to every such being; and in its efficacy it is the only voluntary cause of all other enjoyments: a cause, existing originally and supremely in Him, and by derivation existing extensively in them.

This Law, therefore, is a perfect law; and worthy of JEHOVAH. Were men virtuously disposed; were they not depraved; were they not sinful; their obedience to its commands would be immediate, universal, and absolute. Instead of this, wherever it has been proposed to them, they have chosen to disobey it, notwithstanding the glorious and eternal reward, promised to their obedience, and the awful penalty, threatened to disobedience. What stronger proof of their depravity can be demanded?

There is, however, one proof still more affecting. In the miserable situation, into which men brought themselves by their Apostacy, God regarded them with infinite compassion, and undertook to rescue them from their sin and misery. For this end he sent his own beloved Son into the world, to live here a humble, painful, and persecuted life, and to die an accursed and excruciating death, to make in the human soul an end of sin, to finish transgression, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. In consequence of his atonement, God has offered, anew, to receive the fallen race of Adam into his favour, on the conditions of Faith and Repentance in the Redeemer: conditions in themselves indispensable to their return to God, and to obedience; indispensable to their own comfort, honour, and virtue; and beyond expression easy, reasonable, and desirable. As he foresaw that they would still resist this boundless love, and would fail of it through their corruption, ignorance, error, and prejudice; he published his Gospel to enlighten them, and sent his Spirit to sanctify them, that by all means they might be saved. Still in a multitude of instances almost literally endless, a multitude so great as to prove this to be the common character of all the children of Adam, they have rejected these most merciful proffers of boundless good, crucified his son afresh, cast contempt on his cross, accounted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and done despite to the Spirit of Grace.

And now, my friends and brethren, judge, I pray you, between God and his vineyard. What could have been done to his vineyard, that he has not done in it? Wherefore, when he looked, that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth poisonous berries ?* Wherefore brought it forth the grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah? Every tree is known by its fruit. This vine is plainly, therefore, of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Its grapes are grapes of gall; its clusters are bitter. Its wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

Were man virtuously disposed, it is incredible, nay, it is plainly impossible, that he should not yield himself to this Law, as soon as

is proposed to him. As obedience to this Law is the only excelicnce of conduct; so a virtuous state of mind, a virtuous disposition, a virtuous character, by all of which phrases we intend that unknown cause, heretofore specified, which gives birth to virtuous rather than to vicious conduct, would so soon as this Law was proposed to it, render, in a sense instinctively, an immediate, cheerful, and universal obedience.

Were such a mind, also, to apostatize, and yet to retain a disposition in a preponderating degree virtuous; were it afterwards to be informed of a method, by which it might return to obedience, and the favour of God; it would be plainly impossible, that such a mind should not receive this information, and embrace this method of returning, with readiness, and even with rapture. If, at the same time, the terms of its reinstatement in obedience, and in the divine favour, were in themselves eminently easy and reasonable, and in their efficacy productive of its highest future amiableness, dignity, and enjoyment; if they were such, as rendered it peculiarly lovely in the sight of God, and prepared it to be peculiarly useful to its fellow-creatures; such a mind would, beyond a doubt, seize the terms themselves with delight, and the divine object, which they secured, with ecstasy.

The rejection of the word of God, of the Law and the Gospel alike, is, therefore, entirely inexplicable, unless we acknowledge, that the disposition by which it is rejected, is a disposition directly opposed to that of a virtuous mind; wholly unlike that with which Adam was created; and the genuine moral likeness of Adam after his Apostacy.

SERMON XXX1.

DEPRAVITY OF MAN.-ITS DEGREE.

ECCLESIASTES Viii. 11.-Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

IN the two last discourses, I proposed for consideration the following doctrine: That in consequence of the Apostacy of Adam all men have sinned; and endeavoured to prove the Universality of sin in the former of these discourses;

1st. From Revelation: and,

2dly. From Facts:

And in the latter from the great fact, that mankind have rejected the Word of the Lord.

It is now my design to examine, in several particulars, the Degree, in which the sinfulness of man exists. On this subject I ob

serve,

1st. That the human character is not depraved to the full extent of the human powers.

It has been said, neither unfrequently, nor by men void of understanding, that man is as depraved a being, as his faculties will permit him to be; but it has been said without consideration, and without truth. Neither the Scriptures, nor Experience, warrant this assertion. Wicked men and seducers, it is declared, will wax worse and worse; deceiving and being deceived. During the first half of human life this may, perhaps, be explained by the growth of the faculties; but during a considerable period, preceding its termination, it cannot be thus explained: for the faculties decay, while the depravity still increases. Nations, also, are declared, to be at some periods of time, far worse than at others; although it cannot be pretended, that during the period specified their faculties were superior. Saul appears to have been a man of more talents than Jeroboam; Jeroboam than Ahab; and Uzziah than either; yet Ahab was a worse man than Jeroboam; Jeroboam than Saul; and Saul than Uzziah. The Young Man, who came to Christ, to know what good thing he should do, to have eternal life, was certainly less depraved, than his talents would have permitted him to be.

Like him, we see, daily, many men, who neither are, nor profess to be, Christians, and who, instead of being wicked to a degree commensurate to the extent of their faculties, go through life in the exercise of dispositions so sincere, just, and amiable, and in the performance of actions so upright and beneficent, as to secure a high degree of respect and affection from ourselves, and from all

with whom they are connected. It certainly cannot be said, that such men are as sinful as many others possessed of powers far inferior; much less that they are as sinful as they can be. We also see individuals, at times, assume, without any visible enlargement of their faculties, a new and surprising degree of depravity at once; and become suddenly far more fraudulent, false, lewd, cruel, revengeful, impious, and universally abandoned, than at a period not long preceding. In the families, of which we are members, we have abundant opportunity to learn, from so intimate a connexion, the true characters of all who compose them; and are furnished daily with decisive evidence, that they are far less profligate than, with their faculties, they might become. Those, who make the assertion, against which I am contending, will find themselves, if they will examine, rarely believing, that their wives and children, though not Christians, are Fiends.

2dly. There are certain characteristics of human nature, which, considered by themselves, are innocent.

Such are hunger, thirst, the fear of suffering, and the desire of happiness; together with several others. All these are inseparable, not only from the rational, but also from the animal, nature, as existing in this world; and accompany the Christian through every degree of holiness, which he attains, as truly as the sinner. The two last; the desire of happiness, and the fear of suffering; are inseparable from the rational, and even from the percipient, nature. 3dly. Some of the natural human characteristics are amiable.

Such are natural affection: the simplicity and sweetness of disposition in children, often found also in persons of adult years; compassion; generosity; modesty; and what is sometimes called natural conscientiousness; that is, a fixed and strong sense of the importance of doing that, which is right. These characteristics appear to have adorned the Young Man, whom I have already mentioned. We know that they are amiable, because we are informed that Jesus, beholding him, loved him. In the same manner we, and all others, who are not abandoned, love them always, and irresistibly, whenever they are presented to our view. They all, also, are required, and exist, in every Christian; enhancing his holiness, and rendering him a better man. Without them it is not easy to perceive how the Christian character could exist. Accordingly, St. Paul exhibits those, who are destitute of these attributes, as being literally profligates.

4thly. These and all other qualities of the mind are, however, means either of virtue, or sin, according to the nature of that controlling Disposition, or Energy, which constitutes the moral character.

By this disposition, or energy, I intend that unknown cause, whence it arises, that the actions of the mind are either sinful or virtuous. On this energy depends the moral nature of all actions, and the moral character of every mind. This character, and these actions, are variously, and extensively, modified by the attributes

above mentioned. But the moral nature is not changed. So far as they have a prevailing influence, a sinful disposition is checked, and prevented from operating in the worst manner, and degree. Under the prevalence of a sinful disposition, these attributes are partly extinguished, and partly converted into instruments of sin. In a virtuous mind they all become means of virtue, and increase the energy of such a mind.

5thly. There is not in the Mind, by nature, or in an unregenerated state, any real moral excellence, or Evangelical virtue.

For I know, says St. Paul, that in me, (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing. The carnal mind, says the same Apostle, is enmity against God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. And again; The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. That which is born, saith our SAVIOUR, of the flesh, is flesh. Without faith, says St. Paul, it is impossible to please God.

6thly. The heart of Man, after all the abatements are made, which can be made, is set to do evil, in a most affecting and dreadful

manner.

Of this truth, the Text is a direct and very forcible assertion. The word, which is rendered, fully set, in our translation, is used by Ahasuerus, Esther vii. 5, to express the daring presumption, with which Haman had risen up to destroy Esther and her nation. It is also said to denote being filled with a violent propensity, as the sails of a ship are filled, when borne along by a powerful blast. A strong tendency to evil in the heart of the sons of men, therefore, is here asserted in very forcible terms.

In considering the degree of iniquity, indicated in this and similar passages, it is not my design, nor within my power or wish, to settle this point with mathematical exactness. In the Scriptures, God has exhibited this subject in an indefinite, and yet in a more impressive and affecting manner, than any, which mankind have substituted. No views of human corruption are so affecting, or so awful, as those, which are presented to us in the Word of God. This example may be confidently followed; and no man is required to limit this subject more exactly, than it has been done by his Maker.

With these observations premised, I shall proceed to adduce several proofs of the doctrine, expressed in the text.

I. The Scriptures directly assert this doctrine in the fullest man

ner.

Every imagination of Man's heart, saith God, is only evil, continually. Of the Gentiles, the Apostle declares, that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations; and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Who changed the truth of God