Of RELIGIOUS RETIREMENT. A SERMON, Preach'd before the QUEEN, At St. JAMES's CHAPEL, MATTH. xiv. 23. When be bad fent the Multitude away, he went up into a Mountain, apart, to Pray. I X. T hath been difputed, which is a SERM. State of greater Perfection, the Social, or the Solitary; whereas, in truth, neither of these Estates is compleat SERM. pleat without the Other; as the Example X. of our Blessed Lord (the Unerring Teft and Measure of Perfection) informs us. His Life, (which ought to be the Partern of Ours) was a Mixture of Contemplation and Actión, of Austerity 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 Crowd into a Defert, or a Garden, and there employing himfelf in all kinds of Religious Exercife, and Intercourfe with God, in Fasting, Meditation, and Prayer. In Imitation of His Spotless Example, we may, doubtlefs, lead Publick Lives, Innocently, and Usefully; 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 Flesh is often Weak; X. Weak; we ought, therefore, to leffen the SERM. 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 Privacies; 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 and away, go up into the Mountain, apart, to Pray. I fhall, from these Words, take Occafion to discourse to you concerning the Great (but much Neglected) Duty of Religious Retreat and Recollection. I fhall, under what Limifirst, briefly fhew tations I would be understood to recom mend the Duty; and, then, What the Advantages are, which arise from a devout and difcreet Performance of it. you, I mean not to prefs upon you that fort of Retirement, which is fo much esteem'd and practis'd in the Church of Rome; where all Perfection is reckon'd to X. SERM. to consist 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 Gospel, inviting us to it. John the Baptist is, indeed, there represented, as fequeftring himself from Human Converse, and spending his Luk. i. 17. Time in the Wilderness: but as he is said 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, professedly imitate that Prophet, in his severe manner of Life, and Look, and Diet, and Garb, and Behaviour, and Doctrine; fo his Example belong'd rather 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 |