of our souls be the great business of life, and what, it is to be hoped, we have most of us a real and hearty concern for in our secret retirements; yet it must, I am afraid, be owned, that there is too little mention made of it, even when it might be proper, and too general a silence and reserve about it. This so close and wary carriage in our religious concernments is more than need be or should be; and is attended with some ill effects. For while bad example is open and daring, and solicitations to vice public and common; if there be not some exemplary instances of true piety and godliness to confront them, God's honour must of course suffer, and the cause of religion decline daily. If impious wretches form their clubs and cabals, (and such we have been lately told of as cannot be mentioned without horror, nor paralleled in any history;) I say, if they gather together to carry on the interests of the kingdom of darkness, to keep lewdness in countenance, and to stamp some credit even upon the most execrable blasphemies; it concerns every good man, on the other hand, to be zealous for God's honour in the face of the world, in order to give the greater life and vigour to religion, and to make the adversary, at length, sink down in utter shame and confusion. There is ordinarily that force in truth, and in a just and righteous cause, that while men stand up for it with resolution and constancy, they are in a manner secure of triumphing over all its opposers. But,

2. As the glory of God requires this exemplary conduct, so also does the good of man. This is not so properly a different topic from the former, as the same under a different view. For whatever tends to make men wiser and better, does in the same degree tend to the furtherance of God's glory; which is then at the highest when the greatest numbers join in celebrating his name. Now that the exemplary lives and services of good men are of great force and efficacy to convince and convert others, is too plain a thing to need many words; and it has been already hinted. Let those therefore who have learnt the true art of living, come abroad, and practise in the view of the world. However highly some may speak of the contemplative and devotional life, it seems to be the perfection of those only who either have no call to, or are too weak and unfurnished for, the active. Such as live like anchorets in a cell or a cloister, may do well in some particular circumstances, when their service is not wanted, or would be fruitless: but these are not the men to whom the

world must be indebted for the example of holy living. They are too private to be seen, and too singular in their way for the generality of men to take their rules and measures from. Men must be taught to be religious and virtuous after another method, or not at all; there being few, in comparison, whose circumstances will admit of such abstraction and retirement. They must be taught how to be much in company, and to be religious all the while; how to converse daily with the world, without being corrupted thereby; how to dispatch business, and manage the affairs of life, still preserving their integrity, and keeping up a real and hearty sense of true godliness and piety. Examples of this kind are highly necessary, and of all the most useful. From such the foolish may learn wisdom, and the wicked be wrought over to virtuous and godly living; from them the intemperate may learn sobriety; the unclean, chastity; the proud and high-minded, modesty and humility; the dissolute and profane, recollection and gravity. These things must be learnt, not from recluses, but from men of public life and character, that mingle with the crowd, and act their parts upon the stage of the world. Thus lived Christ and his Apostles; thus also John the Baptist, for the latter part of his life, to shew that his former had not been spent in vain. For though it be necessary to retire sometimes, for the sake of improvement; yet the design of such improvement is, in a great measure, lost, if it does not prepare and qualify us for a more public life, or public services, whenever we shall be called to them; that so the world may have the benefit of our improvements, and take their pattern and direction from us.

3. To this I must add, thirdly, a further consideration, drawn from our own particular interest in a life to come. Such as

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turn many to righteousness," saith the Prophet, "shall shine as the stars for ever and ever a." And our blessed Lord hath said; "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also "confess before my Father which is in heaven." And in another place," Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall "the Son of man also confess before the angels of God c." There is some uncommon happiness in reserve, some exceeding, as well as eternal, weight of glory laid up for those who make it their more especial care to stand up against a deluge of iniquity, heresy, or profaneness; and, by their exemplary labours and

a Dan. xii. 3.

b Matth. x. 32.

c Luke xii. 8.

endeavours, do their best to confront and shame a wicked world. Troubles and difficulties there are, great and many, in doing it, (as in all glorious enterprises,) and they enhance its value, and heighten the reward. And let this suffice by way of motive to the duty laid down in the text. I proceed,

III. Thirdly, to observe how far these considerations may affect Christians in general, or some in particular; where I shall conclude with a suitable application of the whole to the present

occasion.

The duty here recommended, more or less, concerns all Christians. For there is no one so mean or low but may set a good example, and in some measure promote the interests of religion, suitably to the station, whatever it be, wherein God has placed him. But more particularly does the precept of the text concern those who are set upon a hill; persons of quality and high station, who move in a larger sphere, and are able to do much by their countenance, interest, and authority. Nothing can sooner or more effectually recommend virtue and piety than. illustrious and great examples. This is the way to bring religion into vogue, and to render it genteel and fashionable; which is a considerable advantage to it. Vice, in itself vile and odious, will by this means become more and more despicable. Many will grow perfectly ashamed of it, while they see none but the inferior rank giving in to it. They will put on the outward garb of sanctity (at least) as a part of good breeding, and a gentlemanly accomplishment. And though it should sometimes rise no higher than a refined hypocrisy, yet even that may have its use, and be of much better consequence, in respect of example, than open profaneness. But we may reasonably hope that good and great examples would strike much deeper into the hearts of many; and by degrees spread a real and hearty sense of religion and piety through the kingdom.

After persons of high station and authority, in Church or State, the Clergy in general may be mentioned, as men particularly concerned in the advice of the text. They are in a special manner set up for "lights of the world," for ensamples and patterns to others. It is their profession and business to promote virtue, and rebuke vice; to maintain God's honour, and to keep up a sense and face of religion in the world. It cannot be thought pretending in them, however it might in others, to stand up for God and religion. A more than ordinary zeal for God's

glory, a devout earnestness in prayer, a religious gravity, and even great appearances of sanctity, at proper seasons, such as might look like ostentation in others, may be becoming and graceful in them, when joined with a good life. Indeed, it is no more than what their high office and sacred character demand of them, suitable to that peculiar relation they bear to God, and to the work which they are sent to do, that of reforming the world.

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From the Clergy I descend, with pleasure, to the Clergy's Sons, here met together; and making a becoming and venerable appearance upon this our solemn festival. Surely they also are raised up for "lights of the world." God hath this day called us to his holy sanctuary, singled us out from city and country, from remote and distant retirements, to appear in one collective body, and in the view of the world. Now is the time to "let our "light shine before men," while their eyes are upon us, and they are expecting to "see our good works," that they may "glorify our Father which is in heaven." You are an holy seed, sanctified from your birth, and eminently consecrated to the service and glory of God. Your education is a further privilege; you have been bred up within the verge of the tabernacle, amidst holy offices, under the nurture and admonition, the example and the benediction of the sacred calling. Let it be seen by our lives and conversations, under whose roofs we have some time dwelt, by whose instructions we have profited, and by whose examples we have been formed. Let our manners declare our extraction, and every line of our behaviour shew the work of some masterly hand. I cannot here run through the whole circle of divine graces and virtues, wherein we ought to be exemplary, after the pattern set us by our pious progenitors. Your own better thoughts will suggest to you more than I can find words to express. Three things only I will take leave to mention, whereby make our 66 light shine" to very excellent purposes. 1. By a becoming zeal for the primitive faith and doctrine. 2. By our promoting works of charity.

we may

3. For the sake of both the other, by our expressing, on all proper occasions, a religious concern for the Establishment in Church and State.

1. Let us, in the first place, manifest a becoming zeal for the primitive faith and doctrine: that faith which was taught us by our fathers, and which they received and professed as handed

down to them, by a long series and succession of bishops and martyrs, from Christ and his Apostles. We are now called to a more than common zeal for the faith, while Atheism and Deism make daily advances; and Arianism, paving the way to both, appears open and barefaced. It has been the glory of our Clergy, our immediate and our remote progenitors, that they ever held in veneration the mysterious doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity. When Socinianism, some years ago, made large steps and loud triumphs, very little impression could be made upon the Clergy; who, conformable to their subscriptions, still adhered to the true faith, almost without exception. They knew how ancient that faith was, and what value had been set upon it by all the primitive churches. Let it then be one principal part of our care and concern, to copy after those bright examples, by our constant and unshaken zeal for the ancient faith: so may we approve ourselves as true sons of this Church, by inheriting those principles which our fathers preserved as a sacred depositum, to be handed down to their children, and to children's children, and to all succeeding generations. To desert this faith, or even to be cold and indifferent towards it, is to sully our extraction, cancel our sonship, and to strike ourselves at once out of privilege and character.

2. A second method of making our light shine, is by promoting works of charity. This subject hath been often and excellently handled in this place, and upon the same occasion. The usefulness and necessity of public charities in general, and of this in particular, have been set forth in the strongest colours; and are, no doubt, so deeply imprinted in the hearts and minds of the audience, that they can never be erased or blotted out. Your light has shone abroad from hence to distant quarters, even to the darkest corners of the land: and both widows and orphans, with as many as wish well to them, have often seen your good "works, and glorified your Father which is in heaven," for them.

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Widows and orphans have been ever looked upon as very proper objects of compassion and charity. Their helpless condition and afflicted circumstances plead strongly in their behalf: and lest they should ever want a friend to prefer their petitions, God himself has condescended to recommend their case, and in moving terms to intercede, and almost entreat for them. Now, if widows and orphans, in general, have so just a claim to our