Such are the bands and cords by which Almighty God binds, in fuch degree as he pleafes, a race of apoftate creatures, who refuse to be united to him and to one another, in that charity which is the bond of perfectnefs. God has been pleased however, for wife and holy purposes, in every age, and under every degree of light which has fhone on the world, to remove thefe reftraints, or fome of them, from nations and from individuals, and in fuch de gree as to give fufficient openings into the human heart. It may be useful to illuftrate, in the conduct of nations and of individuals, in a few particulars, thefe general obfervations. Among the countless restraints, bounds; and, to mention no more, which limit the reign of wicked- even the interfering lufts in the nefs are, natural confcience, or a fame heart, which limit each othmoral fenfe, common to men, byer, or subject the weaker to the which they diftinguish between predominant paffion. right and wrong, with the comfort or remorfe which purfues the fentence it paffes on our moral conduct, accompanied with a pre-fentiment of future retribution-a conviction that the judgment of God will be according to truth and righteoufnefs-a hope, refulting from revelation, tradition, or the expreffions of the divine benignity, of appealing God's anger and conciliating his favor, by ourfervices and offerings-remarkable judgments with which God has vifited a wicked world, and in which he has fhewn his wrath and made his power known, to every age and nation-the fhortnefs of human life after the deluge a consciousness which all men feel of weaknefs and mutual dependence, the fear of evil from those we injure, and a hope of good from those we treat with juftice and benevolence-civil government--the dread of fhame, of lofs of reputation, health and intereft, which is, more or lefs, connected with a course of vice; and the defire of reputation and influence of health and affluence which ufually attend a courfe of virtuepity, which, by a law of our na-induced to refpe&t the rights of the fure, is excited by objects in diftrefs-friendship, founded on a fimilarity of taltes and purfuits the natural affections, which exift between thofe, whom the God of order has called to act together in the moft intimate connections, where the finful paffions are apt to be brought into perpetual collifion -the interfering purfaits of men which limit the fphere of individual agency, and confine the effects of felfifhnefs withia narrower It is an undoubted fact, that nations, in relation to each other, are ander fewer reftraints, than individuals, in a state of fociety, are: the former must be considered, in relation to each other, as individals in a ftate of nature, without any law to control them, but that of force or convenience. Power and right are, with them, confidered and treated as the fame thing. The weaker may, thro' fear, be ftronger, but whenever by uniting their ftrength or otherwise, the balance of power may be in their favor, they will fhew the fame dif regard to right as others. Add to this, individual refponfibility for national injuftice is very lightly felt, the ftill fmall voice of confcience, which may whifper in individuals, will be filenced by the voice of the nation; the diskonor of national bafenefs and perfidy will be felt to be more than compenfated, by the fplendor of victory and conqueft, and the advantages refulting from national aggrandizement. Accordingly, the nations which have fhed moft blood, have, in all ages, not excepting the prefent, been held the moft renowned. Compacts and treaties with each other, though, among Pagans, the gods above and gods below, and among Chriftians, the Holy Trinity, are called upon in the most folemn manner, to avenge their violation, are mere straw and rotten wood; no one expects they will be maintained with good faith, even at the folema moment of ratification; they are received as matters of neceffity, ufe or convenience, and to be laid afide, either with or without a pretext, when interest requires. The pations, confidered as individuals or bodies politic, have been, with few exceptions, atrocious murderers, their feet have been fwift to shed blood, and they have had no fear of God before their eyes. This sketch of the character of nations is fupported by the reprefentations of them in the holy fcriptures. The four great monarchies are there reprefented by four ferocious beafts of prey; the Chaldean by a lion, the Perfian by a bear, the Grecian by a leopard, and the Roman by a beaft, fui generis, which had no prototype in nature, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, which had great iron teeth, which deToured, brake in pieces, and stamped the refidue with the feet of it, and which had ten horns. Such is the true character of nations the moft powerful and illuftrious, whofe great exploits, in laying wafte the world, have been celebrated in all ages fince they figured upon the theatre of human affairs, by poets and hiftorians, and indeed by mankind in general. And fuch is the character of all other na tions, fo far as they have had pow er and opportunity to difplay themfelves; and fo true is the divine declaration, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." From the char acter of nations we may certainly infer the character of the body of the people or individuals which compofe them; if thefe loved their fellow-men as they do them. felves, they would prevent the profecution ofunjuft or cruel wars; and, if they had the fear of God before their eyes, they would find means to fecure the faithful and religious obfervance of treaties; they are therefore, unless they manifeft, in fome proper way, their diffent, guilty of all the fraud, injuftice, cruelty, murder, perfidy and impiety, of the nation which they compofe, and as individuals they must account to God the common Father of men. Why do they freely perpetrate fuch horrid wickedness as members of a nation, which, perhaps, they would not do as individuals? Because their temptations are greater, and their reftraints lefs. Here then the human heart appears stript of difguife. The fame appears in the conduct of most kings and great men who are above, and of many mean and bafe men who are in Tome fenfe below the cognizance of law. The former prove tyrants. and oppreffors; the latter, protected by their poverty and mean nefs, prove cheats, liars, thieves, drunkards and are addicted in general to what is called low vice. The infant of a fpan long feels few reftraints; if difturbed in its enjoyments, it will show that perverfe and wrathful temper which, ftrengthened by time and left unrestrained, will impel to murder; it appears to be wholly felfifh; it will foon fight the breast that feeds it; it never doubts, till taught the contrary by painful experience, that all things around were made to fubferve its interefts and pleafures; it will fight the perfon who takes away its baubles, just as nations fight with one another on a like account; if, by means of its fickness or otherwife it is exceffively indulged, it will, when able, foon fill the house with noife, and ändifcriminately deal its rage a round; the fondest endearments ferve to nourish peevishnefs and pride, inftead of gratitude and obedience If effectually reftrain ed by a temperate parental authority, it will begin to feel its true fituation, as related to thofe around, and to conduct accordingly; but if not, it will difobey its parents, it will lie, it will foon lifp out oaths and imprecations, and fhew that the poifon of afps is under its lips, and that its mouth is full of curfing and bitterness; it will quarrel, and, in a word, will rufh, with the whole force of nature, into all manner of vice, as oppor tunity prefents and age permits. The force of natural confcience is always diminished as perfons advance in life, unless they are renewed, and in part fanctified by the Spirit of God. Its genuine dictates are fuppreffed, and at last nearly or quite annihilated; and if they, when advanced, maintain a decorous conduct, it must be ow. ing to the operation of other reftraints; and this will be visible to the eye of critical obfervation: But, in confequence of the gradual diminution of this powerful reftraint, there is obfervable, in moft men, a gradual depreciation of chara&er, until the lufts of the heart gain a great and visible af cendency. Such being the state of things, how happy is it for thechurch and world, that God has reduced the life of man from near a thoufand years to three fcore years and ten. Had it not been for this wife and gracious appointment, another deluge of water, or of fire, might, long ago, have been necessary to fweep the world of its wicked inhabitants. A man of boisterous and unhallowed paffions, when in the prefence of his prince, or other great man, and paying his court for fome favor which he holds most dear, will be a paragon of gentleness and patience: But follow him, after the tumult within is raised to the highest violence, by fome untoward events, to his own houfe; and his paffions, let loose upon the unhappy obje&s around him, will overturn every thing in their course, and will display a fcene ten-fold more dreadful than that of conficting elements. What is the matter now? Why restraints are removed, and the man acts out his nature freely. An aperture or opening is made into his heart, and we have a glimpse of the dreadful object, which is always naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. A perfon of impure defires and wholly unfanctified, whofe memory and fancy are the store-house of filth and pollution, and whofe understanding has been debased, and compelled, it may be, for a long time, to pander for fenfe; and all whofe faculties are brutalized by fenfual indulgencies, will, in the prefence of perfons of a different defcription, affume the character of purity itfelf: But trace his fteps. to his cuftomary haunts, or into retirement, covered with night and darknefs, where no eye fees him but that of an affociate in guilt, and the eye of Almighty God; here I will close the scene, for it is a fhame even to speak of thofe things which are done by fuch in fetret. The reafon of this conduct is plain, the eye of man, from whom he fears evil and expects good, is a reftraint; but the eye of God from whom perhaps he expects nothing and fears nothing, is either no restraint, or not fufficient to prevent the guilty indulgence. or, perhaps, that of God alone: | old age, and the perfon, unless a radical change of temper has taken place, will be untractable, self-willed and paffionate, "fo as to become a burden to all around him; and if he has experienced fuch a change, the remains of corrupt nature, in a like exhibition of it, to a certain degree, will be apparent; or let it be impaired by diftraction, and the perfon will be imperious, or malicious, or profane, or obfcene; or all of them at turns, as the propenfities, apparent in those exercifes, prevail. This laft inftance is as fair a trial of the native inclinations of the heart as any of the former; for, as those inclinations exift independently of reafon, they will fhew themfelves as they really are, when reafon is impaired, and no longer controls them. When a vicious and profligate courfe is attended with fhame and infamy, vice will, for the most part, be driven into corners. In fuch a state of fociety, a wicked man, who nevertheless is confcious of enjoying a fair reputation, will be careful to preferve it, if he can do it, and fill indulge his reigning propenfity; if not, he will fooner or later give up his reputation, and he is then ! prepared to give the reins to his predominant inclination, and to fin, as it were, with a cart-rope. Such is the ftate of the notorious libertine, thief and drunkard; but when fach like characters are greatly multiplied, fo that vice is kept in countenance, and the benefit of a fair character is comparatively fmall, in the intercourfe of fociety; efpecally, if the people have enjoyed great light and advantages for religion, the ftate of fuch a people mutt beviewed as nigh unto curfing. Perfons brought up in pious famines, and under the reftraints of well regulated fociety will ufually be moral in their converfation; but place them in any fituation where restraints are mostly taken off, and they may be expected, if renewed; to fhew the bent of nature, and foon to become proficents in the fchool of vice. Let reafon be impaired by intemperance, and the foul and ferocious paffions will rage without control; let it be impaired by Let difhonor be detached from a particular vice, and attached to to the oppofite virtue, as, in the cafe of duelling, it is in the opinion of the world; and few men, except fuch as are not of this world, will be able to resist the temptation of giving or accepting a challenge to fight with fword and piftol, when the laws of honor, falfely fo called, require it. Such as do this, and fuch as give countenance to it, and efpecially fuch, whofe province it is to execute the laws on the atrocious offenders, and from a criminal complaifance: to public opinion, neglect to do it, are all murderers; though they would refent the imputation with as much fpirit as Hazael did, with an "Is thy fervant a dog that he should do this great thing”? The infidels of the prefent day are under fewer reftraints than the ancient pagans; for these last had not abandoned, but only corrupted the worship of God, nor did they difbchieve a ftate of of future retri tures, yet confider it as unprofitable, if not dangerous. Had this been the sense of the author of our holy religion, it never would have appeared there. But in a harmonious fyftem, fuch as the bible con bution; but the former have wholly abandoned the worship of God, and most of them confider death as an eternal sleep: accordingly, they are more gigantic in wickednefs than any of their predeceffors who warred on heaven, they have bold-tains, the ufe of particular doc. ly attacked all authority and power trines may not readily be difcern, in heaven and on earth; and this ed, unless viewed in their connec, they have done, under the full tion with others to which they are fplendor of gospel light, and fhould related. Should we fet afide the they continue to increase in num- doctrine of the entirely loft, ruinbers and in power, as they have ed ftate of man of the mere, lately done, and fhould they pro- fovereign good pleasure of God in ceed to exterminate pity and the his recovery and, of the abfolute natural affections from the human neceffity of the fupernatural influbreaft, as inconfiftent with their im- ences of the Holy Spirit on the pious philanthropy, the miferies hearts of men, to prepare them for which they have already produced, the gofpel-falvation; we coulddifthough they have filled one half of cover no use, or even place for the the world, will be but the begin- fcripture doctrine of Election. ning of forrows; and in their fur- But in connection with thefe docther progress they will prepare the trines, it is not difficult to discover, way for the battle of the great day both its certainty, and its usefulof God Almighty. But not to nefs. If the falvation of finners enlarge, is to be refolved ultimately into the mere fovereign power and mercy of God as its caufe, it will appear altogether correfpondent and fuitaable that God alone should choose the veffels of mercy. Accordingly, In view of this fubject I will conclude by obferving, that all the friends of God have great reafon to be humbled in the reflection that they carry about them great remains of this common nature-to blefs God that he has feen fit, in favor to his church, hitherto to lay under fuch powerful restraints a race of apoftate creatures, and to rejoice in the affured hope, that they will be continued fo long, and fo far as fhall be neceffary for the accomplishment of the pupofes of God in building up, compleating and glorifying the kingdom of his Son. OMICRON. Of the usefulness of the Scripture doctrine of Eledion. ANY, who admit the doc Mtrine of particular Election to be contained in the holy fcrip 1. It is difficult to fuppofe, that the finner fhould become properly fenfible of his really undone, helpless state and condition, without a conviction that his recovery depends on the fovereign pleasure, and the electing love of God. Nothing is more obvious, than that our falvation must depend, either on ourselves and fuch exertions of ours as are compatible with our nat ural difpofitions, and with the moral powers we, all, poffefs; or, on the fovereign power and grace of God. Between thefe, there. is no medium. If, on the former, whoever obtains falvation maketh himself to differ and bath whereof to glory. If, on the latter, the re |