the most savage of the human race. This principle of human intellect can however make no excursion beyond the bounds of that prison-house, within which it is originally confined in its most intelligent recipients; until, divested of some of its fetters, and made both to feel the positive pain of its thraldom, and to taste and see so much of the benefit of deliverance, and of the sweetness of liberty, as to yield itself to the Influence of that grace which would effectually, though gradually, draw and introduce the obedient mind, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The utmost efforts of human intellect, before such visitations of Grace have nourished and directed it, could only be exerted in a choice between the furniture, the occupations, and the companions of its prison; none of which could present any good thing if unaccompanied by the interposition of Divine power. But when touched, drawn, animated thereby, the will of the creature is capable of making its election, not merely between objects of equal indifference or equal depravity, but between those which are characterized as being good.

Thus however blind in its own unenlightened condition, until made to know the difference between good and evil, and however powerless to choose the one and refuse the other, until strongly excited to maintain that difference by being inclined and assisted to choose life and live; it is nevertheless capable of yielding itself to the Influence of that Divine principle which only can effect its deliverance; and it even possesses ability to exercise the utmost degree of its boasted liberty, in rebelling against, and in altogether refusing and rejecting the Divine principle: "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ?” "If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured." "Oh! Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help" saith the Lord.

Chapter EEE

ON REASON AND CONSCIENCE.

Having in the preceeding chapter given a summary view of the complex nature or being of man, it may be useful to advert more particularly to the faculties and endowments with which he is furnished, as respectively appropriate to the different principles of this complex being, in reference to his animal, mental, and spiritual nature.

Of each of these it may be observed, agreeably to the conclusions of a late judicious writer, that they possess original tendencies or primary elements, as the seeds of all those qualities which gradually develope themselves, or are brought to maturity by favourable circumstances or appropriate culture; and which, in their seminal state,

may very properly be accounted, all those propensities in the animal nature of man, which arrive at completion without the intervention of any human tuition as desires, affections, &c.

Those also which constitute all the superior faculties of man, being comprehensive of his whole intelligent nature, as his sensitive and rational mind, are also originally of this seminal description, though susceptible of accession, and of being brought into action by extraneous circumstances and human cultivation.

In like manner that which is emphatically termed in Scripture: "The Incorruptible Seed"— "the Seed of the Kingdom," has its original tendencies and intuitive perceptions, though susceptible also of growth and expansion, from the nourishment congenial to its own pure nature; that is from the spring of its life, the Eternal Word received in the soul of man.

To assign to each principle of man's present threefold mode of existence, their exact boundaries, might be difficult as well as useless. That the lowest principle, the animal life, not only takes the lead of its more noble