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the word, in private prayer, and in the study of the Scriptures, we employ our time; and if such pursuits fail to maintain in our hearts the love of God, and to produce the most salutary effects on our conduct, wretched men that we are, "who "shall deliver us from the wrath to come!"

life in which the love of the world is predominant, is incompatible with that dignified and edifying piety, which should be the distinguishing characteristic of the sacred ministry; it is this spirit of piety alone which can ensure to us utility. For, after having freely mixed in the diversions and follies of the world, can you appear in a Christian pulpit impressed with a sense of the importance of the Gospel, and zealous for its success? With what face can you speak of the perils to which we are exposed in the world, of the snares which the Devil lays to beguile our innocence, of the necessity of prayer, of vigilance, of the account we are to render of an unprofitable life, and of all those evangelical graces which are indispensably requisite to adorn our christian character, when scarce a vestige of them can be discerned in your own? in order to "preach Christ, and him cruci

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fied," we, like the Apostles, must be "cruci"fied with Christ," dead to the affections and lusts of the world; in order to inspire a love of God, and of the things of heaven, we must possess that love ourselves; in order to impress the hearts of our hearers, we must be actuated by similar impressions. Now, should you even

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speak in the pulpit with an apparent zeal, should you pronounce the most lively, affecting, and eloquent, expressions, in what view do you wish to be considered by your hearers? What alternate emotions of shame, of pity, and contempt, will they not feel, when they hear you deplore the prevailing degeneracy of morals? Will not your lamentations sound in their ears as the artificial lamentations of a theatre? You will, it may be, appear to them as having acted your part well; and all the holiness, all the majesty, all the terror of the Gospel, will be no more in their estimation, than a profane exhibition of despicable vanity; no more than the result of a classical judgment, and a refined taste.

It is not easy, indeed, to support, in the midst of the world, all the decorum of our ministry. Success in our calling is only attached to ardor of zeal, and innocence of manners. The appearance of a Minister of the Gospel in places of public diversions, common prudence, therefore, dictates should be rare. In exhibiting ourselves in every place of entertainment, we lose the reverence which is interwoven with our character: it is difficult to be every moment on our guard;-and the smallest deviation from the path of propriety, is misrepresented by calumny, and exaggerated by malevolence, into a sin of the deepest dye. It easy to lose, it is difficult to preserve, our respectability, when we enter into the public amusements of life; and, although we do not imitate

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the manners, and pursue the irregularities we see, we assuredly, render our vocation less useful, and our virtues suspicious.

Let us, then, endeavour to extinguish in our hearts an attachment to the world and to its vanities. Having devoted ourselves to the service of God, having sincerely resolved to cast off the love of sublunary things, let us address ourselves to the Almighty, in the language of good old Simeon,

"Lord, now lettest thou thy servants depart in peace," from the profane engagements of the world, "since our eyes have seen thy salvation."

CHARGE III.

ON ZEAL.

When he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the Temple.

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