Its influence, then, may be pronounced universal. To love it in some shape is the taint and infection it hath brought upon our nature; to yield to its temptations, yea, to hunt out its short-lived perishing pleasures; madly to pluck and eat this forbidden fruit is the pregnant evidence of its all-pervading presence.

What stage of our being is free from its influence? Alas! before we can fairly be considered accountable beings, its buds appear, its blossoms open, its fruit forms. It takes the start of reason, and, too often, it keeps the track. When reason, lagging behind, comes up, what can it do with this mighty foe, who holds the reins and drives the passions headlong to present enjoyment. Its powers are weakened, its perceptions darkened, its will perverted by the very adversary it has to hold in check; it can see the good, but how to do it it finds not; it may say, drive not so madly, but the law in the members is stronger than the law of the mind; it may say stop, and stop it may in one direction, secure of another in which its influence, though less obvious, will be equally sure. Oh! what a Proteus is this ever present enemy, even with the aid of divine revelation, by which all its deceits are exposed, all its dangers declared, and through which help is offered against this enemy. How feeble and powerless is this boasted defence against the influence of sin? If this is not so, how comes it to pass that so many of those now before me, both men and women, who have reason, who have revelation, who have warning, are yet the servants of sin in some of its multifarious deceits? Is there no opposition to God in the hearts of those who, instead of remembering their Creator in the days of their youth, rush into every folly and vanity which the world spreads before them, and drown the care of the soul in the vortex of dissipation? Is there no enmity to the purity and holiness of Gop in those who sow to the flesh, and, in the lusts of uncleanness and the brutishness of intemperance, set reason and religion both at defiance? Is there no mark of the carnal mind in those who cooly and decently labour and strive for a portion in this life; good, orderly, moral, church or meeting going people-GoD not in all their thoughts-no fear of him before their eyes-no love of him in their hearts-who

never give an hour to his service beyond the heartless formality of a Sunday forenoon? Yea, even in the professing world, is there no seasoning of sin in drawing near to GoD with the lips while the heart is far from him-in conforming to the worldin narrowing duty-in neglect of prayer-in selfishness-in spiritual pride-in separations and divisions? Above all, what but the influence of sin can make professing parents negligent of the welfare of their children's spiritual concerns, or be content with a cold and occasional admonition? Oh! wretched creatures that we are! who shall deliver us from the body of this death? O, that I could hear the groan echoing from every heart for there is deliverance, thanks be to GoD, there is deliverance from the reigning power of this tyrant; but it is not in man; it is not in any effort of his reason, nor in any exertion of his own fallen, sin-infected powers. GOD, even the Almighty, must put forth the might of a new creation to quicken us into life; the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of GOD in him, alone can stay the plague and create a new heart, and renew a right spirit within us and the law of GOD with its eternal sanctions; and the revelation of GoD with its precious promises; and the love of CHRIST with its winning attractions, are all set forth with divine evidence, to awaken and encourage, and engage us to seek the help that is in him. Faith is the talisman which strips the mask from sin, snatches the reins from her maddening hand, and delivers them over to the SPIRIT OF GOD, under whose holy discipline the power of sin is broken, the influence of sin is defeated; old things are done away-a new life begins, and the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Yet, mighty as is this help, freely as it is offered, and great as is our necessity, behold, once more, how great and how extended is the influence of sin. Let one hour pass, and where will these truths be which now fall so heavy on your consciences? Let one week pass, and to how many of you, whose eyes are now cast down under the home truth of God's faithful word, shall I be as one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, and that truth itself cast down under the dominion of

:

sin? Again, I say, Oh! wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from the body of this death?

That we may in earnest seek this deliverance, I will now consider and point out, as was proposed,

III. Thirdly, the consequences of sin, both present and future.

That to sin, pursued and followed in some shape by ourselves or others, we owe all the distresses and miseries of this life, is alike the witness of revelation and the result of experience. GoD has laid his curse upon sin, and sin, in the malignity of her revenge, transfers her curse upon man, the favoured creature of GOD. Fools and blind, that we are, to yield ourselves the servants of this deceiver, against knowledge, against warning, against experience, against help and means, freely provided and held forth, against the fear of hell and the hope of heaven.

Broken health, ruined fortunes, misery and crime, are the bitter fruits with which sin repays her votaries in the present life. And, though there may be some who, to appearance, escape these consequences, and in success and enjoyment glitter above their fellow servants, yet are these but exceptions which confirm the general rule, and show more fearfully in the end, on what a slippery steep they stand; for it is but for a season. Sooner or later the blast overtakes them, the sand gives way under them, their master deceives them and pays their faithful services with his only wages-shame and contempt, poverty and nakedness, remorse and despair, disease and death.

But were outward calamity and suffering all we had to dread in yielding to the deceits of sin, though a dear price for its perishing gratifications, the folly and madness of the choice would not be so great; there might be a sort of balance struck between the price and the purchase, as concerns the present life, and the arithmetic of the sinner would cast it up in his own favour. When, however, we must take into the account the inward misery that follows in the accusations of conscience, the gnawings of guilt, the fear that hath torment, the anticipations of judgment, an offended GoD and a rejected Saviour, what is there in the utmost range of sinful enjoyment to balance this mental agony? Oh! how gladly would the sufferer give it all back for one

moments ease, for a single hour of peace from the gnawings of the worm that never dies. But there is no peace, saith my GOD, to the wicked.

There is yet another consequence of sin in the present life, my hearers, more common, more destructive, and not as much considered as it ought to be, which I will mention, and that is the effect produced by negligence and delay in forsaking the ways of sin. Now this is universally a deadening of the feelings, a hardening of the heart, a callousness of the conscience, almost hopeless to any religious impression. This is a condition more dangerous than even that of the outbreaking profligate sinner, inasmuch as the one may be alarmed and arrested by the very madness of his folly, while the other dreams on under the sleep of sin; and as this is the case with the more orderly and decent part of society, who give some countenance to religion, but go no further, it is both more common and more destructive to souls than any other deceit.

If I were to name the most general and destructive sin in my knowledge, I would at once name procrastination; the putting off till to-morrow, the neglect of warnings-the being false to the voice of conscience. And as the very act is and ought to be full proof that we prefer sin, that sin reigns, no other consequence can follow, than deeper subjection to its power, and greater estrangement from God. What, let me ask this congregation of Christian people, ought to be the course of every one of them, under the information and grace of the gospel? Ought they to sit still, folding their hands like the sluggard, and waiting passively to be converted? Ought they to continue in the active service of sin, in the miserable delusion of repenting hereafter? Or ought every one of them to be up and doing now, while it is called to-day; not conferring with flesh and blood, but breaking off their sins by repentance, and their iniquities by righteousness, labouring and striving to make their calling and election sure? Can one hour's delay in such a case be justified? And yet, who among you will act upon the verdict conscience now brings in against yourselves, before God the Judge? Alas! alas! that, turn which way we will, the influence of sin meets us, and casts its damning veil over truth and reason, VOL. II.-11

and conscience and revelation. But will this excuse us? No, my dear hearers, it will rather condemn us. For it is the very point heaven is in conflict with; which CHRIST died to save us from, and which the grace of God is given us to overcome.

Put forth an effort, then, against this enemy. With prayer for grace make trial of the means which God has provided in CHRIST JESUS, and promised to bless. You owe it to the goodness of God; you owe it to the love of CHRIST; you owe it to your own souls. For, says unchangeable truth, except ye repent ye shall perish, which is the future consequence of sin unrepented, unforsaken.

That the enemy of GoD should be for ever shut out from his presence, we are prepared, by natural equity, to acknowledge and feel to be just. The sinner, then, continuing such, must surrender all hope of happiness hereafter. Yet sin the deceiver will whisper, be not afraid, GoD is merciful-CHRIST has died, you will escape somehow-at any rate you can repent here

after.

That the rebel, lying at the mercy of Omnipotence, who rejects offered mercy, and spurns from him pardon and reward, deserves punishment in its severest form, our own sense of justice pronounces right. The sinner, then, continuing such, under the offered mercy, pardon, and grace of the gospel, passes his own sentence, and must go away into perdition by the judgment of his own lips. For to be for ever shut out from GOD, and endure the infliction of his wrath, is perdition; yet the enemy of GoD and man will argue, as in the beginning, ye shall not surely die; GOD will not punish a finite offence with an infinite punishment; sin is not that hateful thing the ministers of CHRIST represent it, but a thing to be desired, which will add to your present happiness, enlarge the sphere of your knowledge, and extend your experience of life. And sits there the man before me whom the enemy has not encountered in this guise? Sits there the man or woman before me, who has not held this parley with sin, and yielded to this sophistry, and put forth the rebellious hand and plucked and eaten of this forbidden fruit? And sits there, then, one before me who has not incurred the penalty denounced against sin by the law of GoD?-The soul that sinneth it shall die.