DISSWASIVE againjl a carele/s LIFE. 177 
it is a religion of self-denial ; but the good order of the pas- 
sions, on religious principles, does not feem to be the firft 
object of our wifbes and endevors. We very aptly call life 
a warfare, and confefs that we are placed as fentinels, to watch 
the approach of the enemy, that we may not be furprized by 
open violence or ftratagem ; and yet we watch fo little, that 
the common foldier, under fuch circumftances, would certainly 
be put to death for neglect of duty. — Do not both reafon and 
religion fuggeft to you, that our truefl fecurity is in a firm maf- 
culine piety ? Is it not this which warms the heart, and eno- 
bles the understanding? Is it not this which renders our paf- 
fions gentle, and our manners agreeable to the precepts of our 
great lord and mafter ? And if this is a preparative to an imita- 
tion of his life, our lives cannot become happy, nor our deaths 
glorious without it. But can we lay our hands upon our 
hearts, and fay, we labor to acquire fuch a habit of piety ; 
that we prefer it to all other things, and think ourfelves truly 
happy, only when we can poflefs it ? No : the belt of us are 
too much in a droufy repofe : and the generality have need 
to be awakened from a mortal {lumber ! For heaven’s fake 
roufe from this lethargy ! ‘Be gay as the fpring, lively 
as the morn ; rejoice as if you were the favorite child of for- 
tune, but let your joy be calm and rational ; let it be 
built on well-grounded hopes of heaven. If we laugh and 
fing on the brink of perdition, we muft not call it joy, but 
madness. Let the enthusiast rave, and boaft of fupernatural 
gifts ; or the man of letters become an infidel as a mark of 
genteel diftin&ion : let the busy torment themfelves to acquire 
riches, and the ambitious titles and fame : let the youthful, of 
A a both 
