Should it here be inquired, how it may be known whether we have passed the confines? the question is both difficult and important, and can only be answered in very general terms, as may appear when it is considered, that the same external conduct may arise from very different principles, and that the actual principles from whence it proceeds are very liable to be mistaken and unduly estimated. What then it concerns us to do, after looking up to heaven for illumination, is to call ourselves to a strict account, and to examine whether our sorrow for sin flows chiefly from a sense of its own native malignity and turpitude, and from the dishonour it casts upon God, in every relation he bears towards us, as our creator, ruler, and benefactor; whether our profession of love to God is in conjunction with deep reverence and humility, and an habitual application for pardon and assistance through a mediator; and whether there is any flaw in our general conduct which implies a want of loyal subjection to the divine go

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vernment.

When this is done, should we still remain in doubt, it may be found our wisest course, instead of pursuing farther the investigation with unprofitable anxiety, to keep on with quiet diligence in our Christian journey, till by a gradual progression we are advanced so far into the interior of the kingdom of God, as to put it beyond all reasonable doubt that we belong to the number of its true subjects.

He that believeth, saith the prophet, does not make haste*. Exempt from that eagerness to which nature is always prone, he does not seek to snatch the favours of heaven, or to pluck the fruits of paradise before their maturity; he does not run precipitately from sermon to sermon, or from one religious friend to another, nor dwell for ever with anxious retrospection on his past experience, from an impatient desire of present comfort, or to obtain evi

Isaiah, xxviii. 16.

dence of his spiritual safety; which is indeed a satisfaction devoutly to be wished, and that every one who is seriously concerned for his salvation will seek with diligence, but which is likely to be soonest found by him who is more solicitous to be right, than to know he is so.

I shall here add nothing to what has been offered in the former part of this section, to evince the expediency of retirement for the purpose of self-knowledge. I shall rather close with a few remarks to shew, by way of caution, that when a seclusion from society is carried beyond certain limits, it is so far from answering the purpose now mentioned, that it acquires another operation, and rather tends to conceal a man from himself, both in respect to his vices and his virtues, his incapacitics. and his abilities.

First, let it be observed, that in a life of much abstraction we are in danger of mis

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taking speculative approbation for practical principle. In the calm of retreat, when the passions have usually less power to warp or obscure the judgment, the obligations of virtue may be acknowledged, and its beauty be contemplated with a kind of enthusiastic admiration, till some occasion of real business discovers the illusion. It is then we often experience, that a vast difference subsists between an ideal elevation of mind and a substantial principle of conduct, and that our fine notions and sentimental feelings are too shadowy and feeble to stand the shock of the interests and competitions of life.

The recluse, therefore, who would duly estimate his virtues and capacities, must learn to reduce them to their practical value. He must not presume that his supposed wisdom will extricate him as easily from real as from imaginary difficulties, or that his virtues will acquit themselves as successfully under trials when they are present and actual, as while

they were yet distant, and existed only in contemplation. The speculative hero may prove a coward in the hour of danger; and the sage philosopher, who can discourse in the most profound manner of human life in the shade, may fail egregiously in the discharge of its active duties.

Considerations of this nature may serve to repress the vanity of retired men, who merely on ideal grounds are apt to give themselves credit for qualities, of which upon trial they would be found either entirely destitute, or very slenderly provided; who are ready, for instance, to imagine that they are humble, only because they are great admirers of humility; or that they are candid and liberal, because they are lavish in their commendation of those qualities; or that they are little less than heroes, because they are struck with the contemplation of whatever is brave and

generous.