and aspire to that better world, where pure and unadulterated truth shall be disclosed to our view!

Of all the subjects presented to the human mind, religion claims the first and the greatest attention. If there be a God, a Providence, a Saviour, and a Future State of Retribution, these weighty truths ought to be pressing upon our minds, and presiding over our conduct. To familiarize ourselves with their evidences, to lay open our souls to their energy, and promote, by every honourable method, their spread and establishment among mankind, should be our ambition. Zeal is an elevated and an useful passion. It is forcibly and repeatedly enjoined in the sacred writings. It forms the leading trait of excellence in the best and most enlightened characters. Indeed, an individual can scarcely be pronounced truly good, except he possesses a portion of this celestial fire. But let us be careful that our warmth be temperate and regular. Zeal, confined within the limits prescribed by reason and scripture, is attended with blessed consequences. Loosened from these restraints, like the devouring conflagration, it involves in one undistinguishable ruin the victims of its fury, and triumphs in the desolation it has effected. How different is the Christian, influenced by a zeal purely evangelical, from

the monster who is either swoln with the venom of uncharitableness, or is pregnant with persecution for conscience sake! "Mistake me not (says good Richard Baxter) I do not slight orthodoxy, nor jeer at the name; but only disclose the pretences of devilish zeal in pious or seemingly pious men. The slanders of some of these, and the bitter opprobrious speeches of others, have more effectually done the Devil's service, under the name of orthodoxy and zeal for truth, than the malignant scorners of godliness." Thus also the pious Matthew Henry declares, that of all the Christian graces, ZEAL is most apt to turn sour! And Dr. Doddridge, in his Family Expositor, has this remark:-" Wisely did Christ silence the suspicious praises of an unclean spirit; and vain is all the hope which men build merely on those orthodox professions of the most important truths, in which Satan himself could vie with them." May these observations be remembered by zealots of every description!

Indeed, the light and darkness now blended together, instead of generating a spirit of sceptieism, or precipitating us into acts of violence, should impel us to look for the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. What ye know not now, ye shall know hereafter, was our Saviour's declaration to his disciples, respecting an event which occurred

whilst he continued to sojourn amongst them. It is, therefore, reasonable to believe that we shall not remain ignorant of matters of superior importance, when the proper period of communicating higher degrees of information arrives. We may, however, be assured, that the Spirit of God guides all good men into necessary truth.. This is a sentiment in which the wisest of mankind contur; and upon which learned divines, after their most penetrative researches, are obliged ultimately to rest. A venerable and distinguished Christian father pronounced the greatest heresy to be, a wicked life. Devoutly is it wished that those who are clamorous about speculative tenets, would level their artillery more against the violation of the preceptive part of our religion.

The eloquent Saurin pointedly exclaims"Why are not ecclesiastical bodies as rigid and severe against heresies of practice as they are against heresies of speculation? Certainly there are heresies in morality as well as in theology. Councils and synods reduce the doctrines of faith to certain propositional points, and thunder anathemas against all who refuse to subscribe them. They say, cursed be he who doth not believe the divinity of Christ; cursed be he who doth not believe hypostatical union, and the mystery of the cross; cursed be he who denies the inward

operations of grace, and the irresistible efficacy of the Spirit. I wish they would make a few canons against moral heresies. How many are there of this kind among our people!" These observations, made by the intelligent Saurin, respecting the refugee Protestants in Holland, are applicable to the Protestants in our times. Their anathemas are directed more against error than against unrighteousness. Whereas vice is the more formidable enemy to the welfare of mankind. To the word of God, therefore, let us have constant recourse, and thence derive the doctrine which is according to godliness, pure as the light of heaven and refreshing as the dew of the morning! The Gospel of Jesus Christ, justly understood and cordially believed, enlightens the mind, calms the troubled conscience, rectifies depraved propensities, and introduces us into the habitation of the spirits of just men made perfect.

But, alas! mankind, instead of ascertaining what is truth, and how it can best exert its influence over the several departments of conduct, are occupied in schemes of interested ambition, or sunk into criminal indifference. Upon death they seldom bestow a serious thought. Though awful in its nature, frequent in its recurrence, and alarming in its consequences, it leaves on their minds no impression. Without emotion they behold their fellow-creatures snatched from

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off the busy theatre of action, and driven, one after another, either by disease or accident, into the house appointed for all living! Upon the decease indeed of relatives and friends, they heave a sigh, utter an exclamation, shed a tear, but clothing themselves in the garments of sorrow, the tragedy is quickly suming their former views, and laying their minds open afresh to the dominion of their passions, they return with avidity to the occupations and amusements of life. Thus proceeds the tenor of their existence on earth, till they also are swept away into the receptacles of the dead.

Pilgrims and sojourners on earth, we are hastening to an eternal world, and a few more fleeting years will place even the youngest of us before the tribunal of Heaven. Whether we can abide the awful scrutiny which shall be instituted at the last great day, "for which all other days were made," is a question of infinite. importance, and intimately concerns rational and accountable creatures. Amidst the din of controversy, and the jarrings of adverse parties, the opinions of the head are often substituted for the virtues of the heart, and thus is practical religion deplorably neglected. Fleeing, therefore, those pernicious disputes, which damp our devotion, and contract our benevolence, let us