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hast met with some things thou dost not well understand or approve; but shall that take off thine attention from those things thou dost understand and approve, and art convinced of the necessity of? If thou hast received- no improvement, no benefit from what thou hast been reading, read it over again. The same thought, you know, often impresses one more at one time than another; and we sometimes receive more knowledge and profit by the second perusal of a book than by the first. And I would fain hope, that thou wilt find something in this that may set thy thoughts on work, and which, by the blessing of God, may make thee more observant of thy heart and conduct; and, in consequence of that, a more solid, serious, wise, established Christian.

But will you, after all, deal by this book you have now read, as you have dealt by many sermons you have heard? pass your judgment upon it according to your received and established set of notions; and condemn or applaud it only as it is agreeable or disagreeable to them; and commend or censure it only as it suits or does not suit your particular taste; without attending to the real weight, importance, and necessity of the subject, abstracted from those views? Or will you be barely content with the entertainment and satisfaction which some parts of it may possibly have given you; to assent to the importance of the subject, and justness of the sentiment, or the propriety of some of the observations you have been reading, and so dismiss all without any farther concern about the matter? Believe it, O Christian reader, if this be all the advantage you gain by it, it were scarce worth while to have confined yourself so long to the perusal of it. It has aimed, it has sin

H

cerely aimed, to do you a much greater benefit; to bring you to a better acquaintance with one you express a particular regard for, and who is capable of being the best friend, or the worst enemy, you have in the world; and that is yourself. It was designed to convince you, that, would you live and act consistently, either as a man or a Christian, you must know yourself; and to persuade you, under the influence of the foregoing motives, and by the help of the forementioned directions, to make self-knowledge the great study, and self-government the great business, of your life. In which resolution may Almighty God confirm you; and in which his grace assist you, against all great business may With future discouragements and distractions!

him I leave the success of the whole; to whom be glory and praise for ever!

THE

GREAT IMPORTANCE

OF

A RELIGIOUS LIFE

CONSIDERED.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS.

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WHAT shall I do to be saved?' was a question which the trembling and astonished jailer put to Paul and Silas, when he saw the prison-doors opened in a miraculous manner; a question of the utmost moment and importance, and which it nearly concerns us all to be well resolved in. For, if there be a life after this, and we do not die like the beasts that perish;' if death does not put a final period to our beings, but when this short life is ended, we enter upon the regions of eternity, and shall be for ever happy or miserable, according as we demean ourselves in this short time of trial and probation; if this be the state and condition of mankind (as the voice of reason, the dictates of conscience, and the Holy Scriptures, do loudly proclaim it is), how does it behove every one of us to inquire what we must do to attain everlasting life; and to consider whether we are in the way that leads to heaven and immortality; or, if we have been so unhappy to wander out of it, how we may recover and return to it again!

This is an inquiry that deserves our utmost diligence and attention. For if we are ignorant of the will of God, or, knowing it, will not follow or be

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