bit of divine love, which we have all agreed is necessary to salvation; if it can be acquired in one moment, then we will preach no more against delay: you act with propriety. Put off, defer, procrastinate even to the last moment, and by an extraordinary precaution, never begin to seek the pleasures of piety till you are abandoned by the pleasures of the world, and satiated by its infamous delights. But if time, labour, and will, are required to form this genuine source of love to God, the necessity of which we have already proved, you should frankly acknowledge, that it is folly to defer so important a work for a single moment; that it is the extreme of madness to defer the task to a dying hour; and that the prophet cannot too highly exalt his voice, crying to all who regard their salvation, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.

This being allowed, we shall establish, on two principles, all that we have to advance upon this subject. First, We cannot acquire any habit without performing the correspondent actions. Language, for instance, is a thing extremely complex. To speak, requires a thousand muscular motions of the body, a thousand movements form the word, and a thousand sounds the articulation. All these at first are extremely difficult; they appear quite impossible. There is but one way to succeed, that is, to persevere in plying the strings, articulating the sounds, and producing the movements; then what was at first impossible becomes surmountable, and what becomes surmountable is made easy, and what is easy becomes natural: we speak with such an inconceivable facility as would be incredible, were it not confirmed by experience. The spirits flow to the parts destined for these operations, the channels open, the difficulties recede, the volitions are accomplished; as a stream whose waters are turned by the strength of hand and aid of engines, falls by its own

weight to places where it could not have been carried but by vast fatigue.

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Secondly, When a habit is once rooted, it becomes difficult or impossible to correct it, in proportion as it is confirmed. We see in the human body, that a man, by distraction or indolence, may suffer his person to degenerate to a wretched situation if he continue, his wretchedness increases; the body takes its mould; what was a negligence, becomes a necessity; what was a want of attention becomes a natural and an insurmountable imperfection. Let us apply these principles to our subject, and avail ourselves of their force to dissipate, if possible, the mistakes of mankind concerning their conversation and their virtues. Habits of the mind are formed as habits of the body; the former become as incorrigible as the latter.

First, then, as in the acquisition of a corporeal habit, we must perform the correspondent actions, so in forming the habits of religion, of love, humility, patience, charity, we must habituate ourselves to the duties of patience, humility, and love. We never acquire these virtues but by devotion to their influence it is not sufficient to be sincere in wishes to attain them; it is not sufficient to form a sudden resolution; we must return to the charge, and by the continued recurrence of actions pursued and repeated, acquire such a source of holiness as may justify us in saying, that such a man is humble, patient, charitable, and full of divine love. Have you never attended those powerful and pathetic sermons, which forced conviction on the most obdurate hearts? Have you never seen those pale, trembling, and weeping assemblies? Have you never seen the hearers affected, alarmed, and resolved to reform their lives? And have you never been surprised to see, after a short interval, each return to those vices he reviewed with horror, and neglect those virtues which appeared to him so amiable? Whence

proceeded so sudden a change? What occasioned a scene, which apparently contradicts every notion we have formed of the human mind? Behold it here. This piety this devotion, those tears proceeded from an extraneous cause, and not from a habit formed by a course of actions, and a fund acquired by labour and diligence. The cause ceasing, the effects subside, the preacher is silent, and the devotion is closed. Whereas the actions of life, proceeding from a source of worldly affections incessantly return, just as a torrent, obstructed by the raising of a bank, takes an irregular course, and rushes forth with impetuosity, whenever the bank is removed.

Further, we must not only engage in the offices of piety, to form the habit, but they must be frequent; just as we repeat acts of vice to form a vicious habit. The reason is this, my brethren, and can you be ignorant. Who does not feel it in his own breast? I carry it in my own wicked heart; I know it by the sad tests of sentiment and experience. The reason is obvious; habits of vice are found conformable to our natural propensity; they are found already form. ed within, in the germ of corruption which we bring into the world. We are shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin, Psal. li. 7. We make a rapid progress in the career of vice. We arrive without dif ficulty at perfection in the works of darkness. The pupil in a short course becomes a master in the school of the world and of the devil; and it is not at all surprising, that a man should at once become luxurious, covetous, and implacable, because he carries in his own breast the principles of all these vices.

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But the habits of holiness are directly opposed to our constitution. They obstruct all its propensities, and offer, if I may so speak, violence to nature. When we wish to become converts, we assume a double task; we must demolish, we must build ; we

must demolish corruption, before we can erect the edifice of grace. We must like those Jews who raised the walls of Jerusalem, work with the sword in one hand and the instrument in the other; Neh. iv. 17. equally assiduous to produce that which is not, as to destroy that which already exists.

Such is the way, and the only way, by which we can expect the establishment of grace in the heart; it is by unremitting labour, by perseverance in duty, and by perpetual vigilance. Now, who is there among you that does not perceive the folly of those who procrastinate their conversion? who imagine that a word from a minister, a prospect of death, a sudden resolution, can instantaneously produce perfection of virtue ? O wretched philosophy! extravagant presumption! idle reverie, that overturns the whole system of original corruption, and the mechanism of the human frame. I should as soon expect to find a man, who could play skilfully on an instrument without having acquired the art by practice and application, I should as soon expect to find a man, who could speak a language without having studied the words, and surmounted the fatigue and difficulty of pronunciation. The speech of the one would be a barbarous subject of derision, and unintelligible; and the notes of the other would be discords desti, tute of softness and harmony. Such is the absurdity of the man who would become pious, patient, humble, and charitable in one moment, by a simple wish of the soul, without acquiring those virtues by assiduity and care. All the acts of piety which you see him perform, are but emotions proceeding from a heart touched indeed, but not converted. His devotion is a rash zeal, which would usurp the kingdom of heaven, rather than take it by violence. His confession is an avowal extorted by anguish suddenly inflicted by the Almighty, and by remorse of conscience, rather than sacred contrition of heart. His charity is extorted by the fear of death, and the hor

ror of hell. Dissipate these fears, calm that anguish, appease these terrors, and you will see no more zeal, no more charity, no more tears; his heart habituated to vice, will resume its course. This is the consequence of our first principle; we shall next examine the result of the second.

We said that when a habit is once rooted, it becomes difficult to surmount it, and altogether unsur. mountable, when suffered to assume too great an ascendancy. This principle suggests a new reflection on the sinner's conduct who delays his conversion; a very important reflection, which we would wish to impress on the minds of our audience. In the early course of vice, we sin with a power by which we could abstain, were we to use violence; hence we flatter ourselves, that we shall preserve that power, and be able to eradicate vice from the heart when soever we shall form the resolution. Wretched philosophy still; another illusion of self-attachment, a new charm of which the devil avails him. self for our destruction. Because, when we have long continued in sin, when we are advanced in age, when reformation has been delayed for a long course of years, vice assumes the sovereignty, and we are no longer our own masters.

You intimate a wish to be converted; and when do you mean to enter on the work? To-morrow, without further delay. And are you not very absurd in deferring till-to morrow, when you may begin it today? But you shrink on seeing what labour it will cost, what difficulties must be surmounted, what victories must be obtained over yourselves. From this change you divert your eyes: to-day you still wish to follow your course, to abandon your heart to sensible objects, to follow your passions, and gratify your concupiscence. But to-morrow you intimate a wish of recalling your thoughts, of citing your wicked propensities before the bar of God, and pronouncing their sentence. O sophism of self-esteem! carrying