more easily for such preparation. In the mean while, how many vexations, that harass and distract the greater part of your sex, will be thus obviated by you!

In truth, most of the grievances complained of by mortals are self-created. They proceed from that fondness of fancy which gives consequence to trifles, or from those gusts of passion which produce agitation without cause. But, next to the power of religion, can you imagine any means of avoiding both, so probable as the wise and calm pursuits to which I would now persuade you? Permit me, my much loved hearers, to succeed. Defer not,

by the cultivation of your minds, as well as hearts, to lay in a store of enjoyment and comfort, such as you can repair to in secret, when all abroad is unsolacing and insipid.

Every thing external is hastening to change and dissolution. You yourselves are gliding insensibly down the current of time. You are on your passage to eternity; and can you bear the thoughts of resigning a passage as important as it is short, to the blind impulse of chance, caprice, and ignorance? Or suppose you are so far careful of consequences, as to secure a safe arrival; can ye, like illiterate and incurious mariners, sailing by some beautiful coast, be satisfied to hurry along without attending to the various prospects and numerous objects which Nature and Art have spread out before you ; or without taking advantage of the best assistance you can find on your voyage, to improve in whatever is instructive, ornamental, and praiseworthy? Have ye forgotten that, when landed on the blissful shore, your felicity will bear no inconsiderable proportion to your present attainments in knowledge; that the most enlarged understandings,

where the dispositions have been of a piece, will be rewarded by the noblest discoveries; in short, that they who shine now with the fairest lights of wisdom shall, like the more distinguished stars of heaven, be crowned hereafter with superior splendour ?

SERMON IX.

ON FEMALE PIETY.

1 TIM. i. 10.

-Which becometh women professing Godliness,

PROV. xxxi. 30.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, She shall be praised.

THE frailty of women has been frequently atopic of trumphant declamation. On this subject much unkind wit has been displayed; and many a dull sarcasm is daily added, and circulated with an air of conscious satisfaction. Hardly can one go into a company of men, where licentiousness of tongue passes for freedom of conversation, without hearing the poor women abused for their worthlessness, or weakness, or both. But supposing them particularly frail, is it noble to exult over them on that account, and in their absence too, when they have not an opportunity of defending themselves? Should not the strong rather pity and support the weak? Yet after all, how does it appear that any singular strength of resolution belongs to our sex, or that yours stand chargeable with peculiar infirmity?

The loss of virtue is, no doubt, often followed with extreme depravity in women. But is not the

same thing to be seen among men; although it is not remarked with the same attention, or censured with equal rigour? If many unhappy females run into such "excess of riot, and superfluity of naughti66 ness,' as seems to justify the observation, that there is nothing so profligate as a vicious woman; may it not be frequently imputed to their being driven almost to a state of despair? Forsaken as they are by the wretches that ruined them, abandoned by their relations, if any they have, commonly dreading the scorn of their own sex, and often too little considered by the virtuous part of ours; what can be expected, in general, from creatures who have put off the modesty of nature, and are propelled by evil habits, co-operating often with base associates, and bitter poverty? Do I then plead the cause of vice? God forbid. But I cannot endure that want of candour which would aggravate the guilt and misery of beings, who to us should be objects of so much compassion; I say to Us, of whom many are the first authors of this very guilt and misery, while the rest are all likewise subject to go astray.

Here I shall probably be asked, Does not the apostle Peter expressly style the woman the weaker vessel ? He does; but in the same sense that those vessels are so styled, which being of finer materials, or more delicate construction, and therefore easily broken or hurt, are for that reason, and for the regard also which people have for them, used with particular tenderness. That this is his meaning is manifest from the passage referred to, where he says, "Give honour unto the wife as un

to the weaker vessel." Why honour on that score, if the epithet Weaker is not to be understood, as I have now, according to the best interpreters, explained it?

But does not St. Paul, some verses after the text from Timothy, observe, that "Adam was "not deceived, but the woman being deceived, "was in the transgression?" True: it does appear from the history, that "the serpent," as our apostle says elsewhere," beguiled Eve through "his subtilty;" and that the man, though aware of the deceit, was by his fondness for his deluded yet still lovely partner drawn into the same transgression. But what was it that exposed the woman to that snare by which she was seduced? Passions, it must be owned, extremely culpable in their nature, and fatal in their consequences; but not the passions for which her daughters have been indiscriminately blamed. In reality, the resolute spirit and persevering vigilance, with which great numbers of women preserve their honour, while so few men in comparison are restrained by the laws of continence, seem to me no slight proof that the former possess a degree of fortitude well worthy of praise.

But what is all this to the purpose of our present meditation? Much every way. I meant it as my first argument in behalf of female Piety; and on what footing it stands I will proceed to show, after remarking that the persons to whom our text from St. Paul is addressed are by him supposed to profess a respect for religion-" As becometh women "professing Godliness:" a supposition we are willing to make in your favour, my beloved hearers; so far, I mean, as to render it unnecessary to inculcate that profession from those general notions of truth and duty, which with a few exceptions, I do hope you readily acknowledge. Instead of this, our reasoning and exhortations will turn chiefly on such principles and facts as relate more immediately to your sex, situation, and time of life, considered in conjunction with the character and manners of the age.