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honours are reaped. Here are formed the capital virtues of fortitude, temperance, and self denial; moderation in profperity, patience in adverfity, fubmiffion to the will of God, and charity and forgiveness to men, amidst the va rious competitions of worldly interest.

Such is the plan of divine wisdom for man's improvement. But put the cafe, that the plan devised by human wifdom were to take place, and that the rewards of the just were to be more fully difplayed to view; the exercise of all thofe graces which I have mentioned would be entirely fuperfeded. Their very names would be unknown. Every temptation being withdrawn, every worldly attachment being subdued by the overpowering discoveries of eternity, no trial of fincerity, no difcrimination of characters, would remain; no opportunity would be afforded for thofe active exertions, which are the means of purifying and perfecting the good. On the competition between time and eternity depends the chief exercife of human virtue. The obfcurity which at prefent hangs over eternal objects preferves the competition.

Remove

that obfcurity, and you remove human virtue from its place. You overthrow that whole fyftem of difcipline, by which imperfect creatures are, in this life, gradually trained up for a more perfect state.

This, then, is the conclufion to which at last we arrive; that the full display which was demanded, of the heavenly glory, would be fo far from improving the human foul, that it would abolifh thofe virtues and duties, which are the great inftruments of its improvement. It would be unfuitable to the character of man in every view, either as an active being, or a moral agent. It would difqualify him from taking part in the affairs of the world; for relishing the pleasures, or for discharging the duties of life in a word, it would entirely defeat the purpose of his being placed on this earth. And the question, why the Almighty has been pleased to leave a spiritual world and the future existence of man, under so much obfcurity, refolves in the end into this, why there fhould be fuch a creature as man in the univerfe of God?-Such is the iffue of the improvements propofed to be made on the plans of Providence. They add to the difcoveries of the fuperior wisdom of God, and of the prefumption and folly

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of man.

BLAIR.

SECTION II.

Youth the proper season for gaining knowledge, and forming religious habits.

THE duty which young people owe to their inftructers cannot be better fhown, than in the effect which the inftructions they receive have upon them. They would do well, therefore, to confider the advantages of an early at tention to these two things, both of great importance, knowledge and religion. The great ufe of knowledge, in its various branches (to which the learned languages are generally confidered as an introduction,) is to free the mind from the prejudices of ignorance; and to give it jufter and more enlarged conceptions than are the mere growth of rude nature. By reading, we add the experience of others to our own. It is the improvement of the mind chiefly, that makes the difference between man and man; and gives one man a real fuperiority over another.

Befides, the mind must be employed. The lower orders of men have their attention much engroffed by those employments, in which the neceffities of life engage them; and it is happy that they have. Labour ftands in the room of education; and fills up thofe vacancies of mind, which, in a state of idleness, would be engroffed by vice. And if they, who have more leifure, do not substitute fome. thing in the room of this, their minds alfo will become the prey of vice; and the more fo, as they have the means to indulge it more in their power. A vacant mind is exactly that houfe mentioned in the gofpel, which the devil found empty, In he entered; and taking with him seven other fpirits more wicked than himself, they took poffeffion. It is an undoubted truth, that one vice indulged, introduces others; and that each fucceeding vice becomes more depraved. if then the mind must be employed, what can fill up its vacuities more rationally than the acquisition of knowledge? Let us therefore thank God for the opportunities he has afforded us ; and not turn into a curfe thofe means of leifure, which might become fo great a bleffing. But however neceffary to us knowledge may be, religion, we know, is infinitely more fo. The one adorns a man, and gives him, it is true, fuperiority and rank in life the other is abfolutely effential to his happiness.

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In the midst of youth, health, and abundance, the world is apt to appear a very gay and pleafing fcene: it engages

our defires; and, in a degree, fatisfies them alfo. But it is wisdom to confider, that a time will come, when youth, health, and fortune, will all fail us: and if difappointment and vexation do not four our tafte for pleasure, at least fickness and infirmities will deftroy it. In these gloomy feafons, and, above all, at the approach of death, what will become of us without religion? When this world fails, where shall we fly, if we expect no refuge in another? Without holy hope in God, and refignation to his will, and trust in him for deliverance, what is there that can fecure us against the evils of life?

The great utility therefore of knowledge and religion being thus apparent, it is highly incumbent upon us to pay a ftudious attention to them in our youth. If we do not,

it is more than probable that we shall never do it: that we fhall grow old in ignorance, by neglecting the one; and old in vice, by neglecting the other.

For improvement in knowledge, youth is certainly the fitteft feafon. The mind is then ready to receive any impreffion. It is free from all that care and attention which, in riper age, the affairs of life bring with them. The memory too is stronger and better able to acquire the rudiments of knowledge; and as the mind is then void of ideas, it is more fuited to those parts of learning which are converfant in words. Befides, there are fometimes in youth a modesty and ductility, which, in advanced years, if thofe years efpecially have been left a prey to ignorance, become self-sufficiency and prejudice; and thefe effectually bar up all the inlets to knowledge. But, above all, unless habits of attention and application are early gained, we shall scarcely acquire them afterwards. The inconfiderate youth feldom reflects upon this; nor knows his lofs, till he knows also that it cannot be retrieved.

Nor is youth more the feason to acquire knowledge, than to form religious habits. It is a great point to get habit on the fide of virtue : it will make every thing smooth and easy. The earliest principles are generally the most lasting; and those of a religious caft are feldom wholly loft. Though the temptations of the world may, now and then, draw the well-principled youth afide; yet his principles being continually at war with his practice, there is hope, that in the end the better part may overcome the worse, and bring on a reformation: whereas he, who has fuffered habits of vice to get poffeffion of his youth, has little chance of

being brought back to a fenfe of religion. In the common. courfe of things it can rarely happen. Some calamity must roufe him. He must be awakened by a storm, or fleep forever. How much better is it then to make that easy to us, which we know is beft; and to form thofe habits now, which hereafter we fhall wifh we had formed!

There are perfons, who would reftrain youth from imbibing any religious principles, till they can judge for themselves; left they fhould imbibe prejudice for truth. But why fhould not the fame caution be used in fcience alfo; and the minds of youth left void of all impreffions? The experiment, I fear, in both cafes, would be dangerous. If the mind were left uncultivated during fo long a period, though nothing elfe fhould find entrance, vice certainly would and it would make the larger fhoots, as the foil would be vacant. It would be better that young per fons receive knowledge and religion mixed with error, than none at all. For when the mind comes to reflect, it may depofit its prejudices by degrees, and get right at laft but in a state of ftagnation it will infallibly become foul.

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To conclude, our youth bears the fame proportion to Your more advanced life, as this world does to the next. In this life we must form and cultivate thofe habits of virtue, which will qualify us for a better ftate. If we neglect them here, and contract habits of an opposite kind, inftead of gaining that exalted ftate, which is promised to our improvement, we fhall of courfe fink into that state, which is adapted to the habits we have formed.

Exactly thus is youth introductory to manhood; to which it is, properly fpeaking, a ftate of preparation.

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During this feafon we muft qualify ourselves for the parts we are to act hereafter. In manhood we bear the fruit, which has in youth been planted. if we have fauntered away our youth, we must expect to be ignorant, If indolence and inattention have taken an early poffeffion of us, they will probably increafe as we advance in life; and make us a burden to ourselves, and ufelefs to fociety. If again, we fuffer ourfelves to be mifled by vicious inclinations, they will daily get new ftrength, and end in diffolute lives. But if we cultivate our minds in youth, attain habits of attention and industry, of virtue and fobriety, we fhall find ourselves well prepared to act our future parts in life; and what above all things ought to

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be our care, by gaining this command over ourselves, we fhall be more able, as we get forward in the world, to refist every new temptation, as foon as it appears.

SECTION III.

GILPIN.

The truth of Chriftianity proved, from the converfion of the Apofle Paul.*

THE Converfion of St. Paul, with all its attendant circumftances, furnishes one of the most fatisfactory proofs, that have ever been given, of the divine origin of our holy religion. That this eminent perfon, from being a zealous perfecutor of the difciples of Chrift, became, all at once, a difciple himself, is a fact which cannot be controverted, without overturning the credit of all hiftory. He must, therefore, have been converted in the miraculous manner alleged by himself, and of courfe the chriftian religion be a divine revelation; or he must have been an impoftor, an enthusiast, or a dupe to the fraud of others. There is not another alternative poffible.

If he was an impoftor, who declared what he knew to be falfe, he must have been induced to act that part, by fome motive. But the only conceivable motives for religious impofture, are, the hopes of advancing one's tempo. ral intereft, credit, or power; or the profpect of gratifying fome paffion or appetite, under the authority of the new religion. That none of thefe could be St. Paul's motive for profeffing the faith of Christ crucified, is plain from the ftate of Judaifm and Christianity, at the period of his forfaking the former, and embracing the latter faith. Thofe whom he left were the difpofers of wealth, of dignity, of power, in Judea: thofe to whom he went were indigent men, oppreffed, and kept from all means of improving their fortunes. The certain confequence, therefore, of his taking the part of chriftianity was the lofs not only of all that he poffeffed, but of all hopes of acquiring more: whereas, by continuing to perfecute the Chriftians, he had hopes, rifing almoft to certainty, of making his fortune by the favour of those who were at the head of the Jewish state, to whom nothing could fo much recommend him, as the

• This piece is extracted from the "Encyclopædia Britannica.” It is an abridgment of Lord Lyttleton's celebrated "Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul.".

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