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law which may not be violated with impunity, where sinful passions are provoked and indulged, where the fear of God is so littie known or regarded, that those who do fear him must hold their tongues though they should hear his name blasphemed, can hardly be a christian's voluntary chosen ground. Yet I fear these characters will apply to every kind of polite amusement or assembly in the kingdom.

As to family connections, I cannot think we are bound to break or slight them. But as believers and their friends often live as it were in two elements, there is a mutual awkwardness, which makes their interviews rather dry and tedious. But upon that account they are less frequent than they would otherwise be, which seems an advantage. Both sides keep up returns of civility and affection; but as they cannot unite in sentiment and leading inclination, they will not contrive to be very often together, except there is something considerable given up by one or the other; and I think christians ought to be very cautious what concessions they make upon this account. But, as I said at the begining, no general positive rules can be laid down.

I have simply given your Lordship such thoughts as have occurred to me while writing, without study, and without coherence. I dare not be dogmatical; but I think what I have written is agreeable both to particular texts and to the general tenor of scripture. I submit it to your judgment.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXVI.

MY LORD,

July — 1777. I owe your Lordship a quire of letters for the favour and pleasure of your late visit; and therefore I must begin and write away.

I have lately read Robertson's History of Chas. V. which, like most other histories, I consider as a comment upon those passages of scripture which teach us the depravity of man, the deceitfulness of the heart, the ruinous effects of sin, and the powerful, though secret rule of divine providence, moving, directing, controuling the designs and actions of men, with an unerring hand, to the accomplishment of his own purposes, both of mercy and judgment. Without the clue and the light which the word of God affords, the history of mankind, of any, of every age, only presents to view a labyrinth and a chaos; a detail of wickedness and misery to make us tremble, and a confused jumble of interfering incidents, as destitute of stability, connection, or order, as the clouds which fly over our heads. In this view, Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi, may serve as a motto to all the histories I have seen. But with the scripture key, all is plain, all is instructive. Then I see, verily there is a God who governs the earth, who pours contempt upon princes, takes the wise in their own craftiness, overrules the wrath and pride of man, to bring his own designs to pass, and restrains all that is not necessary to that end; blasting the best-concerted enterprises at one time, by means apparently slight, and altogether unexpected, and at other times producing the most important events, from instruments and circumstances which are at first thought

too feeble and trivial to deserve notice. I should like to see a writer of Dr. Robertson's abilities give us a history upon this plan; but I think his reflections of this sort are too general, too cold, and too few. What an empty phantom do the great men of the world pursue, while they wage war with the peace of mankind, and butcher (in the course of their lives) perhaps hundreds of thousands, to maintain the shadow of authority over distant nations, whom they can reach with no other influence than that of oppression and devastation! But when we consider those who are sacrificed to their ambition, as justly suffering for their sins, then heroes and conquerors appear in their proper light, and worthy to be classed with earthquakes and pestilences, as instruments of divine vengeance. So many cares, so much pains, so many mischiefs,-merely to support the idea a worm has formed of his own grandeur, is a proof that man by nature is not only depraved, but infatuated. Permit me to present my thoughts to more advantage in the words of M. Nicole:

"Un Grand dans son idée n'est pas un seul homme; c'est un homme environné de tous ceux qui sont á lui, et qui s'imagine avoir autant de bras qu'ils en ont tous ensemble, parce qui'l en dispose et qui'l les remue. Un General d'armée se represente toujours á lui-mème au milieu de tous ses soldats. Ainsi chacun tâche d'occuper le plus de place qu'il peut dans son imagination, et l'on ne se pousse, et ne s'agrandit dans le monde, que pour augmentir l'idée que chacun se forme de soi-meme. Voilà le but de tous les desseins ambitieux des hommes! Alexandre et Cæsar n'ont point eu d'autre vue dans toutes leurs batailles que celle-lá. Et si l'on demande pourquoi le Grand Seigneur a fait depuis peu perir cent mille hommes devant Candie, on peut re

pondre surement, que ce n'est que pour attacher encore á cette image interieure qu'il a de luimeme, le titre de Conquerant."*

How awful is the case of those who live and die in such a spirit, and who have multiplied miseries upon their fellow creatures, in order to support and feed it! Perhaps they may, upon their entrance on another state, be accosted by multitudes, to the purport of that sarcastical language in the prophet's sublime ode of triumph over the king of Babylon, Isa. xiv. 5—17.

Hic est, quem fuga, quem pavor
Præcessit? hic, quem terricolis gravem.
Strages secuta est, vastitasque? hic
Attoniti spoliator orbis?

But though the effects of this principle of self are more extensive and calamitous, in proportion as those who are governed by it are more elevated, the principle itself is deep-rooted in every heart, and is the spring of every action, till grace infuses a new principle, and self, like Dagon, falls before the Lord of Hosts. Great and small are but relative terms; and the passions of discontent, pride, and envy, which, in the breast of a potentate, are severely felt by one half of Europe, exert themselves with equal strength in the heart of a peasant, though, for want of materials and opportunities, their operations are confined within narrow bounds. We are fallen into a state of gross idolatry, and self is the idol we worship.

I am, &c.

* Essais de Morale, vol. 1.

EIGHT

LETTERS

TO THE

Rev. Mr. S

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