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ON

RETIREMENT, SELF-DENIAL,

AND RESIGNATION,

ON THR

SUFFERINGS AND EXAMPLE OF CHRIST, &c.

PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR

CHRISTIAN CONSIDERATION DURING LENT.

ELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF THE MOST EMINENT

ENGLISH DIVINES.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,

BY

THE REV. R. CATTERMOLE, B. D.

LONDON:

John Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly;

WHITTAKER & CO. AVE-MARIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL,
STATIONERS' COURT; TALBOYS, OXFORD; DEIGHTON,
CAMBRIDGE: OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH;
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.

MDCCCXXXV.

J.

LIBRA

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

WHAT machinery is to man's physical powerswhat rules are to his memory, and other intelligent faculties such is discipline to his moral and religious being at once the evidence and support of weakness. Had he persevered in his original integrity, stated forms and observances would have been as needless to him, as artificial reservoirs and a painful system of irrigation, in "a land of brooks and fountains," and amid the "sound of" a perpetual" abundance of rain." In the Paradisiacal state, every day was a day of worship; every spot was sacred: the sun no sooner rose, than its light was a summons to prayer: every opening glade, and embowered valley, presented a temple; for at all times, and in all places, the pious heart overflowed with love to its Maker, and the grateful tongue was ready to offer its sacrifice of prayer and praise. But man fell; and sin entered into the world, and labour, and sorrow. A thousand necessities

now distracted his attention; a thousand desires engrossed his heart. He was continually drawn aside from meditation upon great and enduring things, and from the care of his nobler being, in search of individual enjoyment, or by the urgency of domestic wants. In proportion as societies multiplied, and civilization advanced, these tendencies and necessities increased; for when men congregate together, in cities and large communities, it is not in order to be taught to think, or stimulated to devotion, but to seek pleasure; to contrive by the combined ingenuity of many the most efficient methods of averting misery; to accumulate wealth, and to extend and consolidate power:-in short, if left to themselves, they inevitably become more and more absorbed in the objects and occupations of the present, and daily grow more disinclined to look into or above themselves, for such as relate to things permanent and imperishable. Hence, but for seasons and methods of stated recalment from the importunites of worldly pursuits, there will ever be among the multitude a swift and unvarying progress in infidelity and vice. That the whole antediluvian race had, in so few generations, corrupted themselves," and turned from God, can be accounted for only by the self-productive quality of evil, in a rapidly increasing population, as yet unsubjected to the wholesome restraints of positive ordinances.

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