OF PRAYER. 817 taste to every thing that stands in oppo- sition to the delights of that life: It is the smoothness of his course which makes it so slippery. He is lost before he feels that he is sinking. -For whether we plunge at once from a precipitous height, or slide down from it on an inclined plane, still, while there is a yawning gulf at the bottom, our destruction is equally inevitable. The systematic but decorous sensualist is one whose life is a course of sober luxury, of measured indulgence. He contrives to reconcile anabandonment of sound principle with a kind of orderly practice. He enquires rather what is decent than what is Tight, what will secure the favourable opinion of the world, especially his own class, rather than what will please God. His object is to make the most of this world. Self- ishness has established its throne in his heart. His study is to make every thing and every person subservient to his own convenience, or pleasure, or profit, yet P 3
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