brought off from before they can be reconciled to God; it is for their benefit that I chiefly design this discourse, though it may also be useful, and shall be in part applied to the children of God. It is an affecting thought when pursued to its consequences; yet, alas! it is unquestionably true, that in every assembly, fuch as this, of profeffing Christians, there are not a few, who are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, under the wrath of God, and liable to the condemning sentence of his law; and at the fame time, that the far greatest part of them are ignorant of it, and know not that they are wretched, and poor, and blind, and naked.

In discoursing farther upon this subject, therefore, I shall,

I. Endeavour to prove and illustrate 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.

II. I shall briefly shew you, that being brought to a lively sense, and genuine conviction of this, is the first and a necessary step to the saving knowledge of God in Chrift. And, in the last place, Shall make some practical improvement of the subject.

I. In the first place, then, I am to prove and illustrate this truth, that all mankind are by nature in a state of fin and misery, under the bondage of corruption, and liable to the wrath of God. What is said in this passage of the Laodiceans, is universally true of the posterity of Adam. Unless an inward and essential change has been wrought upon them by the grace of God, they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

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It is also true of them, as well as the Laodiceans, that they know it not; but vainly presume themselves 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 so great a concern; therefore, let me earnestly befeech your most serious attention to what shall be said, as the success of this conviction is necessary to your understanding, or profiting by any other part of divine truth, as I shall afterwards shew you.

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

1. That all mankind are by nature in a state of fin and misery, appears from the express and repeated testimony of the word of God. And this testimony we have, not only in particular passages carrying the truth, but in the strain and spirit of the whole, and the several difpensations of Divine Providence there recorded, which are all of them built upon this supposition, and intended to remedy this universal 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 Pfalmist David's teftimony of himself, as a sample of the rest 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 also the teftimony of the Apofile Paul in his epiftle to the Romans, which is the more full to our present

present purpose, that as he had never been at Rome, he is there laying the foundation of religion in general, and the Christian dispensation in particular, by a clear and explicit proof of the need the world had of a Saviour, from its universal corruption and depravity. See then what he says-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 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 stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.-For all have finned and come short of the glory of God.

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

I shall add but one express scripture-testimony more. -And you bath be quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins.

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But befides the particular passages of scripture, pofitively declaring this truth, the whole frame and contexture of the scriptures, and all the dispensations of Divine Providence recorded in them, are a proof of the same thing. Man is every where confidered as in a fallen and sinful state. Every thing that is prescribed to him, and every thing that is done for him, goes upon that supposi-tion. 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 person cannot repent, he has nothing to grieve for in his heart, or to forsake in his life. It is alfo proper to observe, that one of the scripture-characters of God is, merciful and gracious, flow to anger, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion

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tranfgreffion and fin. Now, he could not be to us a forgiving God, and there would be no need that he should be revealed under that character, unless we were fiuners 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 persons in a state of innocence, but he can shew mercy only to the guilty.

Do not the dispensations of God's providence shew the same thing? He fent the flood as a teftimony of the wickedness of the world, and for the punishment of a guilty race. Remember also 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 substitution in the room of a forfeited life. It is doing violence to common sense, to make them any thing else. The whole Jewish economy, which had in it so many sacrifices, fo many offerings, fo many washings and purifications, does plainly suppose the perfon using them to be infected with fin or moral pollution. Had not this been the cafe, they had been extremely absurd and improper.

But the strongest testimony of all that God hath given to the guilt and corruption of mankind, is his fending his own Son into the world to redeem them by the sacrifice of himself. To what purpose redeem them if they were not in bondage? Why so costly an expiation if our lives had not been forfeited to Divine justice? But that it was for this purpose that Chrift came into the world, is fo plain from the whole of the scriptures, that I shall felect but one paff ge out of many to prove it. -Whom God bath fet forth to be a propitiation, through faith in bis blood blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of fins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

What is faid already on this head is a full proof from scripture, that man is now by nature in a state of fin; that he is also, in consequence of that, in a state of misery, and liable to the wrath of God, is proved by many of the fame passages, 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 unrighteousness. For the wages of fin is death, &c. But I need not multiply passages to this purpose, for in all God's dispensations, the deserved punishment of finners is as evident as their finfulness itself. It is indeed fully proved from the essential perfections of God, particularly his holiness and justice. He is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity. Evil cannot dwell with him, nor fools, that is, finners, stand in his fight.

Is not all this then, my brethren, a sufficient proof from the teftimony of God, that man in a natural state is finful and miferable? Shall we affirm ourselves to be whole if he faith we are unfound? Do we know more than God? Will we not give credit to the fountain of truth? Nor is it any objection to this, that we ourselves know it not, or are but little sensible of it. One confiderable part of the disease is blindness of understanding; so that we may and must, till our eyes are opened, be ignorant of our danger. We may think and say that we are rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; while we are wretched and miferable, and blind and naked.

2. The fame thing appears from the visible state of the world, and our own experience. Unbelievers are apt to hear with indifference and neglect, what they are told from scripture-testimony, unless otherwise confirmed to them; and it is with the unbeliever we have now to

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