be

character; and tho' not endowed with any knowledge or virtue,ftill not pofitively erroneous, vitiated, or morally corrupted: With the truth and juftness of which fuppofition, I am not now concerned. But you cannot even fuppofe a perfon that is come to years, fo as to be a moral agent, in fuch a middle state as this, betwixt knowledge and error, good and evil difpofitions. If fuch a perfon, tho' but a young man, is destitute of wisdom, virtue, and a right turn of mind, he is certainly and pofitively erroneous, foolish, vicious, or wrongly difpofed. Whatever may imagined refpecting the foul of an infant; yet the foul of fuch a moral agent, cannot be conceived destitute of all thought and fentiment, of all opinion and principles; and if it is not under the influence of fuch as are true and right, virtuous and good; it must of course be defiled, corrupted and depraved by fuch as are erroneous and vicious; as was faid before. So that tho' I just now compared a perfon, who is apparently fober or virtuous, but without fincerity, without good principle, to a beautiful temple in which no Deity refides; it now feems that fuch a one may, with far more propriety, be likened to a "whited

fepulchre, which indeed appears beautiful out"ward, but is within full of dead mens bones, "and of all uncleannefs". †

Now, if the very "mind and confcience are thus defiled", thus under the influence of error, of wrong difpofitions and affections; furely you cannot think fuch a perfon "fober-mined", whatever

Mat, 23. 37.

whatever his external appearance may be. Ler me just add here, that tho', in many characters, there is fuch a strange mixture of wisdom and folly, virtue and vice, fincerity and hypocrify, that it is next to impoffible for any mortal to determine, whether the good or the bad qualities predominate, fo as to conflitute the general character; yet doubtlefs, either the former or the latter actually do fo in every man. For otherwife, there would be a moral agent without any moral character!-- unlefs this can be justly accounted one -That he is neither wife nor foolish, virtuous nor vicious, good nor bad, but fomething, no one can tell what, between both: Which, to be fure, will not be eafily admitted even as a fuppofeable cafe or fact, by thofe that have given their attention to the important subject of morals and religion.

BUT tho' it is fuggefted by the very expreffion in the text, that the mind itfelf is the feat of virtue, wisdom or fobriety, as was faid before yet you are not to imagine that when you are exhorted to be fober-minded, this exhortation refpects your minds, or inner man only; or,that it has no reference to your outward behaviour. 'There is an external fobriety of the manners, as well as an internal one of the mind; tho' the latter is, indeed, the firft to be confidered and regarded. But the mind being fet right, or duly informed and difpofed; your outward actions and converfation are alfo to be under a proper regulation; fuch as correfponds to a fober mind. Yea, farther, if your minds are endowed with

D 4

true

true wisdom or fobriety, your outward conduct will, without doubt, be fober and regular alfo. These things cannot well be feparated even in imagination. The former of them infers the latter; though the latter of them does not, at least not fo neceffarily, infer the former. For we may much more easily conceive of a perfon's having the external appearance of virtue and fobriety in his behaviour, without the reality of it in his mind, than we can, on the other hand, conceive of his being really wife, or fober-minded, and yet commonly acting foolishly and viciously. The former is not an impoffibility; but the latter is fo, even in nature. There being, therefore, such a clofe and manifeft connection betwixt fobriety of mind, and of converfation, both which are neceffary to constitute a truly good character ; the exhortation which we are confidering, must be fuppofed to refpect and comprehend both; the former of them, indeed, primarily, and most directly, and the latter of them indirectly, or confequentially; but yet no lefs truly and certainly than it does the other, the fobriety of the mind.

IT fhould be further obferved, that there are not, properly fpeaking, two or more different kinds of true fobriety, wisdom or religion; one for the old, another for the middle-aged, and a third for the young; or one for male, and another for female: But there is one kind of religion, wisdom or fobriety for all; even as there is but one God, one Lord, one faith, one hope of our calling; one general rule, or manner of conversation, prescribed for all. There are, in

deed,

deed, fome peculiar obligations and: duties refulting from our refpective relations and circumftances in life. There are certain things incumbent upon the aged, which are not fo, upon the young; at least not in the fame degree : As, on the other hand, there are fome, to which youth are more especially obliged; and fome follies,indifcretions and vices, which they need more particularly to be warned againft. But these are no more than circumftantial differences. True fobriety, wisdom or religion, is ftill effentially one and the fame thing, not only in old and young, but in male and female, bond and free; the particular duties which are proper and peculiar to thefe states or conditions refpectively, making no effential difference. As a man in health may in reafon be bound to do fome things which a fick one is not, and vice verfà; or as a man in civil office and authority may be bound to do fome things which a man in a private capacity is not obliged to do, yea, cannot do lawfully or innocently; and yet a truly wife and fober man is of the fame religion both in health and sickness, and whether he fuftains a public, or only a private character So the old and the young, male and female, the great and fmall, all perfons in general, are under obligation to be of the fame religion, effentially confidered, notwithstanding fome differences in their respective duties, arifing out of their particular relations and circumstances in life. And the fame spirit of truth, of virtue and wisdom, actually refides, operates in, and actuates them all, if they are truly fober-minded.

Now,

Now, that fobriety of mind to which young men are to be exhorted, is unquestionably a religious fobriety; founded in a due regard to almighty God; conformable to the dictates of right reafon, and fuch as all perfons in general, of whatever age or condition, are under obligation to; and including, moreover, whatever particular duties are, either exclufively, or more ef pecially, incumbent upon the young. It cannot, furely, be fuppofed that the apoftle, in the text, intended any thing fhort of a truly religious, pious, or godly fobriety of mind; as was juft now intimated. And there is the more reafon for particularly obferving this to you; because there is fomething that often paffes in the world under the name of fobriety,which,tho' really implied and comprehended therein, and therefore good and commendable in its place, does yet by no means come up to the full and proper idea hereof; but is effentially defective, being without any piety at bottom.

THIS matter deferves to be more particularly frated and explained. We fometimes fpeak of fobriety particularly in oppofition to intemperance in eating and drinking; and when we mention any one as a fober man, we mean, perhaps, no more than that he is free from thefe grofs and fhameful vices. Sometimes by a fober man, we mean only one that is not addicted to leud, lafcivious practices. Sometimes by a fober man, we mean no more than one who is externally grave and folid, in contradiftinction from a light, airy and fantastic one. Sometimes we ufe the

fame