long as he lives, and as long as he exists; and he will be ready to pass judgment upon himself, that he deserves to feel the weight of God's displeasure, and of the displeasure of all holy beings for ever. If sinners did but see and feel the total depravity and enmity of their hearts, they would tremble like Belshazzar in the belief and fear of future and eternal misery.

4. It appears from what has been said, that it is of great importance to preach the doctrine of total depravity plainly and fully. It carries no conviction to sinners to be told that they are the offspring of Adam, are by nature depraved, and have actually sinned, and come short of the glory of God. They are willing to believe and allow this; but then they are ready to think and say this is true of the best men in the world. They are all the offspring of Adam, they are by nature depraved, and they actually sin, and come short of the glory of God. They are no better than we; and why should God save them, and not us? The doctrine of total depravity gives a complete answer. Though the best men are depraved, yet they are not totally depraved. Though they sometimes sin, yet they do not always sin. They do something besides sinning. They love God, which sinners never do. They repent of sin, which sinners never do. They believe in Christ, which sinners never do. They promote the glory of God, which sinners never do. They desire and intend to promote the glory of God as long as they live, and as long as they exist. Though they are like sinners, yet they are essentially different from them. They are not totally depraved, but sinners are. They are not total enemies to God, but sinners are. They are not totally unfit for the services and enjoyments of heaven, but sinners are. And they are not properly fit for destruction, but sinners, in respect to guilt, enmity and opposition to God and all good, are completely fit for spiritual and eternal death. there is this essential distinction between saints and sinners, it is of great importance that it should be made to appear to both. But nothing can make it appear, but the truth of the total depravity of sinners. Unless preachers clearly and fully prove this truth, it is impossible for them to prove that there is an essential distinction between saints and sinners. Those, therefore, who deny, or neglect to preach total depravity, never do teach their hearers that sinners are essentially different from saints. Though they use the terms saints and sinners, yet they seldom attempt to tell wherein they differ; and when they undertake to describe the difference, they only say that saints are better than sinners, or that sinners do more evil than good, but saints do more good than evil. Accordingly, when they speak of regeneration, which they seldom do, they call it a gradual,

and not an instantaneous change. They suppose sinners have some goodness, but saints have more; which leaves both saints and sinners in a state of uncertainty whether they are saints or sinners, the friends or enemies of God; and they must remain in this uncertainty as long as they live; for they cannot tell, nor any one else, how much goodness they must have to constitute them saints, and entitle them to the great and precious promises of the gospel. The doctrine of total depravity is one of the most essential doctrines of Christianity. The gospel cannot be clearly and consistently preached, either theoretically or practically to sinners, or to saints, without plainly explaining and proving the total depravity of sinners.

5. It appears from what has been said, that no sinners have a right to think they are christians. They all have the witness within themselves that they are totally depraved and graceless. Christ has told them that they have not the love of God in them; and the apostle has told them that they have a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. That this is true, all their moral exercises of heart, ever since they had any, unitedly prove. And if they would only look into their hearts, and view them as God views them, they could no more doubt of their total depravity and graceless state, than they could doubt of their own existence. Their moral exercises are essential parts of their existence, as much as their reason and conscience; and they can know as much about them as they know about any of their natural faculties. As they know what their reason and conscience are, so they know what the free and the voluntary exercises of their hearts are. And they are conscious, when they reflect upon their past and present exercises of heart, that they have always loved themselves supremely, and not God; that they have always sought their own interests, and not the interests of others; that they have always desired happiness more than holiness; that they have always sought to please themselves, rather than to please God; and that they have always disliked, if not opposed, the divine commands, and the terms of the gospel. And the consciousness of such a constant, uninterrupted and persevering train of selfish and sinful affections, gives them plain, sensible, irresistible evidence that they are in the state of nature, and under the dominion of a totally selfish, wicked heart. This consciousness of self condemnation, the apostle represents as the infallible criterion by which sinners may know that they are totally depraved, absolutely graceless, and essentially different from the children of God. He declares, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." That is, he cannot

sin constantly as sinners do. "In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God." That is, whosoever never does righteousness, but always sins as sinners do. And again he . says, "Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God." Here the apostle asserts that all sinners may know that they are so, by the infallible testimony of their own heart. If their heart condemn them, they may assure themselves that God, who knows all things, and is perfectly acquainted with all the inward motions and affections of their hearts, knows and condemns them as totally sinful and graceless. No sinners, therefore, let them be ever so apparently amiable and virtuous, have a right to think they are christians, nor to doubt whether they are dead in trespasses and sins. There are a great many professedly doubting sinners, but they have no just ground to doubt. The case is clear in God's view, and ought to be in their own. Let them impartially ask their hearts, and they will tell them the truth, and justly condemn them for all their internal exercises and external actions.

6. It equally appears from what has been said, that christians have no right to think that they are sinners. Though they have been totally depraved, yet they are not now totally depraved. Though they have not yet attained, neither are already perfect, yet they desire to be perfect, and free from sin. Though, when they would do good, evil is present with them, and they often fail of that perfect obedience to the will of God which they are conscious they habitually desire to perform, yet they have the witness in themselves that their hearts have been changed, and that, whereas they were once blind, they now see; as they once hated God, they now love him; as they once disobeyed God, they now obey him; as they once loved their own interest more than his glory, they now seek his glory more than their own temporal or eternal good. Such holy exercises all real christians have; and these are the only criterion by which they are to assure themselves that they are of God, are his children, and heirs of eternal life. They have no right to disbelieve the witness which God has given them in their hearts, and set up another standard to try their spiritual state. Their own standard will always lead them astray; and they will refuse to be comforted in the way God has appointed to give them comfort. God gives to every christian evidence enough that he is born of the Spirit, if he would only seriously and impartially attend to it. This is true at the time he becomes a new creature, and

ever afterwards. No christians, therefore, have a right to think they are sinners, and have no title to the great and precious promises of the gospel. They ought to go on their way rejoicing in God, in prosperity and adversity; and even under the hiding of God's face. He requires them to rejoice in himself, always, and evermore. Christians are always to blame, if they think they are not the children of God.

Finally: In the view of this subject, all are called upon to judge righteous judgment with respect to their own hearts. The only criterion has been exhibited. It is the criterion proposed by the beloved disciple John, who tenderly and sincerely wished that both saints and sinners might know their own hearts. And if all who are now present would apply the criterion which the apostle has given them, there would not go away from this house one doubting christian, nor one doubting sinner.

SERMON XXVIII.

THE HOLINESS OF GOD BINDS MEN TO BE HOLY.

BECAUSE it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. -1 PETER, i. 16.

THIS epistle is addressed to christians in general; and therefore its precepts and exhortations may be justly considered as applicable to christians in every age, as well as in every part of the world. It becomes christians now, as much as ever it did, to be holy in all manner of conversation, for the reason which the apostle assigns in the text. "Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." We find this written in Leviticus, xi. 44, where God says to his people, "I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves; and ye shall be holy, for I am holy." The same sentiment is expressed in several other passages in the Old Testament. But since all men are equally the creatures of God, and equally need his favor, this text equally applies to all men of all ages, characters and conditions; and equally proves the duty and necessity of one man's being holy as well as another. For if the holiness of God be a reason why one man should be holy, it is as good a reason why every man should be holy. The Creator's holiness lays all mankind under a moral obligation and necessity of being conformed to his moral image. Therefore we may understand God as saying to all men, without distinction, " Be ye holy, for I am holy." Taking the words in this extensive sense, they suggest this important truth:

That God's being holy renders it absolutely necessary that men should be holy. I shall,

I. Show in what holiness consists.

II. That God is holy.