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"The young men faw me, and themfelves withdrew;

The aged rofe, and render'd homage due; The princes paus'd, and not a whisper

crept,

Softrict a filence, from refpe&t, they kept; The nobles, full of rev'rence, ceas'd to. fpeak;

No murmur from their lips was heard to break.

"The ear was glad whene'er it heard my voice,

The eye which faw me haften'd to rejoice; Becaufe a patron of the poor I stood, And gave the fatherlefs to tafte my food; Because to him o'er whom woes feem'd to bend,

I always introduced myself a friend. The thanks of him in danger I receiv'd, And fill'd with joy the widow forely griev'd.

"In righteousness array'd, a light I food,

With judgment showing what was just and good.

Through me the blind their lofs of fight forgot,

Through me the lame, that lameness was their lot :

I

rais'd the fall'n, I fearch'd the uns known caufe,

And brought oppreffion down by wholefome laws;

The jaws of the profane I boldly broke, And from their faften'd gripe the booty took.

« "Twas then I fondly hop'd my life would be

Replete with years, and bright profperity.

Like fome tall tree the glory of the wood; Ingreat magnificence, and pomp, I stood, With moisture fweet and pure my roots were fill'd,

And dews ambrofial on my top diftill'd; Myfelf in vigour and in ftrength I view'd ;

My might as in a bow I felt renew'd.

"When I began to speak they all

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A fure Remedy for a fad heart.

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And none but the Proud, can refuse to refign.

HILE all the fair Volumes of 8. Allur'd by thy name, then in thee I'll

Science and Art

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Donation to the Miffionary Society of Connecticut.

From a Friend of Miffions,

Dolls. Cts.

II 16

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Evidence of Human Depravity. ISTORY and obfervation afford abundant évidence of the truth of the fcripture account of the depravity of human nature. They are an unexceptionable comment on the facred text. God has pleased, in the progress oftime, to place men in a great variety of : fituations, calculated, in various degrees, to bring out to view their true character; and he will con

tinue to vary thofe fituations, in fature, until it is as fully difclofed as the nature of the divine government requires. Thus, not only individuals, for the period oftheir lives, but the whole race as fuch, from the fall to Chrift's fecond coming, are in a state of probation. During this period the heart of man will be fully proved; and it will appear, from fact and experience, that it is deceitful above all things and defperately wicked. God will be found to be true, but every man a liar.

To attain the ends of this trial and probation of human nature, fully, a long period of time feems neceffary, and during its progrefs, a certain degree of order among men is requifite; for, without this, VOL. II. No. 3.

men.

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the race of man itself would be exterminated, and no opportunity would remain for the difpenfations of divine Hence the nemercy. ceffity of great and powerful reftraints on the lufts and paffions of In providing these, at different times, and in degrees fuited to the courfe of events fixed in the divine counfels, the power, wifdom and goodness of God are wonderfully difplayed. In viewing the character of man, howevreftraints we are apt to form coner, under the operation of fuch clufions too much in his favor; for by means of them, no doubt, much wickednefs is prevented, and exhibited; ftill, as they produce a femblance of goodness is often their effect by laying a force upon, and not by changing the inclinations of the heart, they ought to be laid wholly out of the quef tion, in forming an estimate of the human character. In proportion as these are withdrawn, the naked human heart appears. And in order to difcover it to the view of finite mind's, God is pleased, from time to time, to withdraw those reftraints, as far as the state of things will admit.

bounds; and, to mention no more, even the interfering lufts in the fame heart, which limit each oth

Such are the bands and cords by which Almighty God binds, in fuch degree as he pleases, a race of apoftate creatures, who refufe to be united to him and to one another, in that charity which is the bond of perfectness.

God has been pleased however, for wife and holy purposes, in eve. I ry age, and under every degree of light which has fhone on the world, to remove these reftraints, or fome of them, from nations and from individuals, and in fuch degree as to give fufficient openings into the human heart.

It may be useful to illuftrate, in the conduct of nations and of individuals, in a few particulars, thefe general obfervations.

Among the countless reftraints which limit the reign of wickednefs are, natural confcience, or a moral fenfe, common to me byer, or fubject the weaker to the which they diftinguish between predominant paffion. right and wrong, with the comfort or remorfe which purfues the fentence it paffes on our moral conduct, accompanied with a pre-fentiment of future retribution-a conviction that the judgment of God will be according to truth and righteousness-a hope, refulting from revelation, tradition, or the expreffions of the divine benignity, of appeafing God's anger and conciliating his favor, by our fervices and offerings-remarkable judgments with which God has vifited a wicked world, and in which he has fhewn his wrath and made his power known, to every age and nation-the fhortnefs of human life after the delugea consciousness which all men feel of weaknefs and mutual dependence, the fear of evil from thofe we injure, and a hope of good from thofe we treat with juftice and benevolence-civil government--the dread of fhame, of lofs of reputation, health and intereft, which is, more or less, connected with a courfe of vice; and the defire of reputation and influence of health and affluence which ufually attend a courfe of virtue-The weaker may, thro' fear, be pity, which, by a law of our nature, is excited by objects in diftrefs-friendhip, founded on a fimilarity of taltes and purfuits the natural affections, which exift between thofe, whom the God of order has called to act together in the most intimate connections, where the finful paffions are apt to be brought into perpetual collifion the interfering purfuits of men which limit the fphere of individual agency, and confine the effeûs of selfishness within narrower

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It is an undoubted fact, that na tions, in relation to each other, are under fewer reftraints, than individuals, in a state of fociety, are: the former must be confidered, in relation to each other, as individals in a state of nature, without any law to control them, but that of force or convenience. Power 1 and right are, with them, confidered and treated as the fame thing.

induced to respect the rights of the ftronger, but whenever by uniting their ftrength or otherwife, the balance of power may be in their favor, they will fhew the fame dif regard to right as others. Add to this, individual refponfibility for national injuftice is very lightly felt, the till finall voice of con fcience, which may whisper in individuals, will be filenced by the voice of the nation; the dishonor of national bafenefs and perfidy will be felt to be more than

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upon

compenfated, by the fplendor of victory and conqueft, and the advantages refulting from national aggrandizement. Accordingly, the nations which have fhed moft blood, have, in all ages, not excepting the prefent, been held the most renowned. Compacts and treaties with each other, though, among Pagans, the gods above and gods below, and among Chriftians, the Holy Trinity, are called in the most folemn manner, to avenge their violation, are mere straw and rotten wood; no one expects they will be maintained with good faith, even at the folemn moment of ratification; they are received as matters of neceffity, use or convenience, and to be laid afide, either with or without a pretext, when interest requires. The nations, confidered as individuals or bodies politic, have been, with few exceptions, atrocious murderers, their feet have been swift to shed blood, and they have had no fear of God before their eyes.

mankind in general. And fuch is the character of all other nations, fo far as they have had pow er and opportunity to display themfelves; and fo true is the divine declaration, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." From the character of nations we may certainly infer the character of the body of the people or individuals which compofe them; if thefe loved their fellow-men as they do them* felves, they would prevent the profecution ofunjuft or cruel wars; and, if they had the fear of God before their eyes, they would find means to fecure the faithful and religious obfervance of treaties; they are therefore, unless they manifeft, in fome proper way, their diffent, guilty of all the fraud, injuftice, cruelty, murder, perfidy and impiety, of the nation which they compofe, and, as individuals they must account to God the common Father of men. Why do they freely perpetrate fuch horrid wickednefs as members of a nation, which, perhaps, they would not do as individuals? Because their temptations are greater, and their reftraints lefs. Here then the human heart appears stript of difguife. The fame appears in the conduct of most kings and great men who are above, and of many

This sketch of the character of nations is fupported by the reprefentations of them in the holy fcriptures. The four great monarchies are there reprefented by four ferocious beafts of prey; the Chaldean by a lion, the Perfian by a bear, the Grecian by a leopard, and the Roman by a beaft, fui generis, which had no proto-mean and bafe men who are in type in nature, dreadful and ter- fome fenfe below the cognizance of rible and strong exceedingly, which law. had great iron teeth, which devoured, brake in pieces, and ftamped the refidue with the feet of it, and which had ten horns. Such is the true character of nations the moft powerful and illuftrious, whofe great exploits, in laying waste the world, have been celebrated in all ages fince they figured upon the theatre of human affairs, by poets and historians, and indeed by

The former prove tyrants and oppreffors; the latter, protected by their poverty and meannefs, prove cheats, liars, thieves, drunkards and are addicted in general to what is called low vice. The infant of a fpan long feels few restraints; if disturbed in its enjoyments, it will fhow that perverfe and wrathful temper which, ftrengthened by time and left unreftrained, will impel to murder;

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