his holy calling, with such zeal and ability as brought him to the notice and favor of some of the leading men of his day. He took the degree of doctor of divinity, and was installed prebendary of Westminster, in 1696. He died, June, 1715, and was interred in Westminster Abbey.

"So, peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
That once had titles, piety, and fame."

"How loved, how honored once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee;

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!"

Dr. Lucas wrote many valuable works, namely: "A Treatise on Practical Christianity;" "The Morality of the Gospel;" "A Guide to Heaven;" "An Enquiry after Happiness;" "Christian Thoughts for every Day of the Week;" "The Duty of Servants;" and "Sermons," in five volumes. He also made a Latin translation of the "Whole Duty of Man," which was published in 1680.

Of Dr. Lucas, Mr. Orton has given the following from Dr. Doddridge's Mss.: "His style is very peculiar sometimes exceedingly fine, nearly approaching to conversation; sometimes grand and sublime; generally very expressive. His method not clear, but his thoughts excellent; many are taken from attentive observation of life; he wrote as entirely devoted to God, and superior to the world." His "Practical Christianity" is most valuable, and also his "Enquiry after Happiness," especially the second

volume. Orton speaks of reading the latter work a sixth time. The pious Mr. Hervey, in speaking of his work, says: May I be permitted to recommend as a treasure of inestimable value, Dr. Lucas' Enquiry after Happiness;' that part, especially, which displays the method, and enumerates the advantages of improving life, or living much in a little time; chapter iii, page 158 of the 6th edition. An author in whom the gentleman, the scholar, and the christian, are most happily united; a performance which, in point of solid argument, unaffected piety, and a vein of thought amazingly fertile, has, perhaps, no superior. Nor can I wish my reader a more refined pleasure, or a more substantial happiness, than that of having the sentiments of this entertaining and pathetic writer woven into the very texture of his heart." The treatise on "Practical Christianity" is earnestly recommended, also, by Sir Richard Steele, in the Guardian, No. 43. To these great names we must add that of Rev. John Wesley, who warmly recommends the "Treatise on Happiness" to his people, as one of the most valuable books a Christian can read.

What has been said in the foregoing sketch, respecting the life and commendable characteristics of this great man, may have raised a wish in our readers to have a specimen of his writings. We therefore copy at length from his inimitable work. We do it the more cheerfully, from the conviction that none of the literary productions of this author, so em

inent in his own country, have ever been before the American public.

[From "Enquiry after Happiness," published in London, in 1806.]

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG.

You are now in your bloom. What glorious fruit may you bring forth! what honor may you do God what service may you render your relations and your country! and what joys and blessings may you not heap on yourselves! Time and tide seem to wait on you; even the providence and grace of God, with reverence be it said, seem to attend and court you.

But, ah! remember, they will not do so forever; these smiles and invitations of heaven and nature will not last continually; your infidelity or ingratitude, your folly and sensuality, will soon blast and wither all these fair hopes, turn all your pleasures into gall and wormwood, and all your blessed advantages into the instruments of your ruin, and aggravations of it, too. Grace will soon retire, nature degenerate, time grow old, the world despise you, the God of it frown upon you, and conscience, guilty conscience, will be either stupefied and benumbed, or fester and rage within you, and death will come, and then judgment; and how soon it will come, ah! who knows? Sudden and early deaths ought to convince you on what uncertain ground you stand. The

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scythe of death stays not always till the harvest be ripe, but promiscuously mows down the young and old. Ah! begin, begin, then, to live! seize upon pleasure and happiness while they stand courting and inviting you; pursue virtue and glory immediately, while the difficulties are fewer, your strengths and aids greater, your judgments being not yet corrupted by the maxims or rather the fancies of the world, nor your wills yet disabled and enslaved by a custom of sin.

Ah! venture not to devote your youth to vanity and folly, on presumption of devoting your age to repentance and religion; for if this were a rational and just design in itself, yet it is to you a very unsafe and doubtful one. For which way can you insure life, or on what ground can you confide on the morrow? "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Prov. xxvii, 1.

I know what opposition will be raised against this kind of exhortation, and with what rude reflection they will be treated. Come, say they, this is our spring, let us enjoy ourselves whilst we have time and vigor; religion looks too grave and formal for these years: we shall have time enough to be dull and melancholy. Come on, then; let us enjoy ourselves as becomes our youth; this is our portion, and our lot is this; and whatever they who have now outlived themselves, whose blood is sour and spirits low, may gravely talk against these things,

they, too, when time was, admired what they now would have us despise as vanity, and committed themselves what they now condemn in us.

In answer to this, let us pass over the briskness and the flourish, and examine the sense and reason of this sort of talk. The substance of it may be reduced to three heads :

First. Youth is the season of pleasure, i. e. sin and folly. Inclination and opportunity conspire to invite you to it; therefore you indulge it. What a strange argument is this! Is there any period of our life, from our cradle almost to our coffin, I mean from the moment we arrive at the use of reason to our grave, wherein some sin or other is not in season? May not manhood defend ambition, and old age covetousness, by the same argument by which you do your sinful pleasures? If inclination to a folly would justify our commission of it, in what part of life should we begin to be wise and virtuous! It will be hard to find the time wherein we shall have no inclination to any sin or folly; or rather, if this be so, who can be guilty? The adulterer will impute his uncleanliness to the impetus of his lust; the murderer his bloodshed to the violence of his rage; i. e. each of them their sins to the strength of their inclinations; and if your argument be good they will be innocent. But do not deceive yourselves; then is your obedience, as most acceptable to God, so most indispensable in itself, when you lie under temptations to sin, and heaven is proposed as