SET bounds to your zeal by difcretion; to error by truth; to paffion by reafon; and to divifion by charity.

THE path of virtue is the path of peace; in that only we can travel with fafety, or rationally hope to enjoy permanent pleasures.

Let ufelefs riches ne'er engrofs my care,
The bane of piety, the mifer's pray'r;
Yet let my purse the mod'rate ftore contain,
To fatisfy my wants, and ease my pain;
And when the needy at my threshold stand,
To soothe their cares, and fill the craving hand.

CONTENT.

HAPPY the man (but oh! how few we find)
Who feels the pleafures of a tranquil mind!
Who meets all bleffings in content alone,
Nor knows a ftation happier than his own!
No anxious cares difturb his peaceful breaft,
With life content, and with contentment bleft;
No pangs he feels to break his calm repofe;
No envy fears, for he no envy knows.
To man ftill faithful, and to God refign'd,
His body fubject to its lord, the mind.

He must be good-for furely Heav'n ne'er meant,
Without ftrict virtue, to bestow content.
"Tis not the glory false ambition brings,
The wealth of mifers, or the pow'r of kings;
Nor all the fleeting joys by man poffefs'd,
Can give this earthly frame that heav'nly gueft.
Whate'er the mufe of love or glory fings,
Virtue alone the facred ftranger brings.

CONSCIENCE distasteful truths may tell,
But mark her facred leffons well!
Whoever lives with her at ftrife,
Lofes his better friend for life.

THE

THE line of human understanding, is undoubtedly too fhort to fathom the depths of the divine difpenfations; and the most enlarged capacity too narrow, to comprehend the ways of Infinite Wisdom.

IT is defirable, for the inward peace and ease of men's own minds within themselves, that they should not be under the power of fretful paffions, and the lafting refentments of a revengeful spirit; but that they be meek and gentle, peaceable, and eafy to be reconciled: which fweetnefs of difpofition, improved upon religious principles into a habit of meeknefs, is a virtue reflecting upon itself that calm and fedate fatisfaction, which is in a peculiar manner a reward to itself; nor is it lefs beneficial to the public, as being the great preservative against that beginning of ftrife, which Solomon elegantly compares to the letting out of water; that is, the opening of a breach, which no man can be sure to stop, before it proceeds to the most calamitous events.

THERE is no terreftrial good, that can yield that fubftantial happiness, which is fuited to the nature and defires of the human mind; and he who thinks to find it in any thing beneath the fun, is purfuing a phantom, that will elude his chace; and if it feem to loiter for his approach, it will only be to convince him of his folly, to fhew him a mistake that he never faw, and of which thousands never thought, till their race terminated in that country, from whence none ever yet returned to own their error, or confefs their shame.

WOULD you the bloom of youth fhould laft, "Tis virtue that must bind it fast;,

An eafy carriage, wholly free

From four referve, or levity;

Good-natur'd mirth, an open heart,

These are the charms that ne'er decay,

And looks unskill'd in any art.

Tho' youth and beauty fade away;

And time, which all things elfe removes,
Still brightens virtue and improves,

E 5

BOAST

BOAST not of health or beauty, or the days of youth. Delay not the care of the foul, in hopes that you will live to old age, or that you can do all that is required of youth, with refpect to religion, on a bed of affliction. Strive, by the grace of God, ever to be in readiness to go hence, and be with our Saviour, which is infinitely better than all that this world can afford; and then you may meet the king of terrors with a placid countenance, and a heart that rejoiceth in hope.

THEY enjoy life beft, who are beft prepared for death; who look not for more happiness from this world, than it is capable of giving; "who live righteously, foberly, and piously; who pray to God for the bleffings they need, and receive thankfully all good things as his gifts; and who can rejoice in the animating hope of falvation, through a Redeemer.

WHEN you a wilder'd trav'ller meet,
Guide to the road his erring feet;
Or to your roof, if late, invite,
And shield him from the damps of night.
To ftill the voice of anguish, try
To wipe the tear from forrow's eye;
And every good you can, impart,
With ready hand, and glowing heart;
So fhall ye pafs, from manhood's stage,
Smoothly along the flope of age,
Then from the pleafing journey reft,
In peaceful fleep, belov'd and bleft.

CONTENTMENT.

FORGET not that thy ftation on earth is appointed by the wisdom of the Eternal; who knoweth thy heart, who feeth the vanity of all thy wishes, and who in mercy often denieth thy requests; yet, for all reasonable defires, for all honeft endeavours, his benevolence hath appointed, in the nature of things, a probability of fuc

cefs.

cefs. The uneafiness thou feeleft, the misfortunes thou bewaileft, behold the root from whence they spring, even thine own folly, thine own pride, thine own diftempered fancy. Murmur not therefore at the difpenfations of God, but correct thine own heart; neither fay within thyfelf, If I had wealth or power, or leifure, I fhould be happy; for know, they all of them bring to their feveral poffeffors their peculiar inconveniencies.

THE poor man feeth not the vexations and anxieties of the rich; he feeleth not the difficulties and perplexities of power, neither the wearifomeness of leifure; and therefore it is that he repineth at his own lot. But envy not the appearance of happiness in any man, for thou knoweft not his griefs. To be fatisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, encreaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not. Yet, if thou fufferest not the allurements of fortune to rob thee of justice or temperance, or charity or modefty, even riches themfelves fhall not make thee unhappy; but hence shalt thou learn, that the cup of felicity, pure and unmixed, is by no means a draught for mortal man.

Virtue is the race which God hath appointed him to run, and happiness the goal which none can arrive at, till he hath finifhed his course, and received his crown in the manfions of eternity.

An Hymn to Contentment.

LOVELY, lafting peace of mind,
Sweet delight of human kind;
Heav'nly born, and bred on high,
To crown the fav'rites of the fky,
With more of happiness below,
Than victors in a triumph know;
Whither, oh! whither, art thou fled,,
To lay thy meek, contented head?
E 6

What

What happy regions doft thou please
To make the feat of charms and ease?
Ambition fearches all its sphere

Of pomp and state, to meet thee there;
Increafing avarice would find
Thy prefence in its gold enfhrin'd;
The bold advent'rer ploughs his way
Thro' rocks, amidst the foaming fea,
To gain thy love, and then perceives
Thou wert not in the rocks and waves.
The filent heart, which grief affails,
Treads foft and lonefome o'er the vales;
Sees daifies open, rivers run,

And feeks, as I have vainly done,
Amufing thought; but learns to know,
That folitude's the nurfe of woe.
No real happiness is found
In trailing purple on the ground;
Or in a foul, exalted high,
To range the circuit of the fky;
Converse with stars above, and know
All nature in its forms below.
The reft it feeks-in feeking dies,
And doubts, at laft, for knowledge rife.
'Twas thus, as under fhade I ftood,
I fung my wishes to the wood;

And, loft in thought, no more perceiv'd
The branches whifper'd as they wav'd;
It feem'd as all the quiet place
Confefs'd the prefence of the grace,
When thus fhe spoke-" Go, rule thy will,
Bid thy wild paffions all be ftill;

Know God, and bring thy heart to know

The joys which from religion flow.

Then ev'ry grace fhall prove its gueft,

And I'll be there to crown the reft."
Oh! by yonder moffy feat,

In

my hours of fweet retreat, Might I thus my foul employ, With fenfe of gratitude and joy.