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worthy, is marked with infamy only because less frequent and less familiar.

A third means of becoming hardened in sin is, a false and unscriptural notion of the mercy of GoD.

This, my brethren and hearers, is, undoubtedly, the most fertile delusion which Satan ever invented to deceive rational beings to their ruin. Clemency and compassion form so conspicuous a part of the character of the Deity, as revealed to us, that we are apt to forget his other attributes; and this is increased by the propensity of our nature to consider as actually such, what we greatly desire should be so. In such case temptation finds us more than half overcome, our fallen nature is on the side of the enemy; and when this is encouraged by the hope of impunity, sin prevails to the establishment of its dominion over us. "The wish is father to the thought." and we are soon persuaded to risk even eternity on so slender a foundation; and I am sure that I have only to appeal to the hearts of all present for the proof of this powerful cause of men's becoming hardened in sin.

In the fourth place, we become hardened in sin by faint, irresolute, procrastinated promises and purposes of amendment.

Next to unauthorized trust in God's mercy this that I have just mentioned is the great betrayer of the souls of men into a state of confirmed sinfulness; and the reason is perfectly obvious. There is a close connexion between guilt and uneasiness of mind. The sinner, until thoroughly hardened, feels and betrays this uneasiness, and to escape from it he resorts to the compromise of future repentance; thus lulling and blinding his conscience while the enemy is daily drawing closer around him those cords of everlasting misery and despair which await the sinner who thus trifles with the awakenings of the HOLY SPIRIT and the long suffering mercy and revealed wrath of Almighty GOD.

Lastly, that which completes the hardening power of sin, and shows that it has full dominion over body and soul, is, denying religion, scoffing at its sanctions, and becoming advocates for infidelity.

When men have lived in such a manner that they have every

thing to fear and nothing to hope from religion, their only resource is to treat it as a forgery-to give importance to every objection against it-that they may obtain some present relief against the remembrance of those sins, which yet they are determined not to forsake. And herein, my brethren and hearers, is showed the concluding power of sin persisted in, to harden the heart and close up every avenue to pardon and peace.

The religion of the gospel denounces the wrath of God, for ever, against sin; and, at the same time, offers to the sinner the means of escape from this unalterable curse. This the resolved sinner knows-throughout his whole course of rebellion against GOD it has repeatedly been pressed upon him-but he would not hear; and in the last struggle of the HOLY SPIRIT with him for his soul, it is again presented to his thoughts. But so hardened has he become, that the only medicine which can heal him is rejected, is scoffed at, and vilified as a cheat and imposition— as a contrivance of priestcraft, to deprive men of their liberty, and make them the slaves and the dupes of superstition and fraud. As St. Jude expresses it-Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

III. Thirdly, I am to show you how insufficient these causes are to excuse their guilt.

Nothing is more frequently or freely resorted to, as an excuse for sin, than our natural frailty and the strength of temptation. But, that it forms no reasonable justification of transgression will abundantly appear from the following considerations.

No single instance can be mentioned in which we are under the necessity of following any passion or inclination, beyond its lawful bounds. Whatever the temptation may be, every man must be conscious that he has power over the outward act, at the least; and, therefore, giving way to temptation, especially at the beginning, is a voluntary act. Indeed, until the conscience has become deadened by the effects of sin, no man ever commits a wicked or even a foolish action without wishing he had not

done it, and condemning himself for so doing, which proves his consciousness that he had power to refrain from it, and that he ought to have exerted it.

Again, it is the result of observation and experience, that men are restrained from many crimes by the laws of their country, by respect for particular characters, by the fear of disgrace, and the dread of present punishment. Now this undeniably shows, that no necessity to sin is laid upon any man, and, therefore, that all wickedness is voluntary, and justly charged as our

own act.

Once more, admitting the most that can be desired in excuse for sin from the frailty of our nature and the power of temptation, it will avail us nothing before our judge, because he has provided and offered the assistance of his grace to supply our weakness, in the strength whereof all temptation is powerless. If, therefore, we neglect or refuse to apply for this help, we are doubly guilty, not only guilty of the sinful act, but guilty of slighting that offered and effectual help through which temptation could have been resisted and overcome.

Let no man, therefore, pretend to excuse his sin by the strength of the temptation which led to it. GoD will not suffer us to be tempted beyond the provision he has made for us to resist it. Therefore, if we yield we dishonour GoD, both by distrusting and disobeying him; if we can withstand temptation in some cases, we may in all; if human laws can control sinful actions, much more ought the laws of God to hold them in subjection; if the presence of an earthly superior can control and check the vicious and the profligate in their behaviour, the consideration that the eye of heaven is continually upon us, ought to be a much more powerful restraint upon rational beings; if the laws and the judges, and the prisons, and the gibbets of this world are of force to deter criminals from their evil works, what should be the restraining power of the law, and the judge, and the prison, and the sentence, and the execution of eternity? Oh! what an audacious criminal is the gospel sinner, who wilfully sets at nought both the fear of man and the power of GOD.

Equally unfounded is the excuse made for sin, from the custom of the world and the frequency of bad example.

If the guilt of sin decreased in the ratio that the numbers committing sin increased, there would be some sense and reason in giving way to such a course. Indeed, it would be the interest of every man to hasten into sin, in order to reduce the amount as low as possible; but as such an imagination is a complete absurdity, so is the excuse for sin, from custom and example, as complete a folly. Sin can neither lose its character nor be separated from its consequences by combinations in its favour, any more than the plague can become less dangerous and mortal in proportion as those infected with it increase in number.

Again, if fellowship in suffering lessened the pain of individual torment, the folly of deriving encouragement to sin, or of feeling quiet and unconcerned under the practice of it, from the custom and example of the world, would be less intolerable. But when reason and experience both convince us that it is not so, when the analogy of present pain certifies to our senses, that individual anguish is in no degree mitigated by one or by one hundred others suffering at the same time, or in the same manner with ourselves; this dangerous deceit of sin should be abandoned as a snare to our souls.

And further, if the fallacy that numbers in the same condemnation will have a favourable effect on the sentence of the judge, has found any place in our thoughts, it ought at once to be abandoned, when we reflect that God hath no need of the sinful man, and has solemnly declared, that though hand join in hand yet shall not the wicked go unpunished.

In like manner, my brethren and hearers, of that most extensive delusion in favour of the deceitfulness of sin, unfounded reliance upon the mercy of GOD, which is exactly what St. Paul describes by continuing in sin that grace may abound.

It is undoubtedly a ground of the most solid comfort to know, that the world is under the government of a wise, omnipotent, and good being, whose tender mercies are over all his works; but as a bad use may be made of the best things, and the plainest truths may be perverted or misapplied, we should be very careful

not to deceive ourselves by wrongly considering the divine perfections. To confine the Deity to one single attribute, or what is the same thing, to exalt one in such wise as to supersede the exercise of the others in his dealings with his creatures, is to deprive him of that without which he could neither be a wise governor or a righteous judge. Rewards and punishments are equally necessary in the government of moral creatures; we are sensible of their good effects in the present life, and must believe them equally necessary as regards the life that is to come. A righteous GoD must punish the wicked, or be unjust to himself and to the righteous. The vindication of his truth requires it, as well as the honour of his holy law, broken by sinners; besides, how unlimited soever we conceive his mercy to be, still it has its rule in the application. It can, therefore, only be applied to capable subjects, and as impenitent sinners are not of that number, they can never taste of it. The mercy of GOD is revealed for our comfort and encouragement; its object is, to lead us to repentance, not to confirm us in sin; and unless it produces this effect, it will but the more deeply condemn us. It was purchased by the blood of CHRIST, poured out upon the cross, and it is revealed that GoD may be feared and not sported with.

The folly and unreasonableness, of putting off till some future time, that repentance and amendment of life, which is indispensable to pardon of sin and acceptance with GoD, will be evident, I trust, from the following considerations:

The intention to repent and amend the life at some future time, is an acknowledgment, that in whole or in part, it is at present wrong, and contrary to the known will of God. To delay, then, is, of set purpose, wilfully and deliberately to affront the Almighty, by professing to intend that, which nevertheless, we do not mean to comply with. In truth, for the time reserved, it is an unqualified preference of sin, incompatible with any sincere intention of ever forsaking it, and as such, a most frequent cause of being given over to hardness of heart. For, if it be necessary and right to repent and amend, it can never be either necessary or right, to put off so important a work. If sin be justly liable to the wrath of GoD, it must be the more so VOL. II.-14

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