i 7 6 DISSWASIVE againft a carelefs LIFE. 
are but ill inclined to account with themselves how their time 
paffes : how will they account with their maker ? 
To fhun the unletter’d piety of the vulgar; the demurenefs 
of the fanatic ; the madnefs of the enthufiad ; the fuperdition 
of the papid ; we are glad of an excufe for being ignorant, 
lazy, or dupid. The concerns of religion are what leaft em- 
ploy our wits. Indeed, as the greated fceptics are generally 
the mod: credulous fools ; fo the moil ingenious often refine 
away the substance of religion. We are unwilling to believe 
this ; it founds harsh ; we think it may not be fo : but when 
we come to the test, v/e find ourfelves miferably defective. 
In the prime of life, when we are mod: capable of learning . 
when all our thoughts and actions derive a peculiar grace from 
the attractive charms of beauty, and damp the deeper impref- 
fion on the minds of beholders : under thefe circumdances, 
what pity ’ tis we fee fo few external marks of an active living 
piety ; yet we know, from the nature of the human mind, 
that thefe alone can fupport a lively fenfe of religion, even in 
the great article of belief in a god. Can any thing be more 
demondrable, than that we are going in a wrong path ? The 
puerility and littleness of mind, apparent in fo many of our 
purfuits, and the dignity and greatnefs of foul, demondrated in 
fo few of our actions, make one almod afhamed of being a man, 
and blufli to fee humanity funk fo low. 
We acknowledge that life is a date of trial, in which we can 
hardly be too laborious, and yet we take very little pains. — 
Every one who knows any thing of chridianity, mud own that 
it 
