*I will give you a touch-stone. Offer as continually as you can, this following form of prayer to God. Offer it frequently on your knees; but, whether sitting, standing, or walking, be always inwardly longing, and earnestly praying this _one prayer_ to God: “That, of his great goodness, he would make known to you, and take from your heart, every _kind_, and _form_, and _degree_ of pride, whether it be from evil spirits, or your own corrupt nature; and that he would awaken in you the _depth_ and _truth_ of all that humility, which can make you capable of his light and Holy Spirit.” Reject every thought, but that of wishing, and praying in this manner from the bottom of your heart, with such truth and earnestness, as people in torment wish and pray to be delivered from it. Now if ye dare not, if your hearts will not, cannot give themselves up in this manner to the spirit of this prayer, then the _touch-stone_ has done its work, and ye may be as fully assured both what your infidelity is, and from what it proceeds, as ye can be of the plainest truth in nature. This will shew you, how vainly you appeal to your _reason_, as the cause of your infidelity: that it is full as false and absurd, as if _thieves_ and _adulterers_ should say, that their theft and adultery was entirely owing to their bodily eyes, which shewed them external objects, and not to any thing that was _wrong_ in their hearts. On the other hand, if you can, and will give yourselves up in _sincerity_ to this spirit of prayer, I will venture to affirm, that if ye had twice as many evil spirits in you, as _Mary Magdalen_ had, they will all be cast out of you, and ye will be forced with her, to weep with tears of love, at the feet of the holy Jesus. But here, my friends, I stop, that we may return to the matter we had in hand. _Rusticus._ You have made no digression _Theophilus_, from our main point, which was to recommend Christianity to poor _Humanus_. He must, I am sure, have felt the death’s-blows, that you have here given to the infidel scheme. Their _idol_ of reason, which is the vain god they worship, is here like _Dagon_ fallen to the ground. _Humanus_ is caught by your bait of love, and I dare say wants only to have this conversation ended, that he may try himself, by this divine _touch-stone_, which you have put into his hands. _Academicus._ Give me leave, gentlemen, to add one word. _Theophilus_ has fairly pulled _reason_ out of its usurped throne, and shewn it to be a powerless, idle _toy_, when compared to the royal strength of the heart, which is the kingly power, that has all the government of life in its hands.