lightened men have even sentenced to death unhappy women for the supposed crime of witchcraft—a charge at which the most ignorant of the vulgar is now disposed to smile. Are these variations in human opinion in one country less inconsistent with right reason and moral feeling than the acts of the nations above specified with the standard of immutable Truth? Had men no moral principle or conscience in England because they imbibed these irrational notions? Has the Carib no sense of right and wrong-no moral perception-or is it seared and blunted to every other moral sentiment, because he eats the flesh of his enemy, or the Esquimaux, because he leaves his aged relative to perish,-or the Chinese, because he exposes the new-born infant to destruction; or the Hindoo, because the deluded pilgrim devotes himself to death beneath the wheels of Juggernaut, and the widow, a voluntary sacrifice to the flames on the funeral pile of her deceased husband?

Obscurity in some things, or in part, does not necessarily darken the whole mind and withdraw it from the casual influences of the light of Truth. If that were the case, few could rank among the truly enlightened for the majority have their prejudices, their errors, and imperfect views. But notwithstanding all these things, some instinctive irradiations do now and then break forth in the moral gloom of the most barbarous climes; and sparks of superior light may occasionally be discovered, kindling, as it were, in the bosom of savage nature.

The light or talents, or opportunities and advantages, with which different persons are favoured, vary exceedingly; and we are not answerable to one another for the fruits or consequences, except we transgress the moral law to each other's injury. We believe that we are only accountable for what we have received to profit with; we are however accountable for the advantages we have thrown away. Hence the Pagan or Mahometan, who, with the exception above noticed, acts according to the measure of his knowledge and fulfils the dictates of his Conscience, merits no condemnation from us. Nay, he may be accepted at the throne of Grace in preference to him to whom much has been given, and whose return to the bountiful Parent has been small. While then we make Conscience variable according to the light and knowledge with which any may have been favoured, let us not suppose that the ultimate standard of Truth itself is variable. He that now accepts the contrition of the broken heart as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, accepted also the outward offerings of the Law and will he not accept the simple devotion of his sincere-hearted children, whether accompanied with ceremonies or not, among the unenlightened heathen?

The ultimate standard of Truth is a recondite treasure of which few know the value; and fewer still seek it where it is to be found in their own hearts. What then, it may be asked, are the Scriptures of Truth to be superseded? By no means: they are of inestimable value: they point to the true teacher;

they show us to what a measure of holiness some of our fellow creatures have attained; they show us the life and doctrine of the divine pattern of Christian purity: they are profitable to salvation through the influence of God's spirit: but this spirit they cannot give. What man, then, would not avail himself of every outward means to direct and instruct him in the concerns of highest interest;-the will of his Makerthe dispensations of Providence to the righteous and the wicked-the clear knowledge of his real state the plan of salvation-the necessity and duty of obedience, patience, humility, purity of life and resignation- and the undoubted hopes of immor. tality? These were given to man by an extraordinary revelation; and it would be presumptuous to reject them.

But the knowledge of good and evil, in whatever way communicated to man, has been derived from the same eternal fountain of Purity and Wisdom. The channels have been different; but the source has been essentially the same. Whether instinctively revealed by Conscience, or excogitated by Reason, or promulgated on tables of stone, or displayed by the Gospel, this knowledge has been a revelation from God himself; varying only in the means and the degrees of accompanying light. For it has pleased divine goodness to measure out this light and knowledge from age to age, by effusions increasing both in brightness and fulness-each more perfect than the last, but agreeing fundamentally in the

principles-from the simplest moral intelligence to the last glorious dispensation by Jesus Christ.

So that it may be said, instinctive or natural moral emotions have handed this knowledge imperfectly to Reason, by the Light of Nature; Reason has acknowledged their fitness and congruity to the nature of man, and has secondarily proved the advantage of virtue and the disadvantage of vice; but primarily was never able to touch the heart from which both sprung, and to awake it into feeling: for Reason would be as competent to digest the laws of optics without an organ of vision, as to form the moral code without an implanted sense or principle of moral emotion. Under the Mosaic dispensation, the moral law was delivered more clearly and manifestly, with extraordinary signs of confirmation: and at last the light of the Gospel demonstrated, by unquestionable evidence, the true relation between man and his Maker, his immense distance in a natural state from the source of divine purity, his weakness and moral wants, and the only sure and effectual remedy.

Is it then of no consequence that man should be directed not only where to find his true guide and teacher, but how to approach him?

It does not appear that he knows this from instinctive feeling; he cannot know it from unassisted Reason; but he sees the object and the path in Scripture. He sees what others have done and felt and known,— their experience in holiness,—the true temper of their minds,—the nature of their spiritual support, and the means of attaining it.

SECT. IV.

Illustrations of the foregoing Reasonings.

The following quotations are designed to illustrate some or other of the preceding remarks.

"Conscience," says Dr. Beattie, "like every other human faculty, and suitably to the whole analogy of animal and even of vegetable nature, arrives at maturity by degrees, and may either be improved by cultivation, or perverted by mismanagement.

"In our early years it is improved by moral precept and good example; and as we advance in life by habits of consideration, and a strict adherence to truth and our duty. By different treatment, by want of instruction, bad example, inconsiderate behaviour, neglect of duty, and disregard to truth, it may be perverted and almost destroyed. From this, however, we are not warranted to infer as some have done, that it is not a natural faculty, but an artificial way of thinking superinduced by education; nor suppose that opposite habits and opposite modes of teaching would have made us disapprove virtue and approve vice with the same energy of thought, wherewith we now disapprove vice and approve For let it be observed that even our outward be made better or worse by good or bad

virtue.

senses may