intrusion, or who would not cordially rejoice in such co-operation. V. Again: A retired man, if pious, may be useful, and useful to his fellow-creatures in general, by his private prayers. There are many passages of scripture from which may be inferred the efficacy of individual intercession. I shall only point to a few. At the intreaty of Abraham, Sodom would have been spared, had ten righteous men been found in it *. The whole nation of Israel was preserved more than once from destruction upon the intercession of Moses. In the prophet Ezekiel we read: The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath *. To which I shall only add another passage from the New Testament: Elias, it is said, was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit †. And though it must at once be acknowledged, that no one at present living can be compared with Abraham, or Moses, or Elias, yet still it remains an unalterable truth, that the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much much to ; --his own, and much to the advantage of those around him; and, in conjunction with the prayers of other good men, may so far avail, (whatever a narrow and vain philosophy may suggest to the con trary,) as even to prevent or mitigate public judgments, to turn the scale of victory, or to protract the date of a declining empire. VI. Lastly, a retired man may be useful to others by his example. The world wants repose; and the exhibition of a virtuous and happy retirement has a tendency to quiet its agitation. It shews, that a simple mode of life is sufficient for every purpose of nature or rational enjoyment, and that there is no need to resort to the court or the city, to camps or senates, to theatres or fashionable assemblies, either for occupation or amusement. Men take too much pains to be happy; they con struct for this end operose and complex engines, which are difficult to frame, and more difficult to keep in order; they imagine that some great thing (if I may allude to an ancient story in scripture *,) is necessary for the accomplishment of * 2 Kings, v. 13. their object, though there is need only to wash and be clean; nor is there any lesson which better deserves their study, than what is held out to them in a life of unambitious and virtuous retreat. In one or more of these ways may a retired man be a public blessing; and though it is possible that, after all his endeavours, the amount of his service. to others may be but little, (which indeed may be the case of any man in any situation,) he may still be of the highest service. to himself. In his solitary walks and meditations he may acquire and strengthen a habit of pious recollection, and cultivate an acquaintance with God, and with his own nearest concerns. Thus, intent upon a better world, and little anxious about the present (by which perhaps he is neglected or forgotten), he will grow every day more disposed to bid it heartily farewell, in the spirit of the following lines of Seneca, as we find them happily rendered by Andrew Marvel : Climb at court for me that will, Tott'ring favour's pinnacle, All I wish is to lie still. Settled in some secret nest, In calm quiet let me rest; Thus, when, without noise, unknown, I have liv'd out all my span, * Stet quicunque volet potens Me dulcis saturet quies. Leni perfruar otio. Qui notus nimis omnibus, |