he is not like other men; to exalt his own good works, and to aggravate the faults of his neighbour, whose single virtue of humility is yet more acceptable in the sight of God, than the ostentatious parade of all his own put together, and the sinner goes home to his house justified rather than the other.

To remedy these defects, Revelation comes to our assistance, and employs several of its divine precepts in regulating and reproving this over-weening arrogance. It teaches every man to think not more highly of himself than he ought to think; and assures us that after we have done our best, we are yet but unprofitable servants.

But it may be urged, " Is not this carrying matters very far on the other hand? Does not this destroy all the self-satisfaction which the text teaches us results from virtue and holiness? Do not the words of Christ seem to contradict the words of Solomon; and in effect inculcate this very opposite doctrine, that even the best man ought to be dissatisfied with himself, since he is told, that after he has done his best, he is yet but an unprofitable servant?"

In answer to this, it need only be replied, that this doctrine refers rather to the perfections of God than the imperfections of man. Nothing can be a more undoubted truth, than that to a Being so infinitely perfect

as the Almighty Creator of the universe, the best of our imperfect service can afford no kind of profit or advantage: but how true soever this be, though man is unprofitable to his Maker, he is not therefore unprofitable to himself, or to his fellow-creatures. No surely. By regulating and restraining his passions, he may secure his own happiness; by acts of humanity and charity, he may increase the happiness of society; and by adding to these true Religion and Piety, he may be sure of procuring the favour of his God, not indeed because he is profitable unto him, but because he is an useful member of that universe which is the work of God's hands. The doctrine therefore thus understood, we see, is far from abridging that satisfaction and pleasure which arises from virtuous sensations or actions; it only inculcates humility and godly diffidence of ourselves: Virtues which, when once rendered habitual to our minds, so as it were to become a part of our rational nature, and to constitute the frame and temper of our souls, tend perhaps more than any other to increase and establish that tranquillity of soul, without which it cannot possibly taste any genuine, unpolluted satisfaction.

Hence, though we allow that because the doctrines and precepts of Christianity inculcate a more perfect scheme of morality, and require more arduous efforts of holiness and godly zeal than any human system can pretend to, the Disciple of Christ ought not to be so easily

satisfied with himself, as other moralists have generally been; yet we still assert, that if he conscientiously perseveres in the path of duty prescribed to him by his Redeemer, going on from grace to grace, as he commands him, he has no cause to be dissatisfied with himself; on the contrary, his religion will contribute various comforts, which mere morality can never furnish, superior degrees of happiness and delight to those that spring from common virtuous habits, and naturally good inclinations.

This I shall endeavour to make evident in the sequel of this discourse, and to prove, that if the good man has reason to be satisfied from himself, the good Christian has reason to be much more so.

It has been frequently said, and Infidelity delights itself much in the assertion, that amongst all the various systems of antient philosophy, there is one so perfect, when considered as a scheme of morality, that it even supersedes Christianity itself. The morality I mean is that of the Stoics. I shall therefore attempt to draw a short comparison between the apathy, or unfeeling fortitude, which was a fundamental doctrine in that school, and the virtues of patience and humility, which make so capital a part of the religion of Christ: if therefore it can be made to appear that these latter are more agreeable to our frame and constitution, and more productive

of internal peace and comfort than the other, the conclusion will be that Christianity is much more calculated to promote the satisfaction which results from virtue, than that philosophy which is deemed, and perhaps justly, the best which the world was acquainted with before life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel.

It is well known that the leaders of the sect of which I am speaking endeavoured to persuade their followers, that whatever was external to the mind was totally below its regard; that the interests of body and soul were entirely independent one of another; and therefore that whatever pain or calamity might be inflicted on the body, was, or ought to be, unfelt by the soul, which, fortified within itself, was absolutely incapable of being affected by any thing from without. Natural evils therefore were held in contempt, and treated with disdain, as enemies incapable of doing the wise man any detriment. Hence the soul acquired such a supercilious haughtiness, that, not content to suffer with constancy, the Stoic pretended not to suffer at all, but to be as invulnerable to evil as the Deity himself. Let us hear, in full proof of this fact, the wild apostrophe which one of these philosophers puts into the mouth of God himself, whom he supposes thus to address his ideal sages: "Since," says he, " I could not place you in a system "of beings in which you might be out of the reach of

"natural evils, I armed you against them all: Bear "them therefore with fortitude, by this means you have

66 an advantage even over the Deity himself. He indeed "is beyond the sense of evils, but you are above the 66 sense of them."*

Let us turn from a philosophy, capable of inspiring such absurd sentiments, to take a short view of that patience and resignation which Christianity substitutes in their stead. Let us behold the humble and sincere follower of the patient Jesus, suffering the extremity of evil, yet feeling it, and owning that he feels it; but at the same time supported by that submissive reliance on the Almighty power, without whose permission he knows no pain can be inflicted upon him; and who only suffers it to be inflicted, that the sufferer may be benefited by it: he goes through the trial with a constancy and tranquillity; a joy that strikes his persecutors with admiration and with reverence. It is not that he pretends to stifle his groans through fear of dishonouring his holy profession; but it is the holiness of that religion he professes which stifles those groans, by the lively hopes and pious confidence which it inspires; it is not that he despises his persecution, because he thinks himself more

* Quia non poteram vos istis (malis) subducere, animos vestros adversus omnia armavi. Ferte fortiter: hoc est quo Deum antecedatis; ille extra patientiam malorum est, vos supra patientiam. Seneca de Providentia, cap. vi.