VIII. Make prayer a pleasure, and not a task, and then you will not forget nor omit it. If ever you have lived in a praying family, never let it be your fault if you do not live in one always.. Believe that day, that hour, or those minutes, to be-all wafted and loft, which any worldly pretences would tempt you to fave out of the public worship of the church, the certain and conftant duties of the closet, or any neceffary services for God and godlinefs. Beware left a blast attend it, and not a bleffing. If God had not referved one day in feven to himself, I fear Religion would have been loft out of the world; and every day of the week is expofed to a curfe which has no morning religion.

IX. See that you watch and labour, as well as pray. Diligence and dependence must be united in the practice of every Chriftian. It is the fame wife man acquaints us, that the hand of the diligent, and the bleffing of the Lord, join together to make us rich; Prov. x. 4, 22.-rich in the treafures of body or mind, of time or eternity.

It is your duty, indeed, under a fenfe of your own weakness, to pray daily against fin; but if you would effe&ually avoid it, you must also avoid temptation, and every dangerous opportunity.

Set

Set a double guard wherefoever you feel or fuf pect an enemy at hand. The world without, and the heart within, have fo much flattery and deceit in them, that we must keep a fharp eye upon both, left we are trapt into mischief between them.

X. Honour, profit, and pleasure, have been fometimes called the world's trinity, they are its three chief idols; each of them is fufficient to draw a foul off from God, and ruin it for ever. Beware of them, therefore, and of all their fubtle infinuations, if you would be innocent or happy.

Remember, that the honour which comes from God, the approbation of heaven, and of your own conscience, are infinitely more valuable than all the esteem or applaufe of men. Dare not venture one step out of the road of heaven, for fear of being laughed at for walking ftriatly in it. It is a poor religion that cannot ftand against a jeft.

Sell not your hopes of heavenly treasures, nor any thing that belongs to your eternal intereft, for of the advantages of the prefent life: "What any fhall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul?"

Remember

Remember alfo the words of the Wife Man, "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man;" he that indulgeth himself in "wine and oil," that is, in drinking, in feasting, and in sensual gratifications, "fhall not be rich." It is one of St. Paul's characters of a most degenerated age, when "men become lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God." And that " fleshly lufts war against the foul," is St. Peter's caveat to the Chriftians of his time.

XI. Preserve your confcience always foft and fenfible. If but one fin force its way into that tender part of the foul, and dwell eafy there, the road is paved for a thousand iniquities.

And take heed that, under any fcruple, doubt,. or temptation whatsoever, you never let any reafonings fatisfy your confcience, which will not be a fufficient anfwer or apology to the Great Judge at the laft day.

XII. Keep this thought ever in your mind.— It is a world of vanity and vexation in which you live; the flatteries and promises of it are vain and deceitful; prepare therefore to meet difappointments. Many of its occurrences are teafing and vexatious. In every ruffling ftorm without, pof

fcfs

fefs your spirit in patience, and let all be calm and ferene within. Clouds and tempefts are only found in the lower fkies; the heavens above are ever bright and clear. Let your heart and hope dwell much in these ferene regions; live as a ftranger here on earth, but as a citizen of heaven, if you will maintain a foul at ease.

XIII. Since in many things we offend all, and there is not a day paffes which is perfectly free from fin, let "repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," be your daily work.A frequent renewal of these exercises, which make a Christian at firft, will be a constant evidence of your fincere Chriftianity, and give you peace in life, and hope in death.

XIV. Ever carry about with you fuch a fenfe of the uncertainty of every thing in this life, and of life itself, as to put nothing off till to-morrow, which you can conveniently do to-day. Dilatory perfons are frequently expofed to furprize and hurry in every thing that belongs to them: the time is come, and they are unprepared. Let the concerns of your foul and your fhop, your trade and your religion, lie always in fuch order, as far as poffible, that death, at a fhort warning, may be no occafion of a difquieting tumult in your fpi

rit, and that you may escape the anguifh of a bitter repentance in a dying hour. FAREWELL.

AN UNCOMMON STORY.

How irrefiftible is the power of confcience! HOW

It is a viper which twines itself round the heart, and cannot be fhook off. It lays faft hold of us; it lies down with us, and flings us in our fleep. It rifes with us, and preys upon our vitals. Hence ancient moralifts compared an evil confcience to a vulture feeding upon our liver, and the pangs that are felt by the one to the throws of the other; fuppofing at the fame time the vulture's hunger to be infatiable, and this entrail to be most exquifitely fenfible of pain, and to grow as fast as it is devoured. What can be a ftronger reprefentation of the most lingering and moft acute corporeal pains? Yet, ftrong as it is, it falls greatly fhort of the anguish of a guilty confcience. Imagination, when at reft, cannot conceive the horrors which, when troubled, it can excite, or the tortures to which it can give birth.

What must have been the ftate of mind of Beffus, a native of Pelonia, in Grecce, when he disclosed the following well authenticated fact!