without hope of regaining his favor. And in both these respects, the penalty is denounced against all men, because all have sinned.

Next to this is to be mentioned,

2. The moral depravity. This is not to be considered as any part of the penalty of sin; since God can, in no sense, be the author of moral evil. Besides, the depravity commenced before the act of sin, in the desire of committing it. From this first desire has sprung that formidable train of corrupt affections, errors, and disorders of the soul, which have ever since attended mankind, and have rendered them so unhappy. It shows itself in a strong dislike to the restraints of the divine law, and the holy services of piety; in untractableness of the will, corruptness of the affections, and violence of the passions, and in eager and persevering attachments to the gratifications of sense, even under the most sensible effects of their pernicious natures, when too freely indulged. It is strongly displayed in that malevolent state of the heart which produceth wrath, envy, revenge, unmercifulness and cruelty, injustice and tyranny, offensive wars, and a delight in the ravages and desolations of society. And perhaps, in no case, does it more strongly appear, than in that deliberate violence which men offer to their consciences, when they suggest to them the guilt and danger of their sins, and would kindly check them in their career to

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ruin. This presumption is a crime in which every man lives, who enjoys the gospel, and yet refuseth his faith and obedience. If aversion to a pure and spiritual worship, such as God requires-if want of faith in the gospel, under the best advantages to understand it-if contractedness and malevolence of heart-if a preference of the interests of the body to those of the soul, and of this world to a better-if these be proofs of depravity, then is man depraved indeed. And that this is no groundless charge, let us hear the testimony of the scripture, from whose impartial decision there is no appeal: "There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Their mouth is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Such then, are the maladies of our nature; an universal evil, and beyond the reach of human remedies. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; and from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is nothing but

wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. Bad, however, as the case is, it is not hopeless, since there is a remedy provided that fully reaches it, and which is effectually applied to all who are willing to receive it. This leads us to mention

3. The acquittal. The sentence of death having been incurred by sin, the justice and honor of God required that it should be executed; and this must have taken place in its full extent, had it not been prevented by the interposition of Jesus Christ. He voluntarily offering himself to become a mediator between God and man, and being perfectly qualified to sustain that important office, was accepted of the Father, and "became the propitiation for our sins, bearing them in his own body on the tree, and suffering, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."

In these circumstances, we are certainly to consider him as a true and proper sacrifice for sin; for on no other principles could his suffering be consistent with justice, or important to the world. But being wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace having been laid upon him, we are healed by his stripes." So that God can now be just, in justifying, that is, acquitting from all their sins, those that believe in him. This takes off the sentence of eternal death, but the body must still suffer, and at length die. Yet, how far these tem

porary evils are to be considered as penal, with respect to the christian, on whose behalf Christ hath discharged the debt of sin, may, I think, be questioned. To him, all things shall work for the best, ultimately increasing the blessedness of the future state. Even death will be to him a release from sin and suffering, and the entrance to immortal life. But, by virtue of the death of Christ, death itself shall finally and universally be abolished. "For, as by Adam, all have died, so," in this respect, "by Christ, shall all be made alive;" for, "there shall be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust; and so death shall be swallowed up in victory," and the whole human race fixed in a state of deathless duration. They shall rise indeed, to very different ends; for "the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Against the former, the denunciation of the law remains in its full force, and the penalty must be executed in its full extent : while the latter, by virtue of their union with Christ, shall finally escape all the effects of the apostacy, and "shall feed on the tree of life that groweth in the midst of the garden of God," complete in righteousness.

This acquittal from the penalty of sin, while it takes away the curse and all the disabilities that attend it, at the same time puts the true christian into a state capable of enjoying all the benefits of

the redemption. The offender not only obtains his life and release, but the full rights and immunities of an innocent citizen. And this brings us to

4. The restoration. By sin, we at once lost the image of God, in which the soul was created, and the capacity of serving, and enjoying him, as well as forfeited all the inestimable advantages which would have belonged to us, had Adam our federal head continued in innocence to the end of his trial. By Jesus Christ we regain them all.

It would not have been sufficient for our happiness, merely to have been acquitted from the positive penalty of sin; it was absolutely necessary to complete our salvation, that we should regain those moral abilities of which sin had deprived us. The regaining of these is called "being born again, sanctification, a new creation," and by other terms which express a consecration of the soul to God, in the exercises and habits of pięty. And this change to a new state of life is effected by the energy of the Holy Spirit. "We are washed, we are justified, we are sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God."

In connexion with this, and as the consequence of it by the constitution of the gospel, we obtain the high privilege of being adopted into the family of God and considered as his children, and so en