And then, as to the precepts of the REDEEMER's religion, they are such as have been admired in all ages, and as no man need feel himself ashamed to own. The substance of them is: Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: A precept so held in admiration by one of the Roman emperors, that he had it inscribed in various public places to be seen and read of all men. This excellent laconic sentence is more expanded by our LORD himself in another place: Thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. And thy neighbour as thyself: and still more by St. PAUL: The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men; teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godlily in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great GOD, and our SAVIOUR JESUS. CHRIST; who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. May I not then exhort you, my serious readers, in the words of the same Apostle, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service? and not to be conformed to this world: but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind,; that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of GOD? Endeavour to be uniformly and conscientiously, inwardly and outwardly, religious*. Lay aside, as

* There is need, in this time of general discontent, to call the attention of all good men to the obligations we are under, to be dutiful and loyal subjects. The Scripture is decisive, that as we are to fear GOD, so are we to honour the KING. But, setting duty aside, self-interest, if duly consulted, would induce every man to obey the civil government of the happy country in which we live. We have much to lose, little to gain, by any change that might take place. The ruin brought upon France may satisfy any man, how dangerous a thing it is to embark in public contentions, and disturb the regular order of things. If the experience of our neighbours will not determine us to peaceable and temperate measures among ourselves, we should do well to look back to the reign of the first CHARLES, when the three kingdoms were convulsed for seven years together from one end to another. Besides the many thousands of private men who fell in the bloody fray, the many millions of money that were spent, and the numerous families that were ruined, there were slain 17 Earls and Lords-45 Knights and Baronets-55 Colonels-42 Lieutenant Colonels-53 Majors-138 Captains-30 Gentlemen

much as may be, all other thoughts and concerns, and let the pardon of your sins, the justification of your persons, the purification of your natures, and the salvation of your souls, be the grand business and aim of your life. Every thing within you, and every thing without you, will oppose this grand regenerating process of religion. Remember, however, this is your main concern in the world. One thing alone is truly needful. Secure this, and every thing beside is safe.

"This done, the poorest can no wants endure;

"And this not done, the richest must be poor."

Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.-Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD, and his righteousness, and all necessary things shall be added unto you. If you are ever so rich, great, wise, learned, honourable; if you are not at the same time experimentally religious, you are a miserable man. Do you want proof of this? Look inward, and look forward to the close of life; or turn back, and impartially consider the experience of the several persons, whose declarations we have recorded in the beginning of this Treatise. Compare them, weigh them, discriminate their characters; reject what is base and unworthy your attention, take alarm at the warnings of the dying penitents, and resolve, by the grace of GoD, to have a name and a place among his people. Let others despise and neglect the Sacred Writings, as their humour shall lead, do you be much in the

Volunteers-with about 30 others, who were either beheaded or died in prison.-The spirit of the times was much the same as bath for these several years prevailed in France; nor were the clergy treated with much more humanity, 8 or 10,000 of them being turned out of their Livings. See WALKER'S Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 198200. And if any convulsion should take place again in this country, I do not conceive that we should be much more humane towards each other, than people have been in cases of a similar nature. He was no inexperienced man who said-The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.

When the ALMIGHTY intends to punish us effectually, he will deprive us of wisdom, and set us at loggerheads one with another. The consequence will be ruin to the present race of Englishmen. If with the above two dreadful examples before us, we suffer a party spirit to drive us to extremities, we shall deserve all we can suffer. See the seventh chapter of EZEKIEL, Were we united and religious we might defy the whole world.

perusal of them. Let them dwell in you richly. They will make you happy in your own soul, and wise unto salvation. Search them, dig in them, scrutinize them, let your daily delight be in them. It is the engrafted Word, and the Word of God's grace alone, which is able to build us up in faith and love, and save our souls alive. Read it, therefore, as the Word of God. Read it with religious views. Read it with constant prayer to HEAVEN for divine illumination; and, as often as convenient, get upon your knees in secret with the Bible spread before you, and, be assured, you shall experience sublime and ravishing delights, to which the most happy and prosperous worldly 'men are utter strangers, and of which you yourselves can have no proper conception, till you have made the experiment. Could I be the happy instrument of inducing you to make the experiment, you would bless me for ever. And you will give me leave to say that if you could speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and possessed all knowledge human and divine; if you could perform wouders like MOSES, celebrate the praises of GOD like DAVID, prophesy like ISAIAH, write like PAUL, preach like PETER, thunder like JAMES and JOHN, and offer up your souls on racks and in flames like the Maccabean mother and her seven noble sons; if you had power with God like JACOB, and had the valour of JosnUA, the strength of SAMSON, the beauty of ABSALOM, the wisdom of SOLOMON, the zeal of PHINEHAS, with every other qualification natural and acquired, that ever centered in any of the sons of men; yet, without a close, intimate, experimental acquaintance with the Sacred Oracles, and the great truths therein contained, all will avail nothing; you can neither enjoy true consolation in your spirit now, nor be capable of felicity hereafter when you die. Were I, therefore, permitted to give my last dying advice to the

M. De RENTY, a French nobleman, used to read three chapters a day with his head uncovered, and on his bended knees; and this is the practice likewise of abundance of religious characters in the present day.

+ The famous Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, taking leave of his brother ROBERT, when he died of the wound he had received in the field of battle, said, "Love my memory; cherish my friends ;--but above all, govern your will and affections by the Will and Word of your CREATOR; in me beholding the end of this world, with all her vanities."

Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON, in like manner, a celebrated

dearest friend I have in the world, it would be the same which Dr. JOHNSON gave this friend Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDSREAD YOUR BIBLE*: I only should adds above-Read it

statesman, a little before his death, advised his relations to be serious in searching after the will of GOD in his Holy Word: “for,” said he, "it is deservedly accounted a piece of excellent knowledge to understand the laws of the land, and the customs of a man's country; how much more to know the statutes of heaven, and the laws of eternity, those immutable and eternal laws of justice and righteousness! To know the will and pleasure of the great MONARCH, and universal KING! I have seen an end of all perfection, but the commandments of GOD are exceeding broad."

* This great man himself read the Bible too little, and other books too much. This, and associating frequently with men of little or no religion, were the main causes of his great leanness of soul, and fear of death all through life. He was, indeed, an extraordinary man, and an admirable judge of good writing. In the second volume of his Lives of the Poets, p. 110, he speaks of DRYDEN'S Dialogue on the Drama, as one of the finest prose compositions in the English language: and at the 152 page of the same volume he says, DRYDEN'S Poem on the death of Mrs. KILLIGREW, is the noblest Ode our language has ever produced. In the third volume, p. 62, he tells us the most poetical paragraph ja the whole mass of English poetry is in CONGREVE'S Mourning Bride. And in the fourth volume, p. 181, he declares one of the finest similies in all English poetry, is that of the Student's progress in the sciences in POPE'S Essay on Criticism, lines 215–232.

The more religious people read the Sacred Writings, and the less, in general, they trouble themselves with the, compositions of men, the better. If, however, the Reader wishes to know what books are best calculated to advance the spirit of religion in the soul, the following have been found singularly useful; ScotGAL'S Life of GOD in the Soul of Man-BAXTER'S Saints everlasting Rest-DODDRIDGE'S Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul-WATTS on the Love of GOD-ROWE'S Devout Exercises of the Heart--YOUNG'S Night Thoughts- MILTON's Paradise Lost and Regained -LAW's Serious all to a Devout and Holy Life---and THOMAS A KEMPIS on the Imitation of JESUS CHRIST.---KEMPIS, in particular, was a great favorite with Archbishop LEIGHTON and Bishop BURNET. And Law's Serious Call has the honour of being the means of the conversion of that Hercules in literature, the late Dr. JOHNSON; which book he used, therefore, much to commend, saying, "It was the finest piece of hortatory theology in any language."---See BOSWELL'S Life, vol. 1. pp. 29, 341.--This book has, moreover, extorted the following eulogium even from the scepti cal EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. one of the first Historians of the present age, and an unquestionable judge of literary merit.

"Mr. Law's master-work, the Serious Call, is still read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid

daily upon your knees with fervent prayer for divine illumination; and rest not, till you have imbibed the spirit of it into the very frame and constitution of your soul, and transcribed, the precepts and example of JESUS into every part of your daily deportment in life.

This should be the last dying advice, I say, which I would give to the tenderest friend I have upon earth. And, if I should have no other opportunity permitted me, I here leave it on record, in direct opposition to the obloquy of the irreligious, and unbelieving world, as a legacy to my friends and the people among whom I have gone preaching the Gospel, of more real intrinsic value than thousands of gold and silver. READ YOUR BIBLES, AND READ TILL YOU LOVE TO READ. PRAY

but they are founded on the Gospel: his satire is sharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life; and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of LA BRUYERE. If he finds a spark of piety in his reader's mind, he will soon kindle it to a flame; and a philosopher must allow, that he exposes, with equal severity and truth, the strange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Christian world. Under the names of FLAVIA and MIRANDA he has admirably described my two aunts---the Heathen and the Christian sister."

Memoirs of GIBBON's Life and Writings.

This, I think, is no common praise!

To the above books should be added BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Progress; Bishop TAYLOR'S Holy Living and Dying; Archbishop LEIGHTON'S Works; and such other Writings as are of a lively and evangelic nature. I remember, near thirty years ago, hearing the late excellent Dr. CONYERS, of Deptford, say, that if he were banished into a desart island, and permitted to take with him only four books, the Life of Mr. HALIBURTON should be one of the four.

This useful Life is also the book which that great scholar, Sir RICHARD ELLYS, valued above all the books in his learned and copious library.

With respect to the leading and most important doctrines of the Gospel, I do not know that they are any where more plainly and faithfully expounded than in the book of Homilies. I have been of this opinion many years, and still continue the same, making allowance for the language, and certain circumstances peculiar to the times in which they were written. In this opinion I find myself confirmed by Bishop HORSLEY, who says to the Clergy in his Charge for 1790 "These discourses," some of the Homilies, "I would earwestly recommend to your frequent study, as an unexceptionable summary of doctrine upon these important points, and an excellent model of composition for popular instruction.