the first and a neceffary ftep to the faving knowledge of God in Chrift.-And, in the last place, fhall make some practical improvement of the subject.

I. In the first place, then, I am to prove and illuftrate this truth, that all mankind are, by nature, in a state of fin and mifery, under the bondage of corruption, and liable to the wrath of God. What is faid in this paffage of the Laodiceans, is univerfally true of the pofterity of Adam. Unless an inward and effential change has been wrought upon them by the grace of God, they are wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' It is alfo true of them, as well as the of Laodiceans, that they know it not; but vainly prefume themfelves to be rich, and increased with goods, and to have need of nothing. If these two things are jointly true of many of you my hearers, there is nothing in which you can have fo great a concern; therefore, let me earnestly befeech your moft ferious attention to what shall be faid, as the fuccefs of this conviction is neceffary to your understanding, or profiting by any other part of divine truth, as I fhall afterwards fhew you.

The proof of the truth here afferted, can be only of two kinds: 1. From Scripture, which is the teftimony of God declaring it; 2. From the visible state of the world, and our own experience finding it to be fo

1. That all mankind are by nature in a state of

fin

fin and mifery, appears from the exprefs and repeated testimony of the word of God. And this tefti. mony we have, not only in particular paffages car} rying the truth, but in the ftrain and spirit of the whole, and the feveral difpenfations of Divine providence there recorded, which are all of them built upon this supposition, and intended to remedy this univerfal evil.

See what God declares: Gen. vi. 5. ‘And God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually.' And again, the imagination of man's heart is evil from his 'youth.' We may take the Pfalmift David's teftimony of himself, as a fample of the reft of mankind; and indeed he plainly intimates that it is a common calamity: 'Who can understand his errors? Cleanfe ' thou me from fecret faults. Behold! I was shapen in iniquity, and in fin did my mother conceive ' me.'

We may take alfo the testimony of the Apostle Paul in his epiftle to the Romans, which is the more full to our present purpose, that as he had never been at Rome, he is there laying the foundation of religion in general, and the Christian difpenfation in particular, by a clear and explicit proof of the need the world had of a Saviour, from its univerfal corruption and depravity. See then what he fays What then? Are we better than they? 'No, in no wife; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under fin.

As

As it is written, 'There is none righteous,no not one." And again Now we know that what things foever the law faith, it faith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be ftoped, and all the world may become guilty before • God.-for all have finned and come short of the glory of God.'

You may alfo fee, that the Apostle traces this diforder to its very fource. Wherefore as by 3 one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death paffed upon all men, for that all have finned."

I fhall add but one exprefs fcripture-testimony more. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins.'

But, befides the particular paffages of fcripture, pofitively declaring this truth, the whole frame and contexture of the fcriptures, and all the difpenfations of divine providence recorded in them, are a proof of the fame thing. Man is every where confidered as in a fallen and finful ftate. Every thing that is prescribed to him, and every thing that is done for him, goes upon that fuppofition. It is not one man, or a few men that are in fcripture called to repentance, but all without exception. Now repentance is only the duty of a finner. An innocent perfon cannot repent, he has nothing to grieve for in his heart, or to forfake in his life. It is also proper to obferve, that one of the fcripture-characters of God is, merciful and gracious, flow to C

anger,

anger, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion and fin.' Now, he could not be to us a forgiving God, and there would be no need that he fhould be revealed under that character, unless we were finners that stood in need of pardon. Mercy, indeed, is the distinguishing attribute of God, and this can only have refpect to offenders. All the other perfections of God might be exercised towards pure and holy creatures, but mercy only towards finners. He might be a good, holy, juft, wife, powerful God to perfons in a state of innocence, but he can fhew mercy only to the guilty.

for

Do not the difpenfations of God's providence fhew the fame thing? He fent the flood as a teftimony of the wickedness of the world, and for the punishment of a guilty race. Remember alfo the facrifices which were appointed and accepted by God from the beginning of the world. Sacrifices are for atonement and expiation. They are plainly a fubftitution in the room of a feited life. It is doing violence to common sense, to make them any thing else. The whole Jewish œconomy, which had in it so many facrifices, fo many offerings, fo many washings and purifications, does plainly fuppofe the perfon ufing them to be infected with fin or moral pollution. Had not this been the cafe, they had been extremely abfurd and improper.

But the strongest testimony of all that God Bath given to the guilt and corruption of man

kind, is his fending his own Son into the world to redeem them by the facrifice of himself.-Tơ what purpose redeem them if they were not in bondage? Why fo coftly an expiation if our lives had not been forfeited to divine justice? But that it was for this purpose that Christ came into the world, is fo plain from the whole of the fcriptures, that I fhall felect but one paffage out of many to prove it. Whom God hath fet forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteoufnefs, for the remiffion of fins that are paft, through the for⚫ bearance of God."

What is faid already, on this head, is a full proof from fcripture, that man is now by nature in a state of fin: that he is alfo, in confequence of that, in a state of misery, and able to the wrath of God, is proved by many of the fame paffages, and by many others. For the wrath

of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinefs and unrighteousness of men, who hold "the truth in unrighteoufnefs.-For the wages of • fin is death, &c.' But I need not multiply paffages to this purpose, for in all God's difpenfations, the deserved punishment of finners is as evident as their finfulness itself. It is, indeed, fully proved from the effential perfections of God, particularly his holinefs and juftice. He is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity. 'Evil cannot dwell with him, nor fools, that is, finners, ftand in his fight,'

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