*..

of the limpid stream, and roam the forest clad in native garments," while "man cannot obtain the conveniences, nor even the necessaries of life, without incessant toil and industry." Demand, to what source are we to be conducted, by the superior penetration assumed by him who opposes, whence to obtain clearer information, than we do in reading the words, "Unto Adam the Lord God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."†

Ix...At the same time, let us not forget that there are persons in the world, with whom to argue on certain points, is "worse than labour in vain." And not only is "an endeavour to convince MADMEN of their errors by reasoning,

*Holden.

+ Gen. iii. 17-19. See Appendix G.

folly in those who attempt it, since there is always in madness the firmest conviction of the truth of what is false, and which the clearest and most circumstantial evidence cannot remove;" but, "in cases where the difficulty is greatest, the attempt to argue is productive of additional mischief." "Reasoning will rather excite than diminish deranged feelings;" and if "we mistake the love of our opinions for the love of truth, because we suppose our opinions true.... the affections. being now misplaced, they are a greater impediment to us in the pursuit of truth than if we had no affections at all concerning it."*

"If our gospel be hid," says St. Paul, "it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Therefore "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

*See Bishop Warburton's Sermon on the Nature and Condition of Truth, in his Works, vol. v.

† 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off."*

x...But, as a christian minister is, for the most part, supposed to address friends to the cause on which he speaks, and not adversaries; and as we feel it our duty strongly to remind our hearers of what they believe, rather than to confine ourselves to the demonstration of those things which our enemies dispute :-let us return to the more immediate object of our reflections, viz. the result of our first parents' transgression.

We learn from the Scriptures that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;" that "there is no man which sinneth not;""who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" "What is man, that he should be clean, and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"|| "Behold," says the Psalmist, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."¶

* 2 Pet. i. 5.

2 Chron. vi. 36.

|| Job xv. 14.

† Gen. viii. 21.
§ Job xiv. 4.
¶ Psalm li. 5.

"There is none that doeth good, no not one."* Foolishness," says Solomon, "is bound in the heart of a child." "The spirit indeed is willing," says our Lord, "but the flesh is weak."+

St. Paul says, "That which I do I allow not for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." "When I would do good, evil is present with me."§ And all, we presume, are conscious of this frailty of our nature and that no sane man will deny the existence of this constant warfare between reason and natural inclination.

XI...Nor will any one produce evidence to show, that we have given an exaggerated account of the result of suffering the inclinations with which we were born to gain complete ascendency over us. The penal disorder which we inherit, if left to itself to increase and spread, will make the soul of man to become at last the all corrupt thing which animates deceit, covetousness, lies, fierceness, ingratitude, murder!--the spirit which moves those "FIGURES of mankind," which are "without natural affection:" trees, whose fruit withereth, twice dead,

Psalm liii. 3.
Matt. xxvi. 41.

† Prov. xxii. 15.
§ Rom. vii. 15, 21.

plucked up by the roots.

Clouds without

water, carried about of winds! Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame! Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever!"*

These are they, who now "being past feeling, have given themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness, † and not only themselves have "pleasure in unrighteousness," and "draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope,"§ but have pleasure in them that do these things. ||

XII...To these terrible truths reflection conducts us. Terrible they are to the minds of all however different the pious horror of a christian mind be, from that "fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries,” which they feel who have "trodden under foot the Son of God, and done despite to the spirit of grace."

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

*Jude.

2 Thess. ii. 12.

† Eph. iv. 19.

§ Isaiah v. 18.

|| Rom. i. 32. See Leland on the Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation.