Or, if some pleurisy invades their frame,

Allows no rest, and wraps them in a flame,

They think this ill heaven-sent: Behold, they cry,
The visitations of an angry sky.

Various th' emotions which the bad attend;
They're resolute and bold when they offend.
But when the deed is done, they then begin
To see the foul enormity of sin :

They curse the guilty hour when they resign'd
The comfort of the self-approving mind."

We have not, however, only the admonitions of conscience; we have admonitions conveyed to us by the unhappy experience of others, by the suggestions of our friends, and by the instruction of the wise; we have

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Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

Yet we find by experience that these natural expostulations frequently fail of producing their legitimate influence. They warn and terrify the sinner; yet the sinner is unreformed. But do we throw blame on the providence of God, because these His expostulations are not successful, and because we presume to think it would have been a greater proof of wisdom to have reclaimed at once, than to have warned and exhorted? Do we therefore reject His government, and trample on His authority?

If we shudder at so doing, let us equally shudder at abandoning the obligations of Scripture, only because it follows the plans and methods of Providence, whose wisdom and power we dare not deny.

I have somewhere met with a few admirable lines on the unregarded admonitions of conscience, which are so much to the purpose, that I must not conclude this section without citing them :

" "Tis said, th' offending man will sometimes sigh, And say, 'My God, in what a dream am I?

I will awake.' But as the day proceeds,

The weaken'd mind the day's indulgence needs.
Hating himself at ev'ry step he takes,

His mind approves the virtue he forsakes:
And yet forsakes her. O! how sharp the pain,
Our vice, ourselves, our habits to disdain!
To go where nevet yet in peace we went;
To feel our hearts can bleed. yet not relent ;
To sigh, yet not recede ; to grieve, yet not repent!"

Nor can I omit the following remarks of the Rev. Mr. Seed:-" The passions hurry us into action, and plunge us into folly, before reason puts in its remonstrances. And what is the consequence? That very reason acts the part of an after-wise friend, who, though he does not restrain us from doing wrong, yet, as soon as the action is done, upbraids us with pungent reflections, and tells us we are fools."

SECTION XXVI.

MATT. v. 21. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that, whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment." So verses 27, 28; 33, 34; 38, 39; 43, 44.

HEB. viii. 7.

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If that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second."

It is said, "God is unchangeable. How then is it consistent that He should make laws at one time, and supersede them at another ?"

We have already considered in Section XVI. a point which may be classed among the objected passages now brought before the reader. But it may be necessary to introduce here somewhat of a supplement to the remarks there made.

Certain laws are adapted to certain people and to certain times; and perhaps no laws will suit all people and all times. Not that the laws in this case are bad in themselves, but they are bad relatively, and as compared with the circumstances of the age. Thus it happens that laws, which are positively good at one time, are in practice positively bad at another, and deserving, therefore, of censure, if practically applied.

Again: the same laws will not be suitable to a jail and to a city; to cannibals and enlightened people; to slaves and to freemen ; to children and to men. They must be modified according to the circumstances.

What do all the new acts of senates, all the new decrees of princes, which are constantly changing and modifying those which were passed before them, manifest, but the same truth? They relax or mitigate punishments for the same offences; they declare that to be a vice at one time, which at another they declare innocent; and they explode the most deeply-rooted opinions and practices. Nor is it to be forgotten that all this is taking place under the government of one and the same Divine Being, who yet suffers this change, this

alteration, to be continually in operation in the kingdoms of the world. The voice of the people, that is, of the state, has been well called the voice of God; yet how changeable is this voice! Is it wonderful, therefore, if God, in his more immediate dealings with mankind, should change and modify His directions and commandments according to the circumstances? Thus our Lord tells the Jews, that "Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, suffered them to put away their wives; but from the beginning it was not so."* Thus, were a physician to diet a person who had taken a very immoderate quantity of strong drink for many years, until it had grown into a habit,-it would be very injudicious treatment to cut off at once the whole cause of offence, and not allow him to lessen the quantity by gradual reductions.

"The strength of sin," says St. Paul,+ " is the law" that is, it is the law which makes sin to be what it is. We may well, then, leave to the Divine Being to determine when He shall make or unmake the law of sin; and when He shall introduce such changes in it, as suit the nature of beings, not perfect and unchange† 1 Cor. xv. 56.

* Matt xix. 8.

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