but few chosen. Wilt thou trifle with his word! Wilt thou deceive thyself, and hope against hope; when vast Eternity shall be the measure of thy sufferings or joys, and when the smile or the frown of thy God awaits thee! Wert thou now going into his presence, where would the next hour find thee? O my soul, thou must appear before that Judge, whose eyes are as a flame of fire; who knows all thy secret sins, and from whom the minutest circumstance cannot be concealed; and what plea can I present to gain his pity. Should I tell him that some knowledge of himself has been mine; that, unlike the perishing heathen, I called him Lord; but has he not said, Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Would not this plea for mercy aggravate my guilt, and cause even the heathen to rise in the judgment against me, to condemn me. They knew him not and could not love him; but I heard of him and would not love him. Or should I plead the privileges I have enjoyed. Should I tell him of parents, now in heaven, whose prayers ascended to his throne for me, but, alas! my abused privileges double all my guilt. Should I plead with him, that my life has been fair; my deportment lovely; my temper kind; my conduct just; but can all this extenuate my rebellion against him and my forgetfulness of God. I know how vain, how very vain, it would be for a criminal arraigned for murder and treason, to plead, in his defence, that though certainly guilty of these crimes, yet that he had never stolen a flower from his neighbour's garden, or an apple from his orchard; nor will it more avail me, when charged with ingratitude to my best benefactor, with rebellion against my God; to plead, in excuse for those vilest of sins, my kindness to my fellow worms.

How solemn is the warning given me, from his sad condition, whose history I have been considering., How lovely was his deportment! how moral his conduct! how pleasing his early desire to find the way to life eternal ! yet I have seen that the one thing' he still wanted; and hast thou, my soul, that one thing? hast thou even as much to plead as he? Can I say with him, all these have I kept from my youth. Have I, in a humbler sphere, as seriously inquired the way to life and peace, as he did,

Far as he went he did not go so far as to become a christian altogether, and what am I, whose concern for Religion has been so much less fervent; whose outward conduct so much less conformed to the will of God? What then wilt thou do, O my soul? canst thoù bear to be banished from the realms of joy and love, and to hear thy now compassionate Saviour bid thee depart for ever? O my God, never let me hear those awful words. Here I bow before thee, and have not one plea for mercy, drawn from any thing in myself, which would deserve thy notice. But stripped of every other, let this be my plea, that Jesus died for me a sinner. Thou hast taught me what to do; hast directed me to apply to him for life and peace. In him, thou hast laid a foundation on which I may build for eternity. There let me rest my all. Wean me altogether from every other dependence. Search me, and try me. If I deceive my own soul discover to me the delusion, and save me from reposing my eternal hopes on any thing except on the crucified Redeemer. Many, O Lord, are the devious paths of error, while strait is the way of life; yet, though strait, it leads to heaven. In that secure and peaceful path, O God, may I walk. May I be found in Christ. May I abide in him; and by this sacred connexion with him, be blessed in this life, and for ever.

And, thou blessed Jesus, be thou my hope, and peace, and may I find thee my Almighty Saviour. Amen.

CHAPTER VI.

The worth of the soul a reason for early piety. Sect. 1. The worth of the soul almost above description....s. 2. Its worth shown by its immortality....s. 3. By the sufferings of Martyrs....s. 4. By the dying testimonies of the pious and of the ungodly....s. 5. By the Reader's own experience, in seasons of sickness....s. 6. By the interest which angels take of its welfare....s. 7. By the exertions of the Father and the Son in its behalf....s. 8. By the conduct of the Holy Spirit, and....s. 9. By the endeavours of infernal spirits to effect its ruin....s. 10. Prayer.

Sect. 1. The chief design of the preceding chapters, has been to make you sensible of your need of spiritual

blessings; and to give you a brief view of the nature of Religion. A few persuasions to choose this good part, may, in one form or other, have been introduced, in what you have already read; yet, perhaps, my young friend, these have been lost upon you. O, if they have, consider now more fully some of those reasons, which should induce you to embrace Religion without delay. And may God enable me to set them before you with that affectionate earnestness and plainnes, which become a dying creature, when addressing another, who must soon be an inbabitant of heaven or hell.

One most weighty motive, to induce you to give your youth to God, is that you possess an immortal soul. The body is the inferior part of your nature. Pass away a few short years, and it must mingle with the clods of the valley; and say to corruption, Thou art my father; and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister. By the body you are allied to worms and dust; by the soul to angels and to God.

It is almost impossible to use words strong enough to express the worth of the soul. Such is its value that a glorious end were answered, if the earth and skies were maintained in being, for ten thousand ages, merely to ripen one soul for immortality and heaven; and the labour of myriads of men and angels, through ten thousand thousand years, would be well employed, in directing one lost soul to a Redeemer. One of our poets, when glancing at the starry firmament and comparing its glories with the soul, remarks with not more fervour than truth,

"Survey that midnight glory! World's on World's!
Amazing pomp! Redouble that amaze;

Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more,
Then weigh the whole; one soul outweighs them all;
And calls the astonishing nagnificence

Of unintelligent creation poor."

Another poet with equal truth and beauty says,

"The sun is but a spark of fire,

A transient meteor in the sky;
The soul immortal as its Sire,

Shall never die."

Sect. 2. Your soul is immortal. It derived its being from God. It is born never to die. If religion be your

choice, it will shine brighter than the stars of the fir mament, when all those stars are gone out in eternal night. Truly has another poet said, respecting the soul,

"The stars shall fade away; the Sun himself
Grow dim with age; and nature sink in years:
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds."

A few years will finish all your delights, and hopes, and fears, below; then will your soul be fixed where it must live for ever. While you, my young friend, read these lines, the souls of millions are encountering all the sorrows, or are gladdened with all the joys, of an endless world. For ages, have the bodies of many of them been turned to dust; their very tombstones are mouldered away; but they all live in eternity, though forgotten here; they are hidden from your sight, but are more alive to joy or sorrow, than they ever were upon earth. Soon will the time arrive, when you must meet this solemn change of being; when you must converse with man no more; but must become a companion of angels or of devils. And, O what is the worth of a soul! that may, through endless ages, shine in heaven, glorious as an angel of light; or which, covered with darkness, misery, and despair, must become a devil, in that lake of fire, where the fire never shall be quenched. O! in pity to your own precious and immortal soul, embrace, without delay, the Gospel of your God.

Sect. 3. The worth of the soul is a subject, on which men of all descriptions have agreed; on which, the best and wisest have had their testimony confirmed, by the most careless and the worst. Martyrs have shewn their sense of its value, by all their sufferings to secure its salvation. For this, thousands, as sensible as you of the comforts of life, have willingly forsaken“ kindred, country, friends, and ease;" have been tortured on racks, or devoured by beasts of prey; been burned alive, or suffered torments far more intolerable than burning! "And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments;

they were stoned; were sawn asunder; were tempted; were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy; they wan dered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth.” Impressed with the worth of the soul, many, with these dark scenes before them, have bid farewell to all the allurements of the world; to meet the roughest storms of persecution; face its dangers; and sink into the grave beneath them. Yet while some were burning, others were coming forward to take their places; in the true spirit of the English Martyr, who, at the place of execution, kissed the stake, and exclaimed, "Welcome the Cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life." Does one of all these martyred myriads repent? Does one now imagine that he suffered more than salvation was worth? Ah no, if they could now address you, they might tell you, that sooner than lose the soul, they would burn in flames a thousand times hotter; suffer torments a thousand times more protracted; prisons a thousand times more dismal; and meet death, in forms, if possible, a thousand times more terrible. And was it worth their while, to endure so much to reach heaven, and is it not worth yours, in earnestness, to seek admittance there ?

Sect. 4. If, after the testimony of such distinguished witnesses, you should hearken to theirs, who have trodden a less brilliant and less suffering path to heaven, their testimony would be the same. Say to the dying christian, "You are in those circumstances, which enable you to view this world and the next aright; what should I chiefly mind?" He, in purport,

would reply, "Take care of your soul." Á dving

saint said, to some friends, that visited him, "You. come hither to learn to die. I can assure you that your whole life, be it ever so long, is little enough to prepare for death. Have a care of this vain deceitful world, and the lusts of the flesh. Be sure you choose God for your portion heaven for your home; God's glory for your end, his word for your rule; and then you need never fear but we shall meet with comfort."