THE

GREAT IMPORTANCE

OF A

RELIGIOUS LIFE

CONSIDERED.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS.

BY THE LATE

WILLIAM MELMOTH, Esq.

OF LINCOLN'S INN.

WHAT

CHAPTER I.

I shall I do to be saved? was a question which the trembling and astonished jailer put to Paul and Silas, when he saw the prison. doors opened in a miraculous manner: a question of the utmost moment and importance, and which it nearly concerns us all to be well resolved in. For, if there be a life after this, and we do not die like the beasts that perish;' if death does not put a final period to our beings, but when this short life is ended, we enter upon the regions of eternity, and shall be for ever happy or miserable, according as we demean ourselves in this short time of trial and probation; if this be the state and condition of mankind, (as the voice of reason, the dictates of conscience, and the Holy Scriptures, do loudly proclaim it is,) how does it behove every one of us to enquire what we must do to attain everlasting life; and to consider whether we are in the way that

leads to heaven and immortality; or, if we have been so unhappy to wander out of it, how we may recover and return to it again!

This is an inquiry that deserves our utmost diligence and attention. For if we are ignorant of the will of God, or, knowing it, will not follow or be led by that unerring light, but suffer ourselves to be hurried away by our unruly passions in the pursuit of the things of this life, we are wretched and miserable, blind and naked, notwithstanding all our attainments: and we shall one day be convinced, to our sorrow, that there is no folly like that of preferring things temporal to things eternal. Whatever the children of this world' may think, and how much soever they may applaud their own wisdom in contriving schemes to be rich and great, yet, if their chief care and concern is taken up about these things, it is certain they will be found 'fools' when weighed in the balance of true wisdom.

He that is truly wise will consider that he has a soul as well as a body to take care of; a spiritual and immortal substance, which can never die; but when enlarged from that prison in which it is now confined, must live for ever, either in happiness or misery. Shall we then be so foolish as to confine our ambitious pursuits within the narrow limits of this world, without considering what will be the condition of our souls hereafter? Shall we labour and toil for the meat that perisheth,' and be cold about the momentous concerns of eternity? Shall we spare no pains in order to increase our temporal estates, and to lay up goods for many years,' when we know not but this night our souls may be required of us? And if we have made no provision for their everlasting welfare, what will it avail us that we have been rich and great in this world?

The fashion of this world passeth away,' and all the glory and splendour of it will in a little time have an end. How great then is the folly of that man, and how deplorable will his condition be,