A PRAYER.

O MOST gracious God! who, out of thy great love and tender regard for mankind, hast set before us life and death, blessing and cursing; and hast endowed us with a freedom of will, and liberty to choose the one and avoid the other; and, to encourage us to make a right choice, hast annexed a present as well as future reward to our obedience to thy laws, and made the ways of religion ways of pleasantness, and all its paths to be peace: O give me wisdom and understanding, that I may not be carried away by the deceitful pleasures of this world; but may see, and know, and choose, the things which make for my peace, and wherein my true and only happiness doth consist.

Convince me more and more that sin is the greatest of all evils; that guilt and misery are always inseparable; and that there is no other solid and substantial happiness to be attained in this life, but that which results from the testimony of a good con. science, and the hopes of thy favour and acceptance: and grant that these momentous truths may be so deeply impressed upon my mind, that I may make it the sincere endeavour of my whole life to please and obey Thee, who art my sovereign good and happiness; the only sure foundation of all my hopes, both here and hereafter; and in comparison to whose favour, all the honours, riches, and enjoy. ments of this world are as nothing.

Deliver me, I beseech thee, from the shame and anguish, the horror and confusion, of a guilty conscience; and give me that comfort and complacency of mind, which arises from the consciousness of having been faithful in thy service, and obedient to thy will. And, since thou hast been graciously pleased to make thy service the most perfect freedom, and the practice of our duty so conducive to our present as well as future well-being, O make

me stedfast and immoveable in the ways of thy laws, and in the works of thy commandments; that, having faithfully served thee in this life, I may at last be found meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, through the sole merits and intercession of our eternal advocate and mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAPTER II.

IN N the foregoing chapter I have endeavoured to show that religion is the only solid foundation of happiness in this world, the only thing that can make us pass the time of our pilgrimage here on earth with any tolerable ease and satisfaction. I shall now proceed, in the next place, to consider the great advantage of a good life, from the comfortable prospect it gives us when we come to die.

And this is an advantage peculiar to virtue and religion, and to which a life of sin and wickedness never pretended. The most which that promises its votaries, is to regale their senses for a little. while it gives them no hopes beyond the grave, nor aims at any thing farther than a short-lived happiness. When a wicked man dieth, his expec tations shall perish,' Prov. xi. 7. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained' all that this world can give him, when God taketh away his soul? Job, xxvii. 8. All his enjoyments are then at an end; and those schemes upon which he has built his happiness will vanish and come to nothing. But with a good man it is far otherwise! he looks beyond this present life, and beholds with an eye of faith the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God;' that place of endless bliss and. happiness, which God has prepared for them that L

love him. In the hopes and expectations of this happiness, he considers himself as a pilgrim and a stranger upon earth; and is daily endeavouring, through the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, by a life of virtue and righteousness, to become meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.

It must, indeed, be owned, that death is the great king of terrors; that the dissolution of soul and body, and the thoughts of becoming a prey to the devouring worms, carries in it something very shocking to human nature; yet, to a good man, death appears in a quite different view. He considers, that to leave this world is only to quit a place of trouble and vexation, of vanity and emptiness: it is to leave a barren and dry wildernesss, where no water is,' for the delightful regions of bliss and happiness, where are rivers of pleasure, and a neverceasing spring of endless comfort, which will satisfy the most longing desires of the soul. He considers, that though this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, yet he has a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;' and is assured with Job, that his Redeemer livet!, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and that though his body be destroyed, yet in his flesh he shall see God, whom he shall see for himself, and his eyes shall behold, and not another's,' Job, xix. 25, 26, 27.

This is what religion promises to them, who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality.' It is the hopes and expectations of this unspeakable happiness that fortify the mind of a good Christian, and give him a courage and resolution which even death itself shall not be able to shake.

It was this that gave holy David such a firmness of mind, as made him say, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff

comfort me,' Ps. xxiii. 4. He had made God his portion, his hope, and his trust. The Lord,' says he is my stony rock and my defence, my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust; my buckler, the horn also of my salvation,' Ps. xviii. 2. And though we find him sometimes complaining, that the sorrows of death had compassed him, and the overflowings of ungodliness made him afraid; that the pains of hell came about him, and the snares of death overtook him; yet the great confidence he had in the goodness and love of God, and the firm belief of a better life after the present, overcame all his fears. I had fainted,' says he, but that I verily believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,' Psalm xxvii. 13.

Religion has been the support of good men in all ages. It is certain, whoever leans upon any thing else will find that he trusts to a broken reed, which will bend under him. There is nothing (as I have observed in the former chapter) but the testimony of a good conscience, and the hopes of the favour and love of God, that is able to bear a man up under the weight and pressure of any great calamity; much less will any thing else be a sufficient support at the hour of death. We shall then be stripped of all the pleasures and enjoyments of this world, of all those things in which we are now apt to place so great a confidence; and, unless we are fortified. with a shield of faith, and the breast plate of righteousness,' unless we have put on the Lord Jesus,' and are clothed with the robes of his righteousness, we shall be left naked and defenceless to encounter death, with all its terrors. The sinner, how much soever he may now trust in the multitude of his riches,' and strengthen himself in his wickedness,' must then give up all his dependencies, and descend into the regions of darkness, not only without hope, but (what is yet more terrible) with dreadful expectations. Of what infinite moment then is it to us all, so to live, that, when the

time appointed for our great change shall come,' we may meet death without fear and astonishment, and, with an humble confidence, may look up to God, in an assured hope of his mercy in Christ Jesus!

A good life is, indeed, the sure pledge of a happy death. As it fills our minds with joy and satisfaction while we live, far surpassing all the pleasures of sensual gratifications; so, when we come to die, it gives us that peace of God which passeth all understanding.' When a man, in his last hour, can look back upon a life well spent, and can say, with king Hezekiah, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight,' Isaiah, xxxviii. 3; what an unspeakable satisfaction must it be to him! How mild and calm will death then appear! and with how little concern will he receive its summons ! With what cheerfulness will he then take leave of this world, and all that was dear to him in it! And how contentedly will he quit his earthly tabernacle, when he considers that he is to exchange it for a ' a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!' I say, what un unspeak. able comfort must it be to a dying man, when he is entering into the valley of the shadow of death,' to have before him a bright prospect of life and glory; to find the light of God's countenance shining upon his mind, and the comforts of his Holy Spirit cheering and refreshing his soul; to be able to look up to God with a filial confidence, and, with a hope full of glory and immortality,' to resign his soul into the hands of his Maker; not doubting but his heavenly Father, whom he has faithfully served in this world, will take care of him, and reward him, in the next; and that the same infinite power and goodness, which has carried him safe through this ⚫ vale of tears and misery,' will conduct him in his passage to a blessed eternity! O, how far more happy must the death of such a one be than the