sure and profit are agreeably mixed together, whence you may learn the way to everlasting peace; that poverty of spirit which is the only true riches, that purity of heart which is our greatest beauty, and that inexpressible satisfaction which attends the exercise of charity, humility, and meekness! When your minds are stored and adorned with these graces, they will enjoy the most pleasant tranquillity, even amidst the noise and tumults of this present life; and you will be, to use the words of Tertulian, candidates for eternity; a title infinitely more glorious and sublime than what has been this day conferred upon you. And that great and last day, which is so much dreaded by the slaves of this present world, will be the most happy and auspicious to you; as it will deliver you from a dark, dismal prison, and place you in the regions of the most full and marvellous light.

Let us pray.

Most exalted God, who hast alone created, and dost govern this whole frame, and all the inhabitants thereof, visible and invisible, whose name is alone wonderful, and to be celebrated with the highest praise, as it is indeed above all praise and admiration. Let the heavens, the earth, and all the elements, praise Thee. Let darkness, light, all the returns of days and years, and all the varieties and vicissitudes of things, praise Thee. Let the angels praise Thee, the archangels, and all the blessed court of heaven, whose very happiness it is, that they are constantly employed in celebrating Thy praises. We confess, O Lord, that we are of all creatures the most unworthy to praise Thee, yet, of all others, we are under the greatest obligations to do it: nay, the more unworthy we are, our obligation is so much the greater. From this duty, however unqualified we may be, we can by no means abstain, nor, indeed, ought we. Let our souls bless Thee, and all that is within us praise Thy holy name, who forgivest all our sins, and healest all our diseases, who deliverest our souls from destruction, and crownest them with bounty and tender mercies. Thou

searchest the heart, O Lord, and perfectly knowest the most intimate recesses of it: reject not those prayers which Thou perceivest to be the voice and the wishes of the heart. Now, it is the great request of our hearts, unless they always deceive us, that they may be weaned from all earthly and perishing enjoyments; and if there is any thing to which they cleave with more than ordinary force, may they be pulled away from it by Thy Almighty hand, that they may be joined to Thee for ever in an inseparable marriage-covenant. And in our own behalf, we have nothing more to ask. We only add, in behalf of Thy Church, that it may be protected under the shadow of Thy wings, and every where, throughout the world, watered by Thy heavenly dew, that the spirit and heat of worldly hatred against it may be cooled, and its intestine divisions, whereby it is much more grievously scorched, extinguished. Bless this Nation, this City, and this University, in which we beg thou wouldst be pleased to reside, as in a garden dedicated to Thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

EXHORTATION II.

WOULD you have me to speak the truth with freedom and brevity? The whole world is a kind of stage, and its inhabitants mere actors. As to this little farce of yours, it is now very near a conclusion, and you are upon the point of applying to the spectators for their applause. Should any superciliously decline paying this small tribute, [egavov], you surely may, with great ease, retort their contempt upon themselves, merely by saying, Let your severity fall heavy on those who admire their own performances; as to this affair of ours, we know it is nothing at all. For I will not allow myself to doubt but you are very sensible, that there is indeed nothing in it.

It would, to be sure, be very improper, especially as the

evening approaches, to detain you, and my other hearers, with a long and tedious discourse, when you are already more than enough fatigued, and almost quite tired out with hearing. I shall therefore only put you in mind of one thing, and that in a few words. Let not this solemn toy [unarya], however agreeable to youthful minds, so far impose upon you, as to set you a dreaming of great advantages and pleasures to be met with in this new period of life you are entering upon. Look round you, if you please, and take a near and exact survey of all the different stations of life that are set before you. If you enter upon any of the stations of active life, what is this but jumping into a bush of thorns, where you can have no hope of enjoying quiet, and yet cannot easily get out again? But if you rather choose to enter upon some new branch of science, alas! what a small measure of knowledge is to be thus obtained, with what vast labour is even that little to be purchased, and how often, after immense toil and difficulty, will it be found, that Truth is still at a distance, and not yet extracted out of the well*. We indeed believe that the soul breathed into man, when he was first made, was pure, full of light, and every way worthy of its Divine original. But ah! the Father of mankind, how soon, and how much was he changed from what he was at first! He foolishly gave ear to the fatal seducer, and that very moment was seized upon by death, whereby he at once lost his purity, his light, or truth, and, together with himself, ruined us also.

Now, since that period, what do you commonly meet with among men of wisdom and learning, as they would wish to be accounted, but fighting and bickering in the dark? And while they dispute, with the greatest heat, but at random, concerning the Truth, that Truth escapes out of their hands, and instead of it, both parties put up with vain shadows or phantoms of it, and, according to the proverb, embrace a cloud instead of Juno.

But since we are forced to own, that even the most con

* Ἐκ του βυθού ή αληθεια?

temptible and minutest things in nature, often put all our philosophical subtlety to a nonplus, what ignorance and foolish presumption is it for us to aim at ransacking the most hidden recesses of Divine things, and boldly attempt to scan the Divine decrees, and the other most profound mysteries of religion, by the imperfect and scanty measures of our understandings.! Whither would the presumption of man hurry him, while it prompts him to pry into every secret and hidden thing, and leave nothing at all unattempted!

As for you, young gentlemen, especially those of you that intend to devote yourselves to theological studies, it is my earnest advice and request to you, that you fly far from that infectious curiosity which would lead you into the depths of that controversial, contentious theology, which, if any doctrine at all deserves the name, may be truly termed, science falsely so called. And that you may not, in this respect, be imposed upon by the common reputation of acuteness and learning, I confidently affirm, that to understand and be master of those trifling disputes that prevail in the schools, is an evidence of a very mean understanding; while, on the contrary, it is an argument of a genius truly great, entirely to slight and despise them, and to walk in the light of pure and peaceable truth, which is far above the dark and cloudy region of controversial disputes. But you will say, It is necessary, in order to the defence of truth, to oppose errors, and blunt the weapons of sophists. Be it so; but our disputes ought to be managed with few words, for naked truth is most effectual for its own defence, and when it is once well understood, its natural light dispels all the darkness of error. For all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light, saith the Apostle. Your favourite philosopher has also told us, "That what is straight, discovers both rectitude and obliquity." And Clemens Alexandrinus has very justly observed, "That the ancient philosophers were not greatly disposed to disputes or doubting; but the latter philosophers among the Greeks, out of a vain desire to enhance their reputation, engaged so far in

wrangling and contention, that their works became quite useless and trifling *."

There is but one useful controversy or dispute, one sort of war, most noble in its nature, and most worthy of a Christian, and this, not to be carried on against enemies at a great distance, but such as are bred within our own breasts: against those, it is most reasonable to wage an endless war, and them it is our duty to persecute to death. Let us all, children, young men, and old, exert ourselves vigorously in this warfare. Let our vices die before us, that death may not find us indolent, defiled, and wallowing in the mire; for then it will be most truly, and to our great misery, death to us: whereas, to those sanctified souls who are conformed to Christ, and conquerors by his means, it rather is to be called life, as it delivers them from their wanderings and vices, from all kinds of evils, and from that death which is final and eternal.

Let us pray.

ETERNAL GOD, who art constantly adored by thrones and powers, by seraphims and cherubims, we confess that Thou art most worthy to be praised; but we of all others, are the most unworthy to be employed in shewing forth Thy praise. How can polluted bodies, and impure souls, which, taken together, are nothing but mere sinks of sin, praise Thee, the pure and holy Majesty of heaven? Yet, how can these bodies which Thou hast wonderfully formed, and these souls which Thou hast inspired, which owe entirely to Thine unmerited favour, that they are, all that they possess, and all they hope for, forbear praising Thee, their wise and bountiful Creator and Father? Let our souls, therefore, and all that is within us, bless Thy holy name: yea, let all our bones say, O Lord, who is like unto Thee; who is like unto Thee? Far be it, most

all

* Ότι οι παλαιότατοι των φιλοσοφῶν οὐδέ ἐπὶ τὸ αμοιβητεῖν καὶ ἀπορεῖν ἐφέροντο ἀλλ ̓ οἱ τῶν παρ ̓ ἕλλησι νεώτεροι, ὑπό φιλοτιμίας κενῆς καὶ ἁτελοῦς, ελεγκτικῶς ἁμα καὶ ἑριστικῶς, εις τὴν ἄχρηστον ἐξαγονται φλυαρίαν.