do. Befides, the establishment of this truth, upon other evidence than that of fcripture, ought to have a powerful influence in inducing men to believe the other truths in fcripture, that are connected with and founded upon it. I think it therefore highly proper to lay before you what evidence we have of our loft ftate, from the observation of the world, though the fcriptures had been filent. I would likewife recommend to all, what shall be faid on this fubject, to preferve your faith unshaken, and keep you from blafphemous, unbelieving thoughts, if at any time you should be tempted to them: fince, even unenfightened reafon confirms the foundation of Divine truth, and nature and providence confpire in preaching the doctrine of Divine Grace.

Now, doth not our experience, as well as the obfervation of others, fhew us, that we are born in fin, and conceived in iniquity? May we not fay from our own knowledge, that the imaginations of the heart of man are only evil from his youth, and that continually? Is there not a proneness and tendency to evil, universally to be obferved in mankind, and a backwardness and averfion to that which is good? Is not this apparent even in children, upon the first dawn of reafon in their minds, and the first fight of choice or inclination in their hearts? Surely it must be owned, that in that early period, they are at least comparatively innocent.-If any among us is without fin, it must be the youngeft; yet folly is bound in the heart of a child.-How hard is it to guard them. from evil, and to infpire them with good difpofitions, even by the wifeft and earliest care in their inftruction? And even after the moft fuccefsful pains, are there not ftill many remaining blemishes, through the prevalence of corrupt nature, which fhew, that the ground-work itfelf was faulty? But, on the contrary, how cafily do

men

men learn that which is evil? Do they need to be taught? Is is not enough to give them licence? How juft is that description in Jeremiah? They are wife to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I am far from denying, that men are improved and forwarded in fin, by inftruction and example, as well as in that which is good: but it is plain, they are far apter scholars in the first than in the last; which plainly fhews, they are more powerfully difpofed to it by nature. Nay, is it not evident, from the universal experience and teftimony of those who act from a principle of religion, that it is extremely difficult, with all the care they can take, to refift the propenfity of nature to the contrary; and that in the beft, it often gets the fuperiority, when they are off their guard? Is not this an evidence of the depravity and corruption of human nature, and its tendency to evil? Are those who hate fin often overcome by it, and shall those who love it, prefume to say they are free from it?

If any should ask, how I prove that that course of ac. tion to which human nature is inclined is evil, without the affiftance of fcripture? I anfwer, from reafon; and that many ways-from its pernicious effects on focieties, and private perfons; from the teftimony of the world in general, when others than themselves are concerned, and from the testimony of every man's confcience, in his own cafe. Who is there, that does not often feel in himself a powerful tendency to what he cannot but in his heart condemu? Is not his confcience God's vicegerent! and doth not natural religion, as well as the religion of Chrift, declare him corrupt? So that I may fay with the Apoftle Paul, not citing the paffage as a proof, but as an illustration and description of the character and state of natural men-For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law: thefe having

not the law, are a law unto themselves, which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their confcience alfo bearing witnefs, and their thoughts, the mean while, accufing or else excufing one another.

Thus there is as much light remaining with us fince the fall, as to fhew, that we are out of the way, but not to bring us back to it again.

As a ferious confideration of the state of the wicked may fhew us our natural impurity, fo it hath been long ago discovered, and confeffed by many of the ancient Heathens, who never heard of the name of Christ, nor knew of the remedy. These, difcerning by nature the perfectly pure and holy nature of God, and comparing it with the difpofitions prevalent in man, could not reconcile them together; but concluded, that a creature so corrupt could not come in that condition out of the hands of its Creator. This difficulty fome of them endeavoured to folve by a state of pre-existence, which bears fome refemblance to the true folution given of it in the holy fcripture, viz. the apoftacy of our first parents, which entailed a corrupted nature upon their posterity, in which the light of nature and revealed truth feem almost wholly to coincide.

It is to the fame thing that I cannot help attributing the practice that so universally prevailed over the Heathen world, before the coming of Chrift, of offering facrifices, to appease the wrath of the deity supposed to be offended. That the custom of facrificing prevailed very generally, perhaps univerfally among the Heathen nations, at the greatest distance from, and having no correspondence with each other, is a certain and unquestionable fact. Neither do I fee to what cause we can ascribe it, unless to one of these two; either an ancient tradition from the beginning of the world, and fpread with the inhabitants

through

through the feveral parts of it, as they feparated and peopled it, or to the common condition of human nature, which dictated the fame thing to perfons in fuch diftant places.

If the first of these fuppofitions is embraced, which indeed I suppose to be the truth, it appears, that facrifices were appointed by God to man in his fallen ftate, for the pardon of fin, and that they had reference to the great propitiatory facrifice of Christ upon the cross.

If we prefer the laft fuppofition, it would feem as if the consciousness of guilt had uniformly prompted men in all ages and nations to offer up fome atonement for their offences. In both cafes, it equally ferves to prove the corruption and finfulness of human nature.

Now, as what hath been faid plainly proves the impurity of man in his natural state, so his mifery and liableness to punishment may alfo be proved, both as a natural confequence of his finfulness, and even more plainly by itself. There is not only a confiderable degree of actual misery in the world, but plain prefages of more to follow it in the world to come. Need I take up much time in enumerating the feveral miferies and calamities incident to human life? Are not oppreffion and injury from one another, poverty, sickness, pain and death, the plain fruits of fin, and visible tokens of God's displeasure? Man, with fome marks of fuperiority and excellence of nature, is even, by means of his fuperiority, his knowledge, and forefight of his own fufferings, more miferable than any other of the creatures that is equally fubject to the ftroke of death.

To the whole, I fhall only fubjoin one confideration more, which is applicable to both parts of the argumentI have often thought, that the natural terror and fear with which men are poffeffed, of the prefence of God, or

any

any remarkable token of his power, is nothing else but are indication of guilt, or an apprehenfion of wrath.

You may fee fome incidents in fcripture, from which it is natural to conclude, that when God makes any vifible manifestation of his glory, or fends any of his angels or minifters from heaven to earth, those who are present are filled with the utmoft dread and terror.

Thus, in the relation given of God's appearance upon Mount Sinai, it is faid, And fo terrible was the fight, that Mofes faid, I exceedingly fear and quake. See another example in Ifaiah :-Then faid I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have feen the King, the Lord of Hofts. And in the New Teftament, in the Apostle John,—And when I faw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

And is not this always the cafe, in all ages, that upon any remarkable appearance of an inhabitant of the other world, or even when any fuch thing is falfely apprehended, the inhabitants of this world are filled with extraordinary terror? What is this do you imagine, but consciousness of guilt, and apprehenfion of vengeance?

Innocence has no enemy, and it has nothing to fear. We are all in much the fame cafe with Adam, immediately after his firft tranfgreffion; when he heard God's voice in the garden, he was afraid, and fled, and hid himfelf. We read of no fuch fear poffeffing him while he retained his innocence; but as foon as he had finned, he began to dread an avenging God.

From all this, then, I would conclude, that reafon accords with fcripture, in faying, that all have finned and come fhort of the glory of God: that man in a natural ftate is wretched, and miferable, und poor, and blind, and naked.

SER