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SERMON been no Help for him either in the Height above or in the Depth beneath This is fignified to us in the Parable of the Traveller that fell among Thieves. In this miferable Spectacle behold, O Man! thy felf pourtrayed: (for by Nature thou ftandeft in the Image of fallen Adam, and the Imáge of God is thy new Birth by Grace from the fecond Adam;) thou art fallen among Thieves who have stripped thee of thy Virgin Innocence, robbed thee of thy fair Garland of Perfection, wounded thy Confcience and left thee half dead, even deftitute of that spiritual and holy Life which was thy Crown of Glory and Immortality: Stop awhile and confider here thy twofold Original by Nature; firft, as thou cameft out of the Hands of thy Creator, pure and spotless as the Angels, the Glory of the Creation, the Envy of Devils, and the Delight of God. How bleffed was the Time when Man knew.nó Sorrow as he knew no Sin; when a free Communication was open betwixt Heaven and Earth, and Angels were feen defcending and afcending between the two peaceful Kingdoms, nay when God himself condefcended to converfe with Man with the Fa miliarity of a Friend.

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But

VIII,

But foon, alas! was this happy Scene SERMON clofed by that fatal Period when Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin. By this woful Apoftacy was brought about in the Soul that fad Reverse from Purity to Pollution, from Innocence to Guilt: The Divine Image left forrowful her defiled Manfion-The Soul felt itself wounded with the poisoned Dart of Sin-The Mind became darkened and disordered in all its Faculties, the Judgment perverted, the Affections mifplaced, and the Will inclined to Evil continually The Body became bestial and diseased, fubject to Mortality and Corruption, and the whole Man, (the most excellent Part of God's Workmanship) diffigured and fpoiled, infomuch that he who was before a glorious Display and Temple . of the ever-bleffed Trinity, became at once the Captive and Derifion of infulting Devils. Nay the whole Creation fympathized with Man in the fad Catastrophe of the FallThat equable Temperature and Harmony in which confifted the permanent Health and Beauty, and the Perfection of every Creature, withdrew; Difcord, the Parent of Distemper and Decay, raged thro' all the Elements, and every Life of Nature felt Corrup

SERMON Corruption. So much indeed of Good was VIII. left as might fet forth the Wisdom and Pow

er of the Creator, fo much as might explain to Man the greater Good he had loft, but abundantly fufficient of Evil took place; thro' Lofs of that Good, to make Man feel the wretched Effects of Sin, to convince him of the Folly of his Choice, and to lead him back to God by Repentance: At fo dear a Price was bought the Knowledge of Good and Evil*.

Behold here, O Man, thy fecond fad Original, and fee thyfelf in fallen Adam, and fallen Adam in thyfelf! Where now is thy boafted Liberty, the Sufficiency of thy Reason, and that conceited Dignity of thy Nature which thou haft learned to prate of? Why I tell thee from Authority no lefs than facred, that thou art born blind; that

* It may not be unfeasonable to remark here on the Error of moft Phyfico-Theologifts in fuppofing the prefent mundane Syftem to continue in its original State of Perfection, and who therefore ftretch their Invention to reconcile the Disorder and Evil that is in Nature with the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God, and to find out phyfical Ufes for the fame; not confidering that the prefent Conftitution of Things is in a mixt Condition of Good and Evil, and that if natural Evil in fome Instances may ferve by its Counteraction to retrain or remedy the fame in others, yet that fuch a neceffity of working lay not in God, but is the gracious Effect of his overruling Power; for that before the Curfe all things were very good, and only became otherwife for moral Utes and Purposes to Man.

thou

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VIII.

thou waft conceived in Sin, and art by Na- SERMON ture a Child of Wrath; and that thou may'st with Job fay to Corruption, Thou art my Father, and to the Worm, Thou art my Mother and my Sifter: Nay thou art a diseased Leper all over, and from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot there is nothing but Wounds and Bruifes and putrifying Sores; thou art likewife by Condition a Captive in the Hands of thy moft deadly Enemies, and there is but a Breath of Air betwixt thy Soul and the Pit of Hell. Such is thy Genealogy and State by Nature. But fee! The good Samaritan is paffing by He ftops-He fees thee in thy Blood-He pities thy Distress and Poverty, and comes to thy Relief He offers thee" Gold tried in "the Fire that thou mayeft be rich, and white

A

Rayment that thou mayeft be cloathed, and "that the Shame of thy Nakedness do not

appear; and bids thee to anoint thine Eyes "with his Eye-falve that thou mayest see." In a word, He is come to pay thy Ransom and to loose the captive Chain, to do away thy Sin, and to heal thine Infirmities, and to give Power to as many as will receive Him to become the Sons of God: But for a Word of Doctrine upon the Point.

SERMON The Son of God fets us free from the VIII prevailing Power of Sin by the Spirit of Grace and Sanctification in the Hearts of Believers for where the Spirit of the Lard is there is Liberty in this respect alfo. Let it be remembered, that I fpeak here of Freedom from the prevailing Power of Sin, and not of finlefs Perfection: and this Diftinction ought to be well retained. Whatever is contrary to the Purity and Holiness of the Divine Nature has in it the Nature of Sin, and fomething of this remains even in the Children of the Regeneration during their ftay in thefe earthly Tabernacles; and therefore it is that we hear even the Apostle complaining of indwelling Sin: And yet this well confifts with those Words of St. John, Whofoever is born of God doth not commit Sin, for bis (i. e. God's) Seed remaineth in him. The regenerate Chriftian (taking his Name from his better Part) finneth not in that Divine Nature of which he is made Partaker, for the incorruptible Seed, which is Chrift in him the Hope of Glory, cannot, fin. But the Law in his Members, that Seed of the Serpent which warreth against the Seed of the Woman in his mortal evil Nature (for they are contrary the one to the other) is daily

fighting