heart which is declining into a worldly temper.-We should be as anxious to learn the symptoms of decaying CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 158.

piety, as we are to detect the ap proaches of an infectious disease. Are we then disposed to find fault with our brethren, and rather to expose and aggravate their infir mities, than to cast a veil over them? The symptom is alarming. Are we offended with truly excellent persons, because they differ in judgment from us on some topics which we deem to be important? Do our zeal and fervour in religion appear chiefly in a party spirit? Are we disposed to treat with a secret contempt those whom we conceive to be deficient in the learning or accomplishments which we think we possess? Are we betraying an undue regard for our reputation; and rather inviting than abhorring flattery? Are we careful to provide for appearances before men, rather than to walk humbly with God? Do we abstain from various points of worldly vanity and display, more from a regard to the general opinion of religious persons than from a deep and lively view of their inexpediency and danger? Are we inclined to excuse and palliate such worldly compliances, as we imagine will remain unnoticed, or will consist with our general character as professors of serious Christianity? Do we begin to dread, and a little to avoid, singularity in points of inferior importance perhaps, but still of importance? Do we affect the acquaintance of the great and wealthy and learned, though we can be admitted to their company only by concealing our religion? Do we begin to lose sight of the broad distinction between a worldly person and a Christian? Can we fearlessly venture on the extreme line of what is right? Does reproof, however well intended, provoke and irritate us? Are we disposed readily to admit statements which lower the grace and simplicity of pure Christianity, because they come recommended by celebrated names? Can we find time for amusements, and dress, and

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company, and indulgence, whilst we allege want of time as an excuse for withholding our co-operation in plans which we know will tend to promote the glory of God? Have we less delight than formerly in the Sabbath, in spiritual and family duties, in secret prayer, and the quiet and unostentatious part of our ordinary calling? Does reading the Scripture and devotional exercises become uninteresting, and occupy but a very small portion of our time? Are some such symptoms too apparent? The case is plain. The plague is begun. The world has succeeded in seducing us. The vitals of our religion are infected. We are neither cold nor hot. No time is to be lost. We must shake ourselves from our slumbers and repent, and call upon God, and do our first works, that we perish not, 10. A frequent consideration of the examples of those who have been drawn aside by the world, and of those who have overcome it, may further be of important use.Who can reflect on the numbers whom prosperity, riches, flattery, or honour have overthrown, with out alarm and consternation? The wrecks float around us. The multitudes, once fervent and spiritual, who afterwards have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, are perfectly frightful. Mark then the progress of their decline, Christian, that you may avoid it; mark the gloom of their end, that you may dread the being exposed to it. Remember Lot's wife. Call to mind the case of Demas. Remember the example of Solomon. Keep in your view the decay of the church of the Laodiceaus. Read in such examples the fearful consequences of departing from the living God. On the other hand, contemplate, for your encouragement, the character of our Lord. What a picture of absolute superiority, both over the favour and frown of the world, together with the most perfect condescension and benignity! In our Saviour's,

whole character, a heavenly spirit, an indifference to human applause, a disregard of personal ease, an abstraction and elevation of soul were perpetually manifest. Let us fix our eye on his purity and dead. ness to the world, and strive to imitate them. In addition to this, let examples of faith in men like ourselves, which the Scriptures exbibit, animate our hearts. Let Abraham leaving his country, let Moses renouncing the pleasures of Egypt, let St. Paul in his holy spirit of laborious self-denial, excite us to an increasing victory over the world. Or, if our attention is directed to later times, let Christians of marked and exemplary godliness be placed before us. Let the martyrs and confessors of religion, the reformers of the church, the great leaders of reviving piety in different ages, or in our own, be the objects of our holy emulation! No man attains the height which he aims at; if therefore our standard is low, we shall ourselves be low indeed. Let us rather mark the steps of those who have been the light and glory of the church. The great body of even pious persons, in a day like our own, especially of those in easy circumstances, who have been exempt from remarkable trials, are no examples for us to follow. Let our view be much higher. There is a world, so to speak, even in the spiritual church, (the "religious world," a term familiar in some quarters, is surely of itself a little suspicious), a body. of persons, in many respects estimable, who, whilst they have been removed by education and circumstances from the grosser evils of. the age, have never felt sufficiently. the influence of practical religion, or, having felt it, have lost the im-. pression. These are borderers, living on the confiues of the two kingdoms. With these are associated, many who are inquiring after truth, or not yet established in the love of it. Amiable and benevolent persons, almost entirely.