tion and horror. But I beseech you to consider, that those companions may be very dangerous who might at first give you but very little alarm; I mean those who, though not the declared enemies of religion, and professed followers of vice and disorder, yet nevertheless have no practical sense of divine things on their hearts, so far as can be judged by their conversation and behaviour. You must often of necessity be with such per. sons, and christianity not only allows, but requires, that you should, on all expedient occasions of intercourse with them, treat them with civility and respect; but choose not such for your most intimate friends, and do not contrive to spend most of your leisure moments among them. For such converse has a sensible tendency to alienate the soul from God, and to render it unfit for all spiritual communion with him. To convince you of this, do but reflect on your own experience, when you have been for many hours together among persons of such a character. Do you not find yourself more indisposed for devotional exercises? Do you not find your heart, by insensible degrees, more and more inclined to a conformity to this world, and to look with a secret disrelish on those objects and employments to which reason directs, as the noblest and the best? Ob. serve the first symptoms and guard against the snare in time; and, for this purpose, endeavor to form friendships founded in piety, and supported by it. Be a companion of them that fear God, and of them that keep his precepts. You well know, that in the sight of God they are the excellent of the earth; let them therefore, be your delight. And that the peculiar benefit of their friendship may not be lost, endeavor to make the best of the hours you spend with them. The wisest of men has observed, that when "council in the heart of a man is like deep waters," that is, when it lies low and concealed, a man of understanding will draw it out.Endeavor, therefore, on such occasions, so far as you can do it with decency and convenience, to give the conversation a religious turn. And when serious and useful subjects are started in your presence, lay hold on them and cultivate them; and for that purpose, let the word of Christ dwell richly in you, and be continually made the man of your council. 6. If it be so, it will secure you, not only from the snares of idleness and luxury, but from the contagion of every bad example. And it will also engage you to guard against those excessive hurries of worldly business, which would fill up all your time and thoughts, and thereby choke the good word of God, and render it in a great measure, if not quite, unfruitful. Young people are generally of an enterprising disposition; having experienced comparatively little of the fatigue of business and of the disappointments and incumbrances of life, they easily swallow them up, and annihilate them in their imagination, and fancy that their spirit, their application and address, will be able to encounter and surmount every obstacle or hindrance. But the event proves it otherwise. Let me entreat you, therefore, to be cautious how you plunge yourself into a greater variety of business than you are capable of managing as you ought, that is, in consistence with the care of your soul, and the service of God; which certainly ought not, on any pretence, to be neglected. It is true indeed, that a prudent regard to your worldly interest would require such a caution; as is obvious to every careful observer, that multitudes are undone by grasping at more than they can conveniently manage -Hence it has frequently been seen, that while they have seemed resolved to be rich, they have pierced themselves through with many sorrows, have ruined their own families, and drawn down many others into desolation with them; whereas, could they have been contented with moderate employments, and moderate gains, they might have prospered in their business, and might, by sure degrees, under a divine blessing, have advanced to a great and honorable increase. But if there were no danger at all to be apprehended on this head; if you were as certain of becoming rich and great as you are of perplexing and fatiguing yourself in the attempt; consider, I beseech you, how precarious these enjoy. ments are. Consider how often a plentiful table becomes a snare, and that which should have been for a man's welfare becomes a trap. Forget not that short lesson, . which is so comprehensive of the highest wisdom, one thing is needful. Be daily thinking, while the gay and great things of life are glittering before your eyes, how death will come and impoverish you at once; how soon soon it will strip you of all the possessions but those which a naked soul can carry along with it into eternity when it drops the body into the grave. Eternity! Eternity Eternity! Carry the view of it about with you, if it be possible, through every hour of waking life; and fully persuaded that you have no business, no interest in life, that is consistent with it; for whatsoever would be injurious to this view, is not your business, is not your interest. You see, indeed, that the gener. ality of men act as if they thought the great thing which God requires of them, in order to secure his favor, was to get as much of the world as possible; at-least as much as they can without any gross immorality, and without risking the loss of all, for making a little addition. And as if it were to abet this design, they tell others, and perhaps tell themselves, they only seek opportunities of greater usefulness, but in effect, if they mean any thing more by this than a capacity of usefulness, which, when they have it, they will not exert, they generally deceive themselves; and one way or another; it is a vain pretence. In most instances men seek the world-either that they may hoard up riches for the mean and scandalous satisfaction of looking upon them while they are living, and of thinking, that when they are dead, it will be said of them, that they have left so many hundreds or thousands of pounds behind them; very probably to ensnare their children or other heirs, (for the vanity is not peculiar to those who have children of their own ;)-or else, that they may lavish away their riches on their lusts, and drown them selves in a gulph of sensuality, in which, if reason be not lost, religion is soon swallowed up, and, with it, all the noblest pleasures which can enter into the heart of man. In this view, the generality of rich people appear to me objects of much greater compassion than the poor; especially as when both live (which is frequently the case) without any fear of God before their eyes, the rich abuse the greater variety and abundance of his favor, and therefore will probably feel, in that world. of future ruin which awaits impenitent sinners, a more exquisite sense of their misery. 7. And let me observe to you, my dear reader, lest you should think yourself secure from any such danger, that we have great reason to apprehend there are many now in a very wretched state, who once thought seriously of religion when they were first setting out, in lower circumstances of life, but they have since forsaken God for Mammon, and are now priding themselves in those golden chains, which, in all probability, before it be long, will leave them to remain in those of darkness. When, therefore, an attachment to the world may be followed with such fatal consequences, let not thine heart envy sinners; and do not out of a desire of gaining what they have, be guilty of such folly as to expose yourself to this double danger of falling in the attempt, or of being undone by the success of it. Contract your desire; endeavor to be easy and content with a little; and if Providence call you out to act in a larger sphere, submit to it in obedience to Providence ; but number it among the trials of life, which it will require a large proportion of grace to bear well. For, be assured, that as affairs and interests multiply, cares and duties will certainly increase, and probably disappointments and sorrows will increase in an equal proportion. 8. On the whole, learn, by divine grace, to die to the present world; look upon it as a low state of be. ing, which God never intended for the final and complete happiness, or a supreme care, of any one of his children; a world, where something is indeed to be enjoyed, but chiefly from himself; where a great deal is to be borne with patience and resignation; and where some important duties are to be performed, and a course of discipline to be passed through, by which you are to be formed for a better state; to which, as a christian, you are near, and to which God will call you, perhaps on a sudden, but undoubtedly, if you hold on your way, in the fittest time and the most convenient manner. Refer, therefore, all this to him. Let your hopes and fears, your expectations and desires, with regard to this world, be kept as low as possible; and all your thoughts be united, as much as may be, in this one centre, what is it that God would, in present cir..cumstances, have you to be; and what is that method of conduct by which you may most effectually please and glorify him? The young Convert's prayer for divine protection against the danger of those snares. BLESSED God! in the midst of ten thousand snares and dangers which surround me from without and from within, permit me to look up unto thee with my humble entreaty, that thou wouldst deliver me from those that rise up against me, and that thine eyes may be upon me for good. When sloth and indolence are ready to seize me, awaken me from that idle dream with lively and affectionate views of that invisible and eternal world to which I am tending! Remind me of what infinite importance it is, that I diligently improve those transient moments which thou hast allotted to me as the time of my preparation for it! When sinners entice me, may I not consent! May holy converse with God give me a disrelish for the converse of those who are strangers to thee, and who separate my soul from thee! May I honor them that fear the Lord; and walking with such wise and holy men, may I find I am daily advancing in wisdom and holiness! Quicken me, O Lord, by their means; that by me thou mayest also quicken others! Make me the happy instrument of enkindling the flame of divine love in their breasts ; and may it catch from heart to heart, and grow every moment in its progress! Guard me, O Lord, from the love of sensual pleas. ure May I seriously remember, that to be carnally minded is death! May it please thee, therefore, to purify and refine my soul by the influences of thine holy spirit, that I may always shun unlawful gratifications more solicitously than others pursue them; and that those indulgencies of animal nature, which thou hast |