in the protection and favour of that God, who has all the seasons and elements under his command, and who, by his secret, but powerful, influence on the mind, can preserve it in the midst of temptation, and brighten it by all its trials.

Therefore, my first advice is, that before you begin this important and doubtful voyage, you set yourself repeatedly to examine into the state of your soul, with regard to God and eternity. It would be doing you a great deal of wrong to suppose you are ignorant of the condition in which the Gospel found us, and of that into which it is intended to bring us. You know the original claim of God upon us, and how far the most innocent and virtuous of us have been from answering it exactly in all its extent. You know something of the fatal consequences which would have attended that revolt, had God treated us with rigorous severity; though none know them in their full terror. You are acquainted with the gracious method he has taken of recovering us, by a Redeemer, from the ruin of the apostacy, and the way in which the invaluable blessings of the everlasting Covenant are now offered to our acceptance. Let it be your immediate and diligent inquiry, whether you have fallen in with this merciful proposal; and have resolutely and entirely devoted yourself to God, with a humble dependence on the merits of his Son for your acceptance, and the assistance of his good Spirit to form you to a holy temper, and animate you to the zealous discharge of all the duties which he requires of you. If you have not yet entered yourself into this Covenant, or are dubious whether you have done it or not, let it be your immediate care now to do it with the most serious consideration, as knowing it to be absolutely necessary for your security and happiness in the safest and

most cheering circumstances of life, much more in such as I have now described. Commit your life and your hopes to the providential care of the Lord. Open your heart to the influences of his grace; and form a determinate resolution that you will be constantly and eternally his; and that, in the strength of his spirit, neither life nor death shall separate you from him.

When once this is done, you will be happily armed against all the uncertainties of life, and the prospects of death in whatever form it may appear. When thunders roll, and lightnings dart from above, and the waves are foaming and the seas roaring around you; when the hearts of the most experienced mariner and the most courageous commander are dismayed; you, madam, with all the tenderness of your age and sex, may sit down with a sweet tranquillity, as the charge and favourite of HIM, who has universal nature under his control; you may say in the triumphant words of the psalmist: "God is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in every time of trouble. Therefore, will I not fear, though the sea roar and be troubled: the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is my refuge." Or, should the dreadful moment of shipwreck come, while ungodly wretches are meeting the first death with unknown agony, as apprehending that it will transmit them to all the terrors of the second, you may smile with a holy transport, when you see the rays heavenly glory shooting through the gloomy passage; and, as Mr Howe beautifully expresses it, may "embrace that friendly wave, which, while you intended should land you in Heaven."

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On the other hand, should Providence, according to my most affectionate wishes and repeated prayers, conduct you in safety to your intended harbour, you will be

secure in the midst of temptation; not indeed in the strength of your own virtue, but in the watchful care of that good Shepherd, who tenderly carries the lambs of the flock in his bosom. Every thing splendid and pleasing which you will meet with at instead of

alienating your heart from God, may be a means of raising it to him. All the advantages of your circumstances may be improved to the noblest purposes. And you may appear in that conspicuous station, as raised by Providence, to display the charms of your character, and to recommend religion to others; for it is never seen in a more amiable light than when practised by those who are entering on life, and are surrounded with the allurements of affluence and greatness.

It will indeed be happy for you, and for your dearest friends, if you continue safe in the midst of so many dangers. But you ought not to rest here. I hope God will inspire you with a glorious ambition of adorning your profession by the lustre of uncommon virtue, and of being eminently honourable and useful in life. For your assistance in this noble attempt, I will presume so far on your patience as to offer you some more particular advices, submitting them to your deliberate reflection, that you may judge how far they are necessary or important.

As God is the support of the whole world of his creatures, so, I believe, all who are experimentally acquainted with religion, will readily allow that proper and constant regards to God are the support of all the other branches of it. I would, therefore, exhort you to the most diligent care in maintaining those regards. Let no day pass without some humble and affectionate visits to the throne of grace. Rejoice to think, that withersoever you go, you are still in a province of that universal empire over which he presides; and as he is

capable of being your best friend, remember, I entreat you, that neither duty nor prudence will permit you to neglect him. Let secret prayer, and reading the Scriptures, always be attended to with great diligence; and fix it as a maxim in your mind, that however the outward form may be gone through, these duties are in effect neglected, if they are not seriously and beartily performed.

Thankfully improve all those religious advantages, which, when you arrive at the factory, you may enjoy. I hope Providence will so order it, that you may have the assistance of a clergyman, who will not only be careful to speak the words of truth and soberness, but will, through the whole of his ministry and conversation, be animated by a deep and lively sense of religion, an ardent zeal for the honour of God, and a tender concern for the salvation of souls. But if it should happen otherwise, endeavour to make the best of what you hear; and carry a few good books with you, which, by the blessing of God, may in part make up for the want of more suitable public assistances. You may then have an opportunity of hearing, as it were, some of the best of our preachers almost every day, and may be secure of meeting with the most valuable of their discourses. Above all, I would most earnestly entreat you to make the Scriptures very familiar to you. It is by these that the young may cleanse their way; and, in the morning of life, be formed upon maxims of the best and the most important wisdom. David's Psalms, Solomon's Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and the whole of the New Testament, are the parts of Scripture which I would especially recommend; and I would entreat you to read them, not in a hasty and cursory manner, but with deep reflection, and earnest prayer to God for the assistance

of his Spirit in the study of them; and on such a perusal, I am confident, you will find a beauty and a glory in them, beyond what the generality of the world apprehend. This guide alone is incomparably preferable to all the books and the friends upon earth without it. Follow it steadily, and it will lead you to Heaven.

As to your behaviour to your fellow-creatures, the directions of Scripture will be highly serviceable. Your great care, madam, must be to accommodate the general precepts of it to your own particular circumstances of life; and, to do this, you must beg that God would give you wisdom.

I might insist copiously on these hints, and add many others which would not be foreign to the case before us. But my letter is grown already to a very uncommon size; and I fear that if I should go on to enlarge it, the review will be a burthensome task. What is still omitted, if I judge right of your character, your own good sense will in a great measure supply, under the directions of God's Word, and the influences of his spirit. And let me only entreat you, often to reflect on your conduct, and to consider your ways; for I am confident, that the generality of mankind who are undone for time and eternity, perish, not so much for want of knowing what is right, as through a failure of resolution in the pursuit of it, which is very much owing to the neglect of thought and reflection.

I add nothing further but my hearty prayer, which I shall freqently repeat, that a watchful Providence may continually surround you, and give the winds and the seas a charge concerning you; that the influences of his grace may secure you from all the temptations which you have to encounter, and may make you a lovely example of all the virtues and graces of Christianity; that,