The obligations which more immediately terminate on himself, and which may therefore be styled the duties which he owes himself, may be classed under the heads of moderation and contentment, fortitude and a diligent attention to the formation of good habits, and prudence, or a suitable regard to his own happiness: we shall also notice some of the evils opposed to these.

CHAPTER II.

ON MODERATION.

MODERATION and contentment are in themselves nearly allied, involving the same views, and implying the exercise of the same virtuous dispositions and habits. The person who is truly temperate, from a practical knowledge of the will of God in reference to the chief ends of his being, is contented with the divine dispensations, persuaded that they are all directed by infinite wisdom and benevolence, and shall issue in great and eternal good. The chief elements of his happiness are within, in peace of conscience, the favour of God, and in the hope of everlasting felicity; he is therefore freed from the pain, and disappointment, and misery, of pursuing and substituting shadows for realities, and of repining at the difficulties and trials incident to his lot.

The duty of temperance or moderation is strongly recommended to us by the light of nature; and this recommendation revelation enforces by the weight of

its authority. It enjoins its disciples to let their moderation be known unto all men; to avoid anxiety for the provision of the future; to be painfully solicitous for nothing; but to live in the exercise of trust in God; and to have continual recourse to Him by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving.

Temptations to the neglect of this duty are numerous. There are many tendencies in human nature which would lead us to overlook its fulfilment. There are those desires which moralists term acquired, whose operation is often at variance with the dictates and the rules of temperance. The desire of wealth attaches an undue value to riches, and presents to our view the gaudiness and pomp of earthly grandeur, as highly conducive, if not essential, to a great share of enjoyment. We have imbibed, from our earliest years, prejudices and prepossessions which have gradually acquired strength and vigour from the working of passion within, and from the habitual pursuits of vanity from without, till at a more mature period of life their influence is so completely confirmed, as to bias and pervert the affections and judgment, and turn away the heart from the truth.

If this remark be true, to no inconsiderable extent, of mankind in general, how unquestionably is it so of him who has been nursed in the lap of luxury—whose wishes were no sooner formed than gratified-who has grown up, surrounded by all the symbols of wealth and fashion, and who is led by the circumstances of his lot, almost without reflection, to believe that life is not worth the possession unaccompanied with these its adventitious decorations. How natural for him is VOL. II.

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it to think that he is in the pursuit of happiness when he is only in the pursuit of the outward form with which, in his estimation, it is indissolubly connected; and to imagine that, in attaining the honours and the wealth of the world, he is securing for himself some of the surest and most copious sources of happiness. It is not till much has been learned and suffered that such a person is practically convinced of the inutility of all external circumstances in communicating real satisfaction; and that he has recourse to those permanent sources of enjoyment which are so much within the reach of all, but which all are so prone to overlook.

My meaning is not, that either reason or revelation teaches us that all external circumstances are alike in reference to our nature, or are equally favourable to happiness-that we can possess the same mental tranquillity in extreme indigence as in comparative abundance,-under the pressure of sickness and of sufferings, as in the full flow and vigour of health. It becomes us thankfully to receive, and temperately to use lawful means to secure and to enjoy the things which are necessary for our present sustenance and comfort; and we act sinfully when we attach to them a value which they do not possess, and pursue them with the concern and the estimation due to that which constitutes our highest good.

The obligation to cultivate the habit, and practice the duty of temperance and contentment, implies the existence and operation of that powerful principle of our nature which leads all men to seek their own happiness; since one of the grounds on which we are

bound to be moderate in all things is the close connexion between moderation and our present and ultimate good. It is not because there are any indisposed to pursue happiness that so many complain of the want of it; but because many, either from ignorance or from the absence of self-government, neglect the cultivation of that religious and moral cxcellency in connexion with which it can be attained; and who, while they eagerly grasp at fancied enjoyments precipitate themselves into absolute and irremediable woe. He who is intimately acquainted with the weaknesses of our frame, who has formed it susceptible of so much enjoyment, who has given us laws by which to regulate our powers and capacities, has commanded us to live soberly, and righteously, and godly, to be so temperate in the use of things lawful, and in the exercise of our desires and affections, that our moderation may be seen of all men. This moderation is to be used in reference to bodily enjoyments; to sorrow for the loss of friends or of property; and to the indulgence of the desires and affections of the mind.

First, we are to exercise temperance in our bodily gratifications. Much of what we owe to ourselves as rational and accountable beings is included in this view of moderation; and as there is no part of our duty of more difficult performance, so there is none that requires more continued self-denial in its practice. The mere gratification of those appetites which for wise and beneficent ends are connected with our bodily frame, cannot in itself, and apart from other considerations, be either praise or blame worthy,

virtuous or vicious.

But, as we are endowed with

these appetites in common with the inferior animals, it is obviously a degradation of our nature, as well as a violation of the authority of God and of our conscience, to seek any principal share of our happiness in their indulgence. To check these tendencies when they would go beyond the boundary which reason and revelation have fixed, to shun even the enticements of pleasure lest they should tempt us to deviate from the onward path of duty, and successfully to combat the influence of evil company and example,-is the triumph of religion over the turbulent desires of human nature. That this triumph may be attained, it is necessary to be temperate in the lawful use of bodily gratification; and never to go to the extreme point, lest we should be tempted at any time to go beyond it.

Secondly, temperance or self-government implies moderation in the indulgence of sorrow on account of the loss of friends or of property. Reason indeed suggests this. No extreme of sorrow can be of avail in restoring to us the blessings of which by the providence of God we are deprived; and it becomes us, even on this ground, to restrain those painful emotions which bereavements naturally awaken. But christianity enforces this duty on higher grounds, and by the most persuasive and powerful motives. It was while the believers of Philippi were enduring many evils from their pagan relatives, who injured their persons and property, that they were reminded by apostolic authority of the duty of moderation. We have the means of knowing that they and their brethren in the faith were exemplary in its practice. For they endured a