that, in a particular manner, claims the attention of every ferious mind, are not chargeable on the profligate and uninftructed alone, but, from the imperfection of human nature, adhere, in a degree, to the best of men, and furnish a subject of humility to the moft eminent faints-fins that fpring from infirmity or neglect by which a thoufand fugitive thoughts efcape attention, a thousand habitual ideas and emotions rife in the heart and pass away again without ever being examined, or compared with the great standard of duty in the word of God. Sins that arife from partial and limited views of the extent and fanctity of the divine law,and finally, fins that arife from mingling with the law of God the errors of our own reason, or the prejudices of a mistaken education. "Who can underftand his errors?" The veil that covers the heart is fometimes lifted up, and we difcern in ourfelves evils that we had not fufpected. But when we have feen all that human weakness ever fees, innumerable vain thoughts will ftill lodge within us undiscovered, and form a fubject of daily humility and repentance at the throne of grace.

II. Another fource of fecret faults is found in the dangerous influence of self-love.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked, who can know it?" Its deceitfulness has been a fubject of complaint to good men in all ages. Hardly is there a foible, or a vice of character which it is not able to palliate, or to conceal. Daily we fee it exemplified in the discourfes and conduct of others, and they, doubtless, perceive it in us. But, in innumerable inftances, its effects are fo fubtle that neither they nor we difcern them.-Every propenfity of nature, in proportion to its flrength, furnishes us with proofs of this influence; but, of all the principles of selfdeceit pleasure is the most powerful, and opens the wideft field for those impofitions which men are daily paffing upon themfelves. They are eafily deceived where they already wish to be deceived. Whatever yields them pleasure they are ftudious to justify. All the falacies of reason are muftered up to defend the favorite indulgence, and to overcome thofe fcruples that fill the mind, and oppose themselves to the first approaches of vice. And no conclu

fions ought we to fufpect more than those which after much thought and attention, we finally drew on the fide of our inclinations. The greater pains we have taken, the more various the lights to which we have turned the favorite idea, and the more fubtlety and refinement we have used in framing our ultimate judgment on the cafe, the farther, perhaps, we have erred from the truth. These anxious researches, these ingenious reasonings, inftead of being a fair and candid enquiry after truth, may be nothing more than the efforts which felf-love is making to juftify indulgence. There is fcarcely any degree of guilt which this principle will not cover or excufe.

"All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes." Hence the science of felf-knowlege is rendered above all others difficult and obfcure: and however deeply we may penetrate the mistery of iniquity in our hearts, an unfathomable abyfs will ftill remain in the errors and the blindness of a difhoneft felflove, which we can never fufficiently explore.

III. General example, likewise, frequently contributes to render our faults fecret,

and unknown to ourselves, by taking off from the mind that impreflion of guilt, or abating that sentiment of abhorrence which vice is apt to produce when it is more rarely feen.

In confequence of that myfterious fympathy by which men are drawn together, and formed on each others character and model, they flide infenfibly into manners that are continually prefented to view in the public example. Cuftom they confound in their ideas with propiety. And, in a thousand inftances, we daily fee folly lofe its impertinence, and frivolity, deformity, and even vice ceafe to difguft when recommended and juftified by fashion. The beft of men frequently perceive their zeal for the glory of God, and the highest interests of human nature, languish through the lukewarmness and formality that have invaded the great body of their fellow-chriftians. They contract fome taint in their own manners from the general licence in the midst of which they live. "Because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold." If they have been accustomed to fee the fabbath violated, do they not with lefs fcruple, themselves in

fringe upon its holy reft? If they are furrounded by fcenes of levity and diffipation, frequented by those with whom, on other grounds, they are in the habits of intimacy, are they not liable to fuffer from the contagion of that contaminated fociety? If they habitually hear the facred name of the Majesty of Heaven infulted and profaned, is not the horror of the cuftomary impiety leffened in their efteem? Is not the spirit of the world, by the force of numbers and example, making daily inroads upon the pure and heavenly spirit of piety? The confcience is rendered lefs fcrupulous and tender by the frequency of feeing vice. Indulgences that will not bear the rigorous test of reafon and the word of God come at last to be regarded merely as innocent compliance with the manners of the world. Numbers and fashion become a kind of pledge for the innocence of every practice upon which they imprefs their flamp. Mankind are prone to judge of the truth of opinions, and the propriety of conduct more from cuftom than from reafon-more from the example of others than from the refults of their own ferious invefligation, and the intimate conviction of their own breafls.