compensation of all his labori- | posed to the general goodous services and self-denial. And yet it is easy to see, that he This man acts with a constant may seek the gratification of view to that end which is most his ruling propensity, by seekagreeable to his heart, and in ing, and rejoicing in the seek his own happiness, with as great engagedness--with as much ardor and constancy, as ever a selfish man seeks the end, in which he places his chief delight. which he experiences the great-public good, and, in this sense, est pleasure and satisfaction, and in this sense, continually seeks his own happiness; but in a different object, from a different source, and from a different principle, from the selfish man. For it is benevolence or love to others, that makes their happi-will, ness a source of joy and happiness to any one, and causes him to seek their happiness as the object or end in which his own felicity is found. Nothing short of real good. benevelonce, or love to others, will render their happiness in itself considered, a source of joy and satisfaction to our hearts. But in proportion to the degree and strength of our love to them, shall we rejoice in their joy, and be happy in their happiness. Hence, the infinite happiness of God, founded in and resulting from his own infinite perfection and ab solute all-sufficiency, displayed and expressed in all his works, will be a source of joy and hap They who love him not, will derive no joy or pleasure from a view or consideration of his infinite happiness. But in propor tion to the degree and strength of our love to him, shall we rejoice in his infinite happi Hence it may appear that the selfish and the benevolent are distinguished from each other, not so properly by the one's seeking his own happiness, and the other's disregarding and meglecting his own happiness; as by the different objects in which they respectively place their own happiness, the sour-piness to those only who love him. ces from which it is derived, the ends which they ultimately seek, and in which they acquiesce and experience the greatest satisfaction and delight. He whose ultimate end, is a good opposed to, or wholly distinct from the good or happiness ofness, in his glorious perfections, others, is entirely selfish. But which are the foundation of it, he whose ultimate end, in which and in all the good produced his heart rests with satisfaction by the display of them, in which and delight, is the good or hap- he himself hath ineffable depiness of others, is benevolent. light. And if this ultimate end be the good of being, the greatest good of the universe, his benevolence is genuine, disinterested, public benevolence or love, in contradistinction from selfishness, and from a limited, partial benevolence, which may be op He who loves God with all his heart, and his neighbor or fellow creatures as himself, will, as the natural effect of this love, experience the most peculiar satisfaction and joy in the view and contemplation of God's in finite glory and happiness, and in all the good-in all the holi- Wherefore, "Let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.”— But, "He that loveth not know. eth not God: for God is love." PRESBYTES. Thoughts respecting the incon ceivable worth of the soul of man, and the immense evil involved in the loss of it; sug. gested by Christ's words in Matthew xvi. 26. "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul !" PART II. (Concluded from p. 231.) have to their particular friends THE joy and happiness of and connections, and the regard which some have for the welfare of their country, as distinguished from and opposed to the interest of other nations. We may remark again, every soul which is saved, by being continued for ever, will amount to an infinite sum of real substantial good. This infinite good doth every one lose; of all this doth every one fall short, who loses his own soul. 2. The love required in the gospel is, in the very nature of Nor is this the whole, or things, absolutely necessary to a any wise near the whole, of his feeling, experimental percep- loss, or calamity. For the soul, tion of the grand source of which is capable of peaceful and the most sublime joy and happi-happifying perceptions and exness of intelligent beings. ercises, is equally capable of Whilst destitute of this love, such as are extremely disquietwe are altogether unprepared-ing, painful and tormenting. totally unqualified for, and morally incapable of, participating in the oy and happiness of hea ven.. Selfishness, pride and ambition, hatred and enmity, anger and wrath, envy and revenge, malice and cruelty, with the whole train of discordant, fret- ministers and others- makful, turbulent and boisterous ing light of and neglecting the feelings, lusts and passions, are, great salvation-of preferring in their very nature, disquieting, the world and the gratificapainful and tormenting; de- tion of his vain, foolish and structive of inward peace and abominable desires and appehappiness, and productive of tites, to all the blessings proposed continual vexation, pain and and offered in the gospel-of anguish. despising and rebelling against To these and all such-like the just God and Saviour-of lusts and passions, every soul having acted the most foolish which is lost, will be an everlas- and destructive, as well as crim ting prey. Under their domin-inal part, and completely ruin ion, the man who loses his soul, ed and destroyed himself; and will be left for ever, a continual therefore, of being justly cast prey to all the vexation and tor-off and rejected by God, and ment involved in, and resulting delivered over to suffer the ef from, their unrestrained preva- fects of his terrible wrath for lence and power. ever. He may also be subjected to He may be subjected to exall the painful and insupportably perience the extremely painful tormenting sensations of con- sensations of the most mortify scious desert of the displea- ing disappointment of all his sure and wrath of God, and hopes-of being cut off and of the hatred and contempt separated, for ever, from every of all intelligent creatures-of object and enjoyment suited a consciousness of being, and to gratify his inclinations, dehaving acted the part of sires and appetites; whilst an enemy to all; and, there- his desires and inclinations, fore, of deserving the dis- and thirst after enjoyment, pleasure and abhorrence of continue in full strength, or, all-of having, whilst in a state perhaps, with an importunity, of probation, neglected, misim- ardor and intenseness increa proved and abused precious sea-sed, by the continual want and sons and opportunities, means disappointment. and advantages, for securing He may, also, and doubtless eternal happiness-of wasting will be subjected to the insup his time, and employing his portably painful sensations of talents, in the pursuit of mere being consciously confined for trifles, to the utter neglect ever, with the devil and his anof things of real worth, and gels, and all the finally wick everlasting importance-of shuted, under the power and wrath ting his eyes against the light, of God, whom he hath disre and turning a deaf ear to the in-garded and treated with constructions, and warnings, counsels and reproofs, invitations, calls and offers, promises and threatenings, with which God and Jesus Christ addressed him in his word, and by his tempt, and to whose character and will, to whose honor, glory and happiness, his heart is utterly opposed, whilst this omnipotent God is continually pouring in upon his very soul, and wrath, producing the keenest pain, and anguish, as by the flames of a fire most intensely hot. sense of his just indignation | nite sum of real positive pain and torment will they amount, by being continued for ever? How trifling, indeed, how worthless and despicable, would be the good, implied in and resulting from the acquisition of the whole How plain and strikingly evident is it, then, that, in case a man should in fact gain the whole world, but lose his own soul, he would have no cause to glory in his acquisition, but in loss would so infinitely exceed his gain, that the good obtained would not bear any, not even the least, conceivable proportion to the loss sustained-to the evil to be endured? Wherefore, in a review of all that has been said, let me seriously ask the readers of these thoughts, the following plain questions, and entreat them to apply them impartially to their own consciences and hearts, and to act agreeably to the truths and obligations, which they will suggest and exhibit. In holy creatures, an increase of knowledge is attended with an increase of hap-world, as a counter-balance to piness. But in the wicked, such infinite evil? whose souls are lost, the case is quite the reverse. Their souls being destitute of all truly benevolent, virtuous and happifying affections and excercises, and under the unrestrained dominion of malevolent, disqui-finitely the reverse? that his eting and tormenting lusts and passions, and they being utterly excluded from every comfortable enjoyment, and delivered over to the unceasing expressions of the dreadful wrath of God; the more they know, and the more their views and capacities are extended and enlarged, the greater will their misery be. The remembrance of past scenes cannot fail to produce very painful sensations. And the more they see and know of God, his works and ways-the more they are convinced of his majesty and power, knowledge and wisdom, justice and truth, goodness and mercy, happiness and glory, and of the glory and hap-soul? Nay, is not every other piness of saints and angels; enjoyment which can possibly whilst they are chained down in be experienced by any man, darkness, despair and torment, whilst he fails of the salvation as unceasing, as endless, as the of his soul, a mere trifle, and glory and happiness of the sa- not worthy to be at all regarded, ved, and as the existence of in comparison with this? Hence, God; the greater and more in- therefore, supportably tormenting will be their enmity and hatred, envy and rage, vexation and anguish. How complete, then, and inconceivably great are the sufferings of every one who loses his ●wn soul? And to what an infi Is any other attainable good to be placed in competition with that of the salvation of a man's. Ought not the salvation of your souls to engage your early, constant persevering attention, care and pursuit? Can you justify your conduct to your own consciences, as becoming the character and consistent with the obligations of reasona- | and labor to understand and do ble creatures, if you do not the will of God; if through pay a first, a principal, and a this whole period he should steady attention to the securing watch and pray, and strive of that interest, which, to you, against and for the victory over is infinitely the most necessary all sin, and all the temptations and important, and in compar- and snares, to which, he might ison with which all others are be exposed; if he should deny as nothing. himself the pleasure and worldShould not every thing in- ly advantages of all the fashioncompatible with a proper at- able amusements and diversions, tention to the salvation of your and all those pursuits and ways souls be made to give way to of worldly gain or promotion, it? If the indulgence of any par- which he believes to be disapticular inclination or appetite, proved and forbidden by God, however grateful and pleasing it and of a tendency to expose be for the present, exposes you him to the loss of his soul; if to lose your souls, ought you he should spare neither labor not instantly to desist from it, nor expense, in doing good, as to abandon it, and make it he hath opportunity, unto all, give way to the all important and especially, to them who are concern of seeing to and se- of the household of faith; if, io curing your souls' salvation? obedience to the revealed will of If you do not, will not your God and the Saviour, he should consciences reproach and con- courageously confess Christ be demn you, as acting in oppo- fore men, and hold fast the sition to your own true and truths taught by him, and prac most important interest-moretise agreeably to his commands, like persons beside themselves, when the general current was than like men in their mind? strong against him and his Is it possible to be at more la-cause, and thereby become exbor, pains and expense, for the posed and subjected to hatred salvation of your souls, than it and contempt, reproach and peris worth, or any wise compara-secution; if he should perse bly so much? If any one should, in early life, begin to inquire, with deep concern and painful solicitude, what he must do to be savedhow, in what way, and by what means, the salvation of his soul might be secured, and to seek and pray to God from day to day, to be directed and kept in the way, which will end in this all important blessing; if, from early youth, to the end of a life of seventy or eighty years, he should daily make it a primary and principal object of his care vere, though at the risk and to the loss of every thing in this world dear to the natural heart of man, and finally, of life itself; but should, in consequence, re ceive everlasting life in the world to come, and enjoy all the good comprised in the salvation of his soul :-Would such a one have any reason to regret his laboring so hard and so long, and taking so much pains, and put ting himself to so much ex pense, and submitting to so much self-denial and to such great losses and sufferings, with |