therefore are denominated wicked, as rendering it incapable of rising to a holy disposition, at any season.

2. Therefore holiness in a more restrained sense stands opposed to moral impurity, which taints and fixes a lasting blemish upon the mind when vice becomes a part of the character, and is adopted for a principle of action. For as in the Body there is a difference between mere weakness and disease; the one may subject to some inconveniences, but does not vitiate the blood and juices, nor corrupt the solids, nor contain what is putrid and noisome, like the other. So in the mental system, infirmity is not the same with disorder; the one can affect only the outward actions, whereas the other seizes upon the will; the one misleads and surprises, while the other depraves. The best men have their weak and unguarded hours, wherein they act unwarrantably through the prevalence of their desires, which are all of the natural kind, and become faulty only by their excess: though during these intervals, they depart from their holiness, yet as soon as the impulse is over, their former tenor and disposition returns again, so they do not lose their character of holy, any more than a man loses his character of a musician, by having his instrument withholden from him for a while.

But there are other desires, malignant and vicious, not springing from nature, but generated by evil habits and perverse management, never innocent, because corrupt in kind, rather than excessive in degree: such as envy, rancor, malice, injustice, cruelty, pride, rapaciousness, sordid selfishness, and the like. To which we may add, such excess of the natural desires as have gotten so strong hold of the heart as to be cherished there with conscious complacence, even when their proper objects do not solicit; as sensuality, debauchery, unlawful gallantries, fondness of pleasure, and idleness.

All these being become habituated to the mind, strike so strong root there, as to change and deprave it in character, rendering it incapable of taking a holy disposition, because perpetually casting up ideas incompatible therewith. For this reason it is incumbent upon us to stand always upon the watch, to prevent our infirmities from becoming diseases, our necessary desires from growing excessive and gaining an habitual fondness, our passions, ill treatment from others, cross accidents, unequal distributions of Providence, custom, example, or company, from drawing us insensibly into desires unnatural, and essentially evil.

3. But when we cast up our eyes to the Supreme Being, we shall see at first glance there is no occasion for an Attribute of holiness, to keep him watchful against mischiefs that cannot befall

him. For he has no wants which might require appetites urging to supply them, no natural desires that might rise to excess, and become habitual, no passions to beguile, errors to mislead, influence of custom or company to pervert him: he cannot grudge the blessings himself has bestowed, repine at the dispensations he has made, become soured by accidents which are none to him, grow proud at excelling the works of his hands, nor harbor malice for injuries that cannot hurt him. Therefore holiness in him is no more than a negation of those moral impurities, whereto our nature lies liable and I believe there is nobody who will not readily acknowledge, that everything of this kind ought to be excluded from our idea of God.

Nevertheless, as I observed before, we take our lineaments of the sublimest objects from archetypes found within ourselves; and vice has such a bewitching art of disguising, as to make us mistake her for virtue and holiness; so that without careful attention, she will palm her own odious features upon us for excellencies, and draw us insensibly to give them a place in that which ought to be all perfection. Thus we find the heathen world in general ascribed sensuality, debauchery, competition, pride, envy, jealousy, inveteracy, injustice, animosity, cruelty, and other moral impurities, to their heavenly powers, whom yet they supposed elevated above the reach of human imperfection: nor did they perceive any inconsistency herein, because they regarded those dispositions as no blemish nor mark of unholiness in the moral character.

Mankind is now happily altered for the better in this respect; the least enlightened among us acknowledge the unity and spirituality of the Godhead. So there is no room for sensuality, where there are no corporeal members to be employed as instruments therein: no place for inordinate excesses of desire, where there is neither Nectar, nor Ambrosia, nor other necessary allurement to excite a natural appetite: no competition, envy, nor jealousy in a single substance, who has none other to contend with, to rival, or to suspect: no pride without an object to be set in comparison no rancor or animosity where there is nothing to resist the Will no injustice in him who could not be profited thereby : no hatred in one whom an enemy cannot hurt nor obstruct: no abhorrence or detestation of things which were the work of his

own hand.

This is now so clearly understood by everybody, that we never knowingly admit any mixture of moral foulness or human weakness into our idea of the Divine character. Yet whoever will observe the discourses and apprehensions of the men and women

he commonly meets with, may observe some of those blemishes have crept in imperceptibly, and that by means of notions which were innocent and necessary at first, but have corrupted and perished by passing through our hands. Nor is the mischief unfrequently increased by the indiscretion of some zealous teachers, who being not sufficiently guarded in their thoughts at all points, pursue a favorite notion to extravagant lengths, until they run it down into abjectness and absurdity.

4. It is proper that virtue should be represented as agreeable in the eyes of God, and whatever is done in support of his honor and religion, in relief of his servants, or for the discouragement of wickedness, as done for his service; because this tends to urge and hearten us in the prosecution of our duty: but it is carrying the matter too far when we make ourselves of importance to him, or fancy we can steal away his affections from our fellow-creatures, to do him a real service, or strengthen his hands to overcome his enemies.

It is expedient we should look upon things seemingly indifferent in themselves as obligatory when enjoined by him, for we are not to dispute his commands because we do not discern the reasonableness of them; but to imagine him giving arbitrary commands which have no foundation whatever in reason, or to be delighted with unavailing expressions of homage tending to no benefit either of our own or our fellow-creatures, introduces a littleness and unworthiness into our idea of him.

While we endeavor to raise our minds to the highest sense of his power, his goodness, and his glory they can attain, we do well; but when we strive to disguise our real thoughts, for fear of offending him, or use fallacious arguments in support of his honor, we shall fall into an apprehension of him as being ceremonious and captious, liable to be imposed upon by flattery, and taken with compliment.

In apprehending the actions and concerns of men to lie under the continual inspection and conduct of his Providence, we do no more than is agreeable to sound reason and truth; but if we suppose the eye of Providence engrossed by particular persons in disregard of the common herd, and anxiously attentive to their minute occasions, so far as to preserve a lodging for Whitefield, or preserve his horse from stumbling, we ascribe to him the weak fondness and narrow understanding of human nature.

Nothing more ennobles and refines the mind than an unabating love of God, the stronger the better, so it be manly and decent, operating by a reverential dependence upon his protection, a full confidence in his mercy, and a perfect acquiescence in the dis

pensations of his Providence, as believing them to terminate ultimately in our good; but as this affection is overstrained by enthusiasts and devotees in a language unsuitable to it, when they talk of the soul pouring forth in pious breathings and transports, with their dear Lord, and sweet Jesus, they leave nothing noble nor heavenly in it; but court the Almighty in the same sentiments they would court a mistress, and mingle their own passions, those too not of the purest kind, in their idea of the most holy.

It is requisite that wickedness should be represented as odious to him, and the persons immersed in it as living at enmity against him, because this may raise a horror of it in ourselves, and preserve us against catching the contagion from those who are deeply infected with it; but when this notion carries men to hate and detest, to vex and destroy one another for his sake, it is making him vindictive, rancorous, and cruel, and fastening a moral impurity upon him which any good man would be ashamed of. Thus there is a caution to be used in the management of the very topics employed to bring men into a holiness of temper; for, with a very little indiscretion, they may be made like other best things, which when corrupted become the worst.

5. For as we have remarked several times before, our ideas of the Divine character are all taken from archetypes found in our own, because we have none others wherefrom to describe anything conceivable to our imagination. Hence it follows that our materials being defective, we can carry on the resemblance but a little way, without changing them, and employing new ones, oftentimes of a directly opposite color, which being taken notice of by the unwary, who do not observe the necessity and occasion of it, involves them in perplexities and contradictions.

Perhaps this is nowhere more apparent than in the doctrine of Providence, which whoever holds, must acknowledge to have the disposal of the machinations and actions of men, as well as all other events; and in our two chapters upon that article, and upon Freewill, we have laid down, that every minute motion, both in the human breast and among the bodies around us, was comprised and noticed in the plan of Providence, I would not then point out the consequences that might be drawn from this universal provision of causes, being unwilling to scandalize anybody before I was ready to remove his scruples. If the candid reader has hitherto overlooked these consequences, it is so much the better; yet as we cannot expect but they will occur to him some time or other, it is incumbent upon us to prepare the antidote; and conceiving this the proper place for so doing, we shall not scruple to discover

the poison, which is that we may seem to have made God the Author of sin.

For if all the follies and wickedness of mankind were owing to motives suggested by modifications of their organs, depending in a chain of certain effects upon the operations of the Almighty, then he must be esteemed the author and approver of those follies and wickedness, for which he made the provision of causes with knowledge and intention of the evil fruits they should produce: which to imagine, would be the highest offence against his holiness and justice, as representing the worst of crimes approved of by him, and punishment inflicted for faults whereunto he had led the transgressor by the workings of his providence. Besides, as we have all along insisted upon a difference in actions, some drawing down the blessings and others the vengeance of Heaven upon our heads, we contradict ourselves egregiously in maintaining an opinion from whence it may be inferred that the most atrocious villanies are equally agreeable to God, and alike the object of his counsels, with the most consummate virtues. But this crying injury to his holy name we shall use our best endeavors to prevent, and at the same time to reconcile the contradictions charged upon our system.

6. Now in order to do this, let us endeavor to lay down in one view the several parts of our system, as formed by the decisions of our understanding, when in her utmost stretch of contemplation; or as calculated to model our imagination for directing us in the conduct of life. By which it will appear that the seeming contradictions and evil consequences apprehended in it, are only variations of language, and lights of placing things in, necessary for accommodating them to the different capacities of sensitive-rational animals. We have found it expedient in our chapter upon that article, and upon several occasions since, to represent God under two characters, as Creator, and as Governor of the Universe. In the former of those capacities he is incomprehensible, nor can we safely affirm anything concerning his proceedings, the manner of them, or counsels directing them. We know he has interspersed a mixture of evil among his works, and though I have suggested very probable grounds to hope the quantity of it is inconceivably small in proportion to the good, yet that there is some, we feel daily by unwelcome experience: from hence we may presume the nature of things originally so constituted, as that the little sprinkling of evil was made necessary to support and secure the greater good.

But God in his capacity of Governor descends nearer to our comprehension: we may imagine him ruling with unwearied infinite goodness, a little restrained by the necessity he had imposed