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Selections.

ON THE GRADUAL AND

INSIDIOUS PROGRESS OP SIN.

Ir is a common saying, that no man becomes very wicked at once. Men are prepared by degrees for the last acts of iniquity. Ask the murderer how he came to imbrue his hands in blood. He will tell you, that he was first light and thoughtless, then loose and extravagant; and that, having thus brought himself into difficulties, having also associated himself with bad company, he was tempted to some little act of injustice, which he meant, perhaps, to repair, and certainly to commit but for once. The fraud was resorted to as the means of deliverance from urgent distress; but the devil have ing tempted him to perpetrate this single act, he was induced to repeat the crime, even though a little less pressed by want; so that the same act under these new circumstances had more sin in it. At last, murder became necessary to conceal theft, and seemed only to be a part of the same iniquity.

Ask, in like manner, the unhappy woman, who has not only forfeited her character, but has lost all regard to decency, and whose very trade is that of corrupting others, how she arrived at so great a pitch of wickedness; she will tell you, that it was by slow degrees, At first she secretly indulged improper thoughts; a too free behaviour followed, improper conversation was permitted, little liberties were taken; and if a parent or

friend reproved her, she pleaded that these liberties were insignificant. She began by trifling with temptation, and now she is the most abandoned of her species. Take, in short, any character that is now infamous; his history, if he were to tell it to you, would be the same. What abandoned sinners are some men; what cheats, what liars, what blasphemers of God, what despisers of all that is good! Is thy servant a dog, said Hazael, that he should commit this thing? Hazael could not believe his nature to be capable of the crime which the prophet told him that he should perpetrate. The sins of some men are so dreadful, that we stand astonished at them. We look on these persons as beings of another nature; as scarcely human. Alas! the wickedest man that lives is only one who has fallen by little and little; he has been, perhaps, for some time, proceeding in this downward path. That vile wretch, whom you loathe, was once perhaps in nearly the same condition as you; he had a conscience which smote him when he did evil; he had a general regard to God and godliness; he had a blushing cheek, and a modest look; a habit of kneeling down in worship, or in seeming worship, in the same man

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prayers he is instructed that God's eye is upon him; he is habituated to public as well as private worship, and his conscience yet is tender. He goes, perhaps, to school, where some older and more hardened boy is found to laugh at prayer; and this schoolfellow sleeps with him. The child is ashamed to be seen praying. He says his prayers behind the curtain, or, perhaps after he is in bed. In-. stead of taking a regular time for prayer, he now becomes slack, in this duty, and often puts it off till a convenient opportunity, Instead of praying to God both in the morning and at night, he, prays only in the morning, or only at night; and instead of praying every morning, he is hindered by some interruptions, once, twice, or many times in the week. Thus he falls gradually. And now, perhaps, he thinks it sufficient to pay his devotions at church; possibly also he puts up a few words in the, way of prayer when seized by sickness, when frightened by some extraordinary calamity, or overcome by a more than common sin. As his years advance, and as his parents, or master exert less influence over him, he grows lax in respect to his observation of the Sabbath; be rises late on a Sunday, and he is late at church; he is hurried by worldly business, and has hardly time, as he pretends, to worship God. The most trifling excuses are now sufficient to detain him from public worship.. He is not sufficiently dressed; he has a cold or a little head-ache, and there is no convenient seat for him. He goes now and then to

church in the morning, but not always in the evening, and, after a time, in the morning only, and not always even then. The Sabbath now, is employed in more trifling conversation than formerly. Instead, of, regularly reading the Bible or some relig ious book, he applies himself to religion only when the humour takes him.

The humour takes him less and less frequently. His prayers and his Sabbaths being neglected, the thought of God dwells less and less on his mind. Worldly business or pleasure possesses him. Any thing but God is in his thoughts. Ile can spend hours without thinking of God., By degrees, whole days pass by without a rez flection respecting his Maker.

Habits of swearing often grow on a person in the same gradual manner. First he learns to use an improper word, such as, O Lord, or O God-Lord bless me, or Lord help me; and then he proceeds a little further. He sits much among swearing, persons, and then his sense of the sin is weakened. He swears at first only when in a great pas sion, and afterwards when in a lit, tle passion; and at last when he is in no passion. Men fall in this respect very imperceptibly. Let us notice the unbelief which is at the same time increasing. man who uses the name of God to swear by it is likely to grow hardened in unbelief. Some begin by exercising their wit on religious things. They joke at the particularity of some good man, which they couple with his religion; and having first mocked those who, are good, for their infirmities, they proceed to mock

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at what is not their infirmity; they mock at their very goodness. They now grow merry as often as they speak on religious subjects; they joke about passages of scripture; at length they make a joke of all, scripture, and there is no road by which men advance more rapidly to a profane, unbelieving spirit than this. What we often make the subject of our merriment, we cannot at any time much reverence. It is thus that both the holy scriptures, and every other thing which is sacred, become the subject of a man's raillery during his cups; and this profaneness is perhaps at length coupled with indecent and licentious conversation, which is the highest pitch of profaneness.

So also in respect to every vice which can be named, the steps by which men advance are small. The glutton or drunkard first is a little nice respecting his meat and drink; he values the pleasure of a meal too highly; his meat must be of the best kind; his liquor strong and highly flavoured. He grows

more and more curious in his taste. He talks much of his wine and of his dishes, and sits long at his table; his meals are more in number than is necessary for health; he also takes a glass of wine between them. He finds that he has more and more desire for this intervening cordial: the habit grows; the stomach is more and more craving; he becomes first a tippler, and then an occasional drunkard, and then a thorough drunkard.

In respect also to dishonesty, a man's fall is commonly grad

ual. Some begin by borrowing what they partly mean to restore, but what they know that they very possibly may never be able to pay, though they do not say more money, though they have so; and they borrow more and less and less chance of returning it. Some begin with taking a very little matter; it is too little, as they think, to be noticed by the owner, or by their own consciences, Having taken one trifle they add another; they take a little of the smaller kind of fruit, and from small fruit they proceed to larger fruit, and from fruit to many other little things.

trifles, in order to eat themHaving taken a few selves, they take a few more, in order to give them away, and they soon find that they can obtain some favour in return. degrees they take, in order to sell; and thus they are perfected in the trade of stealing.

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grows on us by degrees. What Lying is a sin which also is a lie? Is every false word a lie? Is it a lie to call a thing greater or less than it is? I answer, that he who uses himself to speak too largely, and to assert positively what he knows dulges this temper, to speak still but in part, will learn, if he instill more positively, till he loses more largely, and to pronounce his respect for truth. Endeavour then to measure every word you speak; be correct, and think not that this is a small matter.

A man's general temper is also apt to fail in the same gradual manner. How many have inish, or fretful humour, and as they dulged some little, selfish, peevhave continually thought only for

a minute; till these evil dispositions have gained full possession of them. Waste of time may also be mentioned. We think it a little matter to waste a few minutes, forgetting, that out of these minutes, hours are made, that hours constitute days, and that of days, life itself consists. We neglect minute after minute, because each is but a minute. We sit down only for a minute at some idle employment, and in some easy posture, and thus our idle habits grow upon us.

Want of economy is to be traced to the same negligence of small things. The bulk of our expense is made up of trifling sums, and as he that wastes his minutes will be found to trifle away his life, so he that throws away his shillings will be found to trifle away his substance.

What then is the way in which we must learn to avoid both sin in general, and every sin in particular? "He that despiseth small things," says an apophrical writer," shall fall by little and little." It is by not despising small things that we shall avoid both those greater and lesser degrees of iniquity.

What then is it to despise small things? It is to make light of them-it is to make light of them because they are small. We suppose a little matter to be a little evil, whereas a little matter may be a great evil; it may be a precedent for many other evils. A little evil, many times repeated, becomes great; and the reason for committing this little evil the second time will seem just as good as for committing it at the first. We should be afraid, therefore, of

little negligences and sins. We should be afraid of all such language as the following. "Why, surely, this is so trifling an indulgence, it is so small a saving, it is so slight a departure from truth, it is such an insignificant breach of the Sabbath, it is such an unimportant, diminutive matter, that it is not worthy of my attention. Great sins, indeed, I abhor as much as any man; but such little sins, if indeed they are sins, I never can attend to." Do you indeed hate great sins? Then beware of little ones. This is the great art of the devil. The constant excuse with which he supplies us is that of saying, " Is it not a little one?" To move one step in sin beyond that which we have already taken is all that he asks at present. When we have advanced this step, then another will be taken. Now each of these single steps is little. Every sin in this sense is small, for it is only a small addition to the sin which went before. Each sin seems therefore diminutive to the sinner. The plea of smallness is ever returning. It is the apology for all crimes.

Did you never find this answer given you by one whom you reproved for sin? Or, rather, did you ever find any one who did not thus excuse himself? The fault in question is always a small one. Other men's sins seem great sins. Past sins of our own seem perhaps to be great; or future sins of our own, would, if described to us, appear great ; but our own and our present sin is always a little one. It will be said, perhaps, but is this the doctrine of the gospel? Does not the gospel teach us to repent of

all sin at once, and to become new creatures through the allpowerful influence of the Holy Spirit? And should we not attend to the great work of our conversion, rather than to the little obliquities which have been spoken of? I answer, that one proof of conversion to God is our not making light of small sins. He who loves God as he ought, he who is redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, may know his faith to be sincere, chiefly by this test; namely, that he will make much of those sins which other men make so little of; he will ever be magnifying what they are ever excusing. As it is the way of sinners to plead in favour of sin, so it is his to plead against it.

I conclude with remarking, that as the sinner falls by degrees, so the servant of God rises step by step. Improvement in holiness, like improvement in sin, is gradual; for the path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

N. Y. [Ch. Oba.

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On the first of these questions believers have their controversy with professed infidels; the second furnishes the ground of ma ny debates among Christians themselves. But the matter which arises out of these questions, severally, ought never to be mixed. If a man profess to receive the scripture as a divine revelation, he forecloses all controversy about its authority; because the word of God is a much better security for truth than any deductions of human reason. He may have difficulties in explaining or vindicating some truths which he receives under the sanction of a divine warrant, but still he is not to deny those truths. This appears in fact to have been the understanding of almost every writer of reputation on the subjects of Christian controversy, till lately. Those who were supposed to wish for a greater latitude did not choose openly to avow it. Within a few years, however, the Socinians, finding it impracticable fairly to defend their creed against the artillery of revelation, with which their opponents were likely to demolish it, have sought arms and aid from the camp of infidelity. They have contended at one time like Christians, and at another like Deists, and often have alternately taken the ground and used the weapons of both parties in the same combat. This system they. did not adopt all at once, nor without some caution and address. At first they seemed only to be carrying to the point of perfection a plan on which they had, in some measure, acted, from the days of Socinus

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