4thly. Every man, who makes the attempt to do his duty, and abstain from sin, finds the attempt attended by many difficulties.

When he would do good, evil, very frequently at least, will be present with him; and he will find a law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him under captivity. The good, which, for some reason or other, he is desirous to do, he will often fail of doing, and the evil, which, for some reason or other, he wishes not to do, he, still, will often do. To say the least, he will often find an uncomfortable and guilty reluctance to do his duty, and an equally unhappy and guilty disposition to practise sin.

Often, very often, do the best of men, when summoned by their circumstances, and warned by their consciences, to perform acts of piety to God, or beneficence to mankind, of opposition to their lusts, or resistance to temptations, find one sin and another easily besetting, and many a weight hanging heavily upon them. The character of God appears less lovely and venerable, than it has done at other times; and the heart is less open to acts of justice, truth, charity, and forgiveness. Temptations approach with more charms; and sin is stripped of no small part of its deformity. The world assumes new importance, beauty, and power. Evil examples solicit with stronger influence; and evil suggestions awaken doubt, uneasiness, and discouragement. Mysteries, at such seasons, become converted, without much difficulty, into errors; and that, which is inexplicable, is suspected to be untrue. Self-denial is felt, in many instances, to be hard, unnecessary, and scarcely a duty; while indulgence, on the other hand, seems not only inviting, but excusable; not only pleasant, but safe. Accordingly, the duty in hand is left undone; or performed with difficulty, and by halves. The feet drag heavily in the strait and narrow path; or turn aside to find relief in a way, less steep, rough, and forbidding.

If such is the case with the best men; it will not be wondered at, that others find their difficulties still greater. In all Christian countries there are multitudes, who are not sanctified, and who yet intend to obtain eternal life: men taught in their childhood to know and fear God; to reverence their duty, and to perform it in every external manner; to attend on the worship of

God; to read, and believe, his word; to deal justly, kindly, and truly, with their fellow-men; to watch, and resist, their spiritual enemies within and without; and universally to respect the dictates of their own consciences. Men, habituated to such a course of life from the beginning, are often decent, amiable, and highly respected. Yet every such man, when convinced of sin, will, in unbosoming himself to a Minister of the Gospel, in whom he confides, freely confess, that he has never really done his duty in a single instance; but has always been a sinner merely ; that he finds not in his heart a disposition ever to pray in such a manner, as his conscience tells him God requires, and much less a preparation of soul to perform his duty at large.

Men of profligate characters are in still more deplorable circumstances. They do not even attempt to perform their duty at all; find no struggle between conscience and inclination; slide down the declivity of sin without an effort to stop their dangerous carcer; and, satisfied with the smoothness and slipperiness of their course, give themselves no concern about the gulf, which yawns at the bottom.

Whence do these things arise? Certainly not from external circumstances. The profligate has no more external difficulties than the conscientious man; and might, if he pleased, be equally decent and amiable. The conscientious man has no more external difficulties than the man of piety; and might, if he pleas ed, be a Christian also. The Christian has no more external difficulties at one time, than at another; and might, if he pleased, perform his duty with the same exactness and ease, and be always equally virtuous. By this I do not mean indeed, that, in the metaphysical sense, their external difficulties are precisely the same; but that they are so much the same, as in no case to prevent them at all from performing their duty, if they were suitably inclined; or, in other words, if they possessed the disposition of Angels. The heart undoubtedly is in each of these cases the only essential bar to obedience. Were the heart right with God, the Christian would be perfect at all times; the conscientious man would become a Christian; and the profligate would cease from his abandonment, and become not only decent and amiable, VOL. I.

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but a Christian also. This reluctance to duty, therefore, these difficulties found in attempts to abstain from sin, prove the character to be corrupt, and the heart to be sinful. As they attend all men; they prove the common nature to be polluted; and evince, unanswerably, the sinful character of all the children of Adam.

SERMON XXX.

UNIVERSALITY OF SIN

PROVED

BY MAN'S REJECTION OF THE WORD OF GOD.

JEREMIAH viii. 9.

The Wise men are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord, and what Wisdom is

IN

in them.

"The Wise ones are confounded,

They are dismayed, and ensnared;

Behold, they have spurned at the Word of Jehovah ;

And as for Wisdom, what is there in them?"

Blayney's Translation.

my last discourse, I proposed to consider, at length, the following Scriptural doctrine;

That, in consequence of the Apostasy of Adam, all Men have sinned.

In pursuing this design I exhibited the Universality of sin, I. From Revelation; and,

II. From Facts.

From each of these sources I adduced a series of proofs, which appeared to me to furnish a complete establishment of the docrine. Still it will be useful to examine so important a subject

in a variety of modes; and to learn in what manner other sources furnish evidence of this great Scriptural declaration. I propose, therefore, to illustrate the doctrine, at the present time, from another Fact; viz. the rejection of the Word of God by Mankind. In the verse preceding the Text, the people of Judea are exhibited as saying, in the midst of all their apostasy and wickedness, We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us: that is, We are holy, or virtuous; and the Law of the Lord is possessed, understood, and obeyed, by us; is in our hands, in our minds, and in our hearts.. To this arrogant declaration the prophet replies, Lo, certainly in vain made he it! the pen of the Scribes is in vain; that is, "To you God has given his Law, or Word, in vain; The false pen of the Scribes hath converted it into falsehood*." "The false interpretations of the Law by the Scribes have changed the Law itself in the form, in which they teach, and you receive it, into falsehood; and to you, therefore, notwithstanding its excellence, it is in vain."

The wise men, themselves, he proceeds to observe in the text, are by these means ashamed, or confounded, and taken, or ensnared, in their own false interpretations and reasonings on the Law; and can form no consistent, no safe, scheme either of doctrine or practice. Nay, their mode of understanding, and explaining, the word of God is, in effect, an absolute rejection of it. Consequently there is no Wisdom, no holiness, or virtue, in them. Their rejection of the word of the Lord is a plain proof, that they are totally destitute of all moral good.

What was true of these Wise men, or Scribes, is unquestionably true of all other men in the like circumstances. To the Scribes the word of God was offered; and was enjoined on them with divine authority. They disliked and rejected it. This conduct proved them to be void of holiness. In like manner it has been offered to immense multitudes of other men, who have disliked and rejected it also. The consequence follows irresistibly, that they, as well as these Israelites, are void of holiness.

Holiness is plainly the only virtue, or moral excellence; the only character, which can recommend Intelligent beings to God.

* Blayney.