God towards mankind, procured the pardon of fins, la difpenfation in which the wisdom of the means is as confpicuous as the benevolence of the end, fince no other can be conceived fo conducive to the promotion of virtue:) that as man is redeemed by the Son of God, he is fanctified by the Spirit of God, if he avails himself of the means prescribed for obtaining that holy influence. It is not neceffary, however, to enumerate the doctrines of this clafs; they will readily occur to perfons at all converfant in the facred writings, and it is to fuch perfons only that the present argument can be addreffed; but it may be obferved of them in general, that the authenticity of the volume in which they are delivered is fupported by the ftrongeft teftimony, and by teftimony of that kind of which reason is competent to judge; that they appear, confidered with respect to their final causes, replete with wifdom, and worthy of their author; author; that there is nothing in them contradictory to the cleareft notions men have of phyfical or of moral poffibility, nor inconfiftent with any other part of the plan of providence. On the contrary, the more accurately things are examined in this view, the more harmonious and beautiful does the fyftem appear; but when the precife nature of the union between the divine perfons concerned in our redemption, or the precife mode and degree in which the graces of the holy fpirit are communicated (and many inftances of the fame kind may be felected among the doctrines of natural, as well as of revealed religion;) is purfued through the labyrinth of metaphyfical fubtlety, doubts arife, and cavils are objected; to which the true answer is, that other faculties than those which we poffefs at prefent are necessary to discover, and probably to conceive, an adequate folution of them. But the pride of human fagacity prompts men In this, as in other instances, nothing is more conducive to a right frame of mind than an awful fenfe of God's conftant prefence and inspection. A notion true in itfelf, when rightly understood, and fairly interpreted, (that men are not refponsible for their fpeculative opinions, nor for the fluctuations to which they are fubject from time to time, because opinions depend on evidence, in the reception of which the mind is neceffarily paffive,) ferves often, by the mifapplication of it, to lull the conscience in a falfe fecurity. In that day when the fecrets of all hearts fhall be open, and every evafion and fubterfuge unavailing, it may, alas! be no juftification of a mispent life to allege, however truly so, at fuch and fuch a period I acted, for fo I believed. Practice and belief reciprocally influence each other; and as erroneous belief has often a tendency to produce immoral conduct, fo it often originates in it, and is therefore therefore reprehenfible in itself. In no instance do men betray greater weakness than in accommodating their faith to their habits and propenfities. Is it foothing to believe that remiffion of fins, and even indulgencies for the commiffion of them, may be obtained from men divinely authorised to dispense them; that fome perfons, reprobated from their birth, are children of perdition, while others are fanctified by an over-ruling grace, and predestined to everlafting happiness; that certain outward acts of mortification, that enthusiastic fervors, or unintelligible pretenfions to an extatic love of their Redeemer, will be accepted as equivalent to a life of piety and virtue? The most frivolous argument, the first detached paffage that can be interpreted in conformity with the favorite tenet, is confidered as conclufive evidence. Should change of circumstances at any time render fome other creed more convenient, little ingenuity T2 genuity will be necessary to detect the errors of their prefent perfuafion, or to find reasons, at least equally cogent with those on which it was founded, in fupport of the new one. And as fuch repeated changes of fyftem imply a confeffion of the futility of all but the last, it is not probable that this when assailed in its turn, whether by argument or by the paffions, will be more pertinaciously maintained; efpecially if it be confidered that, as by difcarding each particular fet of doctrines fome one fcruple has been quieted; fo by difcarding them all, the very ground of fcruples will be removed; and, in fact, no transition is eafier than, from having fucceflively believed every thing, to believing nothing. NOR are indolence and indifference lefs adverse than vice to fettled and confiftent plans of thinking or acting. When opinions are acquiefced in, not from a conviction of |