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God; or who can think what the "will of the Lord is, except thou give

wisdom, and fend thy Holy Spirit "from above*?" Such gracious promifes are made, and are ready to be fulfilled to the retired Chriftian. Let but the pollutions and diftractions of the world be removed, and the wifdom which "is firft pure," and then "peaceable," will enter in. To receive the law, Mofes was called away from the congregation to the top of the mount. Ezekiel beheld the vifions of God, while a folitary captive upon the banks of Chebar. Daniel was informed concerning the reftoration of Jerufalem, and the advent of Messiah, on the evening of a day dedicated to retirement, for the pur

* Wifd. ix. 4.

2

pofes

poses of fafting and prayer.

St.

John was an exile in the defolate Patmos, when the glorious fcenes defcribed in the book of Revelation were made to pass before him, and he was enabled to extend his view, through all the different revolutions of empires, and periods of the church, to the end of time. And although we no more look for vifions and revelations from heaven, yet from thence we expect, according to the moft fure promife of our Mafter, the gift of the Spirit, to bless and profper us in our studies, to open to us the fcriptures, and our understandings, that we may understand them. The fame Spirit that gave the word, giveth likewise the interpretation thereof. And the latter, as well as the former,

is best received in folitude, which appears to be thus admirably calculated for the attainment of wisdom, as it requireth ftudy and attention, a dif paffionate and unprejudiced mind, and that illumination which is from on high.

SIN, in the language of fcripture, is ftyled folly, to intimate to us, that true wisdom and holiness are infeparable companions. That, therefore, ' which conduceth to the acquifition of one, can never bear an unfavourable afpect towards the other, and folitude will be found the best nurfe of fancity, more particularly as it confifteth in the exercife of mortification.

THIS is a work which no man can fet about, till he knoweth what thofe failings

failings are, to which he is fubject. And fuch is the power of felf-love, that the perfon concerned is generally the laft who comes to a knowlege of this moft important point. If neither the fidelity of his friends nor the malice of his enemies let him into the fecret, there is only a third way in which it is poffible for him to become mafter of it, which is felfexamination, conftantly, fincerely, and thoroughly practifed. And this requireth ftated feafons of retirement; for want of which, we fee thofe, who are engaged in a circle of bufiuefs, or pleasures, living entire ftrangers to themselves and their own infirmities, though intimately acquainted with the follies and foibles of all around them. "In the night," the

pfalmift tells us, he communed with his own heart, and "his fpirit made "diligent fearch*." Then filence and folitude afforded him an opportunity of fcrutinizing the tempers of his foul, of difcovering the maladies to which he was inclined, and of applying the proper remedies to each.

THAT medicines may be administered with fuccefs, it is neceffary to cut off the provifions, which nourish and increase the diforder, The world, in the cafe before us, is full of fuch provifions; and therefore the patient muft withdraw, for a while, from the influence of it's temptations. "Where no wood is, the fire goeth "out." Remove the object, and * Pf. lxxvii. 6,

Prov. xxvi. 20.

the