dois truft in me *.-This now is the Comfort of their Life, and the Joy of their Heart. They treasure it up, in their Memories, as a most valuable Legacy. They rely upon it, as an inexhaustible Fund, to fupply all their Neceffities; and to ensure the Bleffing of Succefs on all their honest Labours. They are rich; they are happy; in this facred Pledge of the divine Favour. They fear no Evil; they want no Good; because GoD is their Guide, and their Guardian GOD. No fooner turned from one Momento of my own, and Memorial of another's Deceafe, but a fecond, a third, a long Succeffion of thefe melancholy Monitors croud upon my Sight +.That which has fixed my Obfervation, is one of a more grave and fable Afpect than the former. I fuppofe, it preferves the Relics of a more aged Perfon. One would conjecture, that he made fomewhat of a Figure in his Station among the Living, as his Monument does among the Funeral Marbles. Let me draw near, and inquire of the Stone, "Who, or what is beneath its Sur"face?"-I am inform'd, He was once the Owner of a confiderable Eftats; which was much improved by his own Application and Manage ment: That, he left the World in the busy Period of Life; advanced a little beyond the Meridian.-Probably, replied my mufing Mind, one of those indefatigable Drudges, who rife early; late take Reft; and eat the Bread of Carefulness; not to fecure the Loving-kindness of the LORD: not to make Provifion for any reasonable Neceffity: but only to amafs together ten thousand times more, than they can poffibly use. Did he not lay Schemes for inlarging his Fortune, and aggrandizing his Family? Did he not purpose to join Field to Field, and add Houfe to House; till his Poffeffions were almost as vaft, as his Defires! That, then, he would fit down, and enjoy what he had acquired; breathe a while. from his toilfome Purfuit of Things temporal, and, perhaps, think a little of Things eternal. BUT fee the Folly of worldly Wifdom! How filly, how childish, is the Sagacity of (what is called) manly and masterly Prudence; when it contrives more folicitoufly for TIME, than it provides for ETERNITY! How strangely infatuated are thofe fubtil Heads, that weary themselves in concerting Measures for Shadows of a Day, and fearce beftow a Thought on ever lafting Realities.When every Wheel moves on fmoothly; *Hac mente laborem Sefe ferre, fenes ut in otia tuta recedant, Hor. fmoothly; when all the well-difpofed Designs are ripening apace for Execution; and the long-expected Crifis of Enjoyment feems to approach; behold! GOD from on high laughs at the Babelbuilder; Death touches the labour'd Bubble, and immediately it breaks. The Cobweb, moft finely Spun indeed, but more easily dislodged, is swept away in an Inftant; and all the abortive Projects are buried, in the fame Grave, with their Projector. So true is that Verdict, which the Wif dom from above paffes on these successful Unfortunates: "They walk in a vain Shadow, and difquiet themselves in vain *" SPEAK, ye, that attended fuch a one in his laft Minutes; ye, that heard his expiring Sentintents; did he not cry out, in the Language of difappointed Senfuality, "Death! How ter"rible is thy Approach, to a Man that has de« voted himself to the Purfuit of present Satif factions, and exercifed no Concern for the "never-ending Hereafter! Where, alas! is the "Profit, where the Comfort, of entering deep "into the Knowlege, and of being dextrous in "the Dispatch, of earthly Affairs; since I have, "all the while, neglected the one Thing needful? "O deftructive Miftake! I have been attentive to every inferior Intereft, I have laid myfelf out on the Trifles of a Moment; but have dif Pfalm xxxix. 6. "regarded 66 regarded Heaven, have forgot eternal Ages !” "Oh! that my Days"Here, He was going on to breathe fome fruitless Wishes; or to form, I know not what, ineffectual Refolutions. But, a fudden Convulfion fhook his Nerves; difabled his Tongue; and, in lefs than an Hour, diffolved his Frame. MAY the Children of this World be warned, by the dying Words of an unhappy Brother; and gather Advantage, from his Misfortune. Why should they pant, with impatient Ardor, after White and Yellow Earth; as if the Universe did not afford fufficient, for every one to take a little? Why fhould they lade themselves with thick Clay, when they are to "run for an "incorruptible Crown, and prefs towards the "Prize of their high Calling?" Why should they over-load the Veffel, in which their everlafting ALL is embarked; or fill their Arms with Superfluities, when they are to swim for their Lives? Yet, fo prepofterous is the Conduct of thofe Perfons, who are all Industry, to heap up an Abundance of the Wealth which perisheth; but are scarce so much as faintly defirous, of being rich towards GOD. O! that we may walk from henceforth through all these glittering Toys, at leaft with a wife Indifference, if not with a superior Difdain! Having enough for the Conveniencies of Life, let us only accommodate accommodate ourselves with Things below, and lay up our Treasures in the Regions above.Whereas, if we indulge an anxious Concern, or lavish an inordinate Care, on any tranfitory Poffeffions; we fhall rivet them to our Affections with fo firm an Union, that the utmost Severity of Pain must attend the feparating Stroke. By fuch an eager Attachment to what will certainly be ravished from us, we fhall only infure to ourfelves accumulated Anguish against the agonizing Hour: We shall plant aforehand our dying Pillow with Thorns*. SOME, I perceive, arrived at Threescore Years and ten, before they made their Exit; nay, fome few refigned not their Breath, till they had numbered Fourfcore revolving Harvests.-Thefe, I would hope," remembred their Creator in the "Days of their Youth;" before their Strength became Labour and Sorrow:-Before that low Ebb of languishing Nature, when the Keepers of the Houfe tremble, and thofe that look out of the Windows are darkened † ; when, even the Light ing *Lean not on Earth; 'twill pierce thee to the Heart; A broken Reed at beft, but oft a Spear; On its sharp Point Peace bleeds, and Hope expires. Night Thoughts, No. 3. + Ecclef. xii. 3, 5. I need not inform my Reader, that, by the former of thefe figurative Expreffions, is VOL. I. E fignified |