tue and religion, be sensible of your folly, and turn back with all speed into the way of piety. It may be old-fashioned, but it is safe and honourable. "Keep innocency in future, and take heed to the thing that is right, for that alone will bring a man peace at the last." If you make ten thousand efforts to find rest for your mind in any other way, they will all disappoint you. This is the experience of the whole world. And is it not your experience also?

"What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,

The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is Virtue's prize."

Reflect upon the workings of your own hearts, in the different periods and circumstances of life, and say what your feelings have been. Was it not better with you, when you were humble minded, and went after the commandments delivered by the Lord, than it is now? Making allowance for the difference of station, may not you say with Madame de Maintenon: "Oh! that I could give you all my experience; that I could shew you the heaviness that preys upon the spirits of the great,(7) and how hard they will find it to put out their days! Don't you see that I pine away with melancholy, in the midst of a fortune, that one could hardly have imagined, and that nothing but God's assistance keeps me from sinking under it?—I protest to you, that all stations leave a frightful void, an uneasiness, a weariness, a desire to know something else, because in all worldly attainments there is nothing that gives full satisfaction. We find no rest till we have given ourselves to God. Then we find there

(7) An anecdote to this purpose occurs, concerning one of our noblemen, who, being in conversation with a certain gentleman, said, "Oh! how weary am I of this attendance upon court! Had Providence cast my lot among peasants, I had been an happy man."

"Beware what earth calls happiness; beware
All joys, but joys that never can expire."

is nothing further to be sought; that we have attained
to that, which is the only good thing in this world.
We
We meet with vexations, but we have at the same
time a solid consolation and peace of heart in the
midst of the greatest afflictions."-If this, or any
thing like this, is your experience, why will you any
longer spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which satisfieth not?

"In vain we seek a heaven below the sky;
The world has false, but flattering charms:
Its distant joys shew big in our esteem;
But lessen still as they draw near the eye.
In our embrace the visions die,

And, when we grasp the airy forms,
We lose the pleasing dream."

But the grand objects which religion holds forth to our acceptance are adequate to the largest desires of the human mind. They are calculated as well for the present as the future world. We may be as happy here, in spite of all the ills of life, as is for our real good, and hereafter our happiness shall know neither measure nor end. Be not like the people then described by the weeping prophet:-"Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest to your souls.—But they said, we will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet.But they said, we will not hearken."

Laugh not at this relation, neither despise the warning given. Stop rather for one moment, and consider upon what foundation you are building your future expectations. Though you reject Christianity, I should hope, you are not so far gone as to disbelieve a state of future rewards and punishments, of some kind or other, but profess thus much at least. Take then into your serious consideration, whether you think your own actions, tempers, and state of mind are such, as will, upon your own principles,

stand the test at the great day of account. It can do you no great harm to reflect upon your condition, to be serious for a season, and to suspect you may be wrong. Consider, that you differ essentially from some of the greatest and best men that ever lived. You stake your eternal all upon the justness of what? Your opinion:-an opinion, in confutation of which, multitudes have sacrificed their lives, and which many of the first characters now upon earth would controvert with the last drop of their blood! This should stagger your confidence. Myriads of the most learned and moral persons of all ranks and degrees, and of all sects and denominations, would this moment burn at a stake in confirmation of the truth of the Bible, and the divine mission of Jesus Christ. Are they all deceived? Are you the only wise men upon earth? And would you this moment burn at a stake in proof of Christ's being an impostor? Nothing surely but the most palpable demonstration in favour of infidelity should suffer you to sleep one night more in your present state of scepticism and unbelief. If you are mistaken! should you be mistaken! The very possibility is enough to overwhelm the human mind!

"My hopes and fears

Start up alarm'd, and o'er life's narrow verge
Look down-on what? A fathomless abyss.-
A dread eternity! how surely mine!"

Everlasting existence in misery!-Under the frown and displeasure of the best Being in the universe, without end!-Debarred of light, and the society of happy spirits!-The associates of lost souls, and miserable angels, through endless ages!-The lake which burneth with fire and brimstone !-The worm that never dies!—The fire that never shall be quenched!Everlasting punishment!-Eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord; and from the glory of his power!

“Ah! could I represent to you the different states of good and bad men: could I give you the prospect which the blessed martyr Stephen had, and shew you the blessed Jesus at the right hand of God, surrounded with angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect: could I open your ears to hear the neverceasing hymns of praise, which the blessed above sing to Him that was, and is, and is to come; to the Lamb that was slain, but liveth for ever: could I lead you through the unbounded regions of eternal day, and shew the mutual and ever blooming joys of saints who are at rest from their labours, and live for ever in the presence of God! or could I change the scene, and unbar the iron gates of hell, and carry you, through solid darkness, to the fire that never goes out, and to the worm that never dies: could I shew you the apostate angels fast bound in eternal chains, or the souls of wicked men overwhelmed with torment and despair: could I open your ears to hear the deep itself groan with the continual cries of misery; cries which can never reach the throne of mercy; but return in sad echoes, and add even to the very horrors of hell! could I thus set before you the different ends of religion and infidelity, you would want no other proof to convince you, that nothing can recompense the hazard men run of being for ever miserable through unbelief."

You may make yourselves merry with these representations;(8) but you should not laugh where you ought to be serious; vaunt where you should tremble;

(8) When Buckingham was once talking profanely before Charles II. Waller reproved him by saying, " My lord, I am a great deal older than your grace, and I believe have heard more arguments for atheism than ever your grace did; but I have lived long enough to see there is nothing in them, and so I hope your grace will."

We have an account of a man of very distinguished talents, well known for the laxity of his principles, and the licentiousness of his conduct, who died lately at a very advanced age. He bore

or sneer where you should argue. In these respects you are unquestionably to blame. If any thing in nature is of importance, it is surely how we may "escape the death which never dies," and attain the end of our creation.-Walsingham judged like a man of sense, when he said to the merry courtiers laughing on every hand of him:-"Ah! while we laugh, all things are serious round about us; God is serious, who preserveth us, and hath patience towards us; Christ is serious, who shed his blood for us; the Holy Ghost is serious, when he striveth with us; the whole creation is serious in serving God and us; they are serious in hell and in heaven; how then can we laugh and be foolish?" We believe these denunciations of Scripture to be the words of eternal truth; and till you have demonstrated them to be certainly false, you are not wise to treat them with disregard.

the advances of dissolution tolerably well, while death seemed at some distance; but when death drew near, his atheistic principles · gave way, and he was afflicted with the most excruciating mental pangs. When he stood on the brink of eternity all his resolution forsook him. Though free from pain he became restless and disturbed. His last hours were spent in the agonies and horrors of remorse. He cried for mercy to that God, whom he had wantonly denied; and-there let him rest-till the day of account.

The deistical reader should turn to the seventh section of Priestley's Observations on the Increase of Infidelity, where he will find the spirit of infidelity exemplified in the correspondence between Voltaire and D'Alembert. The resolution of these two deists was to live and die laughing. That they lived laughing, is partly true; but how did these gentlemen die? The tune was changed!

This too was the case with the witty and facetious Brown, who, used to treat religion very lightly, and would often say, that he understood the world better, than to have the imputation of righteousness laid to his charge. Nevertheless, upon the approach of death, his heart misgave him, and he began to express sentiments of remorse for his past life. Thus we see, however men may bully and defy the devil at coffee-houses and taverns, they are all the while secretly afraid of him, and dare scarcely venture themselves alone in the dark, for fear he should surprise. them with his cloven feet.