caves, and think of nothing but the concerns of eternity; yet, if we allow these phrases any meaning, they cannot imply lefs than this; that our chief and principal concern, beyond all comparifon, must be to please and obey our Maker in all things; that we must seek firft the kingdom of God and his righteousness; that we must look up to his law as the great guide and governing principle of our lives; that we must not vibrate perpetually between two masters, between two oppofite modes of conduct, between vice and virtue, between piety and pleasure, between inclination and duty, between this life and the next; but devote ourselves heartily and fincerely to the service of our heavenly Father, and suffer no one earthly object to eftrange or draw away our affections from him.

The only way, then, for a wife and a good man to take, is to preferve that uniformity and confiftence, and dignity of character, both in opinion and in practice, which is in all cafes refpectable; in the Christian Religion effential and indifpenfable. You muft, in fhort, as Joshua faid to the Jewish people, you must "chufe, this day, whom you will ferve." You

muft

must take your part, and adhere to it steadily and invariably throughout.

If, in the first place, with refpect to doctrines and matters of belief, you think that you are innocent and perfect creatures, that you ftand in need of no Redeemer, no Mediator, no expiation for your past, no affistance for your future conduct; that revelation is needlefs, and reafon alone fufficient for all the good purposes of this life and the next, then follow reason, and be confiftent with yourselves. Do not repofe the leaft part of your hopes on Christ. You have nothing to do with him or his Gospel. You can claim nothing under his name; by your own merits you must stand or. fall; muft go boldly and with confidence up to the throne of God, and demand from his justice, as a matter of right, that pardon and those rewards which you disdain to receive from his mercy as a matter of grace. But if your minds revolt against such prefumption as this; if you feel yourselves corrupt and finful, the children of vanity and the fport of paffions, continually tranfgreffing the dictates even of your own reafon, and of course continually deserving punishment from the

you

Giver of that reafon; if you find that something more than mere modern philofophy is neceffary to heal the depravity of your nature, to reconcile you to an offended God, to affift in the performance of your duty, to fup port you under the fevereft afflictions, and to fatisfy the cravings of your foul with that fulness of joy which the world, and all the world's wifdom, can never give; if, in fine, you perceive that the Gospel of Christ contains every thing you want, and that the truth of its pretenfions is founded on fuch fort of evidence as no man upon earth was ever yet deceived by trusting to in any other case, then follow Chrift; take him for your only guide in religious knowledge, and repose an entire and abfolute confidence in his holy word. When once you are perfuaded that he is an infpired teacher, and that he and his Religion came from God, no doctrines, however difficult or mysterious, how much foever they tranfcend reason, if not repugnant to it, will be any obftacles in your way. You will receive them all with implicit reverence and fubmiffion on the fole ground of his testimony. The only question to be asked refpecting

VOL. II.

P

fpecting fuch doctrines is this. Do they ac tually exist in the Gofpel? Is there fufficient evidence for the authenticity of that Gospel? If there be, and this we have all along suppofed, the dispute is decided, and you can no longer hesitate refpecting the admiffion of truths grounded on fuch authority.

In the fame manner, with respect to practice, If you admit the reality of a future existence, and a future day of recompence, and if after deliberately comparing this life with the next, you do, in your best and fobereft judgment, think that prefent enjoyments are more valuable than future and eternal happiness, and a little selfdenial in this world more infupportable than everlasting mifery in the next, then let this world be the fole idol of your hearts; to this devote yourselves without reserve, It would then be folly to facrifice any pleasures, any advantages to the commands of your Maker, or to let one thought about futurity disturb your tranquillity, or interrupt your pursuits,

But if you find this to be impoffible; if you feel yourselves to be defigned for immortality; if you cannot forbear looking perpetually forward into futurity; if to these fentiments of

Nature,

Nature, Reafon adds her voice, and Revelation confirms it by evidence that is irresistible; if, moreover, on a fair estimate of the respective value of things temporal, and things eternal, you are convinced that the pains and the pleafures of this world are not worthy to be compared with the rewards and punishments of the next; if, in fine, the limited nature of the human faculties, the contrary tempers of mind, and courfes of action, which contrary pursuits require, and the express declarations of Christ himself, prove inconteftably that we cannot ferve God and Mammon, cannot reconcile two oppofite modes of conduct together; what, then, is the course which a prudent and confiderate man has to take? Why, evidently, to devote himself abfolutely and entirely to the fervice of his one Lord and Mafter, and to fuffer nothing to interfere with that great object of his attention. If there really is a future fcene of existence, and if the rewards promifed to the righteous, and the punishments denounced against the wicked, are as great and as durable as they are represented to be, there is no facrifice in this life which a wise man would not make to them. If they