and briers, if ever they expect to arrive happily at their journey's end.And in courfe,-during this disastrous pilgrimage, it is our duty fo to renounce the world, and abftract ourselves from it, as neither to interfere with its interests, or tafte any of the pleasures, or any of the enjoyments of this life.

Nor has this been confined merely to fpeculation, but has frequently been extended to practice, as is plain, not only from the lives of many legendary faints and hermits,-whofe chief commendation feems to have been, "That they fled unnaturally from all commerce with their fellow-creatures, and then mortified, and piously-half starved themselves to death;"-but likewife from the many auftere and fantastic orders which we see in the Romish church, which have all owed their origin and establishment to the fame idle and extravagant opinion.

Nor is it to be doubted, but the affectation of fomething like it in our Methodists, when they defcant upon the

neceflity of alienating themfelves from the world, and felling all that they have,

is not to be afcribed to the fame miftaken enthufiaftic principle, which would cast so black a fhade upon religion, as if the kind Author of it had created us on purpose to go mourning, all our lives long, in fack-cloth and ashes,and fent us into the world, as fo many faint-errants, in queft of adventures full of forrow and affliction.

Strange force of enthusiasm !—and yet not altogether unaccountable.-For what opinion was there ever so odd, or action fo extravagant, which has not, at one time or other, been produced by ignorance,conceit,- melancholy; a mixture of devotion, with an ill concurrence of air and diet, operating together in the fame perfon.-When the minds of men happen to be thus unfortunately prepared, whatever groundlefs doctrine rifes up, and fettles itself strongly upon their fancies, has generally the ill-luck to be interpreted as an illumination from the fpirit of GOD;-and

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whatever ftrange action they find in themselves a strong inclination to do,— that impulse is concluded to be a call from heaven; and confequently,-that they cannot err in executing it.

If this, or fome fuch account, was not to be admitted, how is it poffible to be conceived that chriftianity, which breathed out nothing but peace and comfort to mankind, which profeffedly took off the feverities of the Jewish law, and was given us in the spirit of meekness, to ease our fhoulders of a burden which was too heavy for us ;that this religion, fo kindly calculated for the ease and tranquillity of man, which enjoins nothing but what is fuitable to his nature, fhould be fo mifunderftood;-or that it should ever be fupposed, that he who is infinitely happy, could envy us our enjoyments;-or that a Being infinitely kind, would grudge a mournful paffenger a little rest and refreshment, to support his fpirits through a weary pilgrimage ;-or that he should call him to an account here

after, because, in his way, he had hastily fnatched at fome fugacious and innocent pleasures, till he was fuffered to take up his final repofe.-This is no improbable account, and the many invitations we find in Scripture to a grateful enjoyment of the bleffings and advantages of life, make it evident.The apostle tells us in the text,―That GOD's commandments are not grievous. -He has pleasure in the prosperity of his people, and wills not that they fhould turn tyrants and executioners upon their minds or bodies, and inflict pains and penalties on them to no end or purpose:-That he has propofed peace and plenty, joy and victory, as the encouragement and portion of his fervants; thereby inftructing us,-that our virtue is not neceffarily endangered by the fruition of outward things;but that temporal bleffings and advantages, instead of extinguishing, more naturally kindle our love and gratitude to GOD, before whom it is no way inconfiftent both to worship and rejoice,

If this was not fo, why, you'll fay, does God seem to have made fuch provifion for our happiness?-Why has he given us fo many powers and faculties for enjoyment, and adapted fo many objects to gratify and entertain them?Some of which he has created fo fair,with fuch wonderful beauty, and has formed them fo exquifitely for this end, -that they have power, for a time, to charm away the fenfe of pain,-to cheer up the dejected heart under poverty and fickness, and make it go and remember its miferies no more.-Can all this, you'll fay, be reconciled to GOD's wif dom, which does nothing in vain ;—or can it be accounted for on any other fuppofition, but that the author of our Being, who has given us all things richly to enjoy, wills us a comfortable existence even here, and feems moreover fo evidently to have ordered things with a view to this, that the ways which lead to our future happiness, when rightly understood, he has made to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace?