sisted on a full salary for work done by halves, defrauded the king of any part of his taxes, or taken advantage of the necessity and ignorance of others to get by their loss; we swell the numerous tribe of reputable thieves and genteel robbers, Matt. xxii. 21 -Neglecting to keep our word and baptismal vow, or speaking an untruth, is bearing false witness against our neighbour, ourselves, or Christ, who calls himself the Truth, Rev. xxii. 15.—And giving place to a fretful, discontented thought, or an irregular, envious desire, is a breach of that spiritual precept, which made St. Paul say, I had not known lust, [or a wrong desire] to be sin, except the law had said, Thou shall not covet," Rom. vii. 7.

Such being the extreme spirituality of the law, who can plead, that he never was guilty of breaking one, or even all of the ten commandments? And if we have broken them all, either in their literal or spiritual meaning, and are threatened for every transgression, with a curse suitable to the Lawgiver's infinite majesty, who can conceive the greatness of our guilt and danger? Till we find a sanctuary under the shadow of a Saviour's wings, are we not as liable to the strokes of divine vengeance, as a felon guilty of breaking all the statutes of his country, is liable to the penalty of human laws?

If this is not the case, there is no justice in the court of heaven, and the laws given with so much terror from the Almighty's throne, like the statutes of children, or the pope's bulls, are only bruta fulmina, words without effect, and thunders without lightnings.

Some indeed flatter themselves, that "the law, since the gospeldispensation, abates much of its demands of perfect love." But their hope is equally unsupported by reason and scripture. The law is the cternal rule of right, the moral picture of the God of holiness and love. It can no more vary, than its eternal, unchangeable Original. The Lord will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth. He must cease to be what he is, before his law can lose its power to bind either men or angels and all creatures shall break sooner than it shall bend: for if it commands us only to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, what JUST abatement can be made in so equitable a precept? Therefore man, who breaks the righteous law of God as naturally as he breathes, is, and must continue, under its fearful curse, till he has secured the pardon and help offered him in the gospel.

THIRTY-THIRD ARGUMENT.

Non is the gospel itself without its threatenings; for if the Lord, on the one hand, opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers;" he declares, on the other, that " they all shall be damned who believe not the truth," when it is proposed to them with suflicient evidence; and that he who believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." 2 Thess. ii. 12. John iii. 18. From these awful declarations, I draw the following argument.

If faith is so essential a virtue, how depraved and wretched is man, who is so excessively slow of heart, to believe the things that concern his salvation! Matter of fact daily proves, that we readily admit the evidence of men, while we peremptorily reject the testimony of God. Commodore Byron's extraordinary account of the giants, in Patagonia, is, or was, every where received; but that of Jesus Christ, concerning those who walk in the broad way to destruction, is, and has always been too generally disregarded. Matt. vii. 13.

On reading in a newspaper an anonymous letter from Naples, we believe, that rivers of liquid fire flow from the convulsed bowels of

a mountain, and from burning lakes in the adjacent plains: but if we read in scripture, that Tophet, the burning lake, is prepared of old for the impenitent, we beg leave to withhold our assent; and unless divine grace prevents, we must fall in, and feel, before we will assent and believe, Isa. xxx. 33.

Who, that has seen a map of Africa, ever doubted, whether there, is such a kingdom as that of Morocco, though he never saw it, or any of its natives? But who, that has perused the gospel, never doubted whether the kingdom of heaven within us, or that state of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which God opens to believers upon earth is not a mere imagination? Though Christ himself invites us to it, and many pious persons not only testify they enjoy it, but actually shew its blessed fruits in heavenly tempers, a blameless life, and a triumphant death, Mark i. 14. Luke xvii. 21. Rom. xiv. 17. Rev. i. 6.

With what readiness do we depend upon an honest man's promise, especially if it is reduced into a bond? But with what reluctance do we rely on the many great and precious promises of God, confirmed by an oath, delivered before the most unexceptionable witnesses, and sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. i. 4. 2 Cor. i. 20. Heb. vi. 17.

And ye numerous tribe of patients, how do ye shame those who call themselves Christians! So entire is the trust which you repose upon a physician's advice, whom perhaps you have seen but once, that you immediately abstain from your pleasant food, and regularly take medicines; which, for what you know, may be as injurious to your stomach, as they are offensive to your palate; but we, who profess christianity, generally quarrel with Christ's prescriptions; and if we do not understand the nature of a remedy which he recommends, we think this is a sufficient reason for refusing it. From Christ only, if we can help it, we will take nothing upon trust.

One false witness is often sufficient to make us believe, that a neighbour vows to do us an injury; but twenty ministers of Jesus cannot persuade us, God hath sworn in his wrath, that if we die in our sins we shall not enter into his rest, Psal. xcv. 11, or that if we come to him for pardon and life, he will in no wise cast us out, John vi. 37.— The most defamatory and improbable reports spread with uncommon swiftness, and pass for matter of fact: but when St. Paul testifies, that if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom. viii. 9, who believes his testimony? Does not the same mind, that was open to scandalous lies, prove shut against such a revealed truth?

Isaiah asks, "Who hath believed our report?" And Jesus says, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?" Alas! there would have been no room for these plaintive questions, if the word of God had not been proposed to our faith; for the most groundless and absurd assertions of men find multitudes of believers. We see daily, that an idle rumour about a peace or a war, meets with such credit as to raise or sink the stocks in a few hours.

(It is evident that a man has a foolish and evil heart of unbelief, ready to strain at a gnat in divine revelation, while he greedily swallows the camel of human imposture. Now, if its part of the gospel, which Christ commands his ministers to preach to every creature, that " he who believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16, how great is the depravity, and how imminent the danger of fallen man, who has such a strong propensity, to so destructive, so damnable a sin as unbelief!

L

THIRTY-FOURTH ARGUMENT.

But let us come still nearer to the point. If we are not by nature conceived in sin, and children of wrath, millions of infants, who die without actual sin, have no need of the blood of Christ to wash their robes, nor his Spirit to purify their hearts. The incarnation of the Eternal Word, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, are as unnecessary to them, as the visits of a physician and his remedies, to persons in perfect health. Their spotless innocency is a sufficient passport for heaven; baptism is ridiculous, and the Christian religion absurd in

their case.

Nor does it appear why it might not be as absurd with regard to the rest of mankind, did they but act their part a little better; for if we are naturally innocent, we have a natural power to remain so; and by a proper use of it, we may avoid standing in need of the salvation ́procured by Christ for the lost.

Nay, if innocent nature, carefully improved, may be the way to eternal life, it is certainly the readiest way, and the Son of God speaks like the grand deceiver of mankind when he says, "I am the way; no man cometh to the Father but by me." Christians, let self-conceited deists entertain the thought, but harbour it not a moment: in you it would be highly blasphemous.

THIRTY-FIFTH ARGUMENT.

AND that ye may detest it the more, consider further, that all the capital doctrines of Christianity are built upon that fundamental article of our depravity and danger. If all flesh hath not corrupted its way, how severe are those words of Christ, Except ye repent, ye shall all perish" and, Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." If all are not carnal and earthly by their first birth, how absurd is what he said to Nicodemus, " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven?" If there is any spiritual health in us by nature, how notoriously false are these assertions:→→→ "All our sufficiency is of God;" Without me ye can do nothing." If every natural man is not the reverse of that holiness in which Adam was created, how irrational are these and the like scriptures :-" If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature ;""In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." To conclude, if mankind are not universally corrupt, guilty and condemned, how unnecessary alarming is this declaration:" He that believeth not on the Son of God is condemned already; the wrath of God abideth on him." And if we are not foolish, unrighteous, unholy, and enslaved to sin, why is Christ made to us of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ?"

Take away, then, the doctrine of the Fall, and the tower of evangelical truth, built by Jesus Christ, is no more founded upon a rock, but upon the sand; or rather, the stately fabric is instantly thrown down, and leaves no ruins behind it, but the dry morality of Epictetus, covered with the rubbish of the wildest metaphors, and buried in the most impertinent ceremonies.

THIRTY-SIXTH ARGUMENT

ONE more absurdity still remains. If a man is not in the most imminent danger of destruction, nothing can be more extravagant than the great article of the Christian faith, thus expressed in the Nicene creed "Jesus Christ, very God of very God, by whom all things were made

for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, was made man, and was crucified FOR cs6.”

Is it not astonishing that there should be people so infatuated, as to Join every Lord's day in this solemn confession, and to deny on the other six the horrible danger to which they are exposed, till they have an interest in Christ? Is not the least grain of common sense sufficient to make an attentive person sce, that if he, " by whom all things were made, came from heaven for our salvation," if he was made man that he might suffer and be crucified for us; he saw us guilty, condemned, lost, and obnoxious to the damnation, which we continually deprecate in the litany? Shall we charge the Son of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of divine wisdom, with the unparalleled folly of coming from heaven to atone for innocent creatures, to reprieve persons uncondemned, to redeem a race of free men, to deliver freni the curse a people not accursed; to hang by exquisitely dolorous wounds made in his sacred hands and feet; on a tree more ignominious than the gallows, for honest men, and very good sort of people; and to expire under the wrath of heaven, that he might save from hell people in no danger of going there?

Reader, is it possible to entertain for a moment these wild notions, without offering the utmost indignity to the Son of God, and the greatest violence to common seuse; and does not reason cry, as with the sound of a thousand trumpets," If our Creator could not save us, consistently with his glorious attributes, but by becoming incarnate, passing through the deepest scenes of humiliation aud temptation, distress and want, for thirty-three years, and undergoing at last the most shameful, painful, and accursed death in our place; our wickedness must be desperate, our sins execrable, our guilt black as the shadow of death, and our danger dreadful as the gloom and torments of hell?"

Shocking doctrine!" says the self-conceited moralist, as he rises from his chair full of indignation, and ready to throw aside the arguments he cannot answer. Reader, if you are the man, remember that this is an appeal to reason, and not to passion,to matter of fact, and not to your vitiated taste for pleasing error. You may cry out at the sight of a shroud, a coffiu, a grave," shocking objects!" but your loudest exclamations will not lessen the awful reality, by which many have happily been shocked into a timely consideration of, and preparation for, approaching death.

"But this doctrine, you still urge, drives people to despair." Yes, to a despair of being saved by their own merits and righteousness; and this is as reasonable in a sinner who comes to the Saviour, as despairing to swim across the sea is rational in a passenger that takes ship. Our church, far from speaking against it, says, that sinners should be dismayed at God's rightful justice, and should DESPAIR indeed, as touching any hope that may be IN THEMSELVES."-Hom. on falling from God, 2d part.

A just despair of ourselves is widely different from a despair of God's mercy and Christ's willingness to save the chief of sinners, who flies to him for refuge. This horrible sin, this black crime of Judas, springs rather from a sullen, obstinate rejection of the remedy, than, as some vainly suppose, from a clear knowledge of the disease; and that none may commit it, Christ's ministers take particular care not to preach the law without the gospel, and the fall without the recovery ; no sooner have they opened the wounds of sin, festering in the sinner's conscience, than they pour in the balm of divine promises, and make gracious offers of a free pardon, and full salvation by the compassionate Redeemer, who came to justify the ungodly, and to save the lost.

And indeed those only who see their sin and misery will cordially embrace the gospel; for common sense dictates, that none care for the

king's mercy but those who know they are guilty, condemned criminals. How excessively unreasonable is it then to object, that the preaching of man's corrupt and lost estate drives people to despair of divine mercy, when it is absolutely the only means of shewing them their need of it, and making them gladly accept it upon God's own terms?

Leaving, therefore, that trite objection to the unthinking vulgar, once more, judicious reader, summous all your rational powers; and, after imploring help from on high to use them aright, say, whether these last arguments do not prove, that no Christian can deny the complete fall of mankind, without renouncing the capital doctrines of his own religion; overturning the very foundation of the gospel, which he professes to receive; staining the glory of the Redeemer, whom he pretends to honour; and impiously taking from his crown, wisdom, truth, and charity,-the three jewels that are its brightest ornaments. Sum up, then, all that has been advanced concerning the afflictive dealings of God's providence with mankind, and the base conduct, or wicked temper of mankind towards God, one another, and themselves. Declare, if all the arguments laid before you, and cleared from the thickest clouds of objections that might obscure them, do not cast more light upon the black subject of our depravity, than is sufficient to shew that it is a melancholy truth. And finally pronounce, whether the doctrine of our corrupt and lost estate, stated in the words of the sacred writers, and of our pious reformers, is not rationally demonstrated, aud established upon the firmest basis in the world-matter of fuct, and the dictates of common sense.

FIFTH PART.

WHEN a doctrine has been clearly demonstrated, the truths that necessarily spring from it cannot reasonably be rejected. Let then common sense decide, whether the following consequences do not necessarily result from the doctrine of the Fall, established in the preceding parts of this treatise.

I. INFERENCE. If we are by nature in a corrupt and lost estate, the grand business of ministers is to rouse our drowsy consciences, and warn us of our imminent danger; it behoves them to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up their voice like a trumpet, and shew us our transgressions and our sins; nor are they to desist from this unpleasing part of their office, till we awake to righteousness, and lay hold on the hope set before us.

If preachers, under pretence of peace and good nature, let the wound fester in the conscience of their hearers, to avoid the thankless office of probing it to the bottom; if, for fear of giving them pain by a timely amputation, they let them die of a mortification; or if they heal the hurt of the daughter of God's people slightly, saying peace! peace! when there is no peace; they imitate those sycophants of old, who, for fear of displeasing the rich, and offending the great, preached smooth things, and prophesied deceit.

This cruel gentleness, this soft barbarity, is attended with the most pernicious consequences, and will deservedly meet with the most dreadful punishment. "Give sinners warning from me," says the Lord to every minister; when I say to the wicked, [the unconverted] Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, he shall die in his iniquity, [in his unconverted state]; but his blood will I require at thy hand.' See Matt. xviii. 3. Ezek. ii. 18. and xiii. 10.

II. If we are naturally depraved and condemned creatures; self-righteousness and pride are the most absurd and monstrous of all our sins.