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which have retarded his progress towards Christian perfection ; many patssages in his conduct appear to him wrong upon reflection , which he either did not reflect upon at all , or thought sufficiently j ustifiable at the time * He mourns over his frailty ; he washes away daily sins by daily repentance ; he strives to know his most secret faults ; resolves against them , but as soon as he is exposed to the same temptations , he exhibits the same proofs of weakness . Our commerce with the world and its various jarring interests
acts upon the soul as the perpetual resistance and friction of matter does upon any body in motion . It retards the freedom of its course , and is every moment lessening the impetus originally communicated to it but in heaven we shall meet with no such obstacle . There we shall fulfil our glorious career , like the heavenly bodies through the smooth fields of ether , with undiminished velocity and undeviating exactness . In that blessed region
we shall be in no danger of being corrupted by the charms of social converse , for all our converse and all our society will be with the good ; the future prospects we find now so much difficulty in fixing our eyes upon will then be present realities , and we cannot for a moment forget God when we are continually surrounded with his more immediate presence . It is because they are before the throne of God that they are without fault *
In the next place we shall no more fall into sins of ignorance and prejudice . Many errors of conduct arise from opinions rashly formed , prejudices lightly taken up , and tenaciously adhered to , and errors in speculation or in matters of fact , which too often divide good people and alienate those hearts that otherwise would glow with affection towards each other . One wrong opinion consequentially reasoned upon , will often lead us into a maze of error and perplexity , and set our best affections a warring with each other .
Error and prejudice have separated fear of God and mercy towards man , devotion and cheerful enjoyment , usefulness and sanctity . They have even in speculation ( though never amongst good hearts in practice ) made a divorce between faith and works : but when we are near the fountain of light , prejudices and errors will vanish away like a mist before the morning sun ; the humble and earnest inquirer will have his appetite after truth satisfied , and we shall wonder at the delusions and imperfect views of objects under which we wandered here below .
Lastly . It is to be presumed the good man will be freed from those sins which cling to him in consequence of his bodily temperament . In spite of all his care to subdue the sin which easily besets him , he cannot altogether succeed ; he gives it no room in his heart , but it is in his constitution . A timorous , hesitating timidity , rashness , irritability , indolence , are woven into the very texture of his frame . He does not indulge , he strives against them ; he counteracts their influence by wholesome discipline , and by every
generous motive ; they are enemies which have been often conquered and dare not attack him in the equal field , but still they hang about him and harass his rear and retard his march . Bodily infirmity too , which ever increases as We advance in life , throws its cloud over the good man and makes him appear perhaps as if he were moving backwards in the heavenly race . — When , by principles firml y fixed and habits strongly formed , by a long life
spent in the exercise of virtue , he ought to shine out all faith , all love , all hope and zeal and pious fervour ; when he is nearest to an angel , and ought most to appear so , he is too often sunk in weakness and despondency ; the spring of kind affections seems t o be dried up within him ; even his confidence in God does not cheer him as it was wont to do ; and he seems to himself , and perhaps to others , to be losing ground in moral excellence and
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148 A Discourse , by Mrs . Barhauld .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/4/
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