earth is only a small taste or glimpse of heaven, in the first-fruits and earnest of the Spirit. The full harvest is beyond the grave, and is not to be expected in this world.

When I can truly say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," I shall long to be in heaven that I may do it perfectly.

What is the reason that we do not keep our eyes steadily fixed upon the light of Scripture, and follow it as our guide to heaven, but because we do not really think of heaven as the country we are bound to; have yet other designs in the world than to get thither; and, whatever we pretend, do not desire to be there?

I long to know something, and be something; i. e. to die. I see the glory and beauty of perfect holiness, as Moses did the promised land from mount Pisgah; but like him, must die without entering into the possession of it.

"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven;" that is, with angelical love and liking, and the full bent of our desire to it. A virtuous, pure, holy state is a strong tendency to all good, and only to good; and if we could suppose the mind to be in a state of suspense or indifference, and equally poised between good and evil, it would be a bad state. What then is man with a natural, and morally invincible, propensity to evil?

Unless I see something beyond the grave worth dying for, there is nothing on this side worth living for.

How welcome will death be to those who truly mourn for sin, feel the burden, taste the bitterness of it, and long for complete deliverance from it!

CHAPTER XVI.

MISCELLANEOUS.

"THE Commandment is holy, and just, and good;" not only in its precept, but curse. The first is evident and denied by none; the latter is never believed but by a work of the Spirit.

Let us talk no more of the constitution of this or that country, and the excellence of one above another; it is in every man's power through grace, to live under the best government in the world.

We may put on different clothes and different looks, speak different words, and do different actions on a Sunday; but nature will be the same that it is all the rest of the week. Sunday, in our rest from bodily labour and employment, in the thoughts it suggests, the prospect it opens, the hope it confirms, is a day taken from time, and made a portion of eternity.

Dreams indicate the temper of the soul more certainly than they do the temperament of the body. Dreams have no dissimu

lation; they unmask the heart, and tell me honestly what I am when waking.

A forced obedience will not make us happy in this world, but may not be lost as to another.

Hell is truth seen too late.

What is it to me whether the Americans are in a state of rebellion or not? Why do I not advert more to the rebellion of my own heart and will against God?

A partial half-religion is a state of terrible. anxiety.

Why is man for ever searching after pretences to wander from home; fixing the laws of motion; measuring the planets; prying with glasses into the minutest parts of nature; and either gazing with stupid wonder on what he can never understand, or what is worse, circumscribing Omnipotence, and saying, Thus it must be,' when all the while the poor soul within him, buried in flesh and blood, wants its proper relief, begs his attention, and, being known, would infinitely reward his curiosity?

6

If we do not live down error, I am sure we shall never dispute it down.

The eager reading even of religious books may be dangerous, and a hinderance to those who are aiming at the true spirit of religion, if they have recourse to them instead of God.

APPENDIX.

The following LETTERS of Mr. Adam, written at different times, and two other papers referred to in his Life, will help to illustrate the short sketch which is given of his character.

No. I.

TO A LADY IN CORNWALL.

November 19, 1756. MADAM:-Permit me to congratulate you on your happy deliverance from the religion in fashion; by which I mean a creditable profession, without that knowledge of the heart which brings us hungering and thirsting to Christ for the relief we want, and which he came from the bosom of the Father to offer us.

That such a profession may consist with a secret deep-rooted love of the world, and indulgence to almost every vanity of it, we have thousands of witnesses, who never suspecting the goodness of their state, cannot bear to have it called in question, and almost necessarily dislike reproach, and hate those who condemn them, by turning from their ways and maxims. This is one of the greatest difficulties in the way of a thorough conversion, and needs all the authority of that dreadful denunciation, "whosoever shall be ashamed of me," &c. to support us under it. I pray God send it with all its weight to your heart and mine, and enable us to make a steady confession of the gospel in its truth and purity, as opposite to our natural views, tempers, and affections, and calling us to an ex

perimental knowledge of God, and a new state of holy communion with him.

How delightful a thing it is to count, and not to count, but feel, the Christian's gains-faith and fidelity; peace with God through Jesus Christ; a renewed will; increasing love; and hope full of immortality! And how short is the time of our suffering, if upon the whole we do suffer, and are not richly compensated, even here, in every condition, by the afore-mentioned advantages. Go on, Madam, knowing whom you have chosen and let neither your own weakness, nor the frowns of the

world terrify you. Christ will have his grace exalted, in opposition to all discouraging unbelieving thoughts from the former, and a faithful acceptance of it, and establishment in it, will make you victorious over the latter.

Never to ask ourselves what our great want is, or what we should ask of God if we might have the wish of our hearts, is great blindness and stupidity; and yet it is the case, not only of the grossly irreligious, but of all those who are in the practice of an external form only.

The awakening of the soul from this sleep of nature is necessarily the first step toward a recovery.

To know that we want remission of sin, and strength against it; a will to live to the glory of God, and mercy to save in our very best estate; and that the gospel comes home to our case in every one of these points, answers all our wishes, and reveals our wants only to relieve them, is illumination in the understanding.

But the great work is still to come, which is the spiritual life of faith, or the closing of the heart, resolutely and fully, with this blessed scheme of redemption.

May God Almighty support and bless you in