righteousness that cannot be lost and a felicity that will never change. He acts not like David, who when he reinstated Mephibosheth, restored to him but half the property he had given him before; God gives us a hundred times more than we had at first. Here below we shall recover holiness and happiness only in part, and we shall still feel the consequences of our original disaster: but in the world above our nature will be rendered a thousand times more glorious than it was at the creation. Then we shall behold "all things under" our feet;"* and shall not cease to bless Him who shall have raised us to the throne, there to reign eternally with his Son; to whom, as to Himself and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

Psalm viii, 6.

SERMON IV.

MAN RUINED BY HIMSELF.

ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

TO investigate the causes of phenomena both physical and moral, is a pleasing occupation to inquiring minds. In these researches no age has been more curious than our own. The astronomer is desirous of accounting for all that he sees in the heavens, and the naturalist for what he observes on the earth the chemist wants to ascertain the principle of his experiments, and the physician labours to discover the cause of every thing that happens in the human body. In these various sciences the praise of superior intelligence and skill is justly awarded to those persons, whose hypothesis and opinions furnish the most reasonable and consistent explanations of the different effects which they have noticed.

The politician is solicitous to find out the origin of all considerable events in states and empires. He tries to penetrate the springs of important transactions, and to mark their reasons, principles, and authors. And historians are considered as not having sufficiently developed the facts which they relate, if they have not endeavoured to discover

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their motives and commencements, and the various steps of their progress.

The world exhibits one fact too certain,-that man is wicked and corrupt. The history of the human race records one event more considerable and important than all others, the introduction of sin. There is one phenomenon truly astonishing,-this sin in a rational nature, this moral evil, this corruption which infects the whole man. Whence comes the depravity which exerts so general an influence on our species, has so large a share in all the events of history, produces so many individual crimes, and is the source of the perpetual contradictions found in the human character? Whence proceeds this moral evil, which is followed by so many physical evils, by numerous pains, calamities, and afflictions? Will the astronomer discover the cause in some malignant aspects of the stars, or the naturalist in the terrestrial matter composing our bodies? Will man attribute it to God? Will he cast the blame on the very Author of his being? Or will he imagine an evil principle equal in power to the true God, which may have made us wicked in spite of ourselves?

None of these suppositions will satisfactorily explain that fatal event. This subject has long embarrassed the inquisitive mind. Thus many things the most obvious and conspicuous have a secret origin. A large and rapid river sometimes proceeds from an unknown source. The inhabitants of Egypt and Ethiopia see the Nile flowing along and inundating their lands with its slimy streams, yet are ignorant where it rises. Nations are sometimes

ruined by wars, of which they cannot ascertain the principle or motive. A whole city is embroiled by a sedition of which it is difficult to discover the commencement and first author: and many a man finds himself involved in a dreadful combustion, who never knows how it began. The greatest events often have small beginnings and obscure causes, to which it is difficult to retrace them. The entrance of sin into the world would be, above all others, one of those things either unknown or exceedingly difficult to discover, without the assistance of revelation. But with that clue to guide us, we easily travel back through all the windings of this labyrinth to the first commencement of so vast an evil. There we learn how man lost, by his own fault, that happy innocence in which God had created him and if on this subject we desire a witness worthy of credit, let us hear one of the most curious and intelligent men that ever lived, who after many reflections and researches says: Lo, this only have I found, that "God hath made man upright; but they have 'sought out many inventions."

When we began our explanation of this text, we remarked that it exhibits a double picture,-man innocent, and man fallen; and that, attributing the glory of the primitive state to the Creator, it leaves to us the shame and reproach of our fall. We confined ourselves at that time to an examination of the state of integrity; and reserved for another exercise the consideration of the fall, the melancholy picture of our ruin contrasted with that of our happiness. We now proceed to the completion of our design, and I hope you will follow us with

advantage in the discussion of the two principal truths which will form the division of our discourse.

The first truth is, THAT MAN IS NO LONGER WHAT HE WAS AT HIS CREATION. He has lost his purity and glory, and we shall endeavour to shew you how this happened. The second is, THAT THIS

CHANGE MUST BE IMPUTED TO MAN AND NOT TO God.

"They have," says the text, they have themselves, "sought out many inventions."

May the Lord grant us grace to walk steadily in the light of his word and under the direction of his good Spirit, that we may lead you into the way of his truth on these important subjects, to his glory and our common salvation. Amen.

I. Man is no longer what he was at first. He has undergone a great change. This is evinced by the opposition which the preacher asserts between the two states of human nature. "Lo, this only "have I found, that God hath made man upright; "but they have sought out many inventions." What a difference between man innocent and man fallen! How great the distance from one to the other. We may adopt the language of Abraham to the Rich Man, though in an opposite sense: "There is a great "gulph between you and us."* Our original happiness, our pristine glory, how are we now separated from you by an abyss difficult to be passed! The passage was but too quick and easy from happiness to misery, from innocence to sin: but how difficult is the return from sin to innocence! To the powers of nature it is altogether impossible: it can never

Luke xvi. 26.