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the weather, &c., on which the goodness of his crops depends, he receives as from the hand of God, and is hardly sensible of any secondary or more immediate cause. If he understand any thing of the principles of vegetation, and can account for a few obvious appearances upon what we call the laws of nature; these laws he knows to be the express appointment of God; and he cannot help perceiving the wisdom and goodness of God in the appointment; so that the objects about which he is daily conversant, are, in their nature, a lesson of gratitude and praise.

Besides, the employment of the husbandman being chiefly to bring food out of the earth, his attention is more confined to the real wants or at least, the principal conveniencies, of life; and his mind is not, like that of the curious artist and manufacturer, so liable to be fascinated by a taste for superfluities, and the fictitious wants of men.

Nor, lastly, does the business of husbandry so wholly engross a man's thoughts and attention, while he is employed about it, as many of the arts and manufactures, and as commerce necessarily does. And it should be a general rule with us, that the more attention of mind our employment in life requires, the more careful should we be to draw our thoughts from it, on the day of rest, and at other intervals of time set apart for devotional purposes. Otherwise, a worldlyminded temper, not being checked or controlled by any thing of a contrary tendency, will necessarily get possession of our hearts.

2. This brings me to the second advice, which is, by no means to omit stated times of worshipping God by prayer, public and private. Every passion and affection in our frame is strengthened by the proper and natural expression of it. Thus frequent intercourse and conversation with those we love promote friendship, and so also the intercourse we keep up with God by prayer, in which we express our reverence and love of him and our confidence in him, promotes a spirit of devotion, and makes it easier for the

ideas of the Divine Being and his providence to occur to the mind on other occasions, when we are not formally praying to him. Besides, if persons whose thoughts are much employed in the business of this life, had no time set apart for the exercises of devotion, they would be in danger of neglecting it entirely; at least, to a degree that would be attended with a great diminution of their virtue and happiness.

But, in order that the exercises of devotion may be the most efficacious to promote the true spirit and general habit of it, it is advisable that prayers, properly so called, that is, direct addresses to the Divine Being, be short. The strong feelings of reverence, love, and confidence, which ought to animate our devotions, cannot be kept up in such minds as ours, through a prayer of considerable length; and a tedious languor in prayer is of great disservice to the life of religion, as it accustoms the mind to think of God with indifference; whereas, it is of the utmost consequence, that the Divine Being always appear to us as an object of the greatest importance, and engage the whole attention of our souls. Except, therefore, in public, where prayers of a greater length are, in a manner, necessary, and where the presence and concurrence of our fellow-worshippers assist to keep up the fervor of our common devotion, it seems more advisable, that devotional exercises have intervals of meditation, calculated to impress our minds more deeply with the sentiments we express; and that they be used without any strict regard to particular times, places, or posture of body.

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3. In the course of your usual employments, omit no proper opportunity of turning your thoughts towards God. Habitually regard him as the ultimate cause, and proper author of every thing you see, and the disposer of all events that respect yourselves or others. This will not fail to make the idea of God occur familiarly to your mind, and influence your whole conduct.

4. In a more especial manner, never fail to have recourse to God upon every occasion of strong emotion of mind, whether it be of a pleasurable, or of a painful nature. When your mind is laboring under distressing doubts and great anxiety, or when you are in any way embarrassed in the conduct of your affairs, fly to God, as your friend and father, your counsellor and your guide. In a sincere and earnest endeavour to discharge your duty, and to act the upright and honorable part, commit your way unto him, repose yourselves upon his providence, confiding in his care to overrule every thing for the best; and you will find a great, and almost instantaneous relief. Your perturbation of mind will subside, as by a charm, and the storm will become a settled calm. Tumultuous and excessive joy will also be moderated by this means; and thus all your emotions will be rendered more equable, more pleasurable, and more lasting. And this is produced not by any supernatural agency of God on the mind, but is the natural effect of placing entire confidence in a Being of perfect wisdom and goodness.

But the capital advantage you will derive from this practice will be, that the idea of God being, by this means, associated with all the strongest emotions of your mind, your whole stock of devotional sentiments and feelings will be increased. All those strong emotions, now separately indistinguishable, will coalesce with the idea of God, and make part of the complex train of images suggested by the term, so that you will afterwards think of God oftener, with more fervor than before; and the thought of him will than ever. have greater influence with you

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5. In order to cultivate the spirit of habitual devotion, labor to free your minds from all consciousness of guilt and self-reproach, by means of a constant attention to the upright and steady discharge of the whole of your duty. In consequence of neglecting our duty, we become backwards, as we may say, to make our appearance before God. We cannot look up to him with full confidence of his

favor and blessing; and are, therefore, too apt to omit devotion entirely. Besides, we always feel an aversion to the exercise of self-abasement and contrition, which are all the sentiments that we can with propriety indulge in those circumstances; especially as we have a secret suspicion, that we shall, for some time at least, go on to live as we have done; so that rather than confess our sins, and continue to live in them, we choose not to make confession at all.

But this, my brethren, is egregious trifling, and highly dangerous. Thus, at best, all improvement is at a stand with us, if we be not going fatally backwards in our moral state. If this be our character (as I believe it is, more or less, that of a very great number even of those I have called the better sort of the middle classes of men) let us in time, and in good earnest, cast off all our sins, negligences, and follies, by true repentance. Let us draw near, and acquaint ourselves with God, that we may be at peace. You can have no true peace, assurance, or satisfaction of mind in this life without it: for, if you be of the class I am now referring to, it is too late for you to have a perfect enjoyment of a life of sin and dissipation. And between that kind of peace, or rather stupor, which those who are abandoned to wickedness, those who are wholly addicted to this world, and make it their sole end (or those who are grossly ignorant of religion) enjoy, and that inward peace and satisfaction which accompanies the faithful and earnest discharge of every known duty, there is no sufficient medium, You may go about seeking rest in this wide space, while your hearts are divided between God and the world, but you will find none; whereas, the fruit of righteousness, of a sincere and impartial, though imperfect, obedience to the law of God, and assurance for ever. peace

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6. To facilitate the exercise of devotion, cultivate in your minds just ideas of God with whom you have to do upon

ose occasions, and divest your minds, as far as possible, of

all superstitious and dishonorable notions of him. Consider him as the good Father of the prodigal son, in that excellent parable of our Saviour. Let it sink deep into your minds, as one of the most important of all principles, that the God with whom we have to do, is essentially, of himself, and without regard to any foreign consideration whatever," abundant in mercy, not willing that any should perish, but that he had rather that all should come to repentance;" and then, notwithstanding you consider yourselves as frail, imperfect, and sinful creatures; and though you cannot help accusing yourselves of much negligence, folly, and vice; you may still approach him with perfect confidence, in his readiness to receive, love and cherish you, upon your sincere return to him.

In this light our Lord Jesus Christ always represented "his Father and our Father, his God and our God." This is the most solid ground of consolation to minds burdened with a sense of guilt; and what is of great advantage, it is the most natural, the most easy and intelligible of all others. If once you quit this firm. hold, you involve yourselves in a system, and a labyrinth, in which you either absolutely find no rest and wander in uncertainty and horror; or, if you attain to any thing of assurance, it is of such a kind, and in such a manner, as can hardly fail to feed that spiritual pride which will lead you to despise others; nay, unless counteracted by other causes, too often ends in a spirit of censoriousness, hatred, and persecution.

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We well know, my Christian brethren, what it is that the Lord our God requires of us, in order to live and to die in his favor; namely, " to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God." To this plain path of duty, then, let us adhere, without being anxious about any thing farther. Whether we have those fervors of devotion which some feel, and are apt to be proud of, or not, we shall experience that great peace of mind which all those have who,

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