these directions you carefully attend, adding your constant prayers to that merciful God, who would have no man to perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth; he will certainly keep you stedfast in our holy faith; that faith which is the ground and foundation of the lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in HEAVEN for you; that faith, by which, through the power of God, ye are kept unto salvation; that faith, which, being preserved firm and stedfast, after it has been tried by manifold temptations, will be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearance of Jesus Christ; that faith, which makes us here in this life to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and in the end brings us to the salvation of our souls: which God, of his infinite mercy, grant unto us all for Jesus Christ's sake; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end.

SERMON XXXIV.

FROM ATTERBURY".

MATT. XIV. 23.

When he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain, apart, to pray.

Ir has been disputed, which is a state of greater perfection, the social, or the solitary: whereas, in truth, neither of these is complete without the other; as the example of our blessed Lord (the unerring test and measure of perfection) proves to us. His life (which ought to be the pattern of ours) was a mixture of contemplation and action, of austerity and freedom. We find him in the marketplaces, in the synagogues, and at entertainments; and we find him also retiring from the crowd into a desert, or a garden, and there employing himself in religious exercises: in fasting, meditation, and

* Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, was born 1662, and died 1731-2.

prayer. We may, no doubt, in imitation of his example, lead public lives, both innocently and usefully; mutually sowing and reaping the several comforts and advantages of society. But, since the pleasures of conversation, when too freely tasted, are intoxicating and dangerous; since the temptations we there meet with are many and mighty; and, even where the SPIRIT is willing to resist, yet the flesh is often weak; we ought to lessen our too great complacency for such indulgences, by fit intermissions of them; to retire occasionally from the world, and converse with God and our own consciences; examining the state, and fortifying the powers of our souls, in secrecy and silence. In a word, like our Lord, we must send the multitudes away, and go up into the mountain, apart, to pray.

From these words, I shall take occasion to discourse concerning the great, but neglected, duty of religious retirement. I mean not, however, to recommend that sort of retirement, which is so much esteemed and practised in the Church of Rome : as I see no example, precept, or direction, in the Gospel, inviting us to it.

John the BAPTIST, indeed, is represented as sequestering himself from human converse, and spending his time in the wilderness. But, as he is said to have come in the spirit and power of ELIas, (a spirit far different from the spirit of the Gospel) and therefore professedly imitated that Prophet in

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his life and doctrine; so his example belonged rather to the Mosaic state, under which he lived and taught, than to the Christian dispensation, which began where his preaching ended. Nor, indeed, did he ever propose his own practice as a pattern to his followers. On the contrary, when the people, the publicans, and the soldiers enquired of him, What they should do, to flee from the wrath to come? he did not exhort them to quit the world for the wilderness; but gave them such directions only as related to a faithful discharge of their duty in their several stations and callings. And, when, afterwards, our Saviour began to enter on his ministry, and to appear as our Saviour, by publishing the Gospel of his kingdom; we find nothing either in his actions, or his doctrine, to countenance that recluse and solitary state, which some, since, who would be thought to have best imitated his example, and obeyed his precepts, have so zealously espoused and practised.

The retreat, therefore, of which I am now speaking, is not that of monks and hermits, but of men living in the world, and going out of it for a time,

It is a tempo

that they may again return to it. rary, not a total retreat: such as is consistent with the business, and even with the pleasures of life ; and is so far from interfering with the duties of our public stations, that it disposes us for the better discharge of them.

No man is, or ought to be, so deeply immersed

in the affairs of this world, as not to be able occasionally to retire from them into his closet, and attend there to the concerns of another. Every day of his life, some moments may and must be found for this necessary purpose. The Lord's day, in particular, is an opportunity of this description, which can never wholly be neglected without direct indevotion, or even without scandal.

And such, also, is the annual season of recollection in which we are now far advanced *; not, I trust, without having employed it, in some measure, to those good purposes for which it was intended.

A dissipation of thought is the natural and unavoidable effect of our conversing much with the world. We roll on in a circle of empty pleasures, and are continually flying from one amusement to another; ever seemingly busy, and ever really idle. This, by degrees, gives us such a levity of spirit, as refuses admittance to all serious thoughts, and renders us incapable of reflection. To retrieve ourselves from this vain and roving way of thinking and living, it is requisite frequently to retire, and to converse with (what we above all things love, and yet above all things hate to converse with) OURSELVES; to inure our minds to recollection, to fix them on those great and most interesting

* Lent.