The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-09-27

about us, but that these tightly tempered are
the very ingredients of virtue7 They are
not skilful considerers of human things who
imagine 10 remove sin by removing the
matter of sin; for, besides that ii is huge
heap increasing under the very act of dimn-
ishing, though some parts of it may for
time be Withdrawn from some persons, 1t
cannot from all, and when this is
done, yet the sin remains entire. Though
ye take from coveious man all his treas.
ure, he has yet one jewel left, ye cannot be-
reave him of his covetoubness. n
Suppose we could expel sin by this means;
look how much we thus expel OF sin, SO
much we expel OF virtue; for the matter OF
them both is the same; remove that and ye
remove them both alike. This juslifies The
high Providence of God, who, though he
commands his temperance, justice, conii-
nence, YET pours ont before Us even TO a
profuseness all desirable things, and gives us
minds that can wander beyond all limit and
safety. Why then should we affect rigor
contrary to the manner Of God and nature.
1t would be better done TO learn that the
law must needs be frivolous, which goes 10
restrain things, uncertainty, and yet equally
working TO good and 10 evil. And were
the chooser, dram of well doing should be
preferred before many times as much the
forcible hindering of evil doing: For God
sure esteems the growth and completing of
one viruous person, more than the restraint
Of ten vicious"
"Good and evil We know in the field of
this world grow up together almost insepara-
bly, and the knowledge OF good is so in
volved and interviewer with the knowledge
of evil, and in so many cunning resem-
blances hardly TO be discerned, that those
confused seeds which were imposed upon
Psyche as an incessant labor 10 Gull out, and
sort asunder, were not more inlermxed. 1t
was from out the rind of one apple tasted,
that the knowledge of good aud evil, as two
twins cleaving together, leaped forth into
the world. And perhaps this is that doom
that Adam fell into of knowing good and
evil that is to say, of knowing good by evil.
GAS therefore the state of man now is,
wha, wisdom can there be to choose, what
confluence 10 forbear, without the knowl-
edge of evil. He that can apprehend and
CONSIDER vice with all her bats and seeming
pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet dis
tinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly
better, he is the true warfarng Christian.
cannot praise fugitive and cloistered yir-
tue, unexercised and unbreahed, tha, never
sallies out and seeks her adversary, but
sinks out OF the race where that immortal
garland is TO be run for, not without dust and
heat. Assuredy we bring not innocence in
10 the world, we bring impurity much rather;
that which purifes us is trial, and trial is by
what is contrary. That virtue therefore which
is but u youngling in the contemplation of
evil, and knows not the utmost that vice
promises TO her followers and rejects it, is
but blank virtue not pure her whteness
is but an excremenlal whieness which wi as
the reason why our sage and serious poet,
Spenser, describing true Temperance under
the person Of Guion, brings him in with his
palmer through the cave OF Mammon, and
the bower Of earthly bliss, that he might see
and know, and yet abs'ain."-(Speech for
the Liberty OF Unlicensed Printing"
And else where our author exclaims:-
"Mark then Judges and Lawgivers, and ye
VIII ose Office it is 10 be our teachers, for
will utter now doctrine though neg
leced or not understood, yet of great and
powerful importance TO the governing Of
mankind. He who wisely would restrain
the reasonable soul of man within due
bounds, must first himself know perfectly,
how far the territory and dominion extend
of just and honest Liberty. AS little must he
offer 10 bind that which God hath oosened
as to loosen that which he hath bound
The ignorance and mistake of this high poin
hath heaped up one huge half OF all the av
| that hath been since Adam"