the greatest number are apt to excite the higheft indignation, and kindle up a fpirit of revenge. If this laft has no other tendency than to direct and invigorate the measures of telf-defence, I do not take upon me to blame it; on the contrary, I call it neceffary and laudable.

But what I mean at this time to prove by the preceding reflections, and wish to imprefs on your minds, is the depravity of our nature.

From whence come wars and fightings among 'you,' fays the Apoftle James, come they not hence, even from your lufts, that war in your members?' Men of lax and corrupt principles, take great delight in speaking to the praise of human nature, and extolling its dignity, withcut diftinguishing what it was, at its first creation, from what it is in its present fallen state. Thefe fine fpeculations are very grateful to a worldly mind. They are also much more pernicious to uncautious and unthinking youth, than even the temptations to a diffolute and fenfual life, against which they are fortified by the dictates of natural confcience, and a sense of public fhame. But I appeal from these vifionary reafonings to the history of all ages, and the inflexible teftimony of daily experience. Thefe will tell us what men have been in their practice, and from thence you may judge what they are by nature, while unrenewed. If I am not miftaken, a cool and candid attention, either to the paft hiftory, or prefent ftate of the world, but

above all, to the ravages of lawless power, ought to humble us in the duft. It fhould at once lead us to acknowledge the juft view given us in fcripture, of our loft ftate; to defire the happy influence of renewing grace each for ourselves; and to long for the dominion of righteoufnefs and peace, when inen fhall beat their fwords into plow-fhares, and their fpears into pruning hooks; when nation fhall not lift up fword aC gainst nation, neither fhall they learn war any more.' t

02

2. The

I cannot help embracing this opportunity of making a remark or two upon a virulent reflexion thrown out against this doctrine, in a well known pamphlet, Common Senfe. The author of that work expreffes himself thus; If the first king of any country was by election, that likewife eftablishes a precedent for the next; for to fay, that the right of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the first electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of fcripture, but the doctrine of original fin, which fuppofes the free ' will of all men loft in Adam; and from fuch comparison, it will admit of no other: hereditary 'fucceffion can derive no glory. For as in Adam • all finned, and as in the first electors all men • obeyed; as in the one all mankind were fubjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty; as our innocence was loft in the first, and our authority in the last, and as both difable us from re-affuming fome former ftate and privilege, it unanfwerably follows, that original fin and here

'ditary.

2. The wrath of man praiseth God as it is the inftrument in his hand for bringing finners to repentance, and for the correction and improvement of his own children. Whatever be the nature of the affliction with which he vifits either perfons, families, or nations; whatever be the difpofition or intention of thofe whofe malice he employs as a fcourge, the defign on his part is, to rebuke men for iniquity, to bring them to repentance, and to promote their holiness and peace.

The

ditary fucceffion are parallels. Dishonourable rank Inglorious connection! Yet the most fubtle fophift cannot produce a jufter fimile*.* Without the fhadow of reafoning, he is pleafed to reprefent the doctrine of original fin as an object of contempt or abhorrence. I beg leave to demur a a little to the candor, the prudence, and the juftice of this proceeding.

1. Was it modeft or candid for a perfon without name or character, to talk in this fupercilious manner of a doctrine that has been efpouled and defended by many of the greatest and beft men that the world ever faw, and which makes an effential part of the established Creeds and Confeffions of all the Proteftant churches without exception? I thought the grand modern plea had been, freedom of fentiment, and charitable thoughts of one another.

Are fo

many of us, then, beyond the reach of this gentleman's charity? I do affure him that fuch prefumption and felf-confidence are no recommendation to me either of his character or fentiments.

2. Was it prudent, when he was pleading a public caufe, to fpeak in fuch opprobrious terms of a doctrine

* Common Senfe, page 11. Bradfords edition.

The falutary nature, and fanctifying influence of affliction in general, is often taken notice of in fcripture, both as making part of the purpose of God, and the experience of his faints. Now, no

' affliction,' fays the apoftle, for the present "feemeth to be joyous, but grievous: Neverthelefs afterward it yieldeth the peacable fruit of 'righteoufnefs unto them which are exercifed thereby.' But what we are particularly led to obferve by the fubject of this difcourfe is, that the wrath

03

doctrine, which he knew, or ought to have known, was believed and profeffed by, I fuppofe, a great majority of very different denominations? Is this gentleman ignorant of human nature, as well as an . enemy to the Christian faith? Are men fo little tenacious of their religious fentiments, whether true or falfe? The prophet thought otherwife, who faid, 'Hath a nation changed their gods which yet are no gods? Was it the way to obtain the favour of the public, to defpife what they hold facred? Or fhall we fuppofe this author fo aftonishingly ignorant, as to think that all men now, whose favour is worth asking, have given up the doctrine of the New-Teftament? If he does, he is greatly mistaken.

3. In fine, I act, where was the justice of this proceeding? Is there fo little to be faid for the doctrine of original fin, that it is not to be refuted, but defpifed? Is the ftate of the world fuch, as ta render this doctrine not only falfe, but incredible? Has the fruit been of fuch a quality as to exclude all doubts of the goodnefs of the tree?-On the contrary, I cannot help being of opinion, that fuch

has.

wrath of man, or the violence of the oppreffor, praiseth God in this respect, that it has a peculiar tendency to alarm the secure confcience, to convince and humble the obftinate finner. This is plain from the nature of the thing, and from the teftimony of experience. Public calamity, particularly the destroying fword, is so awful that it cannot but have a powerful influence in leading men, to confider the prefence and the power of God. It threatens them not only in themfelves, but touches them in all that is dear to them, whether relations or poffeffions. The prophet Ifaiah fays, 'Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee,-for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.' He confiders it as the most powerful mean of alarming the fecure, and fubduing the obftinate. 'Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not fee, but they shall fee and be afhamed for their envy

at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies 'fhall devour them.' It is alfo fometimes reprefented as a fymptom of a hopeless and irrecoverable ftate, when public judgments have no effect. Thus fays the prophet Jeremiah, 'O Lord, are

not

has been the visible state of the world in every age as cannot be accounted for on any other principles, than what we learn from the word of God, that the imagination of the heart of man is only evil from his youth and that continually,' Gen. vi. 5. -viii. 21.