divine justice, terrible beyond all that can be thought of, occur but seldom, and whenever they do occur, they only shew to what a deplorable and abandoned state a creature may be reduced, when, in just punishment for having forsaken his God, he is left to the workings of his own corrupt and depraved nature, and is forsaken by him.

Yes: my beloved, whether you affect to revolt openly and avowedly against the authority of the law, like the abandoned profligate; or whether you attempt to soften its severity, and ingeniously to reconcile it with your passions by favourable interpretations, like the generality of Christians, your conscience will give testimony to the divine law, and declare that its pre*cepts are equitable, and that the observance of them is indispensable. In the first place, it will tell you that they are equitable. You are obliged to ac

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knowledge that God is too wise, not to love order and justice; and that he is too good, at the same time, not to consult our well-being in all his ordinances. This you are obliged to acknowledge; and consequently, must be fully aware that his laws are founded on justice, and command nothing but what is proper and necessary; and that they are founded on a wise clemency, and enjoin nothing but what tends to the welfare and happiness of mankind!

In fact, who is there that is not convinced that meekness, humanity, temperance, chastity, and the other vir tues which the gospel enjoins, are in strict conformity with the true interests of man, and are the only sources of pure delight? and that pride, iin patience, anger, intemperance, im parity, and the other vices which it condemns, are the only sources froin whence unhappiness and misery flow? We all know, and we all confess, that the farther we stray from the bounds of duty, the more are our conflicts and anxieties increased; and that the nearer we approach to God, the less occasion we have to be disturbed at the view of what is passing in our own interior.

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In this manner do our hearts give testimony to the law of God. In vain do we throw off the yoke of obedience with a view to any earthly enjoyment. It is impossible that we can be justified in our own estimation, or reap any satisfaction from a mode of conduct of which we do not really approve. The moment of retirement and reflection will come, when we shall be left alone to commune impartially with ourselves: then it is we always take part with the law of God against the injustice of our own proceedings. Then it is we find in our souls the apology, that is there written in favour of virtue, opposed to the violence of our inordinate propensities. At such a moment, nothing that we can say or do will ever bribe this interior advocate for the truth, or prevent it from pleading powerfully within us.

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But to enter more into detail. vain do we indulge the passion of hatred and revenge: we quickly discover, that the satisfaction it imparts is not congenial to the feelings of the heart, and that hatred is a self-inflicted torment. When the violence of the passion is abated, milder sentiments take possession of the breast: we are ashamed of the excess into which we had been hurried, and we admire the meekness and self-command which distinguish the character of the true Christian. Thus are we constrained to acknowledge that benignity and goodness were our original endowments, and that the law which commands us to love our neighbour, and to return good for evil, is agreeable to the most noble, the most rational sentiments of the soul, and tends to reconcile us with ourselves. Thou art more just than I, said Saul to David in the height of his animosity. The benignity, which nature has implanted in the hearts of all men, extorted this confession, and declaimed against the injustice and severity of his revenge.

In vain do we plunge into the abyss of brutal and sensual delights: in vain do we seek with unabating ardour to satisfy our appetite for pleasure: we soon perceive that licentiousness leads us to too great lengths to be conformable with nature; that every passion which tyrannizes over us, and brings us into subjection, is subversive of the native dignity of our immortal being, and that the gospel, by laying a restraint on our voluptuous passions, has prescribed the only means of acquiring true peace of mind, and of preserving untarnished that elevation, that noble

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