with it its own refutation. For if this wicked propensity, strengthened to a certain point, appears invincible to-day, how shall it be otherwise to-morrow, when to the actions of this day you shall have added those of another? If this sole idea, if this single thought of labour, induce you to defer to-day, what is to support you to-morrow under the same labour? Further, there follows a consequence from these reflections, which may appear unheard of to those, who are unaccustomed to examine the result of a principle; but which may perhaps convince those who know how to use their rea son, and have some knowledge of human nature. It seems to me, that, since habits are formed by actions, when those habits are continued to an age in which the brain acquires a certain consistency, correction serves merely to interrupt the actions already established.

It would be sufficient in early life, while the brain is yet flexible, and induced by its own texture to lose impressions as readily as it acquired them; at this age, I say, to quit the action would be suffi

cient to reform the habit. But when the brain has acquired the degree of consistency already mentioned, the simple suspension of the act is not sufficient to reform the habit; because by its texture it is disposed to continue the same, and to retain the impressions it has received.

Hence, when a man has lived some time in vice, to quit it is not a sufficient reform; for him there is but one remedy, that is, to perform actions opposite to those which had formed the habit. Suppose, for instance, that a man shall have lived in avarice for twenty years, and been guilty of ten acts of extortion every day. Suppose he shall afterwards have a desire to reform; that he shall devote ten years to the work; that he shall every day do ten acts of charity opposite to those of his avarice; these ten years (considering the case here according to the

course of nature only, for we allow interior and supernatural aids in the conversion of a sinner, as we shall prove in the subsequent discourses,) would they be sufficient perfectly to eradicate covetousness from this man? It seems contrary to the most received maxims. You have heard that habits confirmed to a certain degree, and continued to a certain age, are never reformed but by the same number of opposite actions. The character before us, has lived twenty years in the practice of avarice, and but ten in the exercise of charity, and doing only ten acts of benevolence daily during that period; he is then arrived at an age in which he has lost the facility of receiving new impressions. We cannot therefore, I think, affirm that those ten years are adequate perfectly to eradicate the vice from his heart. After all, sinners, you still continue in those habits, aged in crimes, heaping one bad deed upon another, and flattering yourselves to reform, by a wish, by a glance, by a tear, without difficulty or conflict, habits the most inveterate. Such are the reflections suggested by a knowledge of the human frame with regard to the delay of conversion. To this you will oppose various objections which it is of importance to resolve.

You will say, that our principles are contradicted by experience; that we daily see persons, who have long indulged a vicious habit, and who have renounced it at once with repeating the opposite acts of virtue. The fact is possible, it is indeed undeniable. It occurs in five cases, which when fully examined, will be found not at all to invalidate what has already been established.

1. A man possessing the free use of his faculties, may by an effort of reflection extricate himself from a vicious habit, I allow; but we have superseded the objection by a case apparently applicable. We have cautiously anticipated, and often resumed the solution. We speak of those only, who have attained

an advanced age, and have lost the facility of acquiring new dispositions. Have you ever seen persons of sixty or seventy years of age, renounce their avarice or pride, a favourite passion, or a family prejudice?

2. A man placed in a desponding situation, and under an extraordinary stroke of Providence, will instantly reform a habit, I grant; but that does not destroy our principles. We have not included in our reflections those extraordinary visitations which Providence may employ to subdue the sinner. When we said that the reformation of a vicious habit would require a number of acts which have some proportion to those which formed it, we supposed an equality of impressions in those actions, and that each action would be equal to that we wished to destroy.

3. A man may suddenly reform a habit on the reception of new ideas, and on hearing some truths of which he was ignorant before, I also acknowledge; but this proves nothing to the point. We speak of a man born in the bosom of the church, educated in the principles of Christianity, and who has reflected a thousand and a thousand times on the truths of religion; and on whom we have pressed a thousand and a thousand times the motives of repentance and regeneration; but, being now hardened, he can hear nothing new on those subjects.

4. A man may, I allow, on the decay of his faculties, suddenly reform a bad habit; but what has this to do with the renovation which God requires? In this case, the effect of sin vanishes away, but the principle remains. A particular act of the bad habit is ceded to weakness and necessity, but the source still subsists, and wholly predominates in the man.

5. In fine, a man whose life has been a continued warfare between vice and virtue; but with whom vice for the most part has had the ascendency over virtue, may obtain in his last sickness, the grace of real conversion. There is, however, something

doubtful in the case; conversion on a death-bed being difficult or impossible; because between one unconverted man and another there' is often a vast difference; the one, if I may so speak, is within a step of the grave, but the other has a vast course to run. The former has subdued his habits, has already made a progress, not indeed so far as to attain, but so far as to approach a state of regeneration: this man may, perhaps, be changed in a moment: but how can he, who has already wasted life in ignorance and vice, effectuate so great a change in a few days, or a few hours? We have therefore proved that the first objection is destitute of force.

You will, however, propose a second: you will say, that this principle proves too much, that if we cannot be saved without a fund and habit of holiness, and if this habit cannot be acquired without perseverance in duty, we exclude from salvation those deeply contrite sinners, who having wasted life in vice, have now not sufficient time to form a counterpoise to the force of their criminal habits.

This difficulty naturally occurs; but the solution we shall give does not so properly accord with this discourse; it shall be better answered in the exercises which shall follow, when we shall draw our arguments from the Scriptures. We shall then affirm that when a sinner groans under the burden of his corruption, and sincerely desires conversion, God affords his aid, and gives him supernatural power to vanquish his sinful propensities. But we will prove, at the same time, that those aids are so very far from countenancing the delay of conversion, that no consideration can be more intimidating to him who presumes on such a conduct. For, my brethren, our divinity and morality give each other the hand, the one is established upon the other. There is a wise medium between heresy, and I know not what absurd and extravagant orthodoxy; and as it is a bad maxim to establish the precepts, and renounce the

doctrines of Jesus Christ, so it is equally pernicious to make a breach in his precepts, to confirm his doctrines.

The aids of the Holy Spirit, and a consciousness of our own weakness, are the most powerful motives which can prompt us to labour for conversion with. out delay. If conversion, after a life of vice, de. pended on yourselves, if your heart were in your own power, if you had sufficient command to sanc tify yourselves at pleasure, then you would have some reason for flattery in this delay. But your conversion cannot be effectuated without an extraneous cause, without the aids of the Spirit of God; aids he will probably withhold, after you have despised his grace, and insulted it with obstinacy and malice. On this head therefore, you can form no reasonable hope, :

You will draw a third objection from what we have already allowed, that a severe affliction may suddenly transform the heart. To this principle, we shall grant that the prospect of approaching death may make an impression to deceive the sinner: that the veil of corruption raised at the close of life, may induce a man to yield at once to the dictates of conscience, as one walking hastily towards a precipice would start back on removing the fatal bandage which concealed his danger.

On this ground, I would await you, brethren. Is it then on a death-bed, that you formed your hopes? We will pledge ourselves to prove, that so far from this being the most happy season, it is exactly the reverse. The reflections we shall make on this subject, are much more calculated to strike the mind than those already advanced, because they require some penetration, but you cannot avoid perceiving the force of those which follow.

We will not absolutely deny the possibility of the fact on which the objection is founded. We will allow that a man, who with composure of mind