Simplicity and probity of mind proper qualifications

failed to know the Father; and, hence, like the Jews, they cannot reverence and love the son.ro of ci cit

The Gospel discloses so many comfortable, so many desirable truths to the believer; is so friendly, so cherishing to those qualities and graces which we esteem most amiable and excellent in the human character; in its precepts. is so consonant with the rules of right conduct prescribed by reason; that to reject it indicates a strange deficiency of wisdom, a deplorable misapplication of the intellectual powers. It is, however, consistent enough for those to reject it, who find themselves condemned by its doctrines; who feel that its commanded duties are incompatible with the pleasures or interests, on which they have set their hearts; that it forbids the favourite vices, which they cannot, or will not forsake, Such people may wish it to be a fiction; may urge every objection, and adopt every argument, that sophistry can supply, to bring it into disrepute. At first, perhaps, they lightly disregard it, and are only better pleased to hear it defamed than defended, their vices being yet neither inveterate

for the reception of divine truth.

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inveterate nor flagitious. But, as they advance in years, and become hardened in iniquity, the terrors of revelation, if they turn their thoughts to it, increase upon them. They would gladly avert the gloom, which they foresee it must gather about the close of an unreformed life. They would remove the appalling prospect, that it opens to them beyond the grave, any grave, any way rather than by sacrifice of their lusts." Hence they look upon it, as to them it really is, the enemy to present enjoyment, and future hope; hence their hatred to it becomes rooted and lasting. Having now in confirmed habit, thought and spoken against it, and endeavoured to disprove it, they, begin at length to think their arguments valid-Long and safe practice, continued and indulged propensity have beguiled and subdued both the understanding and the conscience. What was at first disinclination or aversion has grown into blind prejudice and unconscious error. By constantly seeking conviction against the real good which they hate, they forget that they have not conviction of the visionary good which they love; so that

at

Simplicity and probity of mind

qualifications

at last, they mistake that for honest and rational opinion, which is is only habitual imagination, and overbearing desire. Thus

error

is admitted to the place of truth, and forces ༠མས that Heavenly witness from before the judge ment seat of their minds.

After such a course of iniquity, impiety and delusion, if there should remain in the mind, or by the favour of God be communicated to it

any principle of renovation; should any inlet be opened at which truth may enter, to beget capacity for virtue and holiness; yet how alienated must the heart be from goodness, and how enamoured of evil? how averse and insensible to the pleasures of righteousness? how rooted in its attachment to sin? Deprived of his accustomed amusements, such an habitual sinner, even if he should be enabled to begin, and finally to prosecute, the work of repentance, must for a time, be disconsolate, forlorn, and wretched. Without he is beset with terrors; within he has a nest of serpents, that sting him at every thought. He has to control his headstrong passions, which from long indulgence are involved as it were with his exis

tence;

for the reception of divine truth,

tence; to divest himself of inveterate habits which have grown with his years, and gather, ed strength as his life was wearing away; to change his entire system of thought, action, and enjoyment: to substitute new modes of spending his time, new subjects for the em ployment of his faculties, new objects for the gratification of his affections-He must do violence to the whole man, turning away the torrent of evil, which has been collecting in all the days of his being. We may pluck out an eye, or amputate a limb.-But can the leopard change his spots, or the Ethiop his skin? God can certainly do it for them. But then he changes, in part, their very nature. And let us not forget the expostulation of Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness. He told them after all the great things that God had done for them, that he had not given them an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto that day. All the signs and wonders, which they had seen, all the benefits and favours, which they had received, had failed to reclaim them. So perverse and obstinate were they, that the abundant kindness of God

had

Simplicity and probity of mind proper qualifications

had proved ineffectual to gain their fidelity, and root out the evil heart of disobedience. And of the posterity of this rebellious people our Saviour says from the prophet of Isaiah: this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. He left them to the blindness, which they had brought on themselves, and allowed them to fill up the measure of their iniquities.

Thus prone is the vain mind of man to contract sinful habits which it can never subdue, to bewilder and lose itself in its own wilful errors, so to estrange itself from Him that formed it, as to become incapable of recognizing his truth and excellence, and of regaining his favour. And we may rest assured that, He will not compel the obstinate sinner to repentance; that where his wisdom, his goodness, his mercies are manifested, and the benign influences of his spirit are imparted, in vain to convert and save, his justice and truth will be put forth only to punish.

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