ON GOD.

EVERY ferious perfon must trace the marks of

an invifible hand, in all the variegated paths of life. He muft acknowledge, that it is not in man who walketh to direct his fteps; yea, he will rejoice to find they are ordered by the LORD, who delighteth in his way: and were we more observant of the hand of providence, many of our enquiries would be needless: we should see the path marked out before us; and if at any time, thro' mistake, we should turn either to the right hand, or to the left, we should hear a still small voice whispering behind, "This is the way, walk in it."

Amaz'd, the wonders of thy God behold!
And meditate his mercies manifold.

Oh! happy time, when, fhaking off this clay,
The human foul at liberty fhall stray

Thro' all the works of nature! fhall defcry

Those objects which evade the mortal eye.
No distance, then, fhall ftretch beyond its flight,
No fmallness 'scape its penetrating fight;

But, in their real effence, fhall be fhewn
Worlds unexplor'd, creations yet unknown.

ON

ON

MEMORY AND REFLECTION.

ΜΕΛ
M

EMORY and Reflection are fo intimately connected, that it has ever appeared to me an impoffible thing, how a man can perfift in a course of error and vice, who has not in a very confiderable degree, weakened the powers of memory: and that they may be weakened by many indulgences, independently of the natural decay of the human faculties, is confiftent with the experience of all mankind. Slight inftances of this every man is acquainted with, who has been accustomed to review his conduct; but the most melancholy ones are in the cafe of those who are fuddenly arrested in the career of wickedness by fome temporal calamity, which confines them to folitude, and who very foon difcover, with repentant furprise, that their prefent unhappy fituation is occafioned by their having forgotten the duties prescribed in early life, fanctioned by univerfal experience, and bounded by all the adverfities to which human beings are expofed.

And why is it that men forget that which it would be so much their advantage to remember?

Why

Why is it they forego the pleafures of the rational, for the more low and groveling indulgences of the animal being? Becaufe, involved in more of the cares of life than contentment would require, and partaking of more of its pleasures than the mind has any neceffity for, they have no leisure to abftract themselves from fuch employments, to turn inwards, and to fcrutinize the nature of thofe things which seem to give moft delight. It is wife, therefore, to appropriate certain times for this retrofpective duty. It is wife now and then to withdraw to the indulgence of cool deliberation, and enquire how far that which has engaged the paffions, and gratified the curiofity, be confiftent with thofe laws which fashion cannot alter, and which the example of a multitude, however fascinating, cannot abrogate.

Of fuch opportunities for reflection, fome are accidental, and fome voluntary. The former are, though perhaps more irrefiftible, yet more precarious than the latter. Among many fuch, may be mentioned the death of friends, who have been endeared to us by a long interchange of mutual kindness; the fudden and unexpected bankruptcy, whether in fortune, or in character, of thofe for whom we have entertained a favourable opinion; or, the adversities that may have happened to ourselves, whether we have or have not exerted our best abilities to avert them.

them. To thefe may be added any great calamity fallen upon perfons with whom we have no particular intimacy, which we must feel as good Chriftians; or any national disasters, in which, though we may not ourselves be directly involved, yet we have a natural relation as good citizens. Thefe, I obferve, may be termed accidental, and they may be precarious: it may be long before we meet with them, or we may meet with them feldom. But voluntary opportunities for reflection cannot be wanting to any man, who has not loft the power of thinking. That they ought to be frequent, may be urged from the great power the affairs of life have to draw us from ourselves; and that they ought to be feriously embraced, will equally appear from the obligations of virtue and religion, which are binding on every man, and immutable through all revolutions.

The conclufion of a year prefents itself as one of thofe occafions, on which it is almost impoffible to refist some intrusions of a thoughtful mind. It is by years we estimate the length of human life; the account is not long in any of us, and when we arrive at a number which is not very great, experience tells us that it is hardly poffible we fhall live to double it. But we may yet hope there is yet time to amend what has been amifs, and to render the evening of

life

life correfpondent to the bright morning when our day commenced.

In reflecting upon the concluding year it will not escape any one, that it has been checquered with numerous viciffitudes, that have befallen those who had a part in our efteem, or our affection. Nor is it lefs obvious, that fuch occurrences are a ftriking confirmation of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of time, and of how little avail it is to labour and toil to excefs for that upon which we can place no rational dependence. More abfurd yet will it appear, to have facrificed our principles to the attainment of objects that yield so precarious a fatisfaction. Better far is it to confider that, as time is short, it ought to be husbanded fo as that we may have fome confolation in reflecting upon the manner in which it has been spent; and as it is uncertain, in providing that we may not be unprepared or appalled, fhould we be called to leave life in the midst of our most engaging schemes.

Divines,' fays a learned author, have, with great ftrength and ardour, fhewn the abfurdity of delaying reformation and repentance;' a degree of folly, indeed, which fets eternity to hazard. It is ⚫ the fame weakness, in proportion to the importance ' of the neglect, to transfer any care, which now ⚫ claims our attention, to a future time. We fubject

our