helpless days of your infancy and childhood, to convince you of the contrary. You need not, in order to this, recollect the remarkable deliverances, which, perhaps, were wrought out for you many years ago. The repose of the last night, the refreshment and comfort you have received this day; yea, the mercies you are receiving this very moment, bear witness to him; and yet you regard him not. Ungrateful creature that you are! Could you have treated any human benefactor thus? Could you have borne to neglect a kind parent, or any generous friend, that had but a few months acted the part of a parent to you? to have taken no notice of him, while in his presence; to have returned him no thanks? to have had no contrivances to make some little acknowledgment for all his goodness? Human nature, bad as it is, is not fallen so low. Nay, the brutal nature is not so low as this. Surely every domestic animal round you must shame such ingratitude. If you do but for a few days take a little kind notice of a dog, and feed him with the refuse of your table, he will wait upon you and love to be near you; he will be eager to follow you from place to place, or when, after a little absence, you return home, will try by a thousand fond transported motions, to tell you how much he rejoices to see you again. Nay, brutes, far less sagacious and apprehensive, have some sense of our kindness, and express it after their way; as the blessed God condescends to observe, in this very view in which I mention it, "The dull ox knows its owner, and the stupid ass his master's crib :" (Isa. i. 3.) What lamentable degeneracy therefore is it, that you do not know, that you who have been numbered among God's professing people, do not, and will not consider your numberless obligations to him.

Surely, if you have any ingenuousness of temper, you must be ashamed and grieved in the review; but if you have not, give me leave farther to expostulate with you on this head, by setting it in something of a different light. Can you think yourself safe, while you are acting a part like this? Do you not in your conscience believe, there will be a future judgment? Do you not believe

As professed

there is an invisible and eternal world? Christians we all believe it; for it is no controverted point, but displayed in scripture with so clear an evidence, that, subtle and ingenious as men are in error, they have not yet found out a way to evade it. And believing this, do you not see, that while you are thus wandering from God, "destruction and misery are in your ways?" (Rom. iii. 16.) Will this indolence and negligence of temper be any security to you? Will it guard you from death? Will it excuse you from judgment? You might much more reasonably expect, that shutting your eyes would be a defence against the rage of a devouring lion? or that looking another way should secure your body from being pierced by a bullet or a sword. When God speaks of the extravagant folly of some thoughtless creatures who would hearken to no admonition now, he adds in a very awful manner: the latter day they shall consider it perfectly." (Jerem. xxiii. 20.) And is not this applicable to you? Must you not, sooner or later, be brought to think of these things, whether you will or not? And, in the mean time, do you not certainly know, that timely and serious reflection upon them is, through divine grace, the only way to prevent your ruin!

"In

Yes, sinner, I need not multiply words on a subject like this. Your conscience is already inwardly convinced, though your pride may be unwilling to own it. And, to prove it, let me ask you one question more: Would you upon any terms and considerations whatever, come to a resolution absolutely to dismiss all farther thought of religion, and all care about it, from this day and hour, and to abide by the consequences of that neglect? I believe, hardly any man living, would be bold enough to determine upon this. I believe, most of my readers would be ready to tremble at the thought of it.

But if it be necessary to take these things into consideration at all, it is necessary to do it quickly; for life itself is not so very long, nor so certain, that a wise man should risk much upon its continuance.

And I hope to convince you, when I have another hearing, that it is necessary to do it immediately; and that next to the madness of resolving you will not think of religion at all, is that of saying, I will think of it nereafter. In the mean time, pause on the hints which have been already given, and they will prepare you to receive what is to be added on that head.

The MEDITATION of a Sinner, who was once thoughtless, but begins to be awakened.

"AWAKE, O my forgetful soul, awake from these wandering dreams. Turn thee from this chase of vanity, and for a little while be persuaded by all these considerations, to look forward, and to look upward, at least for a few moments. Sufficient are the hours and days given to the labours and amusements of life. Grudge not a short allotment of minutes, to view thyself and thine own more immediate concerns; to reflect who, and what thou art; how it comes to pass that thou art here, and what thou must quickly be!

"It is indeed, as thou hast seen it now represented. Oh my soul! Thou art the creature of God; formed and furnished by him, and lodged in a body which he provided, and which he supports; a body in which he intended thee only a transitory abode. Oh think how soon "this tabernacle must be dissolved," (2 Cor. v. 1.) "and thou must return to God," (Eccles. xii. 7.) And shall He, the One, Infinite, Eternal, Ever-blessed, and Ever-glorious Being, shall He be least of all regarded by thee? Wilt thou live and die with this character, saying, by every action of every day, unto God; "Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of thy ways?" (Job xxi. 14.) The morning, the day, the evening, the night, every period of time, has its excuses for this neglect. But O, my soul, what will these excuses appear, when examined by his penetrating eye! They may delude me; but they cannot impose upon him. O thou injured, neglected, provoked Benefactor, when I think but for a moment or two, of all thy greatness, and of all thy goodness, I am astonished at this

insensibility, which has prevailed in mine heart, and even still prevails. "I blush and am confounded to lift up my face before thee." (Ezra ix. 6.) On the most transient review, I see, "that I have played the fool, that I have erred exceedingly." (1 Sam. xxvi. 21.) And yet this stupid heart of mine would make its having neglected thee so long, a reason for going on to neglect thee. I own it might justly be expected, that with regard to thee, every one of thy rational creatures should be all duty and love: that each heart should be full of a sense of thy presence; and that a care to please thee should swallow up every other care. "Yet thou hast not been in all my thoughts;" (Psa. x. 4.) and religion, the end and glory of my nature, has been so strangely overlooked, that I have hardly ever seriously asked my own heart, what it is.-I know, if matters rest here, I perish, yet I feel in my perverse nature, a secret indisposition to pursue these thoughts; a proneness, if not entirely to dismiss them, yet to lay them aside for the present. My mind is perplexed and divided; but I am sure, thou who madest me, knowest what is best for me. I therefore beseech thee, that thou wilt, "for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me." (Psa. xxxi. 3.) Let me not delay till it is for ever too late. "Pluck me as a brand out of the burning." (Amos iv. 11.) O break this fatal enchantment that holds down my affections to objects, which my judgment comparatively despises ! And let me, at length, come into so happy a state of mind, that I may not be afraid to think of thee, and of myself; and may not be tempted to wish that thou hadst not made me, or that thou couldest for ever forget me; that it may not be my best hope, to perish like the brutes.

"If what I shall farther read here, be agreeable to truth and reason; if it be calculated to promote my happiness, and is to be regarded as an intimation of thy will and pleasure to me; O God, let me hear and obey! Let the words of thy servant, when pleading thy cause, be like goads to pierce into my mind! "Let them be as nails fastened in a sure place;" (Eccl. xii. 11.;) that

CHAP. II. THE SINNER CAUTIONED AGAINST DELAY. 21 whatever mysteries as yet unknown, or whatever difficulties there be in religion, if it be necessary, I may not finally neglect it; and that if it be expedient to attend immediately to it, I may no longer delay that attendance! And, O let thy grace teach me the lesson I am so slow to learn; and conquer that strong opposition, which I feel in my heart, against the very thought of it! Hear these broken cries, for the sake of thy Son, who has taught and saved many a creature as untractable as I, and can 66 out of stones raise up children unto Abraham." (Matt. iii. 9.) Amen."

CHAPTER III.

THE AWAKENED SINNER URGED TO IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION, AND CAUTIONED AGAINST DELAY.

I HOPE my last address so far awakened the convictions of my reader, as to bring him to this purpose, that some time or other he would attend to religious considerations. But give me leave to ask earnestly and punctually, When shall that be? "Go thy way for this time, and at a more convenient season I will send for thee," (Acts xxiv. 25.) was the language, and the ruin of unhappy Felix, when he trembled under the reasonings and expostulations of the apostle. The tempter presumed not to urge, that he should give up all thoughts of repentance and reformation; but only that, considering the present hurry of his affairs, (as no doubt they were many,) he should defer it to another day. The artifice succeeded, and Felix was undone.

Will you, reader, dismiss me thus? For your own sake, and out of tender compassion to your perishing immortal soul, I would not willingly take up with such a dismission and excuse. No, not though you should fix a time; though you should determine on the next year, or month, or week, or day. I would turn upon you, with all the eagerness and tenderness of friendly importunity, and intreat you to bring the matter to an issue even now. For if you say "I will think on these things to-morrow,'

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