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nefs and oh! that it may please God, that their fins may find them out, and his word may be quick and powerful to their conviction. But what I have now in view is, to maintain the universal conclufion in the text, not only that many men have been profligates, but that every man is a finner.

For this purpose, it is of the utmost moment to put you in mind what fin properly is. There are two ways of defence, you know, upon any trial: the one is, to deny the fact; the other, to maintain it is no crime. It is of neceffity, therefore, in the first place, to af certain the charge, by an account of the nature of fin. Of this, I do not think there can be produced a jufter account than we have in our fhorter catechifm: "Sin is any want of "conformity unto or tranfgreffion of the law "of God:" Which is nothing else but a brief illuftration of the words of fcripture, Sin is the tranfgreffion of the law. Let the confcience, then, of every hearer answer to the charge. Have you kept, or have you broken the law of God? Have you been obedient fubjects to the King of kings? Have you done your own will, or the will of him that made you? However unwilling you may be to put this question home at present, no perfon fhall be able to decline the tribunal, or evade the answer in the day of judgement.

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We have one great difficulty to struggle with in the attempt of bringing the guilty to confeffion, that fin hath blinded the understanding, and perverted the judgement; fo that after we have faid, that fin is the tranfgreffion of the law, there will remain another question, What is the law, and how far doth it extend? Upon this we must have recourse to the remaining traces that are left upon the confcience; and I fee nothing more proper, than to prefs home that fummary which God hath given of his own right and our duty, in the first and great commandment, "Thou "fhalt love the Lord thy God with all thy "heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy "mind;” Matth. xxii. 37. Are you your own? Have you no lord over you? Can you plead any exception to this command? Is not your maker infinitely perfect, and infinitely amiable? Is he not worthy of your fupreme love? If he is not, who is it, or what is it, that you have reafon to prefer, or that can. produce a better title? Can there be any thing more juft than the fentiment expreffed by the pious Pfalmift, Pfal. lxxiii. 25. "Whom "have I in heaven but thee? and there is 66 none upon earth that I defire befides thee." Is there excellence or sweetness in the creature, and is there none or lefs in the creator, from whom every inferior nature derives its very existence,

existence, and on whom it depends every mo. ment for its preservation?

May I not hope to have fome hold of finners here, in pleading the rights of their maker? Are your hearts then naturally, and have they been habitually and fupremely fet upon God? Has it been your first and leading care, to know him, and to ferve him, to inquire into his will, that you might do what was acceptable to him? Do you believe, that in his favour only is life, and therefore do you seek your happiness and your comfort in him? Many are apt greatly to mistake upon this fubject; nay, it feems to be the leading deception of finners, to think nothing evil or punishable, but fuch grofs crimes as are dif orderly in human fociety, and obnoxious to human laws. It is fcarce poffible to make them fenfible, how much guilt there is in a total forgetfulness of God; and yet this is the very fource of human depravity. The chief thing blameable in our attachment to other things, is their filling the room that is due to God, their being employed in a manner that is dishonourable to God, or, in other words, their being inftruments of rebellion against the will of God.

Are there any of you, my brethren, who, by the kindness of Providence, have been kept tree from grofs, visible, and scandalous offences; who, from a natural coolnets of tempera

temperament, have been chaste or fober; who, from a principle of honour, have been just or generous; who, from the dictates of prudence, have been regular and decent; but have been unmindful of your duty to God, have been unwilling to think of him, or ftrangers to delight in him? and are you not finners in his prefence? Have you been preferved by his power, and yet never confcffed the obligation? Have you been living daily upon his bounty, and yet feldom or never given him thanks, except in the most indifferent and formal manner, and fuch worship, as is a much more proper occafion for repentance than ground of confidence? How, then, fhall you be able to stand in the judgement? "For of him, and through him, and to him, ་་ are all things; to whom be glory for ever. "Amen."

II. I come now to make fome practical improvement of what has been faid on this fubject. And,

1. From what has been faid, you may learn how deeply and furely the foundation of the gospel is laid. It is laid in the actual state of the world, and in that depravity of our nature, which it is impoffible to conceal, and which nothing but the greatest obstinacy and perverfion of mind can have the courage to deny. I am fenfible, that nothing but an

inward

inward and personal conviction of guilt and mifery wrought by the Spirit of the living God, will bring the finner to embrace the gofpel; yet the neceffity of falvation may be evinced in the clearest and most fatisfactory manner, by reason and observation. As the vifible creation, when attentively viewed, ferves to discover the wifdom and omnipotence of God, and is, as it were, an open volume, which men of every tongue may read and admire; fo the ftate of the moral world, as it is called, plainly points out the guilt and apostasy of man, and loudly calls for the interpofition of the Saviour. This it is our duty to attend to, not only to ftop the mouths of gainfayers, but to establish the faith of God's children, that it may not be overthrown or unfettled by the cavils and objections of thofe who lie in wait to deceive.

2. From what has been faid, you may fee with what fentiments we fhould look upon the state of the world, or perufe the history of providence, and what profit we may reap from it. When we fee, as at prefent, in our own age and country, what profanity and neglect of God, what contempt or defertion of his worship, prevails among many of every rank; what pride and luxury, what riot and fenfuality, what uncleannefs and debauchery, what lying, fraud, and perjury; and when we obferve how one race of finners VOL. I.

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