"fidelity." Addison took him by the hand, and with his expiring breath replied, "Observe with

"what

"what tranquillity a Chriftian can die." Such is the confolation which springs from a due sense of the principles and a proper practice of the precepts of our holy Religion: fuch the high reward a life of fimplicity and innocence bestows.

RELIGION'S force divine is but display'd
In deep desertion of all human aid;

To fuccour in extremes is her delight,

And cheer the heart when terror strikes the fight.
We, disbelieving our own fenfes, gaze,
And wonder what a mortal's heart can raise,
To triumph at misfortunes, smile in grief,
And comfort thofe who came to bring relief:
We gaze; and as we gaze, wealth, fame decay,
And all the world's vain glories fade away.

He who during the retirement of the day feriously studies, and during the filence of the night piously contemplates the auguft doctrines of the Revelation, will be convinced of their power

by

* An author of great piety and good fense, after describing, in a letter on the Dignity of Man, the extraordinary benefits conferred by Revelation, burfts out into the following fpirited apoftrophe: "O, bleffed Revelation! that opens fuch wonders! O, "dreadful Revelation! if it open them in vain. And are there "thole with whom they go for nought? Strange men! in poffeffion of a bleffing, the bare hopes of which fupported the fpirits of the wife for four thousand years under all the calami"ties of life and terrors of death; and know they not that it is

in their hands? or, knowing, caft it away as of no value? A bleffing, the very fhadow of which made the body of the Pa triarchal and Jewish Religion! A bleffing, after which the

"whole

by experiencing their effect. He will review with composure his past errors in fociety, perceive with fatisfaction his prefent comfort in Solitude, and afpire with hope to future happiness in heaven. He will think with the freedom of a philofopher, live with the piety of a Chriftian, and renounce with ease the poisonous pleasures of fociety, from a conviction that they weaken the energies of his mind, and prevent his heart from raising itself towards his God. Difgufted with the vanities and follies of public life, he will retire into privacy, and contemplate the importance of eternity. Even if he be ftill obliged occafionally to venture on the stormy fea of busy life, he will avoid with greater fkill and prudence the rocks and fands by which he is furrounded, and fteer with greater certainty and effect from the tempefts which most threaten his deftruction; rejoicing lefs at the pleasant course which a favourable wind and clear sky may afford him, than at his having happily eluded fuch a multitude of dangers.

THE hours confecrated to God in Solitude, are not only the most important, but, when we are habituated

"whole earth panted as the hart for the water-brooks! A blef"fing on which the heavenly hoft were sent to congratulate man"kind; and fing the glad tidings into their tranfported hearts! A bleffing which was more than an equivalent for Paradife loft! "And is this bleffing declined, rejected, exploded, despised. "ridiculed? O, unhappy men! The frailty of man is almost as "incomprehenfible as the mercies of God.”