Do not grieve for him who is departed out of a troublefome and dangerous ftate into a better. If a relation, or an acquaintance, is gone into the other world, wholly unprepared for it, his cafe is truly lamentable.

The advantage our paffions have over us, is owing to ourfelves. We may easily gain fuch a knowledge of our own weakness, as to feel them rifing before they be got to the height: And it is our own fault if we do not reftrain them in time.

The most violent fhaking will not fhake the limpid water in a glafs muddy: But a little disturbance wil defile that in the well, or river. If it were not for the impurity of the mind itself, the fhock of temptation would have no effect.

Whoever knows his own weakneffes, and has the fense to endeavour to get rid of them, will find himself as fully employed, in his own mind, as a phyfician in an hofpital.

It may not be in your power to excel many people in riches, honours, or abilities: But you may excel thousands in what is incomparably more valuable, I mean fubftantial goodnefs of heart and life. Hither turn your ambition. Here is an object worthy of it. Nothing is of any value to you that you make a bad ufe of.

You cannot, you fay, find time to examine yourself, whether you are prepared for death. It is no matter, you must find time to die.

It is no matter what you fpend your life in, if you neglect the very bufinefs of life.

A

You may acquire great knowledge, and be the worst for it at last.

Don't think of giving a fhilling, while you owe a pound.

Shall hypocrify get footing among Chriftians? and fhall a Heathen have the character of having rather defired to be virtuous than to be thought fo?

I know no fight more naufeous than that of a fond husband and wife, who have not the fenfe to behave properly to one another before company: Nor any con

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verfation

verfation more fhocking than that of a fnarling couple, who are continually girding at one another.

Confider how uncommon it is to live to old age; and take care to hold yourself in conftant readiness for death.

The unthinking bulk of mankind are ever amufing themselves with fome purfuit foreign to themselves. A wife man is ever looking inward.

It is no wonder if he who reads, converfes, and meditates, improves in knowledge. By the firft, a man converses with the dead; by the fecond, with the living; and by the third, with himfelf. So that he appropriates to himself all the knowledge which can be got from thofe who have lived, and from those now! alive.

Let no man refufe a pardon to others, but he who does not need it for himself.

A very ignorant man may have a very learned library. A very learned man may be a very contemptible

creature.

If it were fafe to put off repentance and reformation to the very last day of life, how do you know that this is not it?

Endeavour to do all the good in your power. Be as active, with prudence, as if you was fure of fuccefs. When you meet a difappointment, let it not abate your diligence, nor put you out of humour. And when you have done all, remember you have only done your duty.

The Dutch will not fuffer the fmalleft breach in their dykes for fear of an inundation. Do not you fuffer the fmallest paffage for vice into your heart, left you find your virtue quite overflowed.

Do not be unhappy if you have not married a profeffed beauty. They generally admire themselves fo much, they have no love left for their husbands. Befides, it might not perhaps have been very agreeable to you to fee every fellow, as you went into public places, look at your wife, as if he could devour her with his eyes.

Take

Take no counsel with flesh and blood, if you aspire at what is truly great.

A foolish youth makes a crazy old age.

Take care of natural biaffes, as felf-love, pleasure, &c. Be fure, you will always incline enough toward the biafs fide. Therefore, you need have no guard upon yourself that way.

The angels are faid in Scripture to defire to look into the Chriftian scheme, as if to learn fomewhat. Do not you then think it beneath you to learn, while you are fo much inferior to them. The moft knowing are the most defirous of knowledge. The moft virtuous the moft defirous of improvement in virtue. On the contrary, the ignorant think themselves wife enough; the vicious are in their own opinion good enough.

In beftirring yourself for the public advantage, remember, that if you should not accomplish all that you propofe, you will however have employed yourself to good purpose, and will not fail of your reward, if you fhould of fuccefs.

Let no man complain of the fhortness of life, but he who can fay he has never mispent one hour.

Make fure firft, and principally, of that knowledge, which is neceffary for you as a man, and a member of fociety. Next, of what is neceffary in your particular way of life. Afterwards, improve yourtelf in all useful and ornamental knowledge, as far as your capacity, leifure, and fortune will allow.

If you would not have affliction vifit you twice, liften at once to what it teaches.

Never caft your eye upon a good man, without refolving to imitate him. Whenever you fee an instance of vice or folly in another, let it be a warning to you to avoid them.

Where is yesterday now? With the years before the flood. But if you have employed it well, it stands recorded above, to your eternal honour and advantage. If you have mispent or neglected it, it will appear against you at the laft day.

Would you have one general univerfal remedy for all difeates, ftudy religion. The only rational ground of confolation

confolation in the various diftreffes of life, is the confideration, that religion proposes a pofitive reward for bearing with dignity, and improving by affliction, and that afflictions are in truth our greatest bleffings and proofs of the Divine favour.

If you unhappily fall into fome fatal miscarriage, which wounds your confcience, and makes your life a burden, confefs it, with all its circumftances, to fome judicious and tender-hearted perfon, in whofe fidelity you can confide, and whofe advice may be of service to you. If it be of fuch a peculiar nature, that you do not think it prudent to confefs yourfelf guilty of fuch a thing, send a full account of it, written in a disguised hand, defiring an anfwer in writing. When you have the opinion of a judicious perfon upon the heinoufness of your crime, which you may find you have either through felf-love thought too flightly of, or, through an exceffive tendernefs of confcience, blamed yourself too much for, imprefs your mind properly with a fense of your fault; humble yourself deeply before God; and refolve bravely no more to be guilty of fuch folly. When you have done fo, and find you can keep to your refolutions, it is not neceffary that you continue to afflict yourself without end for what is irrecoverably past. The principal part of repentance is reforma

tion.

I know no way of laying out a few fhillings to more advantage, either for profit or pleasure, than upon an entertaining and inftructing book. But this expence is greatly overdone by fome, and ill laid out by others.

While you are unhappy because your tailor has not cut your coat to your mind, many an honeft man would be glad to have one that would only keep out the cold, and cannot. While you are in a paflion with your cook, because he has fpoiled you one difh among fix, many a poor family, who are fellow-creatures, and your fellow Chriftians, are at a lofs for bread to fupply the wants of nature. Think of this, and give over with fhame your foolish and impious complaints against that goodness of Providence, which has placed you in circumftances fo much above perfons of equal merit with yourself. D d

It

It is the unhappiness of human life, that in every man's conduct there has always been fome miscarriage, or fome misfortune in his circumftances, which has prevented his carrying his improvements in knowledge and virtue the length which might have been wifhed or imagined. To make the moft of life, fuch a number of concurrences are neceffary, that it is no wonder they feldom all fall to the fhare of any one perfon. Health, long-life, fortune; great and various natural abilities, and a good difpofition; an extensive education, begun carly; indefatigable diligence to carry on improvements; a fet of acquaintance capable of affifting in the pursuit of knowledge, and of encouraging in virtue; and happening to live in an age favourable to freedom of inquiry. If we confider the improvements fome towering geniuffes have made in knowledge, and the lengths gone in exemplary virtue by many who have laboured under innumerable difadvantages, we cannot help lamenting, that they were not favoured by Providence with the others, nor imagining what immense heights they muft, in fome circumftances, have reached. The most remarkable concurrence of all kinds of advantages that ever was; and the moft ftupendous ef fects in confequence of it, will probably, as long as this world lafts, be the admiration and delight of all who are judges of the fublime labours of the greatest of philofophers, and beft of men, the glory of our country, and of Human Nature, Yet even in him (though a fort of fuperior being, when compared with the rest of the fpecies,) it is poffible to imagine fome circumstances different, and to the advantage. To what heights then may our nature rife in future ftates, when every poflible advantage fhall concur!

Do not pretend to neglect or trifle with your duty, unless you have found out unquestionable and demonftrative proof, that the general fense of mankind in all ages and nations, that virtue is the perfection of Human Nature, and the fure way to happiness, and vice the contrary, is a grofs abfurdity and falfehood; that the Bible is a forgery; and that the belief of a judgement to come is a dream. If you be not as fure of all

this,