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really, what thou, presumptuously, de"niest that thou art: wert thou not both

ignorant and wicked, were not the eyes "of thy understanding fatally blinded, and thy wretched heart hard and insensible "indeed.-God have mercy upon thy poor

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soul, and give thee both sight and feeling "ere it be too late." But to the honour of human nature, there seldom or never, I believe, has such notorious presumption existed. He would not be fit to be reasoned with, he must be mad, who could deny that "we have all sinned and come "short of the glory of God."

FINALLY, The depravity of human nature appears, not only from the Scriptures and from all History; but likewise from Experience. We have proceeded, but a few steps in the journey of life, before we meet with trouble. "Man is born to trouble, as the "sparks fly upward." The complaints of the poor, the repinings of the discontented, the cries of the afflicted, and the groans of the dying, are heard on every side. What is the world often, but a Bochim, a place of weeping, where sorrow comes after sorrow, faster than Job's messengers of evil? Now,

is not the existence of so much and so varied sorrow a plain and striking proof of our being all tainted with sin? Were we not all sinners, we should not all be thus subjected to suffering. "God is love," and never afflicts, willingly, the children of men. But He afflicts us, and afflicts us, not only in consequence of our own sin, but in consequence of the sin also, of our first parents.

-Stand by the cradle of that dear afflicted little one; hear its doleful moans; see its last, mortal strugglings, and ask, whence this severe chastisement? The babe has no actual sin; why then does it suffer and die? Suffering and death are the consequence of sin. How then are we to solve the difficulty? Only by admitting this doctrine which is so authoratively delivered to us; that by Adam's sin all his race, even the youngest, as well as the oldest, are materially affected. Here I pretend not to explain; the fact is evident, and cannot be accounted for, upon any other hypothesis. We daily see that the direful effects of the follies and crimes of parents are suffered by their hapless posterity; and why then, should we wonder, that, in a modified sense of the words," the iniquity of our prime

"val parent should be visited upon his "children ?"

And while we have experience of the ef fects of sin, we have also abundant experience of sin itself. Behold, how iniquity abounds! Shall I mention those crimes which affront the sun ?-swearing, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, chambering, and wantonness. Because of these, the land mourneth, and by these, "multi"tudes, which no man can number," are daily courting disgrace, and plunging into irreparable ruin; while many more decently corrupt themselves in wealth's unwearied chace, in honour's empty show, and pleasure's thoughtless throng. All seem prone, by nature, to forget their true interest, to mind the things of earth more than those of heaven; in one word-to worship the creature, more than the Creator.-But are there not some, it may be said, who are even by nature, and without the grace of the Gospel, humane, amiable, and honourable, and who seem to have escaped the gross corruption, so much complained of, in the world? There, undoubtedly, are.

1

But even such humane, amiable, and honourable persons, when tried by the Divine law, and brought to the test by Him who is unspotted holiness, will be found to be depraved likewise. Humane, amiable, and honourable as they are, they can forget God, be ungrateful for his love, live and die, without believing in "Jesus Christ whom "he hath sent," and without "observing all things whatsover he hath commanded." And are not those who act such a part, vile, depraved indeed?What depravity, what perverseness, impatience, passion, does not the tender mother find even in her darling child? Even in that much-loved little one, she may see that we are all transgressors from the birth; that " we go 66 astray as soon as we are born.-There is "none who doeth good and sinneth not; "no not one*."

* It is notoriously true, that to be convinced of the corruption of our nature, we need only observe little children. "Those perverse passions which afterwards in life break forth, and fill our houses with violence, appear then in embryo. What anger may you remark in their little breasts when crossed or contradicted! What obstinacy and self-will, do they show when under correction! What envy at favours done to others!

The Christian himself has mournful experience of sin. Even in his most sacred moments; when his whole heart should be fixed upon God, he feels and laments his weakness and distraction. Though "re"newed in the spirit of his mind," two opposite principles so struggle within him, "that when he would do good, evil is pre"sent with him."-" O wretched man that "I am! (he is often forced to exclaim,) "who shall deliver me from the body of this "death ?"

If we seriously ponder what has been stated, can we any longer retain a doubt of our moral corruption.-Will any man have the hardiness to affirm,-" I have made my “heart clean: I am pure from my sin ?"

From the preceding induction of particulars then, we find that there has been none

And scarce have they begun to speak, but they begin to lie, and disingenuously and artfully, like Adam, seek to conceal their transgressions. So true it is that "the wicked are estranged "from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, "speaking lies*"

*Psal. Iviii. 3.