oduce vice and wretchedness among us, yet we see in this our constitution
what may operate partially as preventives and correctives of them. If there
be a radical propensity in our nature to do that which is wrong, there is
on the other hand a counteracting power within it, or an impulse, by means
of the action of the Divine Spirit upon our minds, which urges us to do
that which is right. If the voice of temptation, clothed in musical and
seducing accents, charms us one way, the voice of holiness, speaking to us
from within in a solemn and powerful manner, commands us another. Does one
man obtain a victory over his corrupt affections? an immediate perception
of pleasure, like the feeling of a reward divinely conferred upon him, is
noticed.--Does another fall prostrate beneath their power? a painful
feeling, and such as pronounces to him the sentence of reproof and
punishment, is found to follow.--If one, by suffering his heart to become
hardened, oppresses a fellow-creature, the tear of sympathy starts up in
the eye of another, and the latter instantly feels a desire, involuntarily
generated, of flying to his relief. Thus impulses, feelings, and
dispositions have been implanted in our nature for the purpose of
preventing and rectifying the evils of life. And as these have operated so
as to stimulate some men to lessen them by the exercise of an amiable
charity, so they have operated to stimulate others, in various other ways,
to the same end. Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him
in favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent
barbarous practices by the introduction of laws.

In consequence then of these impulses and feelings, by which the pure power
in our nature is thus made to act as a check upon the evil part of it, and
in consequence of the influence which philosophy and legislative wisdom
have had in their respective provinces, there has been always, in all times
and countries, a counteracting energy, which has opposed itself more or
less to the crimes and miseries of mankind. But it seems to have been
reserved for Christianity to increase this energy, and to give it the
widest possible domain. It was reserved for her, under the same Divine
Influence, to give the best views of the nature, and of the present and
future condition of man; to afford the best moral precepts, to communicate
the most benign stimulus to the heart, to produce the most blameless
conduct, and thus to