more, but given up to outer darkness. Therefore give heed to the words which have this night been spoken to you, and suffer them not to slip out of your remembrance; for a great duty hath been laid before you, and a great shortcoming of this generation hath been laid open in your hearing. Therefore, follow not the multitude, bnt cleave unto the still small voice of Christ, and shine as lights in the world. Which may the Lord enable us all to do, and to his name be the praise! Amen.

SERMON VI.

"This know also, that in

UNHOLY.

the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be . . . . . unholy.”—2 Tim. iii. 1, 2.

....

THE former characteristic of the last times, in the midst of which we believe ourselves to be living, dearly beloved brethren, led us to discourse of the thankful, gracious, or eucharistical disposition of spirit which, flowing from the first fountain of God's love to the creatures for his own glory, and showing itself in the work of Christ to come into the world in the creature form for the manifestation and impartation of the Godhead, doth show itself forth in every one of his members, by leading them to deny and to devote themselves to the same great end of showing forth the grace of the Godhead, so that in all their purposes and words and actions they shall not be content with attaining unto the just and equitable, but shall pass into the gracious or eucharistical, forgiving enemies and dispensing blessedness, foregoing right and preferring loss, and in all things conforming to the pattern of Christ, for the same end of the Father's glory. In which, the only spirit proper to a Christian-for the

just is only a legal, and doth not rise into the stature of an evangelical, principle—we showed, by manifold demonstrations, that this age of the Church is emimently defective above every other, having introduced into all acts and offices, from this, the highest in the Church, which I fill, down to the lowest, the idea of debt and payment of debt, and lost the ancient idea of a grace offered on the part of the superior, and a grace received on the part of the inferior. The same showed we in the spirit of political affairs, where all things are deemed to be done by hire; and in the relation of masters and servants, where I may say there is nothing but paymaster and hireling; and in business, where it is all debtor and creditor; and in courtesy also, where the same degradation is introduced to the very payment of friendly visits: and, in short, everywhere, in all the offices of the Church and State, and in all the functions of life, the spirit, not of a Christian land, but of a Jewish state, the legal principle of natural justice and equity, hath prevailed over the Christian principle of free grace. I would fain reenter into that subject, and go over the ground again, but for the resolution which I have taken to limit myself to one discourse upon each of these characteristics of the last perilous times; and, therefore, commending this Christian grace to you as the ruling principle of all your life, I do now proceed, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, to discourse of the next feature of the times, which is "unholiness: " towards the right and orderly exposition of which subject, I shall adopt the following method:

First, To treat of the principle of holiness, what and where it is.

Secondly, To show the outward ordinances, forms, and demonstrations of the same; and,

Thirdly, To show how these are contravened and contradicted in these times above any other time in the history of the Church.

Of the mystery of man's primeval constitution, we are not called upon to discourse; only this much it is necessary to say, that he did not possess the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; for in that case the Holy Spirit would have kept possession in defiance of all Satan's wiles and malignity; and if he had possessed before his fall the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, there would have been no room for a redemption and regeneration; for the redemption and regeneration would then have been a part of the first creation, and included therein; and there would have been no progression in the Divine purpose from stage to stage, but, contrariwise, a putting forth of the whole at once, and a defeat of it at once, and afterwards a putting forth of the original power and strength again; a doing and an undoing, and a doing over again of that which had been done and undone. It is the peculiarity of the third great stage in the Divine purpose towards the creature, that he should be informed with the Holy Spirit, and thereby triumph over the powers of sin and infirmity which are in the possession of him through the Fall, which is his second state. And, therefore, the first or primitive state of the creature is a state of innocency and

of goodness; and, if we also say, of holiness, we understand thereby not that holiness which we possess by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I would rather apply the term "righteousness" than the term "holiness" to our first parents, so long as they continued in their faithfulness; because I find holiness applied to the creature when sanctified by the Holy Ghost, which, as we have said, the creature possesseth not in his first estate. If this distinction be kept in view, I know no better definition of the condition of our first parents than that which is given in the Shorter Catechism-" In his own image, after his own likeness, in righteousness and true holiness."

Thus far, therefore, as to the origin and cause of holiness, there hath never been any dispute among the orthodox Churches; all being agreed that it is an attribute of the creature, not in its fallen, but in its regenerated estate. Whatever difference of opinion may exist with respect to the nature of the holiness possessed by the creature before the Fall, as it first came out of the hands of its Maker, none hath ever existed with respect to the creature thereafter, as a state of sinfulness most abhorrent to the holiness of God; most defiled in his sight; and utterly incapable of any good or pleasant work, until it shall have been renewed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; through whose working, and of whose irresistible might proceedeth all good works, in direct opposition to, and defiance of, the power of sin, acting in the creature, or acting upon him from without.

Now, into this state of holiness the Church is, by