291 SERMON XXXI. PSALM. IV. 4. Stand in awe and fin not: commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still. T XXXI. O check the impulfe of paffion SERM. and prevent the first attacks of vice on the foul of man, a reverential awe of the Deity is implanted in every breast by the gracious Author of our being. Till this faithful guard is removed by violence, or feduced and drawn away by our deceitful and corrupt affections, guilt can by no means gain admittance. Whilst the inftructions of this useful monitor XXXI. SERM. are carefully attended to, the dictates of fin and fatan will not be regarded. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, and it is the continuance alfo of true wisdom ; the moment we part from it, we are in danger of falling into error, and deviating into the paths of vice. In the earlier part of life therefore we should endeavour to imprint this divine signature on our minds in the most indelible characters, characters which fhould grow with our growth, and ftrengthen with our ftrength; fuch as may never be effaced by time, place or circumstance, and to retain always in our fouls, that which will always be their best security. 2 And to this end the holy Pfalmift, who well knew our obligation and neceffity of complying with the precept he en gives, hath at the fame time that he joined, condescended alfo to guide and direct us in the practice of it; and hath accordingly pointed out to us the most effectual means of preferving that religious awe and veneration of God, which alone can ensure our everlasting falvation. Commune with your own hearts, fays he, and in your chamber, and be ftill. SERM. The royal monitor, who gives us the advice, was well acquainted both with public and private life; he had experienced the danger of courts and palaces, and he hath tafted the fweets of retirement and contemplation: to these last therefore he admonishes us to repair for that peace and tranquillity which it is not in the power of a noify venal world to bestow; to fhun that bustle and glare which is too apt to dazzle and deceive us, and feek the calm and quiet shade of XXXI. SERM. life, where we may undisturbed reflect on our duty towards God and man, and promote both our prefent and future happiness. We are not at the fame time to imagine, that by this retirement is meant an entire feparation from our fellowcreatures, a selfish ftoical contempt of them, a churlifh folitary recefs from mankind, and a total abftinence from all the pleasures of focial life; for this would be acting in oppofition to the first laws of nature, and doubtlefs difpleafing to the Author of it. Unless we might commune with the hearts of others, as well as with our own, we could not partake of the benefits and pleasures of fociety, and without the converse and communications of fociety we could be neither wife nor happy. Nor XXXI. Nor does the divine Being require SERM. from us an unreasonable facrifice of the innocent amusements of life; the mind as well as the body must be relaxed, for too intense an application of the one, as well as too great labour and toil imposed on the other, will infeeble, instead of invigorating them. Intervals of refreshment ftrengthen and improve both, and render them fitter for those offices they were intended to perform. But the danger lies chiefly on the other fide: we are all of us ready enough to comply with the follies, to partake of the diversions, and to join in the gaieties of others; but not always do we find it so easy to separate ourselves from them, and return to our chamber to commune with our own hearts. The followers of fashion, and the votaries of vice, by a perpetual diffipation |