or with

any,

who ever knew the grace of God in truth.

And now, beloved reader, let me conclude, with leaving it upon thy conscience to search for the truth of the gospel in the study of God's word, accompanied by prayer, as thou wouldst search for hid treasure. I give the this counsel, as expecting to meet thee at the day of judgment, that our meeting may be with joy, and not with grief; may the Lord incline thee to follow it, with that solemn season full in view! Time, how short! eternity, how long! life, how precarious and vanishing! death, how certain! the pursuits and employments of this present life, how vain, unsatisfying, trifling, and vexatious! God's favour and eternal life, how unspeakably precious! his wrath, the never quenched fire, and the never dying-worm, how dreadful! Oh trifle not away thy span of life, in heaping up riches which shortly must be left forever, and which profit not in the day of wrath; in such pleasures and amusements, as will issue in eternal torments; or in seeking that

1

glory, which shall be swallowed up in everlasting infamy. Agree but with me in this ; that it is good to redeem thy precious time, to labour for the meat, that endureth unto everlasting life, and to attend principally to the one thing needful; take but thy measure of truth, as well as duty from the word of God; be willing to be taught of God, meditate on his word day and night; let it be the light of thy feet, and the lantern of thy paths; and in studying it, lean not to thy own understanding, trust not implicitly to expositors and commentators, but ask wisdom and teaching of God. And be not a Felix, saying, to thy serious apprehensions about thy soul; "Go thy way at this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee;" lest death and judgment come before that season; be not an Agrippa, an almost christian; but seek to be altogether such, as the primitive christians were. I say agree but with me in these reasonable requests, and we shall at length agree in all things; in many in this world; in all, when we hear the Son of God address us in these

rejoicing words, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." May the Lord vouchsafe unto the writer, and to every reader of this book, that wisdom, which is from above; that teaching of his Holy Spirit, which guides into the ways of peace; that faith, which justifies; that peace of God, which passeth understanding; and that measure of sanctifying and strengthening grace, which shall enable us to hold on, and hold out unto the end, always abounding in the work of the Lord, as knowing, that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

16*

FINIS.

The following Extract upon reading the Scriptures, is from the Works of the Rev. D. Simpson. It is recommended to the serious attention of every one, who has any regard for the sacred

volume.

WERE I," says the Rev. and pious Mr. Simpson, "permitted to give my last dying advice to the dearest friend, I have in the world, it would be the same, which Dr. JOHNSON gave to his friend Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS-READ YOUR BIBLE-I only should add as above-Read it daily upon your knees with fervent prayer for divine illumination; and rest not, till you have imbibed the spirit of it into the very frame and constitution of your soul, and transcribed the precepts and example of JESUS into every part of your daily deportment of life.

"This should be the last dying advice, I say, which I would give to the tenderest friend I have upon earth. And, if I should have no other opportunity permitted me, I here leave it on record, in direct opposition to the obloquy of the irreligious, and unbelieving world, as a legacy to my friends and the people among whom I have gone preaching the Gospel, of inore real, intrinsic

value, than thousands of gold and silver :-) -READ

YOUR BIBLES, AND READ, TILL YOU LOVE TO READ. PRAY DAILY OVER THEM, AND PRAY, TILL YOU LOVE TO PRAY. When the Scriptures and Prayer become delightful, and the time spent therein seems soon expired, then may you humbly suppose you have made some proficiency in the divine life. But if you can spend whole days together, without refreshing your soul with some portion of the Holy Writings; if you feel yourselves cold, remiss, and negligent in private prayer; or if, when you read the Scriptures, and retire for devotion, you have little or no taste for the heavenly employ, but it appears irksome and disagreeable, and, the time spent therein, tedious and wearisome, you may be assured, let your professions be what they may, and the sermons you hear ever so numerous, or ever so excellent, your soul is either wholly dead to things divine, or you are in a backsliding and dangerous condition."