which is defigned against him, or to which he is expofed, or it will enable him to provide against it effectually. 3. We are taught by the example of the ferpent, the advantages of SECRECY and RETIREMENT. He owes to them his safety and repose. In them we may find fecurity, tran quillity, and peace, In the facred filence of retreat from the world the mind collects its powers and rebraces its energies. There we find leisure, opportunity, and inclination to think and to refolve and there acquire the ability and the vigor to perform. There, too, we escape from temptation, difembarrass our perplexities, and get beyond the reach of care. There we acquire the knowledge of ourfelves; hear the "ftill fmall voice" of reafon and of confcience which was drowned in the noise and buftle of life; and there we find access to the Divinity." The eye which feeth in fecret" beholds us with complacen cy while the benignity of his love hides us with fheltering safety in the recesses of his pavilion. 4. THE ferpent is faid to evade the force of the enchanter by laying one ear close to the ground, and ftopping the other by the extreme end of his body. Let us hence take a hint of caution to shut our ears to the enchantments of pleasure and voluptuoufnefs, the fpells of wealth, the delufions of ambi tion, and the temptations of fin. If we give ear to them we may be feduced from the fecure condition of innocence and duty, to the ruinous one of guilt and apoftacy. 5. It is obferved of ferpents that they caft off their old skins in the fpring, and a new one fucceeds them, and they grow, as it were young again. It may be proper for us, in imitation of this, to throw afide our rough exterior, and become smooth, pliant, and infinuating. Morofity and aufterity are no parts of the wisdom we are recommending. They are "the fuperfluous matter which must be knocked off." External embellishment is not to be difregarded. Many people form their opinion at firft fight. The out • BOCHART. bieroz. tom. 2. l. 3. c. 6. CALMET, differt. in Pfal. Iviii. 4,5. +EPIPHANIUS, speaking of this property of the ferpent, fays, he puts off his old age. See alfo ARISTOT. bift. an. 1. 8. So the antients represented Æfculapius with a fnake in his hand, to fignify his skill in renewing men's bodies which had been diseased. ward deportment fhould be prepoffeffing: it should have a polished grace. Then it will prove a kind of letter of introduction to the good opinion of those who have not better means of knowing us. By becoming more agreeable we may render ourselves the more ufeful. But the man of roughness will be either neglected or despised. THERE is an inference yet more instructive and important to be derived from this peculiar circumstance in the hiftory of the ferpent. We are by it reminded of that MORAL RENOVATION of life our religion enjoins. Would we become "wife unto falvation," we must " put off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and put on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holinefs," AND, then ftill farther may we extend the metaphor to that more perfect transformation, when our vile bodies fhall be changed after the fashion of Chrift's most glorious body, and this mortal fhall be clothed with immortality. THESE three stages of advance, from unformed roughness to complete perfection, are understood by my brethren of the lodge in a manner emphatically clear and important. Here they involve some of the fublimeft mysteries of Free Masonry. folemn awe pervades my foul: But here a nor would my trembling hand prefume to draw aside the veil which hides the bright transcendency of wisdom. III. LET us turn, my brethren, from ineffable wonders and overdazzling fplendors to the contemplation of thofe mild and lovely graces prefigured to us in the fymbol of the dove. Thus we cease to gaze at the glorious magnificence of the setting fun, to view the tempered radiance of the starry sky. WITHOUT dwelling upon particulars, it will be fufficient here to enumerate fome of thofe qualities afcribable to the dove proper for our imitation. At the head of these are HARMLESSNESS, MILDNESS, and INNOCENce. The bird has always been the emblem of these. Indeed it is fo remarkable for being placid and gentle that the antients fuppofed it had no gall. Doves are, alfo, familiar, * PLIN. nat, bift. 1. 10. c. 34. CLEMENS ALEX. pædag. l. 1. c. 5. DOR. orig. 1. 12. CESARIUS, dial. bierogl. l. 2. c. 48. OVID metamorp. 1. 7. v. 369. 4. ap. 191. HORAPOLLINIS. FRIENDLY, and PEACEABLE. They take in juries rather than offer them. They are likewife fignalized for being PURE and CHASTE, very LOVING and very CONSTANT in affection. They seem to have A SOCIAL DISPOSI TION, and go in flocks. And they are faid to be PITIFUL and COMPASSIONATE.* Such lovely qualities have always infured them the protection and endeared them to the partiality of man. Lodges are erected for them near our houses; and refreshment furnished them from our own fupplies. And with such pleafing monitors, my friends, before our eyes, shall we not be prompted and allured to every thing amiable, endearing, and kind? Shall we not foar above each low and fordid scene of vice and wanton folly, and stretch our eager pinions towards the sky? And, tired with earth and vanity, take to our felves wings as a dove, and fly away and be at reft! THUS, my hearers, have I endeavored to convey to you fome of the ideas which pre Thefe qualities are alluded to in Ifai. xxxviii. 14. lix. 11. Nah. ii. 7. |