of Religious Retirement.

A

SERMON

Preach'd before the

QUEEN,

AT

St. JAMES's Chapel,

On Friday, MARCH 23. 1703.

MATTH. XIV. 23.

When he had fent the Multitude away, he went up into a Mountain, apart, to Pray.

I

T hath been difputed, which is a State of greater Perfection, the Social, or the Solitary; whereas, in truth, neither of thefe Eftates is compleat without the Other; as the Example

of

of our Blessed Lord (the Unerring Teft and Measure of Perfection) informs us. His Life, (which ought to be the Pattern of Ours) was a Mixture of Contemplation and Action, of Aufterity and Freedom: We find him often, where the greatest Concourfe was, in the MarketPlaces, in the Synagogues, and at Festival Entertainments; and we find him alfo retiring from the Croud into a Defart, or a Garden, and there employing himfelf in all kinds of Religious Exercife, and Intercourse with God, in Fafting, Meditation, and Prayer. In Imitation of His Spotlefs Example, we may, doubtlefs, lead Publick Lives, Innocently, and Ufefully; Converfing with Men, and doing good to them; mutually fowing, and reaping the feveral Comforts and Advantages of Human Society. But because the Pleafures of Converfation, when too freely tafted, are Intoxicating, and Dangerous; because the Temptations we there meet with are many and mighty; and even where the Spirit is Willing to refift, yet the Flefb is often Weak; we ought, therefore, to leffen the too great Complacence we are apt to have in fuch Satisfactions, by fit Intermiffions of them; to ftrengthen our

felves for fuch Publick Encounters, by our Religious Privacys; to retire from the World fometimes, and Converse with God, and our own Confciences; examining the State, and fortifying the Powers of our Souls, in Secrecy and Silence: We must do, as our Lord did, Send the Multitudes away, and go up into the Mountain, apart, to Pray.

I fhall, from thefe Words, take Occafion to discourse to you concerning the Great (but much Neglected) Duty of Religious Retreat and Recollection. I fhall, firft, briefly fhew you, under what Limitations I would be understood to recommend the Duty; and, then, What the Advantages are, which arife from a devout and difcreet Performance of it.

I mean not to prefs upon you that fort of Retirement, which is fo much efteem'd and practis'd in the Church of Rome; where all Perfection is reckon'd to confift in Solitude, and no Man is allow'd capable of arriving at the height. of Virtue, who doth not ftrip himself of all the Conveniences of Life, and renounce all manner of Acquaintance with the World, and the Things of it:

I fee not, wherein this State of Life claims the Præeminence over all others; how it is founded in Nature, and Reason; what particular Example, Precept, or Direction there is in the Gofpel, inviting us to it. John the Baptift is, indeed, there reprefented, as fequeftring himself from Luk. i. 17. Human Converfe, and fpending his Time in the Wilderness: but as he is faid Luk.ix.55. to have come in the Spirit and Power of Elias, (a Spirit far different from the Spirit of the Gofpel) and did, therefore, profeffedly imitate that Prophet, in his fevere manner of Life, and Look, and Diet, and Garb, and Behaviour, and Doctrine; fo his Example belong'd ra ther to the Mofaic State, under which he liv'd and taught, than to the Chriftian Difpenfation, which began, where his Preaching ended. Nor did even the Baptift himself propofe his Own Practice, as a Pattern to his Followers on the contrary, when the People, the Publicans, and the Soldiers enquir'd of him, what they should do, to flee from the Wrath to come, he did not exhort them to go out of the World into the Wildernefs; but gave them fuch Directions only as related to a faithful Difcharge of their Duty in their feveral Stations and Callings: And

when