it appears to be wholly felfifh; it will foon fight the breast that feeds it; it never doubts, till taught the contrary by painful experience, that all things around were made to fubferve its interefts and pleafures; it will fight the perfon who takes away its baubles, just as nations fight with one another on a like account; if, by means of it fickness or otherwise it is exceffively indulged, it will, when able, foon fill the house with noife, and indifcriminately deal its rage around; the fondeft endearments ferve to nourish peevifhnefs and pride, inftead of gratitude and obedience. If effectually reftrain ed by a temperate parental authority, it will begin to feel its true fituation, as related to thofe around, and to conduct accordingly; but if not, it will disobey its parents, it will lie, it will foon lifp out oaths and imprecations, and fhew that the poifon of afps is under its lips, and that its mouth is full of curling and bitternefs; it will quarrel, and, in a word, will rufh, with the whole force of nature, into all manner of vice, as oppor tunity prefents and age permits..

The force of natural confcience is always diminifhed as perfons ad vance in life, unlefs they are renewed, and in part fanctified by the Spirit of God. Its genuine dictates are fuppreffed, and at laft nearly or quite annihilated; and if they, when advanced, maintain a decorous conduct, it must be owing to the operation of other reftraints; and this will be vifible to the eye of critical obfervation: But, in confequence of the gradual diminution of this powerful reftraint, there is obfervable, in moft men, a gradual depreciation of character, until the lufts of the heart gain a great and vifible af cendency. Such being the state of

things, how happy is it for the church and world, that God has reduced the life of man from near a thousand years to three score years and ten. Had it not been for this wife and gracious appointment, a nother deluge of water, or of fire, might, long ago, have been neceffa ry to fweep the world of its wicked inhabitants.

A man of boisterous and unhal lowed paffions, when in the pref ence of his prince, or other great man, and paying his court for fome favor which he holds most dear, will be a paragon of gentleness and patience: But follow him, after the tumult within is raised to the higheft violence, by fome untoward events, to his own houfe; and his paffions, let loofe upon the unhappy objects around him, will overturn every thing in their course, and will difplay a scene ten-fold more dreadful than that of con flicting elements. What is the matter now? Why restraints are removed, and the man acts out his nature freely. An aperture or opening is made into his heart, and we have a glimpse of the dreadful object, which is always naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do..

A perfon of impure defires and wholly unfanctified, whofe memory and fancy are the ftore-house of filth and pollution, and whofe un derftanding has been debafed, and compelled, it may be, for a long time, to pander for fenfe; and all whofe faculties are brutalized by fenfual indulgencies, will, in the prefence of perfons of a different defcription, affume the character of purity itself: But trace his fteps to his cuftomary haunts, or into retirement, covered with night and darkness, where no eye fees him but that of an affociate in guilt, and the eye of Almighty God

or, perhaps, that of God alone: here I will close the scene, for it = is a fhame even to speak of thofe things which are done by fuck in fecret. The reafon of this conduct is plain, the eye of man, from whom he fears evil and expects good, is a restraint; but the eye of God from whom perhaps he expects nothing and fears nothing, is either no restraint, or not fufficient to prevent the guilty indulgence.

When a vicious and profligate courfe is attended with fhame and infamy, vice will, for the most part, be driven into corners. In fuch a ftate of fociety, a wicked man, who nevertheless is confcious of enjoying a fair reputation, will be careful to preferve it, if he can do it, and ftill indulge his reigning propenfity; if not, he will fooner or later give up his reputation, and he is then prepared to give the reins to his predominant inclination, and to fin, as it were, with a cart-rope. Such is the state of the notorious libertine, thief and drunkard; but when fuch like characters are greatly multiplied, fo that vice is kept in countenance, and the benefit of a fair character is comparatively small, in the intercourfe of fociety; efpecially, if the people have enjoyed great light and advantages for religion, the ftate of fuch a people muft beviewed as nigh unto curfing. Perfons brought up in pious families, and under the reftraints of well regulated fociety will ufually be moral in their converfation ;. bat place them in any fituation where reftraints are moftly taken off, and they may be expected, if unrenewed; to fhew the bent of nature, and foon to become prof. cients in the school of vice.

Let reafon be impaired by intemperance, and the foul and terocious paffions will rage without control; let it be impaired by

old age, and the perfon, unless a radical change of temper has taken place, will be untractable, self-willed and paffionate, fo as to be come a burden to all around him; and if he has experienced fuch a change, the remains of corrupt nature, in a like exhibition of it, to a certain degree, will be apparent; or let it be impaired by diftraction, and the perfon will be imperious, or malicious, or profane, or obt fcene; or all of them at turns, as the propenfities, apparent in those exercifes, prevail. This laft inftance is as fair a trial of the native inclinations of the heart as any of the former; for, as thofe inclinations exift independently of reafon, they will fhew themselves as they really are, when reason is impaired, and no longer controls

them.

Let difhonor be detached from a particular vice, and attached to to the oppofite virtue, as, in the cafe of duelling, it is in the opinion of the world; and few men, except fuch as are not of this world, will be able to refift the temptation of giving or accepting a challenge to fight with fword and piftol, when the laws of honor, falfely fo called, require it. Such as do this, and fuch as give countenance to it, and efpecially fuch, whofe province it is to execute the laws on the atrocious offenders, and from a criminal complaifance to public opinion, neglect to do it, are all murderers; though they would refent the imputation with as much spirit as Hazael did, with an "Is thy fervant a dog that he should do this great thing"?

The infidels of the prefent day are under fewer restraints than the ancient pagans; for these last had not abandoned, but only corrupted the worship of God, nor did they disbelieve a state of of future retri

covery of the finner depends on the electing purpofe and love of God. But when we attend to the character, which the holy fcriptures give of the finner, and the representations there made of the human heart, it will readily be feen, that no one, who imagines that his eternal falvation depends on any exertions, which it is compatible with his prefent difpofition to make, and will be connected with them, has any proper fenfe of the really wretched, helplefs ftate and condition he is in. That conviction, which is of great importance to a right understanding of the nature and extent of gofpel mercy, and which ufually precedes converfion, implies fuch a difcov ery of the wickedness and obftinacy of our own hearts, as forces the conclufion upon us, that if we are ever brought to be willing to lie at the mercy of God, and love and rejoice in fuch a falvation as is offered in the gofpel, it must be done, not only by a power foreign to our own, but by one which operates against all the natural biaffes of our hearts, and overcomes them. This conviction ftrongly impreffes the finner's mind with a perfuafion of his abfolute dependance on the fovereign mercy and electing love of God for falvation.

And the fcripture doctrine of Election is evidently calculated to produce this conviction-a conviction without which it cannot be, that we should ever properly eftimate the nature, and fee the glory of that divine mercy, by which finners are faved.

which it is connected. Without a knowledge of this, a finner under proper conviction could find no ground of hope. Increafing light will discover increafing oppofition of heart to God, and to the way of falvation by Christ. That, were the finner, who has any clear difcovery of the state of his own heart, to feel that it depended ultimately on himself-on the exertions of fucha heart as he now poffeffes, whether he should ever comply with the propofals of the gofpel, he would at once lofe all hope. The only confideration, which will prevent defpair, is, that God has mercy because he will have mercy, and on whom he will have mercy. This must be fo, because it fo evidently appears, from the word of God, that nothing short of the mighty power and influence of the Holy Spirit ever brings the heart of the finner into the fentiments of the gospel. Since the fufficiency of the atonement, and the free and rich offers of mercy, both, leave the finner's heart where they find it-under the entire dominion of fin, the plan of falvation would be incomplete without the doctrine of Election. Were it not for thofe faving purpofes and that fovereign mercy, which neceffarily imply a particular election, a conviction in the confcience of thofe truths, which are clearly taught in the word of God, would leave the finner in a hopeless ftate. Without this doctrine-without evidence, both of the power, and the purpofe of Chrift to caufe dead finners to hear his voice, there could

human race would be faved. Thus evidently is the doctrine of Election fitted to promote conviction, and at the fame time to prevent defpair.

3. The doctrine of Election gives an affurance, which could