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dangers, which frequently are unavoidable, and bring certain and sudden death. What numerous calamities are registered in our public papers, besides numbers, apparently too insignificant for general notice, which, though slower in their operations, are as sure in their effects. One is burned to death, another drowned, and a third suffocated; here the assassin plunges his dagger to the heart of his enemy, and there an unfortunate wretch drinks unsuspectingly the poisonous draught prepared by the hand of envy, jealousy, or malevolence! Life's brittle thread is sometimes snapped asunder by sudden elevation or depression, as the passions of joy, sorrow, or anger, are excited. Many perish through broils, public shows, falls, frights, damp linen, &c. Multitudes of every age and condition are annually hurried into eternity. National calamities.—Such is the want of human kindness and moral principle among men, that nations are frequently engaged in war; and such is the ambition of rulers and their interested coadjutors, that human blood is cruelly and most lavishly shed, often with little probability of gaining their object; or, if gained, can never repay the immense price paid for its attainment. How shocking the ravages of armies in their march! What total disregard to honour, conscience, and honesty! At length the dreadful struggle commences. Thousands upon thousands strew in a few hours the ensanguined plains. The wounded, dead, and dying, are promiscuously thrown together! The victorious party triumphs. But, Oh, dreadful scene, where death himself seems wearied with his toil, and the all-devouring grave appears glutted with its prey! Where are now the husbandman's blooming hopes, and where his property? Where the affrighted inhabitants of these ruined towns and villages? Perhaps deploring these horrors of wide-wasting war, and calling for Heaven's fiercest vengeance to overwhelm the unfeeling wretches who delight in promoting its infernal cause. Trouble and disquiétude. "The sorrow of the world worketh death." This, by too deeply absorbing the thoughts, and engaging the

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stronger passions on its side, leads men to the most unfavourable conclusions: gloominess succeeds, then neglect of the body, the appetite is weakened, the nerves affected, and the whole course of nature disturbed. This sorrow, which often arises from various disappointments, hopeless expec tations, unexpected ill-treatment, worldly losses, vexatious litigations, the wretchedness resulting from folly and extravagance, envious rivalship, studied deceit, and such like causes; when it once gains the ascendency, the consequences frequently are, the subjects of it grow weary of life, become discontented and dead to decorum, good advice, and opinion, and rush desperately upon their own ruin, by intoxication, bad company, and many irregularities; till sunk in the abyss of vice, and filling up the measure of their iniquity, they are suddenly cut down as the green herb. But, should these immoralities be avoided, yet trouble and affliction, if not received as chastisements for sin, or as means to wean us from the world, and to direct us to the paths of virtue, bring on settled melancholy, depression of spirits, and premature old age. Who knows how many die, as it is phrased, of a broken heart? Or who can enumerate the incurable discases brought on by worldly sorrow, trouble, and vexation?

But what is most to be dreaded in death is its STING; and this derives its existence, strength, sharpness, and venom, from sin. "The sting of death is sin." Here the justice of God discovers itself indeed. Where is the reflecting mind that has not dreaded the approach of death? And why is it so dreadful? It is because the holy law of God charges the sinner with his sins, pronounces him guilty, and bids him prepare to receive his sentence from the lips of his offended and insulted Sovereign. And who can utter the sum of misery, the hell of banishment from him? The torments which men complain of here are shadows, or mere nothings compared with that. How solemn are the enquiries of the Prophet! "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlast

ing burnings!" There pain is real, sorrow is real, all is dreadfully real. We then may ask, "Who shall stand in thy sight when thou art angry?"

When we reflect how great an evil sin is in itself, then God, as the righteous governor of the world, appears to act most justly in punishing it; and tha the does punish it, has, I think, from these considerations, been sufficiently proved.

CHAP. II.

HUMAN DEGENERACY EVINCED.

This appears from the divine declarations-the confessions of men-human laws-general complainings-cautious proceedings-historical relations—and sinful dispositions.

ALL sin must be considered as the transgression of the holy law of God, which is the only proper rule of life, and by which all our actions should be regulated; when we, therefore, deviate from its precepts, oppose its authority, come short of its demands, disregard its prohibitions, promises and penalties, and neglect its duties and injunctions, we may be considered more or less as sinning, whether we speak of the law with or without reference to a Mediator. Both require supreme love to God, and subordinate, yet fervent love to our fellows; but with this difference, the one was given to man in innocency, not admitting of repentance; the other to man as a fallen creature in hope, through the sacrifice of Christ, and admitting of faith and repentance. Man is now incapable of observing the law in the first of these senses: but there was no injustice in God's enforcing this law, since Adam was sufficiently qualified to keep it; and his self-caused deficiency could never take

away the Creator's right. How great then is that mercy which suspends the execution of that law, and which offers to the offenders grace, and that precious gift of grace, his well-beloved Son; and places them under a dispensation suitable to their weakness, and correspondent to their wishes and necessities! By embracing and conforming to "the royal law of liberty," we have nothing to dread from the former; yet, should we obstinately refuse to do this, we accumulate double guilt and condemnation, the penalties of both falling upon us for ever. Let us then take a survey of the wanderings of the human race, and we shall soon discern how far we have departed from the holy, just, good, and perfect law of God. I shall begin with

THE DIVINE DECLARATIONS.

If we think correctly, it is impossible for us to conceive any thing more dishonourable of God, than to suppose that he can be liable to error and mistake, or that he is laid under the smallest obligation to deviate from the strictest truth. Whatever he, therefore, declares concerning man, cannot possibly be wrong. Let us then collect from his holy word, what his judgment is concerning the sinful propensities of men, and of the fruit naturally springing from them. This is preferable to any human testimony whatever. It is ob'served in the book of Genesis, that "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." He "looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. -The cry of Sodom is great; their sin is very grievous." In the Psalms: "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good; they are all gone aside; they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one." In Jeremiah: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" In the New Testament: "Out of tho

heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies-The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like— they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Many similar passages of scripture might be produced, expressive of the same thing; but these may be deemed sufficient to shew how greatly sin has prevailed from age to age; and while the same fruit abounds, we may assuredly gather that the same evil tempers and principles remain in the unrenewed heart of man.

THE CONFESSIONS OF MEN.

Ir is natural to suppose that those who either love or hate evil, who either value or despise the divine favour, and who either dread or disregard his frown, will have seasons in which they shall unequivocally give their opinion, and be constrained, from some cause or other, to confess or acknowledge the sinfulness of their hearts and lives. Many things indeed will remain concealed till that day arrive when every man's character shall be fully investigated. Then all will be laid open, and every person's principles and actions will be fully known. Let us in the mean time hear a few of the many humbling confessions made at different times, when the power or holiness of God has affected the mind. Thus the king of Egypt, when he beheld one dreadful plague succeed another, said, "I have sinned-the Lord is righteous, and. I and my people are wicked." So the serpent-bitten Israelites, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord." Balaam acknowledged the same, "I have sinned." Achan said, "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel." And several other confesssions are recorded in scripture, coming from wicked or from doubtful characters; it is, however, from enlighten

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