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First, If possible, let us beware of seeking salvation in any way or contrivance by the works of the law. No conduct can be more fatal. Every step in this way is certain progress to eternal destruction. It is no more possible to obtain heaven by the covenant of works, than to drink up the infinite ocean of divine wrath. Every dependance upon your own strength is vain, and to seek salvation by your own hands will absolutely fail you. God, the invariable God, has expressly declared, "That by the works of "the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight." Must it not then be infinitely dangerons to venture our salvation upon a foundation which God himself, with awful solemnity, has pronounced totally insufficient? Allow me to address you in the presence of heaven, and in the full view of eternal happiness and eternal miseYou hope on what is your hope founded? On your own virtue, righteousness, the law, and covenant of works, or on the free, perfect, and absolute mercy and grace of God, exhibited by a crucified Redeemer? Recollect what God says by the Prophet, "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, "then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb,

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yet he could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound." Let us then trust in the Lord our righteousness, and commit our souls to Jesus the captain of our salvation.

Secondly, Let us bless and praise God, that he hath introduced a new covenant, revealed a better hope, established another and more glorious way of salvation. "God so loved the world, that "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the "flesh, he sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for "sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the

law might be fulfilled in all them that believe." Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. God is well pleased for his righteousness sake, and is willing to forgive and except all who by faith and unfeigned repentance, return through him. Let us, my brethren, look to this gracious and wonderous device of salvation, renounce ourselves and every legal hope and dependance, and apply to this method alone, opened in the gospel, most honorable to the majesty of heaven, and perfectly safe to our souls.

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SERMON XIII.

ORIGINAL SIN ESTABLISHED.

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ROMANS V, 12.

Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have

sinned.

IN these words with their connection, the Apostle Paul is running a parallel between the first and second Adam. That as the former introduced sin and death, wretchedness and every misery into the world-so the latter brought in life and righteousness, grace, mercy and every blessing. The first Adam, as a public head, communicated sin and death to all his unhappy posterity; "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” We behold the world overwhelmed with sin and death; full of iniquities, and deluged with calamities. From what source do all these things, thus dreadful, proceed? From the awful and general corruption of human nature. And the opening hereto, we find to be Adam's first sin. It was by one man, and by his guilty fall, the whole race became polluted. By him sin entered into the world of mankind, entered as an enemy to kill`and destroy, and as a thief to rob and despoil. Then entered guilt, and an universal corruption and depravity of human nature.

The wages of sin is death," Death came by sin, and so

death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Sin and death are inseperably connected. As none are free from sin, so none are exempted from death. It is not more certain that all die, than that all are guilty. All flesh have corrupted their way. "There is none righteous, no not so much as one." All mankind have now in their very nature, a prevailing tendency and propensity to sin and wickedness.

If the truth of these assertions can be evinced, then the ancient doctrine of original sin must be granted as a real and solemn truth, however much it may be exploded by many, and however grating it may be to the feelings of corrupted sense. If every doctrine must be discarded, to which a blind, depraved, and darkened mind objects, few truths can be maintained either in the natural or moral world. If it be found by observation, reason, experience and scripture, that mankind are altogether corrupted and depraved, have in their natures a prevailing tendency and propensity to sin and wickedness, then the doctrine commonly called original sin, can no longer with justice be denied.

First, That this is the nature of man, evidently appears in that all men, without fail in any one instance, have fallen into sin, or run into moral evil. This is fully demonstrated from our text, and manifold other passages of sacred writ, of which, I shall only mention a few. "God saw that the wickedness of man was "great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought "of his heart was only evil continually. There is no man that "sinneth not. There is not a just man upon earth that doth "good and sinneth not, The Lord looked down from heaven

upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did un"derstand and seek God; they are all gone aside, they are alto"gether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not

one. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, "and the truth is not in us." All these places, with many more to the same purpose, establish this fact, that the nature of man has a prevailing tendency to moral evil, and that they do uniwer

sally fall into sin. And as this is a fact, there can then remain no doubt, but they are originally depraved. Can we argue from effects to their causes? Can we reason upon the origin of events? Then this truth must evidently appear, that mankind have in their Matures, a tendency to sin and wickedness.

The word tendency, signifies a proneness, inclination, fitness or liableness to such a way, or event. Any thing of a globular figure is fitted to roll, and the least motion produces this event; and water possesses a proneness to run downwards. That which never fails of producing such an effect, we always say, it has a tendency thereto. Now, if mankind never fail of falling into sin, can language be more properly applied, than to say, his nature has a tendency to the same? Suppose a certain kind of tree, planted in all countries, soils, and climates for many ages, and in some places had been cultivated with the utmost care and attention, and yet it invariably produced bad fruit, would not all unanimously declare, that the tree was evil and bad in its very nature. Now contemplate man universally in every age from the beginning, in every country and climate, under every manner of education and instruction, all the various divisions of Pagans, sects of Mehometans, Jews and Christians, have they not, with out a solitary exemption, gone into sin and wickedness? Will not this demonstrate that their natures are vitiated, and have an unhappy tendency to wrong?

If the case was this, that there appeared only now and then an instance of a man transgressing the laws of God, and was guilty of sin, it would be an abominable absurdity to say, that mankind were vitiated, and had in their nature a tendency to evil. But if all, without a single exception, in every age, and of every name and denomination, become sinful and wicked, how can the conclusion be resisted, that all mankind have in their natures, a tendency to evil, or something that renders them prone to wrong?

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Secondly, That mankind are universally corrupted, is also manifest in this, that they do evil as soon as capable of actions Moral agency, as well as all other things, must have a begin ning; now, if the first appearances of action in a moral creature, wear the aspect of a perverse tendency, can we avoid the inference, that there is something evil in its nature? Consider infants in the earliest moments of their exhibition of action, do they bear the appearance of holy innocency, or a sweet conformity to right? Or do they not strongly mark an evil propensity of nature? However we may account for it, the fact cannot be denied.

Is it not strikingly obvious in the tenor of the conduct of mankind, that there is a greater inclination in them to sin than holiness? Does not this prove, that there is a tendency to iniqui ty in their nature, far beyond any such tendency to righteousness? And will not this evince the depravity, or that there is something very much amiss in the very nature of man?

Thirdly, Consider the folly and stupidity of man in every thing relative to religion. Have they not universally at all times, been prone to forsake every rational idea of the true God, and to go off to the most astonishing absurdities of idolatry? Have they not made Gods for themselves of a thousand forms, of gold, silver, wood and stone, and then bowed the knee, offered sacrifice to these dumb objects, and devoutly prayed and supplicated them for protection, direction, and salvation? Can this conduct be accounted for upon any principle, exclusive of a deep depravity of nature? Hear the true God expressing himself in wonders of complaint on this head, by the mouth of his prophet Jeremiah. The complaint implies no astonishment with the unenlightened heathen, or the world in general; stupid and foolish idolatry was incident to them, and expected from their nature; but the divine surprise was at his own people, favored with a clear revelation, and the daily instructions and remonstrances of his prophets. Attend to the exclamation of the Almighty God.

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