that her departure was joyful and glorious; and that very near her last breath was spent in fervent supplication to the Lord her God.

And now, not at all doubting but her immortal spirit is at rest in Jesus, I leave her, and proceed to a further relation of the exercise of my own mind, having this testimony to bear, that almost as early as I can remember any thing, I can well remember the Lord's secret workings in my heart, by his grace or holy spirit; very sensibly bringing me under condemnation for my evil thoughts and actions, rudeness and bad words; (though not frequent in the use of them ;) disobedience to parents; inwardly wishing, in moments of anger, some evil to such as offended me; and such like childish and corrupt dispositions and practices, which over and beyond all outward instruction I was made sensible were evil, and sprang from a real root of evil in me. I know some men argue, that all we know of good and evil, is by education, tuition, or what we imbibe and receive from others; that the influence of custom and opinion determines, and is the standard of morals. But the fallacy of this argument may be easily shown, as my own experience, and I doubt not, the experience of thousands, can testify. Thus, in very early life, I was made feelingly and convictively sensible that certain thoughts, wishes, and propensities in my own mind, which no mortal else, ever knew any thing about, and concerning which I had never had any human caution, counsel, or instruction whatever, were of corrupt and evil tendency, and arose from a corrupt source in myself. And I am in a full belief, that in every quarter of the globe, children, at an early age, have good and evil set before them, in the shinings of the light of Christ in their hearts, with clearness and evidence sufficient to ascertain to them their duty, if they honestly attend to it. And though I am deeply sensible of the necessity and utility of much careful guardianship, cultivation, and instruction, in order to guard children against the corrupting influence of example, invitation, and perverse inclination, which abundantly and prevalently surround them; yet I fear a great part of the tuition, which too many children receive under the name of christian instruction, tends rather to blunt the true sense and

evidence of divine truths upon the mind, and to substitute notions and systems instead thereof, than to encourage an honest attention to the teachings which lead into all truth. I am satisfied, if the teachings of men were never to thwart the teachings of the holy spirit, many things would fix on the minds of children to be evils, which they are now instructed and persuaded by their Christian teachers, so called, are innocent and commendable: and, on the other hand, I believe they would see pretty clearly, as they grew up, that religion has nothing to do with such kind of rites and observances as are some of those they are now, by a perversion from the true discernment, made to believe are of real importance in religious life. Indeed, it is mournful to observe how many of them are bolstered up, by their blind guides, in pride, vanity, and revenge; taught to plume themselves upon their supposed superiority of parts and attainments; nursed up in the ideas of grandeur and worldly honour; yea, inspired with exalted notions of the merit of valour, heroism, and human slaughter; and at the same time settled down at ease in a round of outward performances, as in great degree satisfying the demands of religion. Thus the very image of God, which more or less shines in the countenance, and in the tender sensibilities, and compassionate, commiserating feelings of an innocent child, is defaced or obscured, by what is called christian instruction.

Observe an innocent child attentively, and though anger, passion, and revenge, are very obvious features of the first nature, and show plainly that there is much to be subdued in them; yet it will be found, they feel nearly and tenderly for the distress of others; their little bosoms beat with compassion; and if they see cruelty exercised, by one upon another, they will often, in the best manner they can, manifest their abhorrence of the cruelty, and dislike of the cruel. There is in them that which, as attended to, will restrain the violence of nature, and by degrees bind the strong man, and cast him out, spoiling all his goods. It is no substantial objection to the moral discernment given to children by the holy light which shines in all, either that they evidently know but very little,-for they have to act in but few and very small matters, and their discernment is proportionate;

or that the seeds of evil, and propensities to evil actions, are some of the first things evident in them.

The state of man here below, is a state of probation, a spiritual warfare. There is much to die to. The cross and daily self-denial are our proper business. The furnace is our place of refinement. At first the gold is in the ore: but "verily there is a vein for silver, and a place for gold, where they fine it." Were there nothing in us to be purged out, no dross to be done away, or separated from the gold, there would be nothing for the furnace. No cross, no self denial, no mortification,there would be no conquest. But such this scene was never designed to be. It was, and is, a state of probation, and ever intended as such by the Author of our existence. The cross was preached to Adam and Eve, when, in the image of God, they stood in pure innocency, undepraved; and immediate death was held up to their view, as the consequence of their indulgence in that, wherein the trial of their allegiance lay. Had not their nature inclined to such indulgence, their state could scarcely have been a state of trial and probation. I have no doubt that they had in their nature, those propensities and inclinations, which being indulged contrary to divine manifestation and prohibition, would unavoidably introduce sin into the world, by introducing depravity into their own minds; bringing them under the powerful prevalency of evil habits, setting the example, leading the way, and facilitating the practice and progress of wickedness. Far be it from me to suppose their nature such, as irresistibly to compel them into transgression. I disclaim the idea entirely. I am as sure as I think I ought to wish to be, that God's law requires no impossibilities. I believe that as our state, (beginning with the first of our race,) was by God ordained and designed to be a state of probation, it was needful, in order to constitute it such, for some prohibition to be made, and to be known, in regard to something to which human nature was propense and inclinable; but that, in order to instate man in a full possibility of perfect obedience to the divine law, or conformity to the divine will, and in order to give him a superiority to all the powers of seduction and temptation, God Almighty, in whom he lived, moved, and had his being, was so near him, so wrought

upon him, so opened his mind and influenced him, as just left it in his own choice to stand or fall. His earthly nature, though yet totally undepraved, would, from its inherent propensities, (as being of the earth, earthy,) incline him to forbidden indulgences, and thus procure his fall, were it not for that all-sufficient illumination, operation, and support, which the power of God, in and upon his soul, supplied him plentifully with, giving him such advantages and abilities, as rendered him "sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall."

I am not insensible of the volumes of controversy about necessity and free will, fate and choice; but I have no mind now to meddle with any of the common arguments, pro or con, respecting them. Men muffle and blind their own understandings, by running into abstruse and metaphysical inquiries, wherein they are scarce ever the better satisfied for their nicest investigations, or keenest discussions. God has made mankind universally sensible (in degrees sufficient for their various circumstances and allotments in life) of their duty, and enabled them to perform it, so far as they improve the means afforded them.

Adam was as certainly (so it stands in my mind) made able to obey, or conform to the divine will, so far as revealed to him, as God is perfect goodness; and so I am persuaded are all his offspring. I have no more belief that God's revealed will, required any thing of our first parents, beyond ability to perform, than I have that God is cruel or perverse; and as little do I believe, that any infant on earth, comes into the world under a moral impossibility of conformity to the divine will, so far as by any means whatever made manifest, which I call revealed. Man is here, upon practicable principles: nothing is or can be a law to him, further, than it is some way or other discovered; and that which ultimately assures and seals it to him as God's law, whatever outward manifestation may be made, is the Holy Spirit, that bears witness with his spirit, settling and satisfying his mind sufficiently what is good and what is evil. And I firmly believe, if children would be as strictly and steadily conformable, as they might be, to the divine will, so far as from time to time it is gradually opened and made known, (and there is always power with the opening,) they would soon acquire a

good degree of dominion, in the strength of divine life, over the strength of evil inclinations in them, whether they ever heard of the bible, the law of Moses, or the name of Christ, or not. The divine law being written in living characters in their hearts, like the virtuous among the ancient heathen, they would become, as it were, a law unto themselves." It was by the energy of the divine nature in them, that those heathen were a law to themselves. Hence, as the apostle declares, it "showed" the work of the law written in their hearts, which is the very glory of the new covenant.

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Some may be surprised, and query, Were the heathen under the new covenant? I answer, that so far as the law was written in the heart, and conformed unto, among the heathen, Jews, Mahometans, Negroes, Indians, or any other race of men whatever, and whenever, they were so far under the new covenant. The new covenant is called new, because in regard to the Jews, it was to supersede, or follow after that outward, literal law and covenant, which entered because of transgression. The law written in the heart, was ever, under all dispensations, as far as man would attend to it, God's covenant, or the way of his manifestation to man. But man, not abiding at home with his God, but wandering from him, seeking out many inventions, hewing out "broken cisterns," and building Babels, God was graciously pleased to meet him in his wanderings, and accommodate an outward law to his outward wandering state; yet so directed and adapted, as to operate as a "schoolmaster to lead unto Christ;" who ever was, and is, the divine life and salvation of the soul.

There never has been but one way of salvation: this was, and is Christ, for ever. The gospel was preached to Abraham. He saw Christ's day, and rejoiced in the then present enjoyment of the very life, light, and power of it. When the Jews gainsayed the testimony of Christ, that Abraham saw his day, and urged that he was not yet fifty years old, he did not, to confute them, tell them that Abraham saw his day afar off, by faith; for that was not the thing he aimed at: but, in confirmation that Christ within was ever the alone "hope of glory," in all ages, and was Abraham's divine life, and source of true rejoicing, he