1 certain height, entirely perverts and overturns them. This we call madness. But there are as many different degrees of it, as there are of bodily disorders which occafion it: and fomething there must be of this kind where-ever men are very confident and warm, without proper evidence and rational grounds. But however that may be the cafe of fuch as are under the influence of evil fpirits, which perhaps is more common than any of us are aware of; yet it neither does, nor can be the cafe, of those who are poffeffed by the Spirit of God, and under the divine influence and leading. Every step in their way is laid out by perfect wisdom, and of course supported by the trueft and moft perfect reason. Every deviation from it is a piece of folly; and the further they recede, the nearer they approach to the height of madness. And when Perfect Wisdom condescends to take the leading and guiding of fuch as cannot guide themselves, what name shall we give to those who will not follow? But, fay the wife men of the world, if men are thus poffeffed and actuated by the Spirit, what becomes of human liberty? and if that is gone, there can be no fuch VOL. I. 3 H thing thing as moral virtue; no human actions. either justly rewardable or punishable, and the whole fyftem of righteous moral government is fubverted or destroyed. I have no mind to enter into the intricacies of the difputes that have been raifed on the fubject of human liberty, which, if ever that affair comes to be well understood, I am fatisfied the difference of the feveral contending parties will be found to lie more in words and terms than in the thing itself. All are agreed, that men, the freeft of them, are neceffarily determined by what appears the strongest motive; that is, fuch as makes the strongest impreffion on the mind of the agent, or, which is the fame thing, excites the strongest affections and paffions, the immediate makers or determiners of what is called the will, and perhaps that very thing itself. Could any agent be suppofed fo perfect as never to be mistaken or misled by false appearances, every motive would have its just weight, neither more nor lefs; and the whole conduct of fuch an agent would be perfectly regular, and fuch as it ought to be: and if that is not moral virtue, I know not what is. By what what means the creature comes to be thus enlightened or determined, can make no alteration in the nature, of his actions. When all is faid that can be faid for giving the creature the honour of being mafter of his own actions, when it comes to be traced to its rife and original, it will appear, that it is "by the grace of God that we are what we are." Those who are poffeffed and led by the Spirit of God, are no more treated like stocks or stones, than the wifest philofopher treats himself; only with this advantage, that they are more directly taught of God, and better fecured against being impofed on by false appearances, and of course more steadily and strictly virtuous. On this view, and that which the gofpel of Chrift gives, it is of no moment whether human actions are rewardable or not. That is an extrinsical circumftance, which does not alter the nature of the actions as they are in themselves, and abstracting from the motives on which they proceed. He must know very little of himself, I may fay nothing, who imagines that he can ever requite his creator for the benefits he has received; and with what 3 H 2 face face then can he expect to be rewarded, even on the impoffible fuppofition of his having done all that he ought to have done? The plan of moral government is no other than a plan of man's contriving, under the influence of a fpirit which certainly is not of God, by this fure token, that it lies directly contrary to his declared mind. By the free gift he has made of eternal life in his ever-bleffed Son, he has given all the reward man is capable of receiving; and they who do not treat him as a liar, but believe his faithful word, receive the earnest of the Spirit, the principle of this life: and those who will not have it by gift, unless they can have the honour of deferving it, will in the end find themselves punished as such infolence deferves; and that we are well affured is everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and the glory of his power; the natural iffue of moral government, and the measures of justice. But it is the happiness of those who are led by the Spirit to live, (as every creature should do), by the free fovereign grace of the creator, that they are under no fuch law; "Sin fhall not have dominion over them; 22. Heaven; or, The World of Spirits. W Hen men attempt to fpeak upon fubjects they do not understand, it would be strange if they did not ftumble into abfurdities. There is nothing more real than the existence of fpirits, and of course what may very properly be called the world of Spirits, in contradistinction to this material one which we inhabit. But as we have no powers capable of perceiving fpirits, and indeed can know nothing of them but what we can observe about ourfelves, or those we have access to converfe with, we can form no notion of them, nor their way of fubfifting and acting, but by an analogy with our world; an analogy fo remote, and which needs fo much adjusting, that it is the hardest thing in the world to avoid miftakes, and even abfurdities of the grossest kind; and would have been abfolutely impoffible, had it not been for the condefcenfion our creator has shown in the information he has given us of |