gels; woful unbelief, in suspecting the truth of God's threatenings; the blasphemous conception, that the devil, (God's enemy and man's murderer) is more to be credited in his temptations than God in his assertions; horrible pride, in thinking to become like God by eating the forbidden fruit; contempt of God, in rushing upon his sword, and not fearing the plague denounced; unthankfulness, when God had given every tree but one, to be meddling with that too; theft, in taking what was not his own; and idolatry, in loving the creature more than God the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Let us take a full view of, and mourn for this sin, that made the first breach between God and

man.

2. Every man, in the estate in which he is born, is dead in sin, empty of every inward principle of holy life, and void of all grace. Many wicked men may do many actions, which are externally good, such as praying, hearing, and almsgiving; but not from any inward principle of holy obedience. Weights may set a clock to running. Jehu was zealous, but it was only for a kingdom: the Pharisees gave alms, only to be seen of men. If one should write a will with a dead man's hand, the will would not be good in law, because the deceased person did not write it with intention, from an inward principle of life. Pride or selfishness may induce a man to preach, to hear, and sometimes to pray. Bring a dead man to the fire, and chafe and rub him; you may produce some heat by external applications; but take him from the fire and he will soon be cold again: so many a man living under a sound minister, and the friction of a striving conscience, has some heat in him, some affections, some desires, some fears and sorrows; but remove the minister, and quiet conscience, and he presently becomes as insensible as ever, because he wants a principle of spiritual life.

It is said, that there was a great cry in Egypt, because there was not a house wherein there was not one dead. In some towns and families how many are spiritually dead! Husbands, wives, children and servants are all dead, and God only knows whether they shall ever live

or not.

A dead man cannot stir; and so a spiritually dead man cannot perform any spiritually good action, if heaven itself were to be gained by doing it. He may think and speak, it is true, of good things; as the good man may think and speak of evil things; but he is not the subject of one good thought or speech. As the naturally dead man fears not, so the sinner fears no dangers, however great and imminent. As the dead cannot be drawn to accept of the best offers, so were Christ to come out of heaven, and fall about the neck of a natural man, and with tears in his eyes beseech him to accept of his blood, himself, his kingdom, and leave his sins, he could not receive the offer.

A dead man is blind and deaf, and the spiritually dead neither see nor hear God in a right manner. They have no eye, no ear, no tongue for Christ. They are senseless, and relish not the things of God. If they speak of divine things, it is like a parrot. They are destitute of the breath of prayer: they cannot pour out their souls into the bosom of God. I wonder not, that there are so many prayerless families, for their members are dead, and lie rotting in their sins.

A dead man has no beauty, is eaten of worms, and wants nothing but casting into the grave: thus the unrenewed sinner has lost all his glory, is deformed in his moral character, shall become an abhorrence, is subject to the gnawings of the never-dying worm, and must be buried in hell, if Jehovah shall let loose some judgment, and say, Take these dead persons out of my sight. If it was a wonder that Lazarus,

who had lain in the grave four days, should live again, Oh! wonder thou, that ever God should let thee live, after having been dead in sin for twenty, thirty, or sixty years together.

3. Every natural man is, moreover, full of all sin. Rom. i. 29. His whole body and mind are full of sin. Foolishness is bound up, even in the heart of a child. An evil man out of the evil TREASURE of his heart bringeth forth evil things.

The

tongue is a WORLD of iniquity; and out of the ABUNDANCE of the heart the mouth speaketh. The mind is a nest of foul opinions and heresies: the heart is a horrible pit of atheism, sodomy, murder, whoredom, adultery, witchcraft, bestiality; so that if thou hast any good thing in thee, it is as a drop of rose water in a bowl of poison.

All these things are not stirring in the natural man at once; and like Hazael he may think that he is not such a dog as to perpetrate these crimes, but they are in him, like a nest of snakes in an old hedge, lurking in his heart, until temptation brings them forth. When one told Francis Spira, that he had never committed such sins as Manasses, and therefore was not, as he judged himself, the greatest sinner since the creation, he replied, that he should have been worse than Manasses had he lived in his time, and been on his throne. If you feel none of these sins, reader, consider that fear, shame, education, good company and God's restraining grace alone may have kept thee from being the vilest of the vile. Mr. Bradford would never look upon one's lewd life with without eye, turning the other upon his own breast, and saying, In this my vile breast remains that sin, which, without God's special grace, I should have committed as well as he. These sins of thy heart are all ready armed to fight against God, at the watch word, or alarm of any temptation; and are as bad in the sight of God

one

as the sins of the life; for the sins of the heart breed, bring forth, and nurture all the litter, all the troops of outward iniquities. Sin is more abundant and more permanent in the heart, than in the life; for actual sins of the life fly out like sparks and vanish, but sin in the heart is like a brand always glowing. The toad spits poison sometimes, but it retains a poisonous nature always. Hence the apostle calls it sin that dwells in me. One enemy within the city is worse than many without; a traitor on the throne, (and the heart is Christ's throne,) is worse than a traitor in the open field. Mourn, therefore, not so much that thou hast committed individual sins, as that thou hast a sinful heart, and a sinful nature.

4. All the moral actions of a natural man are sin, in the sight of a holy God, because they are performed without any holy motive. As a man may speak good words, but we cannot endure to hear him speak, because of his offensive breath which defiles them; so a man may pray, fast, give alms, and come to church, without performing these externally good actions from a right intention. The thoughts of the unrenewed are only evil, and that continually. Gen. vi. 5. All their words are sins. Ps. l. 16. Their mouths are open sepulchres. Rom. iii. 13. Their civil actions, their eating, drinking, buying, selling, sleeping and ploughing, so far as they are voluntary, and are not regulated by right motives, are sinful. Prov. xxi. 4. All their religious actions are of the same moral character, for the same reason. sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord." "Even his prayer shall be abomination." Prov. xv. 8, and xxviii. 9. All their most zealous actions are sins. They may be like the act of Jehu in killing the priests of Baal, outwardly good; and God may reward them with temporal favours: but Jehu had a

"The /

hawk's eye upon obtaining a king- || dom to himself by his zeal for the Lord, and therefore God threatened to be revenged upon him. Hosea i. 4. Their wisdom is sin. The carnal mind, the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God. Rom. viii. 7. "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." Every wicked man wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ; and therefore, should he seek to honour God ever so much, all that he doth, being performed merely from love to himself, is abhorred by God. Acting always for himself, from regard to his own ease, credit, safety, or content, he commits the highest degree of idolatry, plucks God from his throne, and makes himself a god, or the ultimate end of all his actions. Sin is a forsaking or departing from God. Now every natural man remains in a state of separation from God; wants the bond of union, which is faith; is always sinning; and being under the curse of God, brings forth nothing but briers and thorns.

But it will be objected, if the praying and hearing of the natural man is sin, that he must not perform these duties, for he must not sin. I answer, good duties are good in themselves, although they be sinful when performed from a vile heart. Moreover, it is less sinful to do them, than to omit them: therefore, if thou wilt go to hell, go in the least criminal path thou canst. Finally, venture and try to pray and hear aright; for God may hear, not for the sake of thy prayers, but for his own name's sake. Though thou art a dog, yet thou art alive, and art for the present under the table. Ask, and God may give thee some crumbs of his mercy, even whilst thou art not holy in thy supplications.

II. Man's misery in regard to the consequences of sin are now to be considered. They are either present or future. Of the PRESENT consequences of sin, we remark,

1st, that God is the dreadful enemy of unrenewed men. Ps. v. 5. "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity." This God evinces, by hiding his face from every natural man (Isa. lix. 2.); by his threatenings and curses (Gal. iii. 10.); and by the stripes which he inflicts upon the body and soul. Never tell me, therefore, that God blesses you in your outward estate, if you are unrenewed; for God treats you as a father does a desperate son; he gives you full swing; and there is scarcely a greater sign of God's

wrath.

2. God hath forsaken them, and they have lost God. Eph. ii. 12. As in the grievous famine of Samaria, dove's dung was sold at a great price; so worldly contentments are much esteemed, because men are without God, and without spiritual food. They have lost the favourable presence, and special protection of God; and like Cain, are fugitives from his face. Saul exclaimed when the Philistines made war against him, God is departed from me! 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. And the loss of the sweetness of the divine presence, for a little time only, made Jesus Christ cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But thou, sinner, hast lost thy God all thy lifetime. Oh! thine heart is brass, that it mourns not so long an absence. The damned in hell have lost God, and know it; and so the plague of desperate horror lieth upon them: but thou hast lost God here, and knowest it not ; and the plague of a hard heart lieth upon thee.

3. All natural men are condemned, in the court of justice, by the law, which cries, treason, treason, against the Most High; and in the court of mercy, by the gospel, which brings in the verdict of murder, murder of the Son of God, by unbelief: so that they are damned in heaven and on earth. God is thy all-seeing, terrible Judge; conscience thine accuser, and a heavy witness against

thee; this world thy prison: thy lusts are fetters: in the Bible thy sentence is recorded: death is thy hangman: and the fire unquenchable will be thy tormenting final doom. The Lord in his patience, has reprieved thee for a time. 0! take heed, to get a pardon, before the day of execution comes.

4. Being condemned, natural men, in this prison, are subjected to the bondage of Satan, who is the jailer. His servants they are whom they obey. They do the devil's drudgery, and carry his pack. Satan overcame, and conquered all men in Adam, their representative; and God has subjected them to the bondage and dominion of the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world. Though he cannot compel a man to sin against his own will, yet he has power, to present a sinful temptation, for the purpose of alluring him to evil; of following the man with it, if at first he should be shy of it; of disquieting and racking him if he will not yield to it; of knowing their humours; and of acting the part of an enemy in various ways.

Satan is secret, deceitful, cruel and strong. He visits mankind in seeming courtesy, as poor, wandering, beggarly gentlemen in necessity do their friends, to gain them as his own. He makes them believe that they are in a fair way, when their condition is miserable. He gags them, like the man who had a dumb spirit, so that they can speak neither for God, to men; nor to God, in prayer. He, as the strong man armed, keeps his palace, and his goods; yea, and keeps his subjects from so much as sighing or groaning under their bondage.

them. They were born blind to saving truth; the devil has blinded them more by sin; and God, in justice, has blinded some of them worse for sin.

6. The natural man is bound hand and foot in his natural estate, so that he cannot come out, of himself. "We were yet without strength." Rom. v. 6. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. All kind of sins, like chains, have bound every part and faculty of man. These sins are strong, being as dear as his members, nay as his life (Col. iii. 5. 7.): so that when he begins to forsake his vile ways, and purposes to become a new man, devils fetch him back, the world entices him, and locks him up; and the flesh says, "Oh! it is too strict a course: farewell then, merry days, and good fellowship." You may wish and desire, for some reason, to come out sometimes, but you cannot put strength to your desire, nor bear to execute it. You may hang your head, like a bulrush for sin, but cannot repent of it: you may presume, but cannot believe: you may come half way and forsake some sins, but not all sins: you may come and knock at heaven's gate, as the foolish virgins did, but not pass through it: you may see the land of Canaan, take much pains to go to it, and taste the bunches of its grapes, but never enter it; unless the Lord come to your grave in sin, roll away the stone, and bid you live.

7. They are ready every moment to drop into hell. God is a con

ers put their prisoners into the worst dungeons. 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. They are so blinded, that they see not God, nor Christ, nor the happiness of the saints in light, nor those dreadful torments, which should now in this day of grace, awaken and humble

paper wall of thy body between thy soul and endless flames. How soon may God stop thy breath?

The FUTURE Consequences of sin remain to be considered.

1. Men must die; and although death is a sweet sleep to a child of

God, yet to the wicked it is a fearful curse, proceeding from God's wrath. Like a lion he tears body and soul asunder. It is a rare thing to see the man who looks death steadfastly in the face one hour together; but one day, like a mighty captain, he will deal a bitter stroke upon the ungodly, and then armies of endless woes follow.

2. After death men must immediately appear in their spirits, before God in judgment. Heb. ix. 27. This is a particular judgment, which every one meets with immediately at the end of his life, and in which every unrenewed soul is condemn-. ed. Eccl. xii. 7.

All have sinned; and the wages of sin is death; which is due so soon as a man exists a sinner. In justice, therefore, it should be paid as soon as he is born; and it would be so with the wicked, had not Christ obtained a reprieve for them for a season. He has begged their lives; and is the Saviour of all men, that is, not a Saviour of final preservation from hell, but a Saviour of temporal reservation from dropping into hell. This space of time, thus begged by Christ, is the only season wherein a man may make his peace with a displeased God. 2 Cor. vi. 2. During this time, the original sentence of death passed upon the whole family of man, is suspended; but when death has despatched them, the day of grace, the space for repentance has passed; and judgment only awaits them individually. Then their personal doom is read, and this is judgment after death. If we would judge ourselves, in the present life, we should not be judged, or judicially condemned after death: but wicked men will not do this, and therefore, at the end of life, God will condemn them. All natural men are lost in this life, but they may be found and recovered again. A man lost after death, however, is irrecoverably lost, for there are no means of restoration after death. In the world of spirits, there

is no friend to persuade the impenitent, no minister to preach the gospel, by which faith is wrought, and union to Christ effected; and no power of returning and repenting The night is come, and the day, in which we were commanded to work, is past. The punishment which will then be endured, will occupy all the thoughts and emotions of the miserable, and leave no room for any thoughts of reformation. Like Dives, they will cry, I am tormented in this flame. Oh! that the consideration of this point might awaken every secure sinner! What will become of thine immortal soul, when thou art dead? Thou sayest, I know not: I hope well. I tell thee, after death comes the judgment: then, farewell friends, when dying; and farewell God forever, when thou art dead!

May the Lord open the eyes of sinners, to behold the terrors of the particular judgment. Their souls shall be dragged from their bodies, by the devil, as their jailer, into the sensible presence of their Judge. They shall appear without any covering, friends, or comfort: and shall be filled with a new light, in which they shall look upon their Judge, whom they saw not in the world; and through which, hellish horror shall strike their souls. Then all their sins shall be brought into their remembrance; and conscience shall fill the place of ten thousand witnesses. Many sins may have been forsaken; but then, one leak in the ship will sink all: one secret, darling, allowed sin, unrepented of, will damn thee. Then God will depart from thee, to wait in patience, offer a Saviour, and strive by his Spirit, no more. Thou shalt see indeed the glory which others find, but, to thy greater sorrow, shalt never

taste their bliss. God shall surrender thy forsaken soul, into the hands of the devil, to be tormented, and forever to be overwhelmed at thy present misery, as well as the thought of that which is to come.