undutifulness, rebellion; that you were degrading the Almighty from his throne, and placing yourself in his stead. If you will look well to it, you shall find no other sin like this. The stubbornness of

children, the negligence of intrusted servants, the unfaithfulness of most obliged dependents, the disloyalty of chief favourites, and whatever else supposes insensibility, obdurateness, and treachery, is implied in this one thing; a careless forgetfulness of God.

Or suppose, through the peculiar blessing of a pious education, you "have remembered your Creator from your youth;" yet have you found no inclination within you to cast off the yoke? No risings of a will of your own against the will of God? Hath there not been something in you which would plead for a dispensation of the commandments of God? Something which hath made you ready to murmur at God's providential directions; and to be displeased with the spirituality and strictness of the law? Consider the passages of your heart, what they have been, and what they too often are; and you shall readily confess the universal truth, that "the heart of man is desperately wicked," even "enmity against God," although you were never numbered with that more insolent tribe," who say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy way. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?”

Alas! what a sight must a world of such selfwilled rebels have been in the eye of God! A world of creatures, "turned every one to his own way." And such have you been, whatever you are,

you are joined in the general apostacy. O let us all feel and own the never-enough to be lamented truth; all of us are rebels and apostates! This is the evil stock, which hath put forth its branches, and yielded its fruit in a variety of sin.

Being set up for yourself, you were impatient of God's providential government of you. When he smote you with his gracious and well-designed afflictions, you were fretful: you acknowledged not his hand, nor his goodness in them; but, disordered in your ungentle spirit, you wreaked that peevish anger upon those about you, which you durst not discharge against God. You must have your own will and way: when you found not compliance in others, you grew haughtily enraged or sullenly displeased; when disappointment met you in your worldly projects, or carnal joys, or even innocent amusements, the troubled sea of discontent was within you; you could not endure the least opposition with patience, as if you had been the Lord of the universe, and all things were to be devoted to your humour.

God being forgotten, you "minded earthly things," the favour of men, and the wealth of this world: in quest of praise, you were fawning and deceitful; in search of wealth, you were sordid and selfish. Reputation and wealth made you proud and vain; and that pride and vanity would endure no rival: you must be the foremost in abundance and respect. Hence your heart was filled with envious disgust and malicious pleasure, as others outstript or fell beneath you in these your favourite pursuits.

Meantime, that delicate body of yours was craving for indulgence. The eye, the ear, the palate; every sense lusted for its peculiar gratification. Your soul was carnal. You were but a beast with more refinement; may I not add, with more luxury too?

You must own now, that your inward parts have been very wickedness; that God hath seen your soul without the disposition of a dependent creature; that you have had an indisposition of spirit, either to do his will, or to submit yourself and your affairs to his ordering; that your love hath been laid upon present enjoyments, in the pursuit of which you have been proud, envious, malicious, deceitful, and selfish; that lust or indulgence hath taken place of spiritual and reasonable gratifications within you, rendering your soul insensible to every thing, but the enjoyments of the lower part, of which you are composed. Such was the disposition of your soul. And how

filthy and defiled then were you! What a sight in the pure eye of God! And judge now what the fruit of so corrupt a tree must have been.

Surely all the outward carriage could have nothing of worth in it. Whatever was the issue in the thoughts, words, and actions, it was but the way of one who knew not God. There might be a regularity free of seandal; a form there might be of godliness; but since the principles of the heart were thus corrupted, nothing which proceeded out of it could do other than offend God. And what a load of guilt must you have contracted, while you were thus trading and living in a state of sin, all within and without evil continually. Consider what a heavy

charge God hath against you for those rebellious days of your life, when you were not serving him, but following your own lusts.

From this general accusation, should I descend to particulars; should I charge you with the acts of sin, which have been compassed and contrived in your own heart, without being brought forth into outward conduct, how would time and calculation fail to bring before you the incessant actings of pride and impatience, of hatred and resentment, of envy and malice; the ceaseless contrivances for worldly honour and wealth; the projects which have passed through your mind, for the enjoyments of pleasure and lust! Ah, how would you sink under the condemnation, could you see only the sin which hath been committed in your own heart, in desire and purpose, but was prevented in the practice and execution! Might I herewith also draw into one view all the sins of your life, such as the heedless discharge of the peculiar duties of your station, and the repeated omissions of them; the hour vainly squandered, and the talents sacrilegiously misapplied; the scandalous submissions and bowing the neck to human favour, and the irrecoverable opportunities you have lost of glorifying God, and benefiting your neighbour. In a word, the many

leanings and approaches to grosser acts of sin, and the repeated commission of those acts themselves, of whatever kind, together with the aggravations attending them; their having been done against knowledge and conscience: should I be able to draw up this charge and catalogue of actual sins against you, confusion must needs cover your face,

and

you

would see your

"iniquities increased over your head," and your "trespasses grown up unto the heavens."

Let conscience speak; and how great will the sum of your sins be! But however multiplied and aggravated your trespasses are, place them all to the account of that undutiful and apostate spirit which possessed you, your own usurping will and pleasure. This was the fountain that sent forth all these bitter waters. This hath been the foundation of all the other evil dispositions of your heart, and of the various acts of iniquity which lie against you; even this forgetfulness of God as your Creator. It is this which hath frustrated the end of creation, dishonoured God, provoked him to displeasure, and placed man at a distance from his God and happiness. And here you are but one of the many, but one among the whole race of men, all of whom have been found in the same apostacy you are charged with. For all are gone out of the way: all are become filthy." Wherefore, they and you together, as making up a "world lying in wickedness," have the greatest need to weigh with an awakened attention, the sad consequences of such a revolt from, and rebellion against, the majesty of the Almighty.

And the consequences thereof are these three just now hinted at.-Hereby dishonour is brought upon God's government; man is sunk into a state of unfitness for God and happiness; and a sentence of wrath is gone forth against the world.

The first of these consequences is, that by the