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a defign, we immediately fall upon the manner how we shall execute it; and bend all our application to find the most proper inftruments to bring it to a happy conclufion: fo in our fpiritual concerns, prudence obliges us to take the fame meafures. Some creatures amufe us in our way to heaven, and others lead us quite from it. Thofe draw us into small offences; thefe into great fins. We muft avoid the firft, tho' they appear never fo innocent, and abfolutely break off with the latter, tho' never fo agreeable or charming. Nor is it fufficient to abandon those things that impede our paffage to heaven, but we must embrace all those means, tho' troublesome, tho' contrary to the inclination of fenfe, that lead us thither.

Hence you must look upon your former life, and examine what hath moft powerfully withdrawn you from the duty of a Chriftian; what hath diffuaded you from the practice of thofe virtues, your religion requires, and God commands. Have you not turned thofe creatures, he created to raise you to heaven, into steps to defcend into hell? what he gave you as flaves, not only into mafters, but into idols? For even Chriftians too too often adore idols, as well as Pagans, and build them altars in their hearts, tho' not in temples. Hence. St. Paul calls avarice downright idolatry, Gal.

V. IQ.

Hath not too little concern for fmall offences opened the door to greater: too violent a paffion for friends weakened your love of God, and fometimes prompted you to renounce his friendship to preferve that of a creature? hath not a lukewarmnefs in religious duties extinguished all devotion, and a careleinefs in your fpiritual obligations turned you over to pride and paffion? If you find these the causes of your paft mifcarriages, you must refolve, by the rule of prudence, to remove them.

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Who once has fallen down a precipice, muft be ftupid to play upon the brink a fecond time: and no pilot in his wits will fteer upon a rock, he has once before fplit upon. Paft misfortunes teach prudence; and this only confifts in removing the causes.

But when you have taken away thefe impediments, you must apply other pofitive means; and · thefe, in part, the apoftle points at in the next words: Watch unto prayer; addrefs yourself to God; implore his affiftance, who, as St. James affures us, gives both grace and wifdom to thofe that afk them. Beg of him to raife your heart from the love of thofe things here below, which may cool your defire of thofe above, or flacken your pursuit of them. Attempt the practice of great virtues, but contemn not the exercife of the leaft. Those deserve a great crown; and thefe also will have their reward. As heaven is the defired end of all Chriftians, fo virtue is the means to arrive there. This is neceffary to all ftates, to all conditions; and therefore poverty will not excuse the peafant from it, nor wealth and grandeur the prince.

When you know the means, you must apply them all with conftancy and diligence. I fay, all; at least those that are abfolutely neceffary. The neglect of one renders the ufe of all the rest unprofitable, and ineffectual. Some have no difficulty to pray, nor to read continually books of fpirituality, but then it is like death to them to think of mortifying their paffions. They take fire at a word, and will rather part with their virtue, than a pettish humour. Others are infenfible to vain honours, and strangers to thoughts of ambition; but then they are flaves to avarice; and you can no more perfuade them out of this paffion, than out of their nature. Every one has his VOL. II.

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darling

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darling paffion; and altho' they facrifice all others to God, this they keep to themselves: Like the Ifraelites, when they overcame the Amalekites, against the exprefs command of God, they fpare, and appropriate the beft things, and burn the worft. But as, by this policy, Saul loft his kingdom, fo the nurfing one favourite paffion may ruin our fouls. For generally this is the fource of all our imperfections, the origin of all our vices; and tho' we apply all other means, unless we facrifice this before the Lord, as Samuel did Agag, we fhall never arrive at our laft end, the poffeffion of God in heaven.

When you have pitch'd upon the means, fall to work with all diligence, and bear up against all difficulties with conftancy. This is the counfel of a wife pagan, and a kind of poftulatum in bufinefs. Confider firft the enterprize in all its circumftances: And when you have taken your refolution, fall immediately upon the execution: defer it not a moment: A favourable opportunity feldom remains long: it prefents it felf only in paffing, and never returns. Hence our Saviour has left us this fo often repeated advice: ftand night and day upon your guard. The foolish virgins came to the feaft, but too late, and fo were fent back with an I know you not. How many Christians have been furprised with death, and forfeited their falvation, because they neglected an occafion that once was offered them! Prudence therefore requires a great diligence, and an affiduous арplication in an affair of fo great importance; in which the leaft flackness may prove mortal.

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Nor does it demand a lefs courage, or less conftancy; for it is a hard task to combat our paffions; to crucify the flesh; to war upon our unruly inclinations. However, were this fight to laft only a day, the fhortnefs of the conteft would abate the

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ftrength of the difficulty: but alas! it continues our whole lives. There is no peace to be hoped for, no truce to be expected. For tho' we may quell our appetites, we cannot kill them. Their lives are interwoven with ours; fo that we cannot destroy them without offering violence to our felves. Tho' we have fought against the devil, and his moft malicious emiffaries, the flesh, and the world, with fuccefs, ten years; yet, if we yield to their wicked fuggeftions the laft moment of our lives, we first lose the fruits of all our former victories, and then enter into a never-ending feries of torments for our laft difloyalty. Conftancy

therefore to death, only crowns the virtuous actions of our lives and feeing this lies out of our reach, and cannot be purchased by our own merits, we muft beg it of God by thofe of his Son: Be therefore fober and prudent, O Christian reader! prefer eternity to time, heaven to earth, God to all creatures. But ftop not at a bare preference in fpeculation. Aim at the conqueft of heaven, at the poffeffion of God. Chrift has mark'd out the way; and all things neceffary for the conqueft lie before you. Apply the means with diligence, and encounter all difficulties with courage and conftancy. There is no other prudence in this world, but to provide for happiness in the next.

Withdraw me, my God, from thofe creatures, I can neither love nor enjoy, without forfeiting thy love, and all title to the enjoyment of thee; or at least give me ftrength to break thofe chains that detain me, and to deteft those charms that allure my fenfes. Suffer not thofe creatures ta endanger my falvation, which thou haft only given me to fupport my weakness. Nor permit me to flatter my fenfuality, whilft I intend merely to ferve neceffity. Let me ufe all creatures as means, not as my final end; which is thee alone, my God, who

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who art alone the author of my being, and the end of my creation.

GOSPEL of St. John, Chap. xv. and xvi. Verse

26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will fend unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, be fhall teftify of me.

27. And ye alfo fhall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

1. These things have Ifpoken unto you, that ye fhould not be offended.

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2. They fhall put you out of the fynagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God fervice.

3. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me.

4. But these things have I told you, that when the time fhall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I faid not unto you at the beginning; because I was with you.

The MORAL REFLECTION.

UR bleffed Saviour, in the foregoing words,

O complains of the obftinacy of the Jews,

who would not receive him for their Meffias, notwithstanding all the prodigies he wrought among them. He protefts, their incredulity bears no excufe; that their ignorance is not real, but affected, and rather ferves to enhance, than to leffen their malice. If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had fin: but now they have no cloak for their fin. If I had not done among them works, which none other man did, they had not had fin. But now have they both feen, and hated, both me and my Father, John xv. 22, 24. The doctrine I have

taught,

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