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to which the darker season of feeling would aid him to prepare his mind, is it wise to reject that aid?

Now is not this a reasonable pleading? It is but requiring that a man should not be willing to come out from a temporary and special state of feeling without having availed himself of that advantage which it has specially offered him?

But very briefly we will apply the admonition to only one more particular state of feeling which not seldom visits an observer of mankind; namely, an indignant excitement of mind against human conduct. It will not be pretended that this is one of those feelings that ought to be extinguished as absolutely evil. It is what the best men have made no scruple of indulging and avowing; the worthiest teachers, protesters, and reformers. But, to make the best advantage of it, a man must very wisely "guide his heart." He looks abroad and sees an infinity of things as he knows they ought not to be;-every kind of perversity, depravity, and wrong; —and in many instances iniquity triumphing in power and success. And at times the flame of indignation is made to burn with violence, by some particular occurring instance of great iniquity. Now, he cannot but be sure that, within certain limitations, he "does well to be angry." But then the admonition, "Take care that you manage this fire to answer a good purpose, and that you do not burn yourself." What purpose? It may enforce on you the necessity of a most carefully disciplined judgment. It may surely contribute to aggravate your permanent impression of the extreme evil of sin, (let every indignant emotion go thither); -and, therefore, to "justify" the Almighty in that part of his economy which is directed in hostility against it; to impress upon you that which is so much to be hated, is no less to be dreaded. Therefore beware yourself. The indignant thoughts and emotions thus going outward, may

surely admonish you against leaving all to an indulgent judgment within. Amidst these indignant feelings, there should be suggested a warning against a deceptive manner of comparing yourself with others. This state of feeling may admonish you of the sovereignty of God. You look at all this; you are impotent and cannot put an end to it. God sees it all; he is omnipotent, and could end it in a moment. There is a reason why he does not. You must submit in mystery and humility to his supreme wisdom. And, finally, should it not contribute to the desire of a better world? and to a more earnest application to all that which may prepare you for it?"

Here we close these observations. These few exemplifications may contribute to show, how those involuntary states of feeling, which come upon us for a time, may be turned to a valuable use; that so we may carry out of the world with us benefits acquired by the divine aid, from all the mental seasons through which we shall have passed.

February 13, 1822.

LECTURE IV.

THE RIGHT MODE OF GIVING AND RECEIVING REPROOF.

GALATIANS iv. 16..

"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the

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MEN commonly assign a number of the persons and things within their sphere to the classes, respectively, of friends and enemies. There are beings that have in them an evil spirit toward us, and there are those that have a good one. And it is of very great importance that men rightly account of what are such, (i. e. friends and enemies), because very much of what men are, and what they do, depends on what they account friends and enemies. Many things in our notions, tastes, habits, practices, if traced back to the cause, are what they are, because such and such men were regarded by us as friends or as enemies.

How disastrous, therefore, that perversity of apprehension through which enemies have so often been accounted friends, and friends enemies! And especially conspicuous has this perversity been in regard to the point suggested in our text, namely, whether it should be esteemed the part of a friend faithfully to tell men the truth;-and whether the suppression of truth, and the substitution of its opposite, should not be held to mark the character of an enemy.

Advert, in your thoughts, to the first temptation in the world, the first communication to man of opinion and advice, after God had finished speaking. The most gross, and impious, and pernicious falsehood was pronounced ; what there was the most absolute evidence must be such.

And it was taken for the language of a friend! For what plainer proof can there be that the speaker is regarded as a friend, than that his advice is practically taken, when the taking of it involves the most momentous interests!

It is but in passing, that we notice how much into the dark this fact plunges us, in respect to the question, "What really was, in kind and degree, the original rectitude of man ?" The bare fact proves, irresistibly, that too much of what many systematic divines have inconsiderately written can be no better than poetry.

Again, in exemplification of how men have judged of friends,-how did the world become covered with a deluge of error, but because those were accounted friends who spoke the reverse of truth? Ask again, where and when has it been that flatterers were not admitted and welcomed as friends? What a prodigious singularity in history were it, if there were recorded any nation, or tribe, or city, in which these were generally and practically discouraged and silenced, and honest truth was the way to favour! Whenever was it, that honest truth was the obvious expedient of self-interest? Self-interest with men is to be promoted by giving them the persuasion that we are their friends. Well then, has their faithfulness been the way in which men have gone about to make their fellow mortals esteem them for friends? How often has the amicable state of feeling been broken up by telling the truth, even when done in a proper spirit and manner! The great apostle himself, seems not without apprehension of such an effect, sincere as he was, and affectionate, and venerable, and even speaking to them with the authority of God. And still, and always, is not this honest expression of truth one of the most difficult and hazardous things a friend has to do? All which is but one more example to show that, in this world, whatever is the best in a thing, is the most difficult to be had, and to be kept in that thing.

But, now, in a general theoretical judgment, men would approve, by implication at least, what is so unwelcome when it comes to the practice.

"What would you wish your friend to be?"

Answer. "Whatever else, I would wish him to be sincere." Sincere! and what then? What is his sincerity? Not a thing simply and silently within himself.

"What would you wish your friend to be?"

Answer. "That he should take a very genuine interest in my welfare, and be desirous to promote it." Well! and is his sole and sovereign rule for consulting and promoting your welfare to be, that he should always please you? If he deliberately thinks that certain things are true, and that though the representation of them will not sound quite graciously in your ears, it is important to your welfare that they should be pressed on your attention, what is he to do ? what will be truly seeking to promote your welfare ?

"What would you wish your friend to be ?"

Answer. "A person of a clear, sound, discriminating judgment, and a decided preference, in all things, for what is right." Well, but he will exercise this judgment on you; and would you not wish to have the benefit of it, so exercised? And his strong, discerning, conscientious preference of what is right,-must he take care never to signify it in any way that should convey an admonition or reproach to you?

"What would you wish your friend to be ?"

Answer. "That he should not be a man full of self-complacency, a self-idolater, but observant and severe toward his own errors and defects." Indeed! and is this the man that is to be quite insensible to your defects and faults ? is he not to apply the same law? Or, if he does perceive and judge, is it his duty to cherish in you that very self-com

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