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in a retirement from the world, and a settled composure of their thoughts to self-reflection and meditation. And such also are the ablest to deal with troubled and distressed consciences, to meet their doubts, and to answer their objections, and to ransack every corner of their shifting and fallacious hearts; and, in a word, to lay before them the true state of their souls, having so frequently descended into, and took a strict account of their own. And this is so great a work, that there are not many whose mind and tempers are capable of it, who yet may be serviceable enough to the Church in other things. And it is the same thoughtful and reserved temper of spirit, which must make others to serve the Church in the hard and controversial parts of religion. Which sort of men (though they should never rub men's itching ears from the pulpit) the Church can no more be without, than a garrison can be without soldiers, or a city without walls; or than a man can defend himself with his tongue, when his enemy comes against him with his sword.

But then again, there are others beside these, who are of a warmer and more fervent spirit, having much of heat and fire in their constitution, and God may and does serve His Church even by such a kind of persons as these also, as being particularly fitted to preach the terrifying rigours and curses of the law to obstinate, daring sinners, which is a work as absolutely necessary and of as high a consequence to the good of souls, as it is that men should be driven, if they cannot be drawn, off from their sins, that they should be cut and lanced if they cannot otherwise be cured, and that the terrible trump of the last judgment should be always sounding in their ears, if nothing else can awaken them. But then, while such persons are thus busied in preaching of judgraent, it is much to be wished that they would do it with judgment too; and not preach hell and damnation to sinners so as if they were pleased with what they preached; no, let them rather take heed that they mistake

not their own fierce temper for the mind of God; for some I have known to do so, and that at such a rate that it was easy enough to distinguish the humour of the speaker from the nature of the thing he spoke. Let ministers threaten death and destruction even to the very worst of men, in such a manner that it may appear to all their sober hearers that they do not desire but fear that these dreadful things should come to pass: let them declare God's wrath against the hardened and impenitent, as I have seen a judge condemn a malefactor, with tears in his eyes; for surely much more should a dispenser of the word, while he is pronouncing the infinitely more killing sentence of the Divine law, grieve with an inward bleeding compassion for the misery of those forlorn wretches whom it is like to pass upon.

The Key to Knowledge.

We learn from hence the most effectual way and means of proficiency and growth in the knowledge of the great and profound truths of religion; and how to make us all not only good Christians, but also expert divines. It is a knowledge that men are not so much to study, as to live themselves into-a knowledge that passes into the head through the heart. I have heard of some, that in their latter years, through the feebleness of their limbs, have been forced to study upon their knees; and I think it might well become the youngest and the strongest to do so too. Let them daily and incessantly pray to God for His grace; and if God gives grace, they may be sure that knowledge will not stay long behind, since it is the same Spirit and principle that purifies the heart and clarifies the understanding. Let all their inquiries into the deep and mysterious points of theology be begun and carried on with fervent petitions to God, that He would dispose their minds to direct all their skill and knowledge to the promotion of a good life, both in themselves and others; that He would use all their noblest specula

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tions and most refined notions, only as instruments to move and set a-work the great principles of action, the will and the affections; that He would convince them of the infinite vanity and uselessness of all that learning that makes not the possessor of it a better man; that He would keep them from those sins that may grieve and provoke His Holy Spirit, the fountain of all true light and knowledge, to withdraw from them, and so seal them up under darkness, blindness, and stupidity of mind. For where the heart is bent upon and held under the power of any vicious course, though Christ Himself should take the contrary virtue for His doctrine, and do a miracle before such an one's eyes for its application, yet He would not practically gain his assent, but the result of all would end in a "non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris." Few consider what a degree of sottishness and confirmed ignorance men may sin themselves into.

This was the case of the Pharisee. And no doubt but this very consideration also gives us the true reason, and full explication, of that notable and strange passage of Scripture in Luke xvi.: "That if men will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." That is, where a strong, inveterate love of sin has made any doctrine or proposition wholly unsuitable to the heart, no argument or demonstration, no, nor miracle whatsoever, shall be able to bring the heart cordially to close with and receive it. Whereas, on the contrary, if the heart be piously disposed, the natural goodness of any doctrine is enough to vouch for the truth of it; for the suitableness of it will endear it to the will, and by endearing it to the will, will naturally slide it into the assent also; for in morals, as well as in metaphysics, there is nothing really good but has a truth commensurate to its goodness.

The truths of Christ crucified are the Christian's philosophy, and a good life is the Christian's logic-that great

instrumental introductive art, that must guide the mind into the former. And where a long course of piety, and close communion with God, have purged the heart, and rectified the will, and made all things ready for the reception of God's Spirit, knowledge will break in upon such a soul, like the sun shining in his full might, with such a victorious light, that nothing shall be able to resist it.

If now, at length, some should object here, that from what has been delivered, it will follow, that the most pious men are still the most knowing, which yet seems contrary to common experience and observation, I answer, that as to all things directly conducing and necessary to salvation, there is no doubt but they are so; as the meanest common soldier, that has fought often in an army, has truer and better knowledge of war than he that has read and writ whole volumes of it, but never was in any battle.

Practical sciences are not to be learned but in the way of action. It is experience that must give knowledge in the Christian profession, as well as in all others. And the knowledge drawn from experience is quite of another kind from that which flows from speculation or discourse. It is not the opinion, but the path of the just, that the wisest of men tells us shines more and more unto a perfect day. The obedient, and the men of practice, are those sons of light that shall outgrow all their doubts and ignorances, that shall ride upon these clouds, and triumph over their present imperfections, till persuasion pass into knowledge, and knowledge advance into assurance, and all come at length to be completed in the beatific vision, and a full fruition of those joys, which God has in reserve for them whom by His grace He shall prepare for glory.

The Lot cast into the Lap.

[In this sermon sufficient justice is done to the seemingly fortuitous element so often noticed in human affairs. We are

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not so sure that equal justice is done to that Divine control or overruling which chooses the "lot of our inheritance," and which, when the lot is cast into the lap, determines the side of the die that shall come uppermost. To our apprehension, also, the closing paragraphs are flavoured with a slight soupçon of chagrin. Dr South was not over-much contented with the share of preferment which had fallen to his "lot."]

Then for the friendships or enmities that a man contracts in the world, than which surely there is nothing that has a more direct and potent influence upon the whole of a man's life, whether as to happiness or misery; yet chance has the ruling stroke in them all.

A man by mere peradventure lights into company, possibly is driven into an house by a shower of rain for present shelter, and there begins an acquaintance with a person, which acquaintance and endearment grows and continues, even when relations fail, and perhaps proves the support of his mind and of his fortunes to his dying day.

And the like holds in enmities, which come much more easily than the other. A word unadvisedly spoken on the one side, or misunderstood on the other, any the least surmise of neglect, sometimes a bare gesture, nay, the very unsuitableness of one man's aspect to another man's fancy, has raised such an aversion to him, as in time has produced a perfect hatred of him, and that so strong and so tenacious that it has never left vexing and troubling him, till, perhaps, at length it has worried him to his grave; yea, and after death too, has pursued him in his surviving shadow, exercising the same tyranny upon his very name and memory.

It is hard to please men of some tempers, who indeed hardly know what will please themselves; and yet if a man does not please them, which it is ten thousand to one if he does, if they can but have power equal to their malice (as sometimes, to

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