our prospect therefore is bright. Thus far indeed it may be hopeful; but much more is necessary ere we can pronounce it safe.

In the first place, however, we must endeavour to ascertain whether even we have conviction as thus extensively understood. It should be no surprising question, Do we believe the prophets? Do we come to the scripture testimony as truth, so that we are practically giving demonstration that our judgment is convinced? Alas! in too many instances, where by the lip confession is made, and the word of God is received in customary acknowledgement of its divine origin, there is an indisputable manifestation of infidelity in the heart and mind. Witness the irreverence, the bold speculative curiosity, the unchecked career of vice, the indulgence of desires and passions forbidden by the word, the cold unconcern in which the terrible or gracious truths of scripture are heard, yea sometimes scarcely heard ! Dispositions so conspicuously attendant upon those who assemble professedly to hear the truth, that we are constrained to acknowledge the propriety of the question, "Do I really possess a convinced mind on these important points?" Am I quite sure that I am hasting to eternal misery or eternal joy? that before me there are two wide extremes; that in a few years at most, and possibly this very night, I may be called to an abode from which there is no return; and that judgment awaits me according to God's undeviating rule; and that

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without an interest in Christ I am lost for ever? Alas! even with saints there is frequently a want of excitement such as these subjects demand; and therefore the enquiry may well be urged upon the generality of worshippers.

Let us also ask whether we are experimentally acquainted with the seizure of conscience and feelings so far as described, having felt the misery of sin, and knowing that God's children alone are happy. No doubt some who read these lines have experienced all these influences from time to time: and it is a privilege if we are able to ascertain the fact: much is it to be preferred to the wretched condition of avowed infidelity, and to the destructive reign of a fatal stupor: and most miserable are they amongst us who are still so infatuated and hardened by the power of their native apostacy, as not to have known even this degree of excitement. But let the friendly voice of warning be heard; let us consider how increasingly responsible to God we become by every movement which agitates the conscience or heart, and that, if after these influences we remain in estrangement and indecision, we are increasing our condemnation; because thereby we evince our preference for a state of alienation, our greater love of earth, and of carnal delights than of those which the gospel proposes; and that notwithstanding so many powerful motives to the contrary we deliberately make choice of evil. This is a provocation which usually conducts to a state of reprobacy,

for it is an insult to the Holy Ghost, and direct rebellion under most aggravating circumstances. And it is also the high road to an awful measure of misery; for sooner or later this sin will find out the sinner; and abused opportunities and resisted convictions produce a never dying worm.

Here we will close our present investigation, leaving it as a solemn charge upon our souls, that we dismiss not the reflections that are suggested, without seeking a suitable improvement. This may be done by combining sacred awe with a tribute of gratitude. We have just reason to be thankful if we are awakened to self-distrust: we have greater reason for thankfulness if we are delivered from our former state of insensibility: we should contrast our present feelings with what we once were whilst wholly unmoved by truth. It is a mercy that we are not openly infidel, and living in avowed defiance of Jehovah. It is a mercy that we know in some degree what is truth, so that we are not tossed to and fro, or carried away by winds of doctrine. It is a mercy that we believe the promise and the threat, knowing that there is substance in them. Pangs of conscience also are mercies: they are preferable to a conscience that is seared. Meltings of feeling are mercies: better than the obduracy of a rocky heart. In these we should be thankful, and demonstrate our sense of the goodness that has been extended in them, by prosecuting the way of hearing, reading, and self-examination, and by fostering their

influences in the use of all appointed means. Above all, praying for the special grace of the Holy Ghost, looking to him for an effectual call, and acting as rational and responsible creatures, correspondently with the conviction that pervades our mind.

THE DIVIDING OF THE HEART.

HOSEA X. 2.

WE have advanced so far with this course of subjects, as to have before us the scripture account of man's fallen condition as corrupt in heart and the powerful degree to which, in his yet uncon verted state, he is capable of being convicted, his judgment and conscience having received light, and these having addressed and excited his natural feelings. Our object must now be to follow this view, with an examination into the effects which are frequently produced by these convictions. Faculties thus far awakened will usually proceed to make an appeal to the will: they invite the sinner to determine on the side of truth, and to make a corresponding surrender of himself, urging upon him those considerations, which he now admits to be of substantial and awful import, and to make him willing to choose the good.

It is undeniable that appeals such as these are visibly silenced and neglected by thousands of our fellow creatures, and that notwithstanding all the arguments, justly presented and well founded, with which the claimants enforce their counsel, man remains in his unchanged and natural alienation from God. But this is sometimes attended