if he knew what a long milliner's bill she had just received, he would think it a great deal for her to give. A quarter of a year after this, she hears a sermon upor the necessity of charity; she thinks the man preaches well, that it is a very proper subject, that people wan much to be put in mind of it; but she applies nothing to herself, because she remembers that she gave a it. crown some time ago, when she could so ill spare

As for poor people themselves, she will admit of no complaints from them; she is very positive they ar all cheats and liars, and will say anything to get relief and therefore it must be a sin to encourage them i their evil ways.

You would think Flavia had the tenderest conscienc in the world, if you were to see how scrupulous an apprehensive she is of the guilt and danger of giving amiss.

She buys all books of wit and humour, and ha made an expensive collection of all our English poets For she says, one cannot have a true taste of any them without being very conversant with them all.

She will sometimes read a book of piety, if it is short one, if it is much commended for style an language, and she can tell where to borrow it.

Flavia is very idle, and yet very fond of fine worl this makes her often sit working in bed until noo and be told many a long story before she is up; so th I need not tell you, that her morning devotions are n always rightly performed.

Flavia would be a miracle of piety, if she was b half so careful of her soul as she is of her body. T rising of a pimple in her face, the sting of a gnat, w make her keep her room two or three days, and s thinks they are very rash people that do not take ca This makes her so over-careful of things in time. her health, that she never thinks she is well enoug and so over-indulgent, that she never can be rea well. So that it costs her a great deal in sleepi draughts and waking draughts, in spirits for the hea

in drops for the nerves, in cordials for the stomach, and in saffron for her tea.

If you visit Flavia on the Sunday, you will always meet good company, you will know what is doing in the world, you will hear the last lampoon, be told who wrote it, and who is meant by every name that is in t. You will hear what plays were acted that week, which is the finest song in the opera, who was intolerable at the last assembly, and what games are most n fashion. Flavia thinks they are atheists that play at cards on the Sunday, but she will tell you the nicety of all the games, what cards she held, how she played them, and the history of all that happened at play, as soon as she comes from Church. If you would know who is rude and ill-natured, who is vain and foppish, who lives too high, and who is in debt; if you would know what is the quarrel at a certain house, or who re in love; if you would know how late Belinda comes home at night, what clothes she has bought, how she oves compliments, and what a long story she told at uch a place; if you would know how cross Lucius is o his wife, what ill-natured things he says to her when nobody hears him; if you would know how they ate one another in their hearts, though they appear o kind in public; you must visit Flavia on the Sunday. But still she has so great a regard for the holiness of he Sunday, that she has turned a poor old widow out f her house, as a profane wretch, for having been ound once mending her clothes on the Sunday night. Thus lives Flavia; and if she lives ten years longer, he will have spent about fifteen hundred and sixty undays after this manner. She will have worn about wo hundred different suits of clothes. Out of these hirty years of her life, fifteen will have been disposed f in bed; and, of the remaining fifteen, about fourteen ill have been consumed in eating, drinking, dressing, isiting, conversation, reading and hearing plays and omances, at operas, assemblies, balls and diversions. or you may reckon all the time that she is up, thus

spent, except about an hour and a half, that is disposed of at Church, most Sundays in the year. With great management, and under mighty rules of economy, she will have spent sixty hundred pounds upon herself, bating only some shillings, crowns, or half-crowns, that have gone from her in accidental charities.

I shall not take upon me to say, that it is impossible for Flavia to be saved; but thus much must be said, that she has no grounds from Scripture to think she is in the way of salvation. For her whole life is in direct opposition to all those tempers and practices which the Gospel has made necessary to salvation.

If you were to hear her say, that she had lived al her life like Anna the prophetess, who "departed no from the temple, but served God with fastings and you would look upon her a prayers night and day,' very extravagant; and yet this would be no greater a extravagance, than for her to say that she had bee striving to enter in at the strait gate," † or making any one doctrine of the Gospel a rule of her life.

She may as well say, that she lived with our Saviou when He was upon earth, as that she has lived i imitation of Him, or made it any part of her care t live in such tempers as He required of all those tha would be His disciples. She may as truly say, that sh has every day washed the saints' feet, as that sh has lived in Christian humility and poverty of spirit and as reasonably think, that she has taught a charit school, as that she has lived in works of charity. Sh has as much reason to think that she has been a sen tinel in an army, as that she has lived in watching an self-denial. And it may as fairly be said, that sh lived by the labour of her hands, as that she had give all diligence to make her calling and election sure.

And here it is to be well observed, that the poo vain turn of mind, the irreligion, the folly, and vanit of this whole life of Flavia, is all owing to th * Luke ii. 36, 37.

+ Luke xiii. 24.

manner of using her estate. It is this that has formed her spirit, that has given life to every idle temper, that has supported every trifling passion, and kept her from all thoughts of a prudent, useful, and devout life.

When her parents died, she had no thought about her two hundred pounds a year, but that she had so much money to do what she would with, to spend upon herself, and purchase the pleasures and gratifications of all her passions.

And it is this setting out, this false judgment and indiscreet use of her fortune, that has filled her whole life with the same indiscretion, and kept her from thinking of what is right, and wise, and pious, in everything else.

If you have seen her delighted in plays and romances, in scandal and backbiting, easily flattered, and soon affronted; if you have seen her devoted to pleasures and diversions, a slave to every passion in its turn, nice in everything that concerned her body or dress, careless of everything that might benefit her soul, always wanting some new entertainment, and ready for every happy invention in show or dress, it was because she had purchased all these tempers with the yearly evenue of her fortune.

She might have been humble, serious, devout, a lover of good books, an admirer of prayer and retirement, careful of her time, diligent in good works, full of charity and the love of God, but that the imprudent use of her estate forced all the contrary tempers upon her. And it was no wonder that she should turn her time, her mind, her health, and strength, to the same uses hat she turned her fortune. It is owing to her being wrong in so great an article of life, that you can see othing wise, or reasonable, or pious, in any other art of it.

Now, though the irregular trifling spirit of this haracter belongs, I hope, but to few people, yet many nay here learn some instruction from it, and perhaps ee something of their own spirit in it.

For as Flavia seems to be undone by the unreasonable use of her fortune, so the lowness of most people's virtue, the imperfections of their piety, and the disorders of their passions, are generally owing to their imprudent use and enjoyment of lawful and innocent things.

More people are kept from a true sense and taste of religion, by a regular kind of sensuality and indulgence, than by gross drunkenness. More men live regardless of the great duties of piety, through too great a concern for worldly goods, than through direct injustice.

This man would perhaps be devout, if he was not so great a virtuoso. Another is deaf to all the motives of piety, by indulging an idle, slothful temper. Could you cure this man of his great curiosity and inquisitive temper, or that of his false satisfaction and thirst after learning, you need do no more to make them both become men of great piety.

If this woman would make fewer visits, or that not be always talking, they would neither of them find it half so hard to be affected with religion.

For all these things are only little, when they are compared to great sins; and though they are little in that respect, yet they are great, as they are impediments and hindrances to a pious spirit.

For as consideration is the only eye of the soul, as the truths of religion can be seen by nothing else, so whatever raises a levity of mind, a trifling spirit, renders the soul incapable of seeing, apprehending, and relishing the doctrines of piety.

Would we therefore make a real progress in religion, we must not only abhor gross and notorious sins, but we must regulate the innocent and lawful parts of our behaviour, and put the most common and allowed actions of life under the rules of discretion and piety.