l: whether they have got the mastery over the
vicious passions and propensities, with which in their origin, and
nature, and tendency, they are at open variance; or whether if the
victory be not yet complete, the war is at least constant, and the
breach irreconcilable: whether they moderate and regulate all the
inferior appetites and desires which are culpable only in their excess,
thus striving to reign in the bosom with a settled undisputed
predominance: by examining, whether above all they manifest themselves
by prompting to the active discharge of the duties of life, the
personal, and domestic, and relative, and professional, and social, and
civil duties. Here the wideness of their range and the universality of
their influence, will generally serve to distinguish them from those
partial efforts of diligence and self-denial, to which mankind are
prompted by subordinate motives. All proofs other than this deduced from
conduct, are in some degree ambiguous. This, this only, whether we
argue from Reason or from Scripture, is a sure infallible criterion.
From the daily incidents of conjugal and domestic life, we learn that a
heat of affection occasionally vehement, but superficial and transitory,
may consist too well with a course of conduct, exhibiting incontestable
proofs of neglect and unkindness. But the passion, which alone the Holy
Scriptures dignify with the name of Love, is a deep, not a superficial
feeling; a fixed and permanent, not an occasional emotion. It proves the
validity of its title, by actions corresponding with its nature, by
practical endeavours to gratify the wishes and to promote the interests
of the object of affection. "If a man love me, he will keep my sayings."
"This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." This therefore
is the best standard by which to try the quality, or, the quality being
ascertained, to estimate the strength of the religious affections.
Without suffering ourselves to derive too much complacency from
transient fervors of devotion, we should carefully and frequently prove
ourselves by this less dubitable test; impartially examining our daily
conduct; and often comparing our actual, with our possible services, the
fair amount of our exertions, with our natural or acquired means and
opportunities of usefulness.

After this large explanation, the prolixity of which will we trust be
pardoned on account of the importance of the subject, and the danger of
mistakes both