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    many a life be prolonged for usefulness , —many g . soul be preserved from perdition . But they hear of the power of habit , and the connexion between desire and action , and the enslaving nature

    ^ of vicious feelings ; - —and they speak of these things , and perhaps reason at > out them ; but they feel not their full force : they cannot conceive , from their versatile thoughts and feelings , how any can gain such an

    ascendancy as to lead imperiously to destruction ; and , though they may yield a speculative assent to the representations of those who have their own sad experience to

    guide them , or speak from the sad experience , of others , yet a full practical belief is wanting , and they go on with thoughtless security , even when walking am 6 ng the thickest snares of the

    enemy . In a thousand , in ten thousand instances , the Jlrst step to ruin has been the indulging in impure conversation . " What harm can

    it do so long us we do not act wrojig , " has been the reply to the suggestions of the religious friend , or- to the suggestions of conscience . What harm!—why the worst , that of strengthening prppensities which wisdom loudly commands to curb . —Words , with

    an unperceived , sometimes scarcely perceptible , connexion , introduce and invigorate trains of thought and affection ; they call up their corresponding imagery ,

    or bring into play t&eir corresponding , feelings . The more these are recalled to the inind , the more they become cpnnectecl with other trains pf icjeas ,, aqd with accidental circumstances \ t > f tirae and place . Thus th ? y ' -9 W kn tjQ-

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    S 66 ^ Practical Remarks on Matthew , v- 27 j % & *

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    have excited the most awful alarm ; tstill indulged but now without alarm ; excited by temptation , but perchance for a time checked by the fearof God ; more strongly and unexpectedly excited by some more powerful temptation ; all -is--now to be feared that

    duty shudders to contemplate ; criminal gratification increasing criminal desire , till the restraints of religion are thrown off , and the mind submits to the yoke of vice . It fancies itself free , and , in the moment of gaiety and dissipated

    thought , laughs at its former scruples ;—but truth would show that tribulation and anguish must follow close upon the steps of vicious pleasure , that under the garb of liberty are concealed the fetters of the most enslaving and

    destructive tyrant . But leave out of consideration the general tendency of indulging desires , to-lead to the gratification of them , —observe the effects of indul 2 : 1 ng criminal desires when they do not proceed to overt acts .

    The soul may be polluted , debased by sensuality , without aoy generally perceptible effects on the conduct . This will necessarily result from giving the rejn to improper trains of thought , from cherishing improper feelings . When this is the case , thoughts and feelings which rank among the laaost worthy , are alloyed ; their value is diminished * their efficacy upon the conduct impeded . Could the young but fully discern , or could they be brought

    fully to believe , the general , the almost . ijieccssary effects of cherishing impiuce thoughts and feelings , one would hope that many a thoughtless wretch would be Saved ; the pangs of remorse ^ —

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 266, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/38/