no trust in his saints, and his angels he charged with folly." They were mutable, and liable to fall from God, they were, owing to their mutability, and many of them actually did. And that the rest, stiled the elect angels, did not, it was not owing to their own stedfastness, but it arose from a pure act of sovereign grace in Jehovah's will, he guiding on their wills, to will immutably what was truly good and acceptable in his sight, and rendering, and continuing them impeccable by super-creation grace. Man the high favourite of heaven, whose knowledge of God, and his will, was bright and clear, who was admitted into communion with the Trinity in a way suitable to his state and circumstance, yet, though without sin in him, he upon the first assault and temptation, fell from his pure and original righteousness. He became a sinner by his own act and deed, transgressing his Maker's command, and all mankind fell in him, and with him, into a state of sin, guilt, and defilement.

Here I renew the question: What is man? Why, he is a fallen, guilty, sinful,

helpless creature! totally corrupt, sinfully polluted, and entirely unclean, deserving of God's curse, and wrath, not only in this life, but also in that which is to come. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that, or in whom all have sinned." Adam being to convey his image, when he sinned, could convey only his corrupt and sinful image to his posterity, and it is expressly said, "He begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." For that which is born of the flesh is flesh, altogether carnal and corrupt. All Adam's descendants are polluted, and stained with the guilt, and filth of his sin, and depravity. For he lost all his original holiness and righteousness, and contracted an impurity. I would here quote Doctor Owen's words, which are, 'When divines affirm that by Adam's 'sin we are guilty of damnation, they do "not mean, that any are actually damned for his particular fact, but that by his sin, and our sinning in him, by God's 'most just ordination, we have contracted that exceeding pravity, and sinfulness of

nature, which deserveth the curse of God, ‹ and eternal damnation.' By the fall, none of the faculties of the soul are destroyed, nor is there one desire, inclination, or appetite, which was not originally there, at, and by creation, which was not then implanted by the goodness of God towards man. But the holiness of all the desires, affections, and inclinations of our souls is lost; that divine weight, which poised all, is removed; so that there is in us a privation, and want of all good, and a positive inclination within us to all evil. For all evil is within us, it is our very nature, and we are by conception, which lays the foundation of our actual existence, sinners, and are born such. Hence, saith Paul, "And were by nature the children of wrath." The fruits and effects of which are manifested in the actual transgressions committed by us.

Take the following testimonies. The world having, from the creation to Noah's time, run out a period of almost 1656 years; God is fain to cast up the accounts of it, which he did, and it is declared,

"God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Jeremiah declares, "The heart is deceitful above all things." And our Lord Jesus Christ himself declares in the seventh chapter of Mark's gospel, the same truth: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, an evil eye, blasphe› my, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." In man's guilty, fallen state, he is dead to God, dead in law, under the guilt and power of sin, deserving of, and liable to eternal wrath. Which leads me to consider how that every one dying in this state is cut off from God to all eternity. It is the just desert of sin, the wages due unto it being a moral, natural, and eternal death-" The wages of sin is death.” And there are some sinners who have undergone and have endured all these kinds of death, As it respects the first, "all having sinned, and

come short of the glory of God;" so all are equally involved in a moral death; which consists in being cut off in their hearts and affections from God, and in being and continuing dead to God and spiritual things, being in an unregenerate state," without hope and without God in the world." death, it reigned from Adam to Moses; from him to the present moment, never but two were exempted from it. And as it respects eternal death, multitudes are already actually numbered with the dead and damned. Some of our fellow mortals are in hell, damned souls. If it be asked for what? the answer is ready! For sin. Christ himself hath said, "If ye die in your sins, where I am, thither ye cannot come." And also he declares, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." It is only regeneration alters a man's state. It is by it alone he is made meet for heaven. Without it he cannot understand, seek after, or enjoy God. I shall here omit what might be said of the blessed state of fellowship with God we are brought into when we

With respect to natural