very

cretion, and can never be attended with any good consequences. Were we ever so able to instruct, or were they ever so much in want of instruction, prudence would suggest a very different conduct. It would recommend to us all the honest arts of insinuation and address; it would oblige us to watch the fittest seasons and opportunities; or, perhaps, to content ourselves with the silent admonition of a good example. Or, were there nothing in the rank and condition of those we would work upon, to restrain us to this caution, we might even be required to shew a condescension to their prejudices and humours. The errors of men may sometimes be removed by arguing with them on their own mistaken principles; by allowing all that truth and reason will warrant to their opinions; by putting the fairest construction upon their designs; by hinting objections to their wrong tenets, instead of fiercely declaiming against them; above all, by testifying a sincere disposition to advance truth and goodness, without any indirect views to our own interest. Or, were all other considerations out of the case, we could never be excused from proceeding in the way of gentleness and civility, from treating them with due respect, and expressing the sincerest good-will to their

persons. Be their moral or religious defects what they will, we should hardly be wise; that is, we should take very improper methods of reclaiming them from either, if we reproved with bitterness, advised with insolence, or condemned with passion. In all addresses to mistaken or bad men, where our purpose is to inform or amend them, the gentlest applications are surely the best, because these excite no passion to counteract their virtue.

And now, at length, should it be asked who is that WISE CHRISTIAN whom the text designs and recommends to our imitation, we are able to furnish, at least, the outline of his character.

"HE is one who sets before him the great END and prize of his high calling; who, in his progress through the various stages of this life, keeps in constant view the immortal happiness which his religion holds out in prospect to him in another: who, in humble adoration of his God and Saviour, is content to wait the appointed season which is to crown his hopes and expectations; and, for the present, is sollicitous to work out his salvation with fear and reverence, by an earnest application of his

time and pains to those subservient duties, which are to qualify him for the enjoyment of Heaven; who subjects all the towering conceits of his understanding, to the doctrines of the Gospel, and the impetuous sallies of his will, to the precepts of it; who makes no audacious separation of what the wisdom of God hath joined together; but, whilst he adores the mysteries of his holy FAITH, walks on in the plain and humble path of moral OBEDIENCE. He is one, who thinks it not enough to rest in the mere MATTER of his duty, but performs it in such a MANNER as will render it most exemplary and efficacious. He knows it to be a great precept of his religion, to see, that his good be not evil spoken of. He would not disgrace the best cause in the world by the neglect of those decencies, which, as he observes, have sometimes the strange power to recommend the worst. The good he intends, therefore, is attempted in such a way, as is most BECOMING of himself; most SEASONABLE in respect of the opportunities which are offered to him; and most agreeable and PERSUASIVE to other men. In short, HE is one who, taking Prudence for his guide, and Innocence for his companion, thinks himself secure in these attendants; and therefore neglects no

decorum, which the best philosophy prescribes; no art, which the soundest policy suggests; and no address, which the politest manners recommend: and so, in the high emphatic sense of the words, approves himself a WISE MAN; wise unto that which is good, to all purposes in this world, as well as in a

better."

SERMON XVI.

PREACHED DECEMBER 1, 1765.

ROм. xvi. 19.

I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

IN considering the first part of this precept, I endeavoured to give some general description of Religious or CHRISTIAN WISDOM; both in respect of the END it has in view, and of the MEANS employed by it: I further exemplified some of those subordinate WAYS, in which the prudent application even of those means is seen and expressed: And all this, for the sake of those sincere, but over-zealous persons, who