Having a knowledge of the human heart, viewing the general circumstances of the faithful, in that portion of the vineyard which they are appointed to cultivate, and being themselves in the same circumstances, they can apply the maxims of the gospel to your particular exigences, and recommend the virtues more immediately suited to your actual condition. The most simple truths, in their mouths, draw from the grace of their ministry a special benediction. Besides, to be present at the public offices of religion in the temple of the Deity, is a duty enjoined by the laws of the church, and recommended by the admonitions and example of all that have been wise and good in every age, Here you find the source of the sacraments, the authority of doctrine, the rule of discipline, the common band of faith, the centre of union, the animation of hope, the fire of charity. This is the house of prayer. Here you unite in offering the spotless sacrifice of the Lamb, that, for the remission of sins, has been slain from the beginning of the world. Here you are fed with the bread of angels; the nourishment of your souls to immortality. To absent yourselves is a kind of schism, of separation from the body of the faithful, of which Jesus is the glorious head. Oh! Christians, the mingled multitude

of your brethren, high and low, rich and poor, presenting their vows and supplications to the Father of all before his sacred altar, ought to make public prayer more dear and consoling to you shall it then, on the contrary, make it incommodious to your delicacy, and despicable to your pride?

This then is the rule, by which we must be guided: Whatever militates against the performance of any essential duty, cannot ever be a work of faith and piety. Jesus Christ is not divided against himself. Charity does not destroy, what justice erects. Begin by duty: what you build on any other foundation will soon be a heap of ruins. Sincere and solid piety is fidelity in discharging the obligations of our state. When every duty has been attended to, perform as many other good works as you please. But do not prefer the appendages before the substance, your caprices before the law of God, and a chimerical perfection of piety before piety itself. Be on your guard. It is easy to deceive oneself in this particular: because the yoke of duty has nothing which flatters self-love; it is a forced, and, as it were, a foreign yoke, under which nature finds it dif ficult to bend whereas to performances of our own choosing we apply with complacence: they

are a yoke which does not gall; and if there be in them any thing painful, it is soothed by the taste we have for them, or the pleasure which we feel in having chosen them ourselves.

Avoid, therefore, my brethren, avoid with equal care the two opposite errors, that of the Pharisee, and that of the libertine. Virtue ever holds an equitable medium, and pursues a steady course. Passion runs into extremes, and wanders through every species of eccentricity. Religion in itself is beautiful and sublime but if we mingle with it our fancies and systems, we make it either a dry and proud philosophy, which gives every thing to pretended reason, and nothing to feeling; or a blind superstition, which sound sense despises, and faith disavows and condemns. Let us uniformly support the Christian character, and by giving to every action its proper time and place, shew the world that piety is useful to all things; that it is the incentive to duty, the band and safe-guard of society, the good sense of reason, the height of wisdom. Let us exhibit in our lives the fruits of our holy religion, and all the grace and dignity, which is conferred by obedience to its precepts; and we shall force its enemies to acknowledge, that piety is wise, noble, equitable, disinterested, condescending,

sweet amiable, exalted, divine. Thus shall the name of the Lord be blessed by those, who at present stray from the paths of righteous. ness; and we may hope to see them one day med with us, here, in every exercise of divine and fraternal charity: and hereafter, in the enjoyment of a blissful immortality.

SERMON XXXVII.

EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST.

ON THE GOOD EMPLOYMENT OF OUR TALENTS.

Give an account of thy stewardship.—
Luke xvi. 2.

GOD the eternal source of all existence, in creating this world, and establishing in it a society of rational creatures, who should form one compact and well-united body, who should harmonize together, and depend one upon another; hath, with wise and adorable counsel, distinguished different states and conditions of life, and allotted to each its peculiar functions and duties. By this disposition of divine Providence, there are superior and subordinate classes of men; some in splendid exaltation, others in lowly obscurity; but all placed by infinite wisdom, for the maintaining of order and peace. For, though all men may in some 'sense be said to be born equal, inasmuch as all have