above sensible objects, and fill the soul with sacred truths before the world has engrossed its capacity.

This truth is susceptible of a yet clearer demonstration, when we consider religion with regard to practice. And as the subject turns on principles to which we usually pay but slight attention, we are especially obliged to request, if you would edify by this discourse, that you would hear attentively. There are subjects less connected, which may be compre- . hended, notwithstanding a momentary absence of the mind, but this requires constant application, as we lose the whole, by neglecting the smallest parl.

Remember, in the first place, what we have already affirmed, that in order to true conversion, it is not sufficient to evidence some partial acts of love to God: the principle must be so profound and permanent, that love shall ever be the predominant disposition of the heart. We should not apprehend that any of you would dispute this assertion, if we should content ourselves with pressing it in a vague and general way; and if we had no design to draw conclusions directly opposite to the notions of many, and to the practice of most. But at the close of this discourse, unable to evade the consequences which follow the principle, we are strongly persuaded, you will renew the attack on the principle itself, and deny that to which you have already assented. Hence we ought not to proceed before we are agreed what we ought to believe upon this head. We ask you, brethren, Whether you believe it requisite to love God in order to salvation? We can scarcely think that any of our audience will answer in the negative;

at least we should fear to speak with much more confidence on this point, and on the necessity of acquiring instruction in order to conversion, than to supercede the obligation of loving God, because it would derogate from the dignity of man, who is obliged to love his benefactor; from the dignity of a Christian, educated under a covenant which denounces anathemas against those who love not the Lord Jesus; from the dignity of a Protestant, who cannot be ignorant how all the divines of our communion have exclaimed against the doctrine of Rome on the subject of penance.

Recollect, therefore, my brethren, that we are agreed upon this point; recollect in the subsequent parts of this discourse, that, in order to conversion, we must have a radical and habitual love to God. This principle being allowed, all that we have to say against the delay of conversion becomes self established. The whole question is reduced to this; if in a dying hour, if at the extremity of life, if in a short and fleeting moment, you can acquire this habit 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 the folly of postponing 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: just 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.

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 to our natural propensity; they are found already formed within, in the germ of corruption which we bring into the world. We are shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin, Psalm li. 7. We make a rapid progress in the career of vice. We arrive without difficulty 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