ftruction of those who have obtained a reputation for wif dom; and I examine, with ferious attention, the volumes in which are written the words of the wife.

4. The refult of the whole inquiry is a fincere conviction, that I am placed here to perform many duties; that I origi nate from a fupreme Creator; and that I am going on in the journey of life, to accomplish fome of his gracious purposes at the close of it, as well as in its progress.

5. I divide my duty into three parts, according to the fuggeftions of my own reafon, and the inftruction of books. They confift of the obligations which I owe to myself, to others, and to Him, in whofe hands are both they and myfelf, the great Lord of the universe.

6. With refpect to myfelf, as I confift of two parts, a body and a mind, my duty to myself again feparates itself into two correfpondent fubdivifions. My body is a machine curiously organized, and eatily deranged by excefs and irregularity.

7. When disturbed in its economy, it fubjects me to pain, and difables me from all neceffary and pleafant exertion. I owe it therefore to myself, to tafte the cup, and partake the banquet, and gratify all my fenfes, no further than thofe limits which are obviously prefcribed by reafon and experience.

8. I further learn from the religion of my country, that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. To pollute it with prefumptuous tranfgreffion cannot but be blafphemy; to devote myself to gluttony, drunkennefs, and debauchery, is at once to deaden the growing energies of fpiritual life, and to weaken and deftroy the fubordinate, yet neceffary parts of me, my animal and material fabric; it is to fhorten life, and to disable me from performing its duties while it continues.

9. But I have alfo a mind capable of rising to high improvements by culture, and of finking to a brutal ftupidity by neglect. I will make use of all the advantages of education. I will devote my hours of leisure to reading and reflection.

10. Elegant letters, as well as useful fciences, fhall claim my attention; for all which tends to polish the mind, tends alfo to fweeten the temper, and to mitigate the remains of natural ferocity.

11. My mind, as well as my body, is greatly concerned in avoiding intemperance. Eating to excefs clouds its brightnefs, blunts its edge, and drags it down to all the groffnefs of materiality. Intemperate drinking not only reduces it, at the time of its immediate influence, to a state of brutality, but gradually deftroys all its vigor.

12. The fenfual indulgencies in general, when they are inordinate and exceffive, debafe, corrupt, and brutalize. Their delights are tranfient, their pains fevere and of long duration.

13. Inftead then of running into the danger of temptation, during the ardor of youth, I will fly from the conflict, in which my own paffions are fure to fight against me, and will probably betray me to the enemy.

14. I fee, indeed, thoufands purfuing pleasure, and profeffing to have found it in perfection in the haunts of debauchery. But I fee them but for a little while. Like the filly infect which flutters with delight around the taper, they foon receive fome fatal injury in their minds, their perfons or their fortunes, and drop into irrecoverable ruin

15. Alas! I am too much inclined to vice, from the depravity of my nature, and the violence of my paffions. I will not add fuel to the fire, nor increase the violence of that natural tempeft within me, which of itself is fufficient to accomplish my destruction.

16.

But at the fame time, I will not be a cynic. The world abounds with innocent enjoyments. The kind God' of nature intended that I fhould tafte them. 'But moderation is effential to true pleasure.

17. My own experience, and the experience of mankind from their origin, has declared, that whenever pleasure exceeds the bounds of moderation, it is not only highly inju rious, but difgufiful. In order to enjoy pleafure, I fee the neceffity of pursuing fome bufinefs with attention.

18. The viciffitude is neceffary to excite an appetite and give a relifh. Nay, the very performance of bufiness with fkill and fuccefs, is attended with a delightful fatisfaction, which few of the most boafted pleasures are able to confer.

19. While I take care of myself, of my health, of my improvement in morals and understanding, I will not harbor pride, or look down with fupercilioufnefs or ill nature on

thofe

thofe who live, as it were, at random, and who acknowledge no other guide of their conduct, but the fudden impulfe of ■ temporary inclination.

20. With all my improvements and endeavours, I fhall ftill feel imperfections enough to humble me. Candor and humility are fome of the leaft fallible marks of found fenfe and fincere virtue. I fhall have fufficient employment in correcting myself, nor fhall I prefume to cenfure others, unless my profeffion or relative fituation render it my duty.

21. My duty to myself is, indeed, intimately connected with my duty to others. By preferving the faculties of my mind and body, and by improving them to the utmost, I am enabled to exert them with effect in the service of fociety. I am connected with others by the ties of sonfanguinity and friendship, and by the common bond of partaking in the fame humanity.

22. As a fon, I fhall be tender and dutiful; as a brother, uniformly affectionate; as a husband, faithful and -friendly; as a father, kind and provident; as a man, benevolent to men in whatever circumftances, and however feparated from me by country, religion, or government.

23. But universal benevolence, must not be an inactive principle. If it proceed not to real beneficence, I fear it will have more in it of oftentation than of fincerity. I will then prove its fincerity by doing good, and removing evil of every kind, as far as my abilities allow me, and my influence extends.

24. But before I pretend to generofity, I will be ftrict-. ly juft. Truth fhall regulate my words, and equity my actions. If I am engaged in a profeffion, I will do the duties of it; if in merchandize, I will take no advantage of the ignorant, nor debase my character, nor wound my confcience, for the fake of gain.

25. In all my intercourfe with fociety, I will recollect that heavenly precept of doing to others as I wish they fhould do to me; and will endeavour to obey it. I may, I certainly fhall offend from the violence of my paffions, the weakness of my judgment, the perverfeness of my will, and from mistake and misapprehenfion.

26. But while I keep the evangelical rule in view, and fincerely labor to conform to it, I hall feldom commit such

offences

offences against others, as will be either permanently or deeply injurious.

27. With respect to my duty to my Creator, I derive an argument in favor of religion, from the feelings of my own bofom, fuperior to the most elaborate fubtleties of human ingenuity. In the hour of diftrefs, my heart as naturally flies for fuccor to the Deity, as when hungry and thirsty, I feek food and water; or when weary, repose.

28. In religion I look for comfort, and in religion I always find it. Devotion fupplies me with a pure and exalted pleasure. It elevates my foul, and teaches me to look down with proper contempt upon many objects which are eagerly fought, but which end in misery.

29. In this respect, and in many others, it effects in the best and most compendious method, what has been in vain pretended to by proud philofophy. And in felecting a mode or peculiar fyftem of religion, I fhall confider what that was in which my father lived and died.

30. I find it to have been the religion of Chrift. I examine it with reverence, I encounter many difficulties; but, at the fame time, I feel within me an internal evidence, which, uniting its force with the external, forbids me to difbelieve.

31. When involuntary doubts arife, I immediately filence their importunity by recollecting the weakness of my judgment, and the vain prefumption of haflily deciding on the most important of all objects, against fuch powerful evidence, and against the major part of the civilized world.

32. I will learn humility of the humble Jefus, and gratefully accept the beneficial doctrines and glorious offers, which his benign religion reaches out to all who fincerely feek him by prayer and penitence.

33. In vain fhall the conceited philofophers, whom fashion and ignorance admire, attempt to weaken my belief, or undermine the principles of my morality. Without their aid, I can be fufficiently wicked and fufficiently miserable.

34. Human life abounds with evil. I will feek balfams for the wounds of the heart in the fweets of innocence, and in the confolations of religion. Virtue, I am convinced, is the nobleft ornament of humanity, and the fource of the

fublimeft

fublimeft and the sweetest pleasure; and piety leads to that peace, which the world, and all it poffeffes, cannot bestow.

35. Let others enjoy the pride and pleasure of being call ed philofophers, deifts, fceptics; be mine the real, unoftentatious qualities of the honeft, humble, and charitable Chrif tian. When the gaudy glories of fafhion and vain philofophy fhall have withered like a fhort-lived flower, fincere piety and moral honefty fhall flourish as the cedar of Lebanon.

36. But I reprefs my triumphs. After all my improvements, and all my pantings for perfection, I fhall still be greatly defective. Therefore, to whatever degree of excellence I advance, let me never forget to fhow to others that indulgence which my infirmities, my errors, and my voluntary misconduct, will require both from them, and from mine and their Almighty and most merciful Father.

THE CHILD TRAINED UP FOR THE GAL

LOWS.

Is any father fo unnatural as to wish to have his fon hanged, let him bring him up in idleness, and without putting him to any trade. Let him particularly inure him to fpend the Lord's day in play and diverfion, instead of attending on public worship; and inftead of inftructing him, on that day, in the principles of the Chriftian res ligion, let him rob a neighboring hen rooft, while the prietor of it is gone to divine fervice.

pro

2. Aftonishing it is to fee fo many of our young people growing up without being apprenticed to any bulinefs for procuring their future livelihood! The Jews had a proverb, "That whoever was not bred to' a trade, was bred for the gallows." Every muffulman is commanded by the Koran to learn fome handicraft or other; and to this precept, even the family of the grand Signior fo far conform, as to learn as much about the mechanifm of a watch, as to be able to take it in pieces, and to put it together again.

3. Are Christians the only people in the world, who ars to live in idleness, when one of the injunctions of the

decalogue