inous calamity.

Reader, have you encouraged any of these people in such crimes? If you
have so far forgotten yourselves, the commands of God, and the curse that
awaits you and those who deceive themselves the same way; reflect, before
it be too late, on the evil into which you have willingly, wilfully, and
without the least reasonable excuse, fallen, and on the guilt that must
of necessity attach to your consciences thereby. Should you never meet
those you encouraged to sin in this world, and therefore never have an
opportunity of warning them of their danger, yet must you meet at the bar
of Christ; and if then loaded with the weight of the sin in question, how
awful will be your condition! Yourself and a fellow creature turned out
for ever from God, and heaven, and hope! You may find mercy _now_, if
you, by faith in the Redeemer, _seek for it_; and who can tell but if you
sincerely pray for those you led into sin, but that the mercy of which
you part take, may find out them! May it even be so, to your everlasting
comfort!

Some have supposed that this contemptible practice was first introduced
into Europe by the Gipsies: but such persons are greatly mistaken. In
the dark ages of superstition, in which this wandering people came to our
part of the world, prognostication and fortune-telling were carried on to
an infinite extent; and so enraged were the deceivers of those days
against the Gipsies, that they proclaimed they knew nothing of the _art_;
that they were deceivers and impostors.

It were well if the Gipsies were _now_ the only persons addicted to such
wickedness; but this is not the case; for it is well known that almost
every town is cursed with an astrological, magical, or slight-of-hand
fortune-teller. There are two now in Southampton; and their wretched
abodes are visited not only by vain and ignorant servants, but often by
those who belong to the higher circles, and not unfrequently by those who
drive their carriages.

To conclude this chapter, it may be safely said, that the sort of
wickedness in question, is not only forbidden in the Scriptures, and will
add much to the guilt of an impenitent death; but that it is calculated
to give us the most airy anticipations, or oppress us with the most
unreasonable despair. _Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof_; why
should we then afflict ourselves about ill-fortune in future years? If
we _seek_, as the first great object of life, _the kingdom o