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CONCLUSION.

Ar last I have, in great weakness, brought this long labour to a period. On reviewing the whole, I find it very necessary to beg the candid reader's indulgence in favour of many deficiencies; though I hope he has not found in the work any one sentiment by which he may have run the hazard of his being deceived or misled to his hurt. Whoever duly considers the disadvantage a writer labours under who lives a life of constant care and labour, without ever knowing what it is to have a vacant mind, and whose hours of study are only those few which remain after eight or ten of almost every day in the week indispensably engaged in the laborious employment of teaching, and the other cares attending the charge of youth; whoever considers this, and is at the same time, at all a judge of the difficulty of composition, will, it is hoped, be inclinable to make allowances for any deficiencies which may at all be pardonable. It may indeed be answered to this, That a person, whose way of life (exclusive of other disadvantages) necessarily deprives him of that leisure and vacancy of mind which are of such consequence to a writer, had better quit that province to those whose stations allow them more leisure and freedom from care. Perhaps this assertion may be in some measure just. And yet the gentlemen, who undertake the education of youth, do not in general scruple to bestow some time in labouring for the public. The pious and learned Dr. Doddridge, lately deceased, is a remarkable instance; who so husbanded the hours he chiefly borrowed from the refreshments of nature, as to be able to publish six or eight times the bulk of this book. For my own part, had my circumstances in life been equal to the expense of printing this work, which never had been undertaken if it had not been with a direct view to the advantage of the youth educated by me, who, I hope will find it useful, as an introduction to life, to study, and to moral and religious knowledge; had my circumstances, I say, been equal to the expense of printing this

book, and giving it them gratis, I should not have troubied the public with it; nor do I intend ever more to undertake any work of such a size.

And now, before I lay aside my pen, I beg leave earnestly to request the reader, and especially, above all others, those for whose sake this work was undertaken, to attend carefully to the few following serious remonstrances. If the reader has perused the whole work, without receiving any benefit or improvement from it, he may profit by what still remains, by seriously examining himself in the following manner.

"Hast thou considered, O my soul, what thou art, and for what created? Dost thou habitually think of thyself as an intelligence capable of immortality, and brought into being on purpose for endless and inconceivable happiness? Does the thought of an hereafter engage thy supreme attention? Is eternity forever in thy view? Dost thou faithfully labour, wish, and pray, for the necessary abilities and dispositions for acting up to the dignity of thy nature, and the end of thy creation? Or dost thou trifle with what is to thee of infinite importance? Thou wouldest not surely suffer thyself to be deceived out of thy happiness? Thou wouldest not put out the eye of thy reason, and rush headlong upon destruction? Try thy prudence and sincerity, then, by comparing the diligence thou usest, and the care thou bestowest, upon the things thou knowest thyself to be sincerely attached to, with what thou thinkest sufficient for securing an eternity of happiness. Dost thou rise early and sit up late to get a wretched pittance of the perishing wealth of this world? And dost thou wholly forget that thou hast an eternity to provide for? Is money thy first thought in the morning, and thy last at night, and the subject of every hour between? And canst thou find no vacant moment for a thought about thy great interest? Art thou ever ready, and upon the catch, to seize the empty bubbles of life, as they float along the stream of time? And dost thou let slip the only opportunity for making provision for futurity; the opportunity, which if it once escapes thee, thou knowest, a whole eternity will never more bring back? Dost thou suspect every person, and watch over every cir

cumstance that may any way affect thy worldly affairs? And dost thou take up with any security, or with absolute uncertainty, to found thy prospect of future happiness upon? Thou dost not count it prudence to say to thyself, riches will flow in of themselves; I shall of course rise to a station of honour. And dost thou think it wise to say, God is merciful; he will not punish my neglect of him, or my rebellion against him: though both Scripture and reason show it to be impossible that vice should in the end be happy? or dost thou pretend to have found out a new way to happiness! Dost thou propose to outwit Infinite wisdom? Thou canst not surely think of being happy without being virtuous? Thou canst not dream of a rational creature's coming to happiness under the government of a Being of infinite purity, while his whole nature is depraved and polluted by vice? Does any wise prince pardon a rebellious subject, while he continues in a state of rebellion? Dost thou expect that the infinitely wise Governor of the Universe should, for love of thee, newmodel his august economy, reverse his unchangeable laws, and take an enemy to all good to his bosom? Dost thou even imagine it possible, that He, whose nature is unchangeably good, should ever change so as to become the friend of vice? Hast thou any conception of the possibility of happiness being the consequence of vice? Canst thou conceive that heaven would be heaven to a being whose faculties were overturned, whose moral sense was perverted; to whose mind goodness had no beauty; to whose understanding truth and virtue were no adequate objects; who could receive no joy from the contemplation. of moral excellence? who would prefer a sensual gratification to the beatific vision of God? And dost thou found thy hopes of future happiness upon a direct impossibility? Dost thou assure thyself of obtaining what it is clearly impossible thou ever shouldest obtain, and what if thou dost not obtain, thou art utterly undone? But thou sayest, that this is not thy dreadful case; that thou proceedest upon a more prudent scheme in a matter upon which thy all depends.

"Dost thou then make it thy supreme care to perform thy whole duty, without neglecting the least article of its

however disagreeable to thy temper or turn of mind; and to avoid every vice, every temptation to every vice, every appearance of every vice, however grateful to thy depraved disposition? Dost thou constantly watch over thyself; dost thou suspect every other person, lest his example or influence mislead thee? Do thou often, and regularly, meditate on thy ways, and examine thy heart and thy life? Dost thou perfectly know thy own weakness? Hast thou all thy infirmities engraven on thy remembrance? Are thy sins ever before thee? Dost thou dread vice more than poverty, pain, or death? Dost thou carefully restrain every passion and appetite within due bounds? Art thou afraid of the fatal allurements of riches, honours, and pleasures? Dost thou indulge them sparingly? Dost thou enjoy the gratifications of sense with fear and trembling? Art thou ever suspicious of thy frail nature on this dangerous side? Dost thou carefully steer clear of the rocks on which multitudes have struck, and made shipwreck of their souls? Or dost thou, in insolent confidence of thy own fancied strength of mind, dally with temptation, and play upon the brink of vice and destruction? Dost thou habitually labour to make sure of keeping within bounds? Dost thou often deny thyself, rather than run the smallest hazard of offending? Dost thou live such a life of temperance, that thou couldest at any time enjoy the satisfaction of a peaceful mind, and a good conscience, though at once deprived of all the gayeties and amusements of affluence? Or dost thou give thyself up wholly to ease and indolence; to luxury and intemperance; to pleasure and folly? Dost thou take thy swing, without restraint or measure, of every lawless enjoyment; as if the present state were never to come to an end; as if thou hadst been created only for pleasure and idleness; as if thou thoughtest of a future state, not of a spiritual existence; of perpetual improvement in wisdom and goodness; and of sublime employment and action; but of a Mahometan paradise, as an endless scene of luxury and sensuality? If thou art in good earnest resolved to conquer thy unruly passions, to restrain thy sensual appetites, and to regulate the motions of thy mind according to the dictates of reason and conscience, and the more sure directions of Divine revela

tion; thou wilt study thyself more than all the sciences; thou wilt often retire within thyself; thou wilt be ever finding in thy own mind something to regulate and redress; thou wilt not fly from thyself; thou wilt not be continually racking thy invention to find out somewhat to drown thought and reflection; thou wilt beg of thy friends to hold up to thee the mirror of faithful remonstrance; thou wilt not court the slavish flatterer to pour through thy ears the luscious poison which stupifies the mind, and renders it insensible of its own faults, and blind to its own follies. Thou wilt labour to work into the very essence of thy soul the virtues which are indispensably necessary for bringing and keeping it under due regulation. Consideration, humility, self-knowledge, self-reverence! These will be the great lessons which it will employ thy life to learn. And thou wilt wish for the life of a patriarch to study them fully, and to reduce them to practice.

"Again, dost thou, O my soul, harbour any thought of malice, envy, or revenge, against thy fellow-creature? Dost thou stand so little in awe of Him who made thy fellowcreature and thee, who will at last judge both him and thee, and to whom alone vengeance belongs; dost thou fear him so little as to think of breaking loose upon his creature in his presence? Hast thou considered, that, if thy Maker do not show mercy upon thee, thou hadst better never have been born? And dost thou hope for mercy from infinite Purity, who (thyself an offender) canst think of refusing mercy to thy brother? Dost thou imagine, that in a future state of perfect benevolence there will be any place found for the sordid mind, whose affections are shrunk and contracted to the narrow circle of self and family? Dost thou think there will be any happiness for thee in a state of perfect harmony and love, unless thou work into thy very soul the godlike virtue of unbounded benevolence? Thou canst not think a disposition to cruelty, to deceit, to anger, hatred, or revenge; thou canst not think a mind given to low craft, to narrow ill-will, or to sordid selfishness, can be found fit for a state of happiness founded on universal love and kindness? Thou canst not imagine that He, whose very nature is love, will give happiness to one whose mind is deformed with angry and ma

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