to degrade your own character, or injure the reputation of another. But a principle may lay dormant for a long time, like the seed of the husbandman during the unprolific months of winter, which a new series of events may rouse into powerful action. A more intimate acquaintance. with the moral qualities of others, may induce. you to suspect that your nature is not so good asyou have imagined; and a minute investigation of your own heart may convince you, that it is deceitful and impure. Ambition, pride, revenge, cruelty, envy, and contempt of God, are the dispositions which hu man nature uniformly displays. These dispositions may not have assumed in your character those awful forms in which they have sometimes appeared in the character of others; but have you never discovered their secret influence? If your ambition has never subverted an empire, or turned the fruitful field into a barren wilder ness, has it never disturbed the order of a family, by aspiring to the honour of command or dictation, when duty required you to obey or submit? If your pride has never prompted you to say to another, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me: for I am holier than thou;" yet have you never felt its operations, when com paring the elegance of your person or the splendour of your accomplishments, with the appearance and attainments of others? If like the Spaniard,* you have never pursued your enemy, from one place to another, 'till revenge has enjoyed the sweet though deadly repast; yet have you never retained a recollection of an offence till a retaliation has been inflicted? The crueltyt which enters the defenceless habitation of *Revenge has produced wonderful examples of unremitting constancy to a purpose. You may have read a real instance of a Spaniard, who, being injured by another inhabitant of the same town, resolved to destroy him the other was apprized of this, and removed with the utmost secresy, as he thought, to another town at a considerable distance, where however he had not been more than a day or two, before he found that his enemy was arrived there. He removed in the same manner to several parts of the kingdom, remote from each other; but in every place he quickly perceived that his deadly pursuer was near him. At last he went to South America, where he had enjoyed his security but a very short time, before his unrelenting enemy came up with him and effected his purpose. Forster's Essays. +"The spring time of our years Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd in most By budding ills that ask a prudent hand To check them. But alas! none sooner shoot, Than cruelty, most devilish of them all." the poor African, which drags him from his family, his home, the sepulchre of his fathers, and the land of his nativity; which transports him to a foreign soil, where whilst weeping over the remembrance "Of joys departed, not to return,” he is exposed to the lash of the merciless taskmaster, may excite your abhorrence; but has no dependant servant, no sportive companion, no aged matron, been tortured by the sallies of your wit, or the unkindness of your temper? If under the influence of that envy, "Which sickens At the excellence it cannot reach," you have never wantonly attacked the character of a friend or an enemy; yet have you never by insinuation, or by withholding just praise, injured her reputation in the opinion of others? Contempt of God is not confined to an open and positive rejection of the great scheme of Mercy which is revealed in the Scriptures; but is often discovered in those aversions which are manifested to the private exercises of devotion. And have you never preferred the amusements of the world to the pleasure of holding communion with him? Have you never done what you knew he has forbidden; and omitted what you knew he has commanded? These principles, which you may discover on close examination, are the maliguant qualities of human nature in an infantile state; weak, yet active; and if they are allowed to grow by indulgence, they will acquire absolute dominion over the mind. They may be controlled by the force of example, or a temper naturally mild and amiable; but their subjection will require the co-operation of a divine power. On the entire depravity of the heart, the whole system of redemption is founded; and the first practical design to be accomplished, is its renovation. These facts cannot be too deeply impressed on your mind, because until they are admitted, you will neither understand the truths of the Scripture, nor feel their efficacy. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," is the language which Jesus Christ addressed to Nicodemus; and it is equally applicable to you. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," is the declaration of the Apostle "Thus saith Jehovah." "I will put a new G spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my sta. tutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them.” These figurative expressions are intended to convince you of the necessity of a radical change in the moral exercise of all your mental faculties. The understanding, which is involved in "darkness," must be enlightened, that you may discern the evil of sin, and the adaptation of the various parts of revealed truth to your spiritual condition. The affections, which are earthly, must be refined, that they may be "set on things above." The will, which is prone to evil, must receive a new bias, that it may "seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." The inferior passions must be brought into subjection to the authority of Christ. Till you possess this new spirit, the peculiar glories of the gospel will lie as concealed from your eye, as the beauties of the rainbow from him who is born blind. The cold and impenetrable heart of stone must be removed, and the warm and susceptible heart of flesh must be given, before you can partake of those enrap-tured feelings with which the renewed man contemplates the wonders of redemption, and anti |