has pleased, in the progress of time, to place men in a great variety of fituations, calculated, in various degrees, to bring out to view their true character; and he will continue to vary thofe fituations, in future, until it is as fully difclofed as the nature of the divine government requires. Thus, not only individuals, for the period of their lives, but the whole race as fuch, from the fall to Chrift's fecond coming, are in a state of probation. During this period the heart of man will be fully proved; and it will appear, from fact and experience, that it is deceitful above all things and defperately wicked. God will be found to be true, but every man a liar. To attain the ends of this trial and probation of human nature, fully, a long period of time feems neceffary, and during its progrefs, a certain degree of order among men is requifite; for, without this, VOL. II. No. 3. the race of man itfelf would be would remain for the difpenfations exterminated, and no opportunity of divine mercy. Hence the neceffity of great and powerful reftraints on the lufts and paffions of men. In providing thefe, at different times, and in degrees fuited to the course of events fixed in the divine counfels, the power, wif dom and goodness of God are wonderfully difplayed. In viewing the character of man, howevreftraints we are apt to form con er, under the operation of fuch clufions too much in his favor; for by means of them, no doubt, much wickedness is prevented, and exhibited; ftill, as they produce a femblance of goodness is often their effect by laying a force upon, and not by changing the inclinations of the heart, they ought to be laid wholly out of the queftion, in forming an estimate of the human character. In proportion as these are withdrawn, the naked der to discover it to the view of human heart appears. And in orfinite minds, God is pleased, from time to time, to withdraw thofe reftraints, as far as the ftate of things will admit. bounds; and,to mention no more, even the interfering lufts in the fame heart, which limit each other, or fubject the weaker to the predominant paffion. Such are the bands and cords by which Almighty God binds, in fuch degree as he pleases, a race of apoftate creatures, who refuse to be united to him and to one another, in that charity which is the bond of perfectnefs. God has been pleafed however, for wife and holy purposes, in every age, and under every degree of light which has fhone on the world, to remove thefe reftraints, or fome of them, from nations and from individuals, and in fuch degree as to give fufficient openings into the human heart. It may be useful to illuftrate, in the conduct of nations and of individuals, in a few particulars, thefe general obfervations. Among the countless reftraints which limit the reign of wickednefs are, natural confcience, or a moral feufe, common to mcn, by which they diftinguish between right and wrong, with the comfort or remorfe which purfues the fentence it paffes on our moral conduct, accompanied with a pre-fentiment of future retribution-a conviction that the judgment of God will be according to truth and righteoufnefs-a hope, refulting from revelation, tradition, or the expreffions of the divine benignity, of appealing God's anger and conciliating his favor, by our fervices and offerings-remarkable judgments with which God has vifited a wicked world, and in which he has fhewn his wrath and made his power known, to every age and nation-the fhortnefs of human life after the deluge a confciousness which all men feel of weakness and mutual depend. ence, the fear of evil from thofe we injure, and a hope of good from those we treat with juftice and benevolence-civil government-the dread of fhame, of lofs of reputation, health and intereft, which is, more or less, connected with a courfe of vice; and the defire of reputation and influence of health and affluence which ufu-ered and treated as the fame thing. ally attend a courfe of virtue- The weaker may, thro' fear, be pity, which, by a law of our na-induced to refpect the rights of the ture, is excited by objects in diftrefs-friendship, founded on a fimilarity of talles and pursuitsthe natural affections, which exift between those, whom the God of order has called to act together in the moft intimate connections, where the finful paffions are apt to be brought into perpetual collifion the interfering purfuits of men which limit the fphere of individual agency, and confine the effects of selfishness within narrower It is an undoubted fact, that nations, in relation to each other, are under fewer reftraints, than indi viduals, in a ftate of fociety, are: the former must be confidered, in relation to each other, as individuals in a state of nature, without any law to control them, but that of force or convenience. Power and right are, with them, confid ftronger, but whenever by uniting their ftrength or otherwife, the balance of power may be in their favor, they will fhew the fame difregard to right as others. Add to this, individual refponfibility' for national injuftice is very lightly felt, the ftill fmall voice of con. fcience, which may whifper in individuals, will be filenced by the voice of the nation; the difhonor of national bafenefs and perfidy will be felt to be more than compenfated, by the fplendor of victory and conqueft, and the advantages refulting from national aggrandizement. Accordingly, the nations which have shed moft mankind in general. And fuch is the character of all other na tions, fo far as they have had pow er and opportunity to display themfelves; and fo true is the divine blood, have, in all ages, not ex-declaration, "My thoughts are cepting the prefent, been held the moft renowned. Compacts and treaties with each other, though, among Pagans, the gods above and gods below, and among Chriftians, the Holy Trinity, are called upon in the moft folemn manner, to avenge their violation, are mere ftraw and rotten wood; no one expects they will be maintained with good faith, even at the folemn moment of ratification; they are received as matters of neceffity, ufe or convenience, and to be laid afide, either with or without a pre{text, when intereft requires. The nations, confidered as individuals ór bodies politic, have been, with few exceptions, atrocious murderers, their feet have been fwift to fhed blood, and they have had no fear of God before their eyes. This fketch of the character of nations is fupported by the reprefentations of them in the holy fcriptures. The four great monarchies are there reprefented by four ferocious beafts of prey; the Chaldean by a lion, the Perfian by a bear, the Grecian by a leopard, and the Roman by a beaft, fui generis, which had no prototype in nature, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, which had great iron teeth, which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the refidue with the feet of it, and which had ten horns. Such is the true character of nations the moft powerful and illuftrious, whofe great exploits, in laying wafte the world, have been celebrated in all ages fince they figured upon the theatre of human affairs, by poets and hiftorians, and indeed by not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." From the character of nations we may certainly infer the character of the body of the people or individuals which compofe them; if thefe loved their fellow-men as they do themfelves, they would prevent the profecution ofunjuft or cruel wars; and, if they had the fear of God before their eyes, they would find means to fecure the faithful and religious obfervance of treaties; they are therefore, unless they manifeft, in fome proper way, their diffent, guilty of all the fraud, injuftice, cruelty, murder, perfidy and impiety, of the nation which they compofe, and as individuals they must account to God the common Father of men. Why do they freely perpetrate fuch horrid wickednefs as members of a nation, which, perhaps, they would not do as individuals? Becaufe their temptations are greater, and their reftraints lefs. Here then the human heart appears ftript of difguife. The fame appears in the conduct of most kings and great men who are above, and of many mean and bafe men who are in fome fenfe below the cognizance of law. The former prove tyrants and oppreffors; the latter, pro. tected by their poverty and meannefs, prove cheats, liars, thieves, drunkards and are addicted in general to what is called low vice. The infant of a fpan long feels few reftraints; if difturbed in its enjoyments, it will fhow that perverfe and wrathful temper which, ftrengthened by time and left unreftrained, will impel to murder; it appears to be wholly felfish; it will foon fight the breaft 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, juft as nations fight with one another on a like account; if, by means of its fickness or otherwife it is exceffively indulged, it will, when able, foon fill the houfe with noife, and indifcriminately deal its rage a round; the fondeft endearments ferve to nourish peevifhnefs and pride, inftead of gratitude and obedience. If effectually reftrained 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 difobey its parents, it will lic, 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 curfing and bitternefs; it will quarrel, and, in a word, will rufh, with the whole force of nature, into all manner of vice, as opportunity prefents and age permits. 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, another deluge of water, or of fire, might, long ago, have been neceffary to fweep the world of its wicked inhabitants. A man of boisterous and unhallowed paffions, when in the prefence 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 highest 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 fcene ten-fold more dreadful than that of conflicting 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 glimpfe 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 store-house of filth and pollution, and whofe understanding has been debased, and compelled, it may be, for a long. time, to pander for fense; and all whofe faculties are brutalized by fenfual indulgencies, will, in the prefence of perfons of a different defeription, affume the character of The force of natural confcience is always diminifhed as perfons advance 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: Put, in confequence of the gradual diminution of this powerful re-purity itfelf: But trace his steps ftraint, there is obfervable, in moft to his cuftomary haunts, or into men, a gradual depreciation of retirement, covered with night and character, until the lufts of the darknefs, where no eye fees him heart gain a great and visible af but that of an affociate in guilt, cendency. Such being the state of 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 fuch in fecret. The reafon of this conduct is plain, the eye of man, from whom he fears evil and expects good, is a refraint; 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. old age, and the perfon, unlefs a 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 conscious 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 Let difhonor be detached from predominant inclination, and to fin, a particular vice, and attached to as it were, with a cart-rope. Such to the oppofite virtue, as, in the is the state of the notorious liber-cafe of duelling, it is in the opintine, thief and drunkard; but when ion of the world; and few men, fuch like characters are greatly mul- except fuch as are not of this tiplied, fo that vice is kept in coun- world, will be able to refift the tenance, and the benefit of a fair temptation of giving or accepting character is comparatively small, in a the intercourfe of fociety; efpecially, if the people have enjoyed great light and advantages for religion, the ftate of fuch a people must be viewed 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; but place them in any fituation where restraints are mostly taken off, and they may be expected, if azrenewed; to fhew the bent of nature, and foon to become proficients in the fchool of vice. Let reafon be impaired by intemperance, and the foul and ferocious paffions will rage without control; let it be impaired by 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 counte nance 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 fpirit as Hazael did, with an "Is thy fervant a dog that he should do ibis great thing"? 'The infidels of the prefent day are under fewer refraints than the ancient pagans; for these last had not abandoned, but only corrupted the worship of God, nor did they difbelieve a state cf of future retri น |