of our hearts, and endeavour, with our utmost efforts, to banish all those secret tendencies, and all those lurking inclinations, which operate very frequently without being attended to even by ourselves; if we do not carry on our search without regard to the reputation of our teachers, our followers, or ourselves, and labour after truth with equal industry and caution; let us not presume to put any trust in our sincerity.
Such is the present weakness and corruption of human nature, that sincerity, real sincerity, is rarely to be found; but, till it be found, it is the last degree of folly to represent errour as innocent. By a God infinitely merciful, and propitiated by the death of our blessed Saviour, it may, indeed, be pardoned, but it cannot be justified.
But the greatest part of those that declaim with most vehemence in defence of their darling notions, seem to have very little claim even to pardon on account of their sincerity. It is difficult to conceive what time is allotted to religious questions and controversies by a man whose life is engrossed by the hurries of business, and whose thoughts are continually upon the stretch, to form plans for the improvement of his fortune, or the gratification of his ambition. Nor is it very probable, that such subjects are more seriously considered by men abandoned to pleasure, men who sit down to eat, and rise up to play, whose life is a circle of successive amusements, and whose hours are distinguished only by vicissitudes of pleasure. And yet the questions which these frequently decide, and decide without the least suspicion of their own qualifications, are often of a very intricate and complicated kind, which must be disentangled by a long and continued attention, and resolved with many restrictions and great caution. Not only knowledge, judgment, and experience, but uninterrupted leisure and retirement are necessary, that the chain of reasoning may be preserved unbroken, and the mind perform its operations, without any hindrance from foreign objects.
To this end men have formerly retreated to solitudes
