IMPORTANCE OF THE JUDGMENT.

its bearings, and its connexions, our opinion will be treated with deference, if it be not considered an authority.

In conducting a process of reasoning which issues in a judgment or decision, it requires the exercise of the memory to bring forward the stores of the mind: for as no man can reason on any subject unless he possesses some ideas respecting it, so these ideas can be of no service unless they are present to the mind at the proper moment when they are wanted. If, therefore, the memory be prompt and faithful in bringing forward the appropriate ideas as they are required, the mind reasons well, and is accurate in its decisions. Hence it follows, that, as a sound judgment is of the utmost importance in all the concerns of life, and as extensive knowledge and a correct and vigorous memory are of essential necessity in order to it, it is the bounden duty, as well as the interest, of every individual to cultivate both these attainments, as far as time and opportunity will allow.

This faculty is of the utmost importance in all the concerns of rational and intelligent creatures. No man is placed in such a situation as to render the exercise of his judgment unnecessary. Without it, man is a mere idiot. In every concern of life, in every rank of society, from the lowest labourer and mechanic, to the statesman and warrior, this power is of indispensable moment. As man is a social being, and, on account of his connexion with other beings, owes them various duties, we ought

THE WILL.

greatly to admire the wisdom of God in endowing his mind with a faculty so admirably adapted to all his necessities and obligations. Man is but an impotent being. He can do little, comparatively, by the direct exertion of his corporeal energies; yet, by the aids of his judgment and inventive powers, he can accomplish wonders. Apparent accident has started a vast variety of important principles; but it is by the aids of the human judgment that these principles have been combined and improved—that the mechanical powers have been formed and applied to the useful purposes of life, by which feeble man possesses a strength and an importance a thousand times beyond what he would otherwise have attained.

I shall, in the next place, consider the Human WILL. LOCKE and EDWARDS, the most eminent authors who have written on metaphysical subjects, define the will to be, that faculty of the soul by which it is capable of CHOOSING an act of the WILL is the same as an act of choosing or choice. Man, without this, would be only a motionless and useless machine: however well made for a variety of purposes, he would never attempt any thing but as he is impelled by some external agent.-Deprive him of this self-governing principle, and man can be no longer regarded as an accountable being, or a being of importance in the moral government of God.

The operations of the will are determined by the understanding. What the understanding views

THE WILL CONNECTED WITH MUSCULAR POWER.

as good and suitable, the will chooses-what it regards as evil, and prejudicial to our interests, the will rejects. This truth furnishes a conclusion of the utmost moment; it is this:-That a well-informed understanding, enriched with knowledge, clear and accurate in its perceptions, and free from error in the general concerns of time and of eternity, is what all mankind should most ardently seek; for an error in the understanding will be followed by an error in our choice, which may issue in results unutterably tremendous.

This faculty seems to have an immediate connexion with the cause of muscular motion in the animal creation, so far as that motion is voluntary, or at the control of the animal. Whatever actions the understanding judges beneficial to be performed, the will immediately carries its convictions into effect by stimulating the nervous system, and thus producing muscular motion, and the actions desired. The VITAL motions are not subject to the government of the will, such as the circulation of the blood, and respiration;-these actions continue, whether we will or not. He who gave them has alone a right to suspend them. But all the muscular motions of the limbs, and those organs of the body which have a relation to the duties of life, a discharge of which is involved in our responsibility to God, are under the government of the WILL. This is a fact which well deserves our consideration.

INFLUENCE OF THE WILL.

Were we to reflect attentively on the activity of this power of the mind, we should be filled with constant surprise. We should regard as its effects every motion of the head, and the lips, and the eye-lids; every action of the hands and the fingers:-it communicates motion to the fingers that hold the pen with which I am writing, and directs that motion too, under all its variety of inflections observable in the shape of the letters which I make :-it actuates the various muscles which are called into exercise in looking, speaking, and walking-it influences my every action. To the Will is intrusted the executive government of this microcosm for such is man; a world in miniature. With what amazing velocity and energy does it act! With what astonishing promptitude does it obey the dictates of the understanding, and with what celerity does it transmit its decisions to every, even the remotest corner of its dominions! Its energies are always in unison with what is deemed necessary in regard to the strength to be exerted. Whether the hands have to raise a pound or a hundred weight, the impulse which the will gives to the muscles to be employed is in that proportion. Is some danger perceived at hand?-with what activity do we attempt to escape it. Is a blessing to be secured?-with what readiness do we grasp it. So far as it has to do with mental operations, it discovers equal vivacity. If in the course of the investigations of its own stores, the mind detects a

MAN A FREE AGENT.

sentiment of an obnoxious tendency, the will spurns it; and, on the other hand, what is perceived to be adapted to our good, it as tenaciously maintains.

Every man is a free agent; that is, he is at perfect liberty to do, or not to do, that which APPEARS TO HIM the best. This is essentially necessary to his responsibility for his actions. Nothing could be more absurd than to make a being accountable for actions which he is compelled to perform, or reward him for actions which he performs from a necessity of nature. Hence, no man is punishable, either by the laws of God or of man, for those crimes which he is compelled to commit, or rewardable for those good deeds which he is necessitated to do, contrary to his will. This freedom extends as well to the concerns of religion, as to actions of a civil nature-in both we are free to choose, or to reject, that which appears to us good or evil.-All the operations of the will are determined by the dictates of the understanding: if any man be asked, Why did you will to do so, or so?-he replies, Because I preferred it.-While I maintain these principles, I by no means intend to insinuate that any fallen sinner will choose that which is spiritually and morally good in the sight of God, independently of a divine agency. Left to himself, depraved man will reject that which is spiritually good, and choose that which is in unison with his sinful nature; but he does both freely-he feels no compulsion. Such is the blindness of his heart, that