bour his eafe; and suffering his pleasure. He has not, it is true, dealt fo feverely with thee, as with himfelf: he knows thy weakness, and is indulgent to thy infirmities. Though he forbids unlawful pleafures, he allows thofe that are innocent. Ufe his creatures, as means to lead thee to him, not as retractives to withdraw thee from him. Contemn what thou doft not enjoy, and model all thy pleasures, all thy diverfions, all thy defires, by the rule of reafon and of his gofpel, not of fenfuality and nature.

Here is room enough to lead a pleasant life, and yet a virtuous one alfo. But I have not been content with these bounds, nor eafy under this yoke. This I have thrown off; thofe I have ftep'd over; and have taken the liberty to become a flave to my paffions, and, what is worse, to my mortal enemy. I groan, my God, under the weight of my chains, and am weary of my fervitude. I am perfuaded, by my fad experience, that it is more eafy to overcome fenfuality, than to obey it; that there is no content, but in a blind obedience to thy commands; no way to heaven, but that thou haft mark'd out by thy example.

He always made his heavenly Father's will the fole rule of his practice: he fubmitted to his orders without difpute, without reluctance. Thy will be done, not as I will, but as thou wilt; Matth. xxvi. 39. was the refult of his prayers, and the motive of his actions: his painful life, his cruel and approbrious death, were the effects of this fubmiffion. He embraced both with joy, because it was his Father's pleasure. It is our duty to resemble Christ in this conformity of our wills to that of God's, if we defire to resemble him in his glory. It is hard; but neceffary: and as it is the duty of a Chriftian, fo it is the top of his perfection. If we hate only what he hates, and love

what

what he commands, we fhall not only be exempt from fin, but enriched with the whole train of virtues. Nothing will come amifs. Adverfity will be as welcome as profperity, fufferings as eafe; and we shall be as cheerful in fickness, as in health. We shall enjoy whatever we defire, because we defire nothing, but what God's paternal providence affigns us. O! what a life will fo difinterested a Christian lead! what a calm will he enjoy from without! what a paradife within! he neither fears thofe difafters, at which men are generally alarmed, nor can any of the misfortunes, with which this life is ufually attended, difcompofe the ferenity of his mind: no doubt, as this conformity is a great virtue, fo the practice is difficult; but to attain a low degree, we must aim at the higheft; for the execution never comes up to our designs.

This is the obligation of all Chriftians: but has our behaviour anfwered it? alas! not in the leaft. My conscience, I am fure, accuses me not only of a neglect, but even of a total oblivion of this important duty. How often have I spurned at Providence for croffing my designs, tho' crimihal; and looked upon its kindneffes as injuries? Croffes tired my patience, and fuffering caft me into complaints and murmurs. In fine, I confefs, O God, my life is a series of disobedience to thy will, and of compliance with all my perverfe inclinations; and tho' my profeffion enjoins me to imitate my Saviour in all things, I have not followed him in one: and yet, we shall alfo live with Chrift, on this condition alone, if we be dead with Chrift, dead to fin, to the world, to ourfelves, and our own will. I have indeed made fome vain efforts, which ended rather in wishes that I were perfect, than refolutions to be fo. They were made, and broke, almost the fame moment; and yet I was rather proud to have made them, VOL. II.

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than folicitous to keep them. Thus I pafs'd my days in a fatal lethargy, without any fense of my duty. But oh! had I really been in a continual flumber! if I had done no good, at least I had been guilty of no evil. But, alas! I was awake in my fleep awake to my eafe; awake to my paffions; awake to all my temporal concerns: and afleep only to thofe of eternity. But thy apostle's call, Arife, thou that fleepest, Eph. v. 14, has difpelled the drouzy humour, and the affurance he gives me, that thou wilt enlighten my foul, makes me hope thou wilt alfo influence my will with thy grace, and subject it totally to thine.

GOSPEL of St. Mark, Chap. viii. Verse

1. In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jefus called his difciples unto him, and faith unto them,

2. I have compaffion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:

3. And if I fend them away fafting to their own boufes, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

4. And his difciples answered him, from whence can a man fatisfie thefe men with bread here in the wilderness?

5. And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? and they faid, Seven.

6. And be commanded the people to fit down on the ground; and he took the feven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his difciples to fet before them: and they did fet them before the people.

7. And they had a few small fishes: and he bleed, and commanded to fet them also before them.

8. So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left, feven baskets. 9. And they that had eaten were about four thou fand; and he fent them away.

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The MORAL REFLECTION.

ERE we find a multitude following Jefus, who, taken up with the defire of hearing his divine exhortations, forgot their bodily neceffi ties; yet Chrift took care of the bodies, tho' they, out of zeal, neglected them. And they, who came a-far off, feemed to move him to compaffion: For divers of them came from far. The holy fathers, and interpreters, fay, these people represent great finners, who, by a fincere repentance, return to God. These come indeed from far, as far as the state of fin is removed from that of grace; and confequently as hell from heaven. For thefe Chrift is folicitous, and works a miracle, to fustain their weakness: he prepares a banquet, to restore their strength; Left they faint in the way. Left weary in the courfe of virtue, they have begun, they return to that of vice, they have left, or at least fit down, and begin to repent of their very repentance, and to wifh they had too little courage to undertake a reformation of life, or more strength to go through with it. Let them therefore not defpond, tho' they find, at the beginning of their converfion, great difficulty to persevere. The devil will, no doubt, endeavour to regain them, and employ all the charms of the world, all the natural inclinations of flesh and blood, to withdraw them from the service of God, into which they are newly entered. They must shake off ill habits, heightened by custom, and almost blended with their very nature by length of time and practice. They must take a new courfe, quite oppofite to the

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former; hate what they loved, and love thofe very objects they hated. Such a total change cannot be made without great violence, nor continued without a greater; and they will certainly faint in the way, unless Chrift fupports them, and enfpirits their feeble nature with fresh fupplies of his grace. But oh! the tendernefs of our Redeemer! I have compaffion on the multitude: He embraces all mankind with the tendernefs of a father; and feems to fhew a more particular kindness for penitents. This he has exprefs'd in a hundred places of holy fcripture, and he feems to have wrought the prefent miracle in favour of thofe, who came from far; that is, who reprefent fincere converts.

Fear not then, O happy fouls, who are returned, from the flavery of fin, to the liberty of grace from the bondage of the devil, to the fervice of Chrift. Fear not, I fay, neither the weakness of nature, nor the force of temptation. Chrift will fortify that, that you faint not in the way; or temper the violence of this, that you may not be overcome. In all your combats, you have Chrift as a fecond, to affift you, and as a spectator, to applaud your courage, and to crown it with victory, and glory.

Never reflect how long this ftate of violence will laft. Such thoughts raife defpondence, and only ferve to make you think perfeverance impoffible; which with grace is eafy. Our lives are compofed of days, and, if you pafs each day in virtue, your whole life will be virtuous. Think not, then, of to morrow, nor fright yourself with this queftion: how can I live under a perpetual constraint twenty or thirty years? I am in the flower of my age, and in all probability, have more time to come than what is past.

Thefe fuggeftions the devil lays before us, to raife in us apprehenfions that perfeverance is impoffible. But, in the first place, reckon not upon

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