RECOLLECTION. THAT which is obvious, is not always known; and what is known, is not always prefent. Sudden fits of inadvertency will furprife vigilance; flight avocations will feduce attention; and cafual eclipfes of the mind will darken learning; fo that the writer fhall often, in vain, trace his memory at the moment of need, for that which yesterday he knew with intuitive readiness, and which will come uncalled into his thoughts to-morrow. Preface to his Dictionary, folio, p. 10. RETIREMENT. THERE is a time when the claims of the public are fatisfied; then a man might properly retire to review his life, and purify his heart. P. of Abyffinia, p. 135. Some fufpenfion of common affairs, some pause of temporal pain and pleasure, is doubtless neceffary to him that deliberates for eternity, who is forming the only plan in which mifcarriage cannot be repaired, and examining the only queftion in which mistake cannot be rectified. RETALIATION. IT is too common for those who have unjustly fuffered pain, to inflict it likewife in their turn with the fame injuftice, and to imagine they have a right to treat others as they have themfelves been treated. Life of Savage. RELAXATIO N. AFTER the exercifes which the health of the body requires, and which have themselves a natural tendency to actuate and invigorate the mind, the moft eligible amusement of a rational being, feems to be that interchange of thoughts which is practifed in free and eafy converfation, where suspicion is banished by experience, and emulation by benevolence; where every màn speaks with no other reftraint than unwillingness to offend, and hears with no other difpofition than defire to be pleafed. Rambler, v. 2. p. 204. REPENTANCE. REPENTANCE is the change of the heart, from that of an evil, to a good difposition; it is that disposition of mind by which which the wicked man turneth away from his wickednefs, and doth that which is lawful and right;' and when this change is made, Repentance is complète. Convict's Addrefs, p. 14 & 15. Repentance, however difficult to be practised, is, if it be explained without fuperftition, easily understood. Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice, from the conviction that it has offended God. Sorrow, and fear, and anxiety, are properly not parts, but adjuncts of repentance; yet they are too closely connected with it, to be eafily separated; for they not only mark its fincerity, but promote its efficacy. No man commits any act of negligence or obftinacy, by which his fafety or happinefs in this world is endangered, without feeling the pungency of remorfe. He who is fully convinced, that he fuffers by his own failure, can never forbear to trace back his mifcarriage to its firft caufe, to image to himself a contrary behaviour, and to form involuntary refolutions against the like fault, even when he knows that he fhail never again have the power of committing it. Danger confidered as immiQ 2 ment nent naturally produces fuch trepidations of impatience, as leave all human means of fafety behind them: he that has once caught an alarm of terror, is every moment feised with ufelefs anxieties, adding one fecurity to another, trembling with fudden doubts, and diftracted by the perpetual occurrence of new expedients. If, therefore, he whofe crimes have deprived him of the favour of God, can reflect upon his conduct without disturbance, or can at will banish the reflection; if he who confiders himself as fufpended over the abyss of eternal perdition only by the thread of life, which must foon part by its own weaknefs, and which the wing of every minute may divide, can caft his eyes round him without fhuddering with horror, or panting with fecurity; what can he judge of himself, but that he is not yet awakened to fufficient conviction, fince every lofs is more lamented than the lofs of the divine favour, and every danger more dreaded than the danger of final condemnation ? Rambler, v. 3. p. 28 & 29. The completion and fum of repentance is a change of life. That forrow which dictates dictates no caution, that fear which does not quicken our efcape, that aufterity which fails to rectify our affections, are vain and unavailing. But forrow and terror muft naturally precede reformation; for what other caufe can produce it? He, therefore, that feels himself alarmed by his confcience, anxious for the attainment of a better ftate, and afflicted by the memory of his paft faults, may juftly conclude, that the great work of repentance is begun, and hope by retirement and prayer, the natural and religious means of ftrengthening his conviction, to impress upon his mind fuch a fenfe of the divine prefence, as may overpower the blandifhments of fecular ́delights, and enable him to advance from one degree of holiness to another, till death fhall fet him free from doubt and conteft, mifery and temptation. What better can we do than proftrate fall Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears. Ditto, p. 30. RE |