dence has called us, but in the manner of our obedience. They understood their vocation, and were obedient; but we overlook it, or take as much pains to disguise it, as they did to know it ; and when they constrain us to know it, and our conscience is constrained to discover its duty, we violate in practice those very maxims, we have been obliged to acknowledge in theory.

III. Human depravity has not only innumerable subtleties, but we even urge them. Sometimes, in order to excuse our deviations from those illustrious saints, we allege the superiority of their temptations over those, to which Providence has exposed us ; and sometimes, on the contrary, the superiority of the temptations, to which Heaven exposes us, over those to which they were exposed. Be it so; but after you have proved that they did not resist any temptation which we would not have resisted had we been in their situation; I will prove that we are not exposed to any such violent temptations over which they have not obtained the same victories which are required of us. What are the violent temptations with which you are captivated, and the violence of which you are accustomed to allege, in order to excuse your frequent falls ?

Are they temptations of poverty?-How difficult is it, when we want means to supply the pressing calls of nature not to be exercised with anxiety? How difficult is it, when we expect to perish with hunger to believe ourselves the favourites of that Providence which feeds the fowls of heaven, and clothes the lillies of the field, Matt. vi. 26, 28. And

when we are stripped of every comfort, an ordinary consequence of poverty, to find in communion with God a compensation for the friends of whom we may be deprived. The saints, magnified as models by St. Paul, have vanquished this temptation. See Job, that holy man, and once the richest man of all the East, possessing seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and servants without number:-see him stripped of all his wealth, and saying in that deplorable situation, Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? Job. ii. 10. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord, Job. i. 21. See David wandering from wilderness to wilderness; when my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up, Ps. xxvii. 10.

Are they temptations of prosperity?—The temptations of prosperity are incomparably more dangerous than those of adversity: at least, the objects of adversity remind us of our indigence and inability; and removing the means of gratification, the passions become either subdued or mortified. But prosperity presents us with a flattering portrait of ourselves; it prompts us to aspire at independence, and strengthens all our corrupt propensities by the facility of gratification. The saints, proposed as models by the Holy Spirit, have vanquished those temptations. See Abraham surrounded with riches; behold him ever mindful of that divine injunction, Walk before me, and be thou perfect, Gen. xvii. 1. See Job,--see him ever employing his wealth for him from whom he received it! See him preventing the abuse his

children might have made of his opulence, rising early in the morning after their feasts, and offering sacrifice on their account, it may be (said he) my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts, Job i. 5. See David on the throne; see him making a sacred use of his power. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord, Ps. ci. 6-8. See him laudably employed in resuming those pleasures retarded by the affairs of state. When he could not be so recollected by day, he was the more devout at night. He contemplated the marvels of his Maker, displayed by the night. Thus he expressed his sentiments, When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man, that thou visitest him, Psalın viii. 3, 4.

Are they temptations arising from the length of the course, which seems to have no end, and which requires the constant exercise of piety?-It is incomparably more easy to make a hasty sacrifice for religion, than to do it daily by degrees. Virtue is animated on great occasions, and collects the whole of its resources and strength; but how few have the resolution to sustain a long career. The saints whom St. Paul adduces as models, have vanquished this temptation. See Muses,-behold him, for forty tedious years in the wilderness, having to war with nature and the elements, with hunger and with thirst,

with his enemies and with his own people; and, what was harder still, having sometimes to contend with God himself, who was frequently on the point of exterminating the Israelites, committed to the care of this afflicted leader. But Moses triumphed over a vast course of difficulties; ever returning to duty, when the force of temptation, for the moment, had induced him to deviate; ever full of affection for that people, and ever employing, in their behalf, the influence he had over the bowels of a compassionate, God.

Are they temptations arising from persecution?— Nature shrinks not only at the idea of suffering, but also at the ingenious means which executioners have invented to extort abnegations. The saints, whom St. Paul adduces as models, have vanquished this class of temptations. Look only at the conduct of those noble martyrs, to whom he is desirous of calling the attention of the Hebrews. Look at the tragic but instructive history of that family, mentioned in the seventh chapter of the second book of Maccabees. The barbarous Antiochus, says the historian, seized on a mother and her seven sons, and resolved, by whips and scourges, to force them to eat swine's flesh. The eldest of the seven boldly asserted his readiness to die for his religion. The king, enraged with anger, commanded the iron-pans, and brazen caldrons, to be heated, and him who first spake to be flayed alive; his tongue cut out; the extremities of his limbs to be cut off, in presence of his mother and brethren; and his body to be roasted, while yet alive, in one of the burning pans. O my

God! what a sight for the persons so tenderly united to this martyr! But this scene, very far from shaking their constancy, contributed to its support. They animated one another to an heroic death; affirming that God would sustain their minds, and assuage their anguish. The second of those brothers, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth, sustained the same sufferings, and with the same support, in presence of their mother. What idea do you form of this woman, you timorous mothers, who hear me to-day? In what language, think you, did she address her sons? Do you think that nature triumphed over grace; that, after having offered to God six of her sons, she made efforts to save the seventh, that he might afford her consolation for the loss sustained in the other six? No, says the historian, she exhorted him to die like a martyr: Antiochus compelled her to present the seventh, that she might prevent his death. But she said, O my son, have pity upon me, that bare thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age, and endured the troubles of education. I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and know the Author of thy being. Fear not this tormentor; but being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren.

Perhaps the historian has embellished his heroes ; perhaps he has been more ambitious to astonish than to instruct; and to flatter the portrait, than to paint the original. The history of our own age confirms the past age: the history of our own tyrants,