APHORISM XXI.

First, Religious Prudence.--What this is, will be best explained by its effects and operations. Prudence consists in the service of religion, in the prevention or abatement of hindrances and distractions; and consequently in avoiding, or removing, all such circumstances as, by diverting the attention of the workman, retard the progress and hazard the safety of the work. It is likewise (I deny not) a part of this unworldly prudence, to place ourselves as much and as often as it is in our power so to do, in circumstances directly favourable to our great design; and to avail ourselves of all the positive helps and furtherances which these circumstances afford. But neither dare we, as Christians, forget whose and under what dominion the things are, quae nos circumstant, that is, which stand around us. We are to remember; that it is the world that constitutes our outward circumstances; that in the form of the world, which is evermore at variance with the divine form (or idea) they are cast and moulded; and that of the means and measures which prudence requires in the forming anew of the divine image in the soul, the far greater number suppose the world at enmity with our design. We are to avoid its snares, to repel its attacks, to suspect its aids and succours, and even when compelled to receive them as allies within our trenches, yet to commit the outworks alone to their charge, and to keep them at a jealous distance from the citadel. The powers of the world are often christened, but seldom christianized. They are but proselytes of the outer gate: or, like the Saxons of old, enter the land as auxiliaries, and remain in it as conquerors and lords.