is to be loved, God is to be honoured above all? What confusion and disorder must ensue upon the departure from this rule, and the neglect or violation of this law? Such an infraction of the great law of man's universal responsibility, at whosoever's door it may lie, involves a principle of rebellion, and incurs a heavy load of guilt, which no mortal man can describe either in its malignity or desert; and woe be to him on whose head it shall rest, and at whose hands it will be ultimately required! And is it not right, then, that man being thus constituted and thus responsible, God should hold him answerable for all his ways and works, and guilty for all his sins? And if those sins are not pardoned and forgiven, by whatever means he may be pleased to appoint, (which in this case none can be ignorant of the blood of Jesus,) will it not be an equal act of holiness and justice, at last, to permit the laws of his kingdom to take their full course upon those who have disregarded that obligation, and, above all, slighted that gracious remedy? What should we say of an earthly prince who fostered the traitors, the thieves, and murderers, of his realm,-admitted them into his presence, and loaded them with honours? Would not all good men shudder at

the spectacle, and mourn over such lawless impunity? What, then, might be said of the everblessed God, if he were to act in a manner which all holy, devoted, creatures would grieve and weep to behold? The mind staggers at the thought, and trembles at the consequences to which it would lead. But, oh! let no man be deceived; God is not to be thus mocked. We are aware that great laxity of principle (if principle it can be called) prevails among many respecting these things at this day. We are aware that the very opposite to the line of argument adopted in this discourse, sways in the councils of princes, and rules in the breasts of the vulgar and profane. We know the general sentiment is, that man rules, and God is to be disregarded, that power belongeth unto man, and not unto God, that the voice of the people, and not of the heavens, is the voice of God, &c. &c. But whatever may be the upshot of this struggle now, there is a day coming when all will be set right,-when God will vindicate the claims of his government,-when proud dust and ashes shall be forced at length to take their true position, and the poor worms of the earth constrained to own the supremacy of his dominion, and confess their own liability to him for

the position they held, and the part which they acted in all their ways and works. Yes, there is a day coming when "small and great shall stand before God;" when "the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, shall hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and say, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand ?”*

* Rev. vi. 12-17, and xx. 11-15.

SERMON VI.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED AND

IMPROVED.

EZEKIEL, XVIII. 4.

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

SUCH is the faint outline of the great doctrine of man's universally responsible condition, as the intelligent creature of God, which we proposed for our dispassionate inquiry at the commencement of the subject. Being led to this point, let us now proceed to notice

II. Some awakening reflections necessarily arising from the matter brought under our review.

Who can cast his eye over the truth thus opened and enforced, and not see—

1. How needful it is that every person should

seek to be thoroughly grounded in the doctrine. of man's universal responsibility!

Can any person possess a right estimate of his true character and condition, unless this be the case? Can any person ever be properly impressed with a sense of the duties which he is bound to perform, or the danger to which he is exposed for their neglect, if he do not clearly and distinctly perceive the obligations under which he is placed, and understand his liability to God for their observance or violation? On the contrary, must not the knowledge and persuasion of this grand truth have a powerful effect upon men's hearts and ways, either as a guide for the peformance of duty, or as a check in the commission of sin,—a light for the discovery of danger incurred, or a spur to urge on the mind in the pursuit of an adequate remedy? Or can the influence of this truth, if universally seen and confessed, as it ought, be confined to a single bosom or a single station, whether relative or social? Must it not carry its powerful operation, as the case may require, and especially if backed by the invisible energy of the Spirit and love of God, throughout all classes and all degrees, and cause all, more or less, to feel the dominion of its mighty rule? Would it not