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lament over our past miscarriages; we form many holy resolutions, many projects of a life more serious, more diligent more professional; we enter within ourselves, in order to ascertain the source of the evil, and to discover the secret propensities which have betrayed our vigilance, and facilitated our fall; we prepare, at a distance, previous precautions, and necessary measures, to prevent a fresh surprize: thus, we enter into our obligations fortified with new arms; we enter with less of that confidence, which always goes before a fall; but, at the same time, with greater security. The pilot, escaped from shipwreck, is more cautious in future; and warned, by the misfortunes which have befallen him, of the rocks on which he struck ; apprehensive of the danger, and trembling for his safety, he is, in proportion, active and anxious to avoid them. "Bring your ways only to remem"brance; see only how oft," in the discharge of your professional duties, "you have offended;" and you will perceive, not without surprize and sorrow, that the errors you discover in yourselves are too common among those, who are called to the holy ministry; and that the regret, and the change, produced by a frequent and serious examination, are not, alas! the general, and distinguishing, characteristics of the sacred profession. The greater part of those, to whom this examination is indispensable, finish their course as they had begun it. We have sometimes the consolation of seeing men, who, from being notorious sinners, become an example of regularity and piety, to their neigh

bourhood; but this is not so frequent among the clergy; what they once are, they are almost always.

II. But, although we should have been so happy as to fulfil our ministry in such a way as to edify the hearts, and improve the morals, of our several flocks, do we not feel within ourselves, that, by being constantly engaged in the service of the Church, the first fervor which devoted us to the ministry grows cool, that the holiness of our duties makes upon us, every day, still slighter impressions; and that we do but walk, with a feeble step, in the paths in which we at first ran, with a zeal so honourable to ourselves, and a celerity so beneficial to mankind?

This decrease of piety and fervor, observable in those who make the fullest proof of their ministry, is as a secret malady which undermines us, and which, by little and little, leads to decay. It is an evil, which, not shewing itself by visible and striking symptons, and, nevertheless, daily weakening our strength, is seldom opposed by any remedies sufficiently powerful to arrest its progress. Here skill has no other resource than to remove the patient into a purer air. Now it is, in withdrawing from the world, in retiring within ourselves, that we discover when our piety is languishing—when our zeal is growing cool-when our whole inward frame, being disordered, threatens us with decay. The longer we defer this self-examination, the more the evil gains ground; every thing around

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us encreases and exasperates it; the very observance of our sacred calling, far from rousing us from our supineness, is no other than a worn-out refuge, to which we have recourse, which, alas, instead of healing, aggravates the wound. A situation this beset with dangers; and it is still greater, because it does not impress terror, or awaken apprehension; we think the day of death at a distance; we comfort ourselves with certain desires of a more holy life, which sometimes overcome our lethargy, and leave us again to fall into it a moment afterwards. We think of ourselves what the disciples thought of Lazarus :-" Lord, if he sleep"eth he shall do well:" but our Lord, who sees us such as we really are, judges of us, perhaps, very differently. "Then said Jesus, unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." They are not heinous offences which we have the most to fear: a foundation of Religion, a virtuous education, an established reputation of uniform conduct, veneration for the holiness of our ministry, may all conduce to preserve us from them: what we have most to guard against is, that the spirit of piety, so essential to our sacred calling, may not become extinct : that we may not go to sleep, in a state insensible to the joys of Heaven, accompanied with apparent regularity, and devoid of genuine religion. We do not perceive in our life any notorious sin; and we do not, at the same time, perceive, that a life which is not founded in piety, is itsel sinful, in the eyes of God. In the hurry of the world, we see irregularities, from which we are

exempt; we, therefore, conclude, that God is satisfied with us, because men are, or, at least, that they, in reason, might be. We say to ourselves, that we are not, we thank God, like such and such of our brethren; this secret comparison is soothing to our mind; it, perhaps, flatters our pride; and, destitute, as we are, of that spirit of faith, of that warmth of zeal, by which we ought to be animated, self-love does not cease to call our morals irreprehensible, to present to us a phantom of virtue, which encreases our satisfaction, and encourages our confidence. Then, my Reverend Brethren, it is, that the Holy Spirit addresses us :"Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from thy lethar

gy, and Christ shall give thee light." Enter into yourselves, bring before your eyes the whole course of your ministry ;-reflection will suggest to you the degree of fervor, of piety, of charity, of disinterestedness, essential to the discharge of the duties of your sacred calling; you will then perceive what is the holiness God requires of you; you will look upon your apparent regularity, that appearance, that mere rind, of virtue, "as "filthy rags, and as an unclean thing." You will find yourselves in the presence of God, without light, and without life: the Almighty will speak unto your souls, and these dry bones, like those the Prophet saw, "shall come together at his “word,―O, ye dry bones, hear the word of the "Lord." You will become new men; you will feel yourselves, after a strict examination of your hearts, enflamed with a new fire; the Holy Spirit

will strengthen you against every prevailing example, and every dangerous allurement, which had heretofore undermined your virtue, and weakened your piety: the success of your exhortations will correspond to the new vital principle which dictated them you will see your flock awakened and renewed with yourselves; and the Blessed Spirit, influencing both Minister and people, will again declare," Behold, I make all things new!" What consolation to a Minister of the Gospel, to see the increase of the Word, in that portion of the Lord's field, which is committed to him, to see the souls of his hearers delivered from the tyranny of the devil, and the slavery of sin, and restored to him, who created and redeemed them! And, on the other hand, what an awful retrospect for a Pastor, who "is not dead while he liveth," when he perceives, that, during the course of his long ministry, he hath not withdrawn one soul from the ways of perdition! that he hath not corrected one vice, either general or personal, in his parish! that he hath not produced in it, any change! Will his life, irreproachable in the sight of men, comfort him, for having been useless in his sacred office? And may he not look for the cause of it in his own lukewarmness, in the coldness of his zeal, rather than in the depravity of his congregation? It was after our blessed Lord's departure from the wilderness, that he began his ministry; after withdrawing himself, from time to time, upon the mount to pray, that he continued it, and that he performed works, which no person before

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