for ever.

Your trials will be ended when this

life is concluded, whether at an early or a later age. And when you are solicited to any act of wickedness, whether public or private, reflect that every vice will be displeasing to God, will render you less able to leave this world with confidence and hope, and will unfit you for the enjoyment of the next.

To describe the felicity of heaven is impossible, because it far exceeds even our imaginations to conceive; but whatever pleasure you have yet experienced, can convey to you but a faint idea of the least of those joys which are reserved for the righteous. You may at present form a better notion of bliss, from the absence of what you dislike than from what you can possess; consider, therefore, that you will be freed from all pain and uneasiness, both of body and mind; and if you have ever, my young friend, felt the transporting satisfaction of having done a good action, think what it will be to have that delight constantly inspiring your soul. If the applause of your parents and friends, or of the wise and good, is pleasing, what must it be to have the

VOL. II.

C

approbation of all those who have been most distinguished for piety and virtue, of saints and angels, and, above all, of your Saviour, and your God? If you wish to be beloved, surely this consideration must have a pow erful effect; and if you have love for others, will it not be the highest bliss to behold your friends united with you in praising your great Creator, and in immortal happiness? If ever you have felt the influence of religion, and tasted the pleasures of devotion, there you will be employed in the most elevated strains of adoration, without the interruption you now feel from wanderings of mind, and the weakness of human infirmity.

Such is the supreme felicity reserved for the righteous; may you so consider it now, as hereafter to partake of it, and obtain that eternal life, which is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ.

ON

THE

227

SUNDAY LII.

IMPORTANCE

OF A GOOD REPUTA

TION, ESPECIALLY TO SUCH YOUNG PERSONS AS ARE DESIGNED TO BE BROUGHT UP FOR THE CHURCH.

As I have endeavoured, through the whole of this work, to choose those subjects which I imagined the most suitable to my readers, and have likewise selected such arguments as appeared best adapted to their age and circumstances, so, in conformity with the plan that has been hitherto pursued, 1 think it will not be improper to address those young persons in a particular manner, who may be led through their own pious wishes, or be designed by the intentions of their friends, to pursue their present studies with a view hereafter to engage in the ministry. The general motives to a good life have been repeatedly urged in the course of these Lectures; and the reasons that engage you to establish a character of sobriety and virtue, as well as to be really unblameable, are strong and persuasive. While we live in a state of society, we owe it as a duty to our

fellow-creatures to set them a good example. We are taught by our Divine Instructor not to hide our light under a bushel, but to set it in a candlestick, that it may give light to those that are in the house. We are to let the rays of an unblemished reputation extend to all around us. "Let your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven," that is, that others may be thankful for the advantages of pious persons in the world, and, being excited to imitate what they cannot but admire, may be led to glorify God by their own reformation. Nor do these precepts of the gospel at all contradict those where our Saviour enjoins his disciples to pray to their Father in secret; to retire from observation in their private acts of devotion, and to conceal from the world their deeds of benevolence and contrition. He directs "not to sound a trumpet before them, as the tharisees did in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they might have glory of men ; ' but to exercise our charity with a nobler intention, and with such secrecy as may evince that we seek not the fame which men can bestow, but are

earnest to procure the approbation of God, and look for no reward but from him alone.

And here I cannot neglect the opportu nity to mention a very necessary caution, in your perusal of the sacred Scriptures; that you should not judge of particular pas. sages without regard to their connexion, but carefully consider the context, and such other parts of the Divine Word as relate to the subject of your attention; for the Gospel of Christ, as well as the Old Testament, are not disjointed parts of an imperfect revelation, but mutually depend on other.

each

The events and prophecies of the Bible relate to the dispensations, and fortell the awful circumstances the Messiah came upon earth to fulfil.

His life, example, sufferings, and death, completed the laws of Moses, and established the covenant of grace and pardon which he came to preach to mankind. If, therefore, one place should seem to recommend duties, which in other passages are mentioned in a different light, you must compare them carefully together, and think with yourself what is the complete character of a Christian; by which you will