fif in "any want of conformity unto, or tranfgreffion of the law of God." Such alfo is the definition given by an inspired evangelift, Whofoever committeth fin tranfgreffeth the law, for fin is a tranfgreffion of the law. The original word tranflated fin literally fignifies a departure from fome rule that is prescribed; a deviation from a particular line that is drawn or from any mark at which we are aiming. Sin may therefore be confidered as a violation of the divine law, either by omiffion or commiffion; a departure from this eternal ftandard of righteousness either. by neglecting to perform what it requires or committing what it actually forbids.

It is our prefent defign, with a humble reliance on divine aid, to eftablifh the doctrine of univerfal apoftacy from the living God; to prove as the apostle afferts, that all have finned and come fhort of the glory of God.

And while we attempt, in the language of the Holy Ghost, to confirm this truth, may our confciences, under his powerful influences, be deeply convinced of fin; may we all be enabled to realife its dangerous and ruining confequences.

THE truth of the propofition that all have finned, is obvious.

1. From the explicit and repeated declarations

of fcripture; it is written as with fun-beams in almost every page of revelation, and in almost every line of every page. To repeat all the paffages which tend to establish this fundamental, yet humiliating article of our religion would be to repeat a great part of this heavenly record. One inspired writer teftifies, and God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. It demands our confideration that it was not the wickedness of one man which Jehovah is reprefented as beholding, nor the impiety of a particular kindred or nation, but of mankind, of human nature; the whole mafs was corrupted, every individual of every nation was fmitten with the deadly contagion; the whole head was fick, and the whole heart was faint; and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Language cannot poffibly be more explicit to exprefs the corruption of mankind in general, the exceeding, desperate depravity of each individual, every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil, only evil to the utter exclufion of all that is morally or fpiritually good; evil continually; through the powerful influence, the unlimited reign of impiety there was not the interval of a noment for ferious reflection or fpiritual exercifes. Again, God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. The Lord is reprefented by another infallible witnefs, as looking down from heaven upon the children of men

to fee if there were any that did underfland and feek God to afcertain if there was an individual among the numerous offspring of Adam who retained his integrity and fought after God his creator; and what was the result of this enquiry? It was equally mournful and humiliating. They are all gone afide, is the divine teftimony, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. But this general apoftacy was not peculiar to the age of the patriarchs or the prophets; the fame charge is renewed hundreds of years afterwards, although men had enjoyed all the advantages of civilized life and a written revelation from God. An inspired apoftle declares, We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under fin. This paffage is peculiarly forcible for establishing the doctrine of univerfal corruption, and is entitled to fome examination. The Jews were the pofterity of Abraham; a people in covenant with Jehovah and the peculiar favorites of heaven; exalted above all others by the adoption, and the glory, and the fervice of God and the promifes; the Gentiles were the reft of the nations; all not immediately included within the pale of the Jewish church : the apoftle boldly maintains that no nation was exempted from the general charge; that whether they were Jews, a people who had been favored with fuch frequent and clear manifestations of the divine will, who had received a fyftem of worship prefcribed by God himself; or whether they

were Gentiles, given up to the dictates of their own blinded understandings and involved in the abfurdities of a grofs idolatry, they were all under fin, and guilty before God. He afterwards brings home the indictment to the confcience of every individual in the words of an Old Teltament prophet, There is none righteous, no, not one; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one; their throat is an open fepulchre; with their tongues they have ufed deceit ; the poifon of afps is under their lips, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes; now we know that whatfoever 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. Was it thought neceffary, innumerable other paffages of fcripture might be adduced for the confirmation of this doctrine. One afferts, there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and finneth not; Lo, this only have I found that God hath made man upright, but they have fought out many inventions; Another acknowledges, If thou Lord Shouldeft mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall fland; in thy fight fhall no man living be juftified.

2. THE doctrine that all have finned is evident from the experience of all. No one who impartially examines his own heart will dare to affert, I am clean without tranfgreffion, I am innocent;

Have we upon

neither is there iniquity with me. all occafions followed the dictates of our own confciences; performing whatever the light of nature proclaimed to be right? Have we conducted towards others amidst all circumftances as we thought they fhould have conducted towards us amidst the fame circumstances? Have we performed our duty upon all occafions to our great creator, giving him that share of our affections, and our fervices to which he is molt reasonably entitled? Have we really loved him with all our heart, our foul, our mind and strength, as he has required in the first commandment? Have we cordially received and obferved fuch religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word agreeably to the fecond commandment? Have we entertained a becoming reverence of the name of Jehovah, of his being and perfections, fanctifying him in our hearts, making him our fear and our dread as he has required in the third commandment? Have we never thought of him, or spoken of him without that folemnity of fpirit which is due to a being infinitely great? Have we fanctified his holy sabbath as he has folemnly required in his fourth commandment, ceafing from the ordinary employments of life, ftirring up our fouls to a becoming contemplation of the Moft High; admiring his perfections as difplayed both in creation and redemption? Have we not fallen infinitely fhort of those duties which we owe to each other