He that makes this his care will find it his crown at last.

Life else were a misery, rather than a pleasure; a judgment not a blessing.

For, to know, regret, and resent, to desire, hope, and fear, more than a beast, and not live beyond him, is to make a man less than a beast.

It is the amends of a short and troublesome life, that doing good and suffering ill, entitle man to one longer and better.

This ever raises the good man's hope, and gives him tastes beyond this world.

As it is his aim, so none else can hit the mark.

Many make it their speculation, but it is the good man's practice.

His work keeps pace with his life, and so leaves nothing to be done when he dies.

And he that lives to live for ever, never fears dying.

Nor can the means be terrible to him that heartily believes the end.

For though death be a dark passage, it leads to immortality; and that is recompense enough for suffering of it.

And yet faith lights us, even through the grave; being the evidence of things not

seen.

And this is the comfort of the good, that the grave cannot hold them, and that they live as soon as they die.

For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.

Nor can there be a revolution without it; for it supposes the dissolution of one form, in order to the succession of another.

Death, then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live, if we cannot bear to die.

Let us, then, not cozen ourselves with the shells and husks of things; nor prefer form to power, nor shadows to substance; pictures of bread will not satisfy hunger, nor those of devotion please God.

This world is a form; our bodies are

forms; and no visible acts of devotion can be without forms. But yet the less form in religion the better, since God is a spirit: for the more mental our worship, the more adequate to the nature of God; the more silent, the more suitable to the language of a spirit.

Words are for others, not for ourselves; nor for God, who hears not as bodies do, but as spirits should.

If we would know this dialect, we must learn of the divine principle in us. As we hear the dictates of that, so God hears us.

There we may see him too in all his attributes; though but in little, yet as much as we can apprehend or bear: for as he is in himself, he is incomprehensible, and “dwelleth in that light no eye can approach." But in his image we may behold his glory: enough to exalt our apprehensions of God, and to instruct us in that worship which pleaseth him.

Men may tire themselves in a labyrinth of search, and talk of God; but if we would

know him indeed, it must be from the impressions we receive of him and the softer our hearts are, the deeper and livelier those will be upon us.

If he has made us sensible of his justice, by his reproof; of his patience, by his forbearance; of his mercy, by his forgiveness; of his holiness, by the sanctification of our hearts through his spirit; we have a grounded knowledge of God. This is experience, that speculation; this enjoyment, that report. In short, this is undeniable evidence, with the realities of religion, and will stand all winds and weathers.

As our faith, so our devotion, should be
Cold meat will not serve at those

lively.

repasts.

It is a coal from God's altar must kindle our fire and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifice.

"Open thou my lips, and then," said the royal prophet, "my mouth shall praise God." But not till then.

The preparation of the heart, as well as the answer of the tongue, is of the Lord; and to have it, our prayers must be powerful, and our worship grateful.

Let us choose, therefore, to commune, where there is the warmest sense of religion; where devotion exceeds formality, and practice most corresponds with profession; and where there is, at least, as much charity as zeal for where this society is to be found there shall we find the church of God.

As good, so ill men, are all of a church: and every body knows who must be head of it.

The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls, are every where of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.

Great allowances are made for education and personal weaknesses; but it is a rule with me, 'That man is truly religious, that loves