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ciples of his nature, but impressed the same hereditary stains on all his descendants, and subjected the whole progeny to those penalties which had been incurred by its first propaga

tor.'

Thus, Adam, having by transgression, virtually renounced his allegiance to the best of sovereigns, became the vassal of that treacherous adversary who, by the power of temptation, had stripped him of all his pristine glory and happiness. He forsook the standard of his beneficent Creator, and enlisted under the banner of Satan. After his example all his posterity naturally copy. They cheerfully obey the crafty dictates of the same tyrannical sovereign. It is said, without exception, 'They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one.' They are led captive by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.' All the pow. ers and faculties of the soul, and all the members of the body, are devoted to his service.

under his control, and

God is not in all their

thoughts-nay, the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.'

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It is allowed, indeed, that there is a vast disparity, as to moral turpitude, between the actions of individuals. Some men, in a comparative view, may be properly denominated virtuous, and others completely vicious: and the number of those is not small, who regulate their lives, not by the standard of religion, but by the measure of other men's virtue: who lull their own remorse with the remembrance of crimes more atrocious than their own, and seem to believe that they are not bad while another can be found worse.' Very different, however, were the conclusions of the learned and excellent Boerhaave, who relates, that he never saw a criminal dragged to execution without asking himself, Who knows whether this man is not less culpable than I?" But the concession I have made does not in the least militate against the doctrine of universal and equal depravity: because every perceptible gradation of excellence arises, I presume, not

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from one man being less corrupt than another, but from the interposition of God, operating by natural causes, with a view to subserve his own glory in the government of a world entirely under the dominion of sin. Every christian may with propriety say, If I have not, like David, committed murder and adultery; nor with Peter, denied the Lord that bought me, it is not because my nature is less depraved, but because I have been either kept out of the way of temptation, or preserved from falling by it.

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The interposition of God in restraining the evil propensities of human nature is strikingly exemplified in the character of Hazael. After Elisha, the prophet, had answered the inquiry of Benhadad the king of Syria, he fixed his countenance stedfastly on the messenger, and wept. Then Hazael said, Why weepeth my Lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children; and rip

up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.

When Hazael heard the predictions of the prophet, he was, I have no doubt, struck with horrour. He never imagined that he could be capable of perpetrating such outrageous acts of barbarity. But the sequel demonstrates, that the seeds of all these atrocities were latent in his nature. The Almighty withdrew the restraints by which his depravity was bounded. The hour of trial speedily occurred the next day he murdered the king his master, and reigned in his stead, and afterward, fulfilled all that Elisha had predicted.

It was said by one, well acquainted with human nature, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. The salutary caution is the language of wisdom and benevolence. The best of men, when left to themselves, have given awful proof of their incompetency to

withstand temptation. Witness the case of Hezekiah, whom God left to try him, that he might know the corruption of his heart and it may repress the vanity of selfconfidence to recollect, that an apostle was, as Dean Young expresses it, pious in the house, courageous in the garden, and, in the hall, both a coward and a traitor.

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That the allwise Governour of the universe is pleased, for purposes of his own glory, to restrain the passions of men, is clear from the case of Abimelech respecting Abraham; and also from these words of the psalmist; Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain:' and, perhaps, both these clauses, and also the principle on which I reason, were never more awfully, nor more clearly exemplified than in the character and conduct of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Man is not only dreadfully depraved, but is said to be without strength-to have no understanding He receiveth not the things of the

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