maketh not ashamed, yielded up their souls into the hands of their Creator. Scenes of this kind are daily and hourly passing in the chambers of the sick and dying, as they, whose office it is to visit those chambers, well know. To others they must remain unknown, for want of biographers to record them. Every Christian, who lives in piety and charity, does not favour the public with HIS OWN Every Christian, who expires in peace and hope, has not the happiness of a Dr. Smith to pen the story of his death:

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene

"The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
"Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
"And waste its sweetness in the desert air.

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
"Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
"Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

"They kept the noiseless tenour of their way."

Christianity," says a learned writer, " has in every age produced good effects on thousands and ten thousands, whose lives are not recorded in history; "which is, for the most part, a register of the vices, "the follies, and the quarrels of those who made a

tr

figure and a noise in the world; insomuch that "Socrates, at the close of his work, observes, that "if men were honest and peaceable, historians "would be undone for want of materials.'

But, whether the professors of a religion be many, or few; whether they be influenced by the spirit of

it, or not; whether they be sincere, or hypocrites; whether they be detected, or undetected; the religion is still the same: it does not change with the changing tempers, dispositions, and interests of mankind, in different times and places; nor is it to be charged with the guilt of practices, against which it protests in every page. No demonstration in Euclid can be clearer than this.

To account for the opposition often so visible between the lives and opinions of Christians, one must enumerate all the various methods, by which, in matters of moral and spiritual concern, men are wont to impose upon themselves. Appetite and passion, sloth and interest, will work wonders in this way-wonders, of which he has no idea, who has not been accustomed, with this view, to contemplate the conduct of those around him, and impartially to scrutinize his own. The religion of many a person professing Christianity, is, by these means, laid by, like a best coat, for Sundays and holidays. Not a single thought occurs of the neces sity there is for its being brought into the daily and hourly concerns of common life. It is a speculative belief, deposited in the understanding, to which its owner recurs when he has nothing else to do; be finds it where he left it, and is fully satisfied with its being there, instead of bearing it always about him, in his heart and affections, as an active principle, ready for use, to operate at all seasons and on all occasions. He will even spend his days in discoursing and disputing upon the sublimest doctrines and most holy precepts of religion, his own life still

continuing unreformed. Nay, what is yet more strange, he will preach seriously, earnestly, affectionately, and repeatedly, against a failing, to which he himself is notoriously subject, and every one who hears him knows him to be so. It follows not necessarily, that he is designedly playing the hypocrite and acting a part. He has some method of concealing himself from himself, or of excusing himself to himself. He does not see that he is the person, against whom all his own arguments are pointed. He does not think of it. He stands in need of a friend, or an enemy, to tell him, THOU ART THE MAN. This may seem to be a species of madness; but this is human nature. Let me conclude with a story.

A friend of mine was much afflicted with a dangerous disorder, part hereditary, and part the fruit of his own industry. He sent for one of the best physicians in the kingdom, who, having discoursed, greatly to his satisfaction, on the excellency of medicine in general, and of a medicine proper for that disorder in particular, wrote his prescription, and took his leave. My friend, who was a scholar, had a learned gentleman with him at the time; and the doctor was hardly out of the door, before a very warm controversy began between them, concerning the style of the prescription, whether it were classical or not. This and the virtues of the medicine were now the constant subjects of my friend's conversation, and he inveighed with great zeal and indignation, against the folly of those, who would languish under disease, when there was such a remedy

to be had. The distemper, mean while, increased upon himself, and began to seize the vitals. The doctor was again sent for; and knowing his patient to be a remarkably ABSENT man, Pray, sir, said he, give me leave to ask you one question: Have you TAKEN the medicine? A summons to the bar of judgement could hardly have astonished my friend more than this question. He awoke as one out of a dream, and very honestly owned, he had been so occupied in talking and writing about it, and recommending it to others, that he had really quite forgotten that part of the prescription. He did indeed recollect to have once tasted the draught, but finding it rather bitter, a flavour always disagreeable to him, he had set it by again, trusting, it seems, for his cure, to the virtues which might escape the cork, as it stood upon the mantel-piece. You see how easy it is for him who possesses the medicine, to be like him who possesses it not; the medicine itself continuing all the while perfectly irreproachable.

And now, if you please, dear sir, we will take our leave of the Apology; for I have no design to meddle with the farrago of extraneous matter which it contains, respecting gallantry, flattery, dedications, &c. &c. &c. and as to the crude and angry remarks at the end of it, on the Letter to Dr. Smith, valeant quantum valere possunt! I will trust any man with them, if, during the perusal, he will only hold in his hand the pamphlet to which they relate. The Apology is indeed, both for matter and manner, sentiment and language, so mean and wretched

a performance, that one cannot sufficiently wonder, how any person, accustomed to write, could permit such a piece to come abroad with all its imperfections on its head. I have selected those parts which afforded room for enlarging on topics useful to be discussed, and have now done with it for ever.