e chief and best
constituted.

The Church of England is doubtless the great bulwark of the ancient
Catholic or Apostolic faith all over the world; a church that has all the
spiritual advantages that the nature of a church is capable of. From the
doctrine and principles of the Church of England, we are taught loyalty
to our prince, fidelity to our country, and justice to all mankind; and
therefore, as I look upon this to be one of the most excellent branches
of the Church Universal, and stands, as it were, between superstition and
hypocrisy, I therefore declare, for the satisfaction of you and your
friends, as I have always lived so I now die, a true and sincere, though
a most unworthy member of it. And as to my discontinuance of my
attendance at the public worship, I refer you to my papers, which I have
left with my worthy friend, Mr. Barlow. And thus, my dear sister, I have
given you a short account of my faith, and the principles of my religion.
I come, in the next place, to lay before you a few meditations and
observations I have at several times collected together, more
particularly those since my retirement to St. Helen's.

Meditations and Observations relating to the Conduct of Human Life in
general.

1. Remember how often you have neglected the great duties of religion
and virtue, and slighted the opportunities that Providence has put into
your hands; and, withal, that you have a set period assigned you for the
management of the affairs of human life; and then reflect seriously that,
unless you resolve immediately to improve the little remains, the whole
must necessarily slip away insensibly, and then you are lost beyond
recovery.

2. Let an unaffected gravity, freedom, justice, and sincerity shine
through all your actions, and let no fancies and chimeras give the least
check to those excellent qualities. This is an easy task, if you will
but suppose everything you do to be your last, and if you can keep your
passions and appetites from crossing your reason. Stand clear of
rashness, and have nothing of insincerity or self-love to infect you.

3. Manage all your thoughts and actions with such prudence and
circumspection as if you were sensible you were just going to step into
the grave. A little thinking will show a man the vanity and uncertainty
of all sublunary things, and enable him to examine maturely the manner of
dying; which, if duly abstracted from the terror of the idea, will appear
n