the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." While carnal and impenitent men are feeling the justice and indignation of their offended God, you shall experience only his goodness, wisdom, and lovingkindness.

SERMON II.

THE SINFULNESS OF HUMAN NATURE.

ROMANS, V. 21.

Sin hath reigned unto death.

His progress in the gospel of Christ is not HIS small, who knows what sin truly is, and that he is truly a sinner. Almost all in conversation will allow the truth of the confession made by them publicly at church, that they are miserable offenders; but not so many are aware of the character which they really give themselves: their lips speak not from the fulness of the heart. That the gospel of Christ and the lives of its professors for the most part agree so ill, is from no want of virtue in the medicine, but because, not well understanding what cure is to be made, men apply it improperly it must be taken inwardly to the

renewing of the heart, but they are usually content with such outward application as attendance upon certain religious forms, and the performance of stated duties. Persons whose religion lies thus upon the surface, who seldom feel deeply nor think seriously about it, appear to look upon sin as simply an act or a habit of disobedience to some divine commandment; and if not actually engaged in such forbidden practices, they are not easily persuaded that "sin reigns in them unto death :" yet may they be as truly in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity when soundly sleeping, or honestly working, as when they contrive or execute a crime. That this is true you will be fully satisfied when you are informed of the real history, nature, and effects of sin.

It was not originally born with man: when the earth bloomed in the freshness of its youth, the living soul was by its Creator pronounced "good;" a mark of approbation which, if a spot of sin had stained it, that holy Being could not have bestowed. At that time, joy and innocence walked

hand in hand through all that God had made: above, angels of every degree, and the two only souls on earth, were united in the fulness of love, obedience, and devotion, to him who created all. How sin first got footing in the universe, thus happily and completely subject to a Governour, the perfection of goodness as well as power, we shall strive in vain to discover: it is one of the deep things of God, which for the present are locked up in the secret treasury of his counsels. Enough, it did appear; and, which is remarkable, its first appearance was in heaven. Satan, once high among the angels of the Lord, "kept not his first estate; "a but conceiving within himself the spirit of pride, rebelled against his Maker, and left his habitation in heaven, being driven to a place of shame and punishment. The power yet left him he maliciously used to bring man under the same guilt and condemnation with himself. He succeeded; and thenceforward, descending from father to son in an uninterrupted stream, sin has deluged the earth

a Jude, verse 6.

with its dark and bitter waters.

"By one

man's disobedience many were made sinners. The dreadful power thus let loose upon the world, though it may show itself in a thousand different ways, is, every where and at all times, one and the same; that, namely, which is contrary to the nature and law of God, which is " holy, and just, and good." Like a drop of the deadliest poison in clear and wholesome water, sin made in the heart of man a change, as respects his salvation, fatal and entire. The love of God, and that humble yet glad obedience which the creature paid to his Maker, gave place to self-will, pride, and enmity. These evil spirits, drawing away the soul from the fountain of all goodness, deprived it of those heavenly powers which gave it command over the body; and the body, thus freed from restraint, abused its natural appetites by immoderate and impure indulgence.

Pride separated man from his God, and that separation delivered him over to a carnal mind. Of this the necessary consequences were sorrow and death.

b Romans, v. 19.