ye shall all likewise perish." "He that believeth NOT shall be damned."*

None therefore but those who are freed from the threatenings of death and have a title to the promises of life, possess a particle of holiness.

Before I proceed further allow me to remind you of one fact with which you cannot be unacquainted. The Scriptures divide mankind into two classes; the good and the bad, the righteous and the wicked, natural men and spiritual men, believers and unbelievers, those who are in Christ and those who are out, the justified and the condemned, the heirs of heaven and the heirs of hell. There is not a third class. With this fact before me I remark,

(3.) A number of the most simple and essential properties of a holy nature are particularly specified, and are declared not to belong to the class denominated wicked. This class possess no love to God or Christ. The proof of this I shall reserve for the next lecture. This class have no desire after

* Mat. x. 42. Mark xvi. 16. Luke xiii. 3. John xiv. 21. Acts ii. 38. Rom. viii. 28. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Heb. xii. 14. If it be said that the terms which express the conditions of these promises and denunciations are all descriptive of general character, (like the texts referred to in the third lecture, p. 74-76,) the author concedes that they may be so understood without giving a wrong view of the promises and threatenings; because men who love, repent, or believe, in the least degree, do the same habitually. But while some passages almost expressly speak of general character and are evidently confined to that view, (as those cited in the third lecture,) many of the promises and threatenings are so constructed as plainly to imply that those who are not entitled to the one but are exposed to the other are entirely destitute of holiness. Indeed by a union of indefiniteness, (which by omitting the notice of degrees suggests the idea of general character,) with explicitness, (by which the utter destitution of the wicked is sufficiently expressed,) they seem to have been constructed on purpose to hold out this precise proposition, that they who are not holy in their general character possessed no holiness at all. The general and sweeping tenor, for instance, of the promises and threatenings above quoted, in which no degrees of holiness are marked, but a distinct line of separation is drawn between those who love and those who love "not,"-those who repent and those who repent "not,"-those who believe and those who believe "not," -those who possess and those who are "without holiness," evidently implies that they whose general character is not marked with love, repentance, and faith, are utterly destitute of these and every other holy principle.And if this is allowed to be their language, they only assert what the great body of Scripture abundantly confirms.

God: "The wicked-say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." They have no desire after Christ: he is to them "as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when [they]-see him there is no beauty that [they] should desire him." They do not seek God: The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God." If there should be any doubt who are meant by the wicked that do not seek God, the Psalmist will resolve it at once:"The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did-seek God. They are all gone aside;" "there is none that seeketh after God." This class do not fear God, though "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before their eyes." And to show infallibly that by the wicked, in this and other similar passages, are meant the whole race of natural men, the apostle in the 3d chapter of Romans quotes these very words, and other things alleged against the wicked in the Old Testament, as asserted of all natural men, and intended to prove that "both Jews and Gentiles-are all under sin," (that "every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God,") and that "by the deeds of the law-no flesh [can] be justified." This class do not know God: "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." "These things will they, [the world,] do unto you for my name's sake because they know not him that sent me.' This class are wholly unacquainted with the way of life: "The way of peace have they not known:" Hence in allusion to the conversion of sinners it is said, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known." This class have no discernment or understanding or right knowledge of divine things: "We

speak-not the wisdom of this world,-but-the wisdom of God in a mystery,-which none of the princes of this world knew;-as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.-For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.-But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." "My people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, they have none understanding." "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand. They are all gone aside." "There is none that understandeth." Hence all spiritual understanding is represented as coming from God: "The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true." "We-do not cease to pray for you that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This class have none of that love to their neighbour which is required in the divine law: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." This class have no true hatred of sin: "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;" but they have "no fear of God before their eyes." However the body of sin may change its form and some of its members be retrenched, they are in no degree delivered from its dominion: "To depart from evil is understanding."*

* Job xvii. 4 and xxi. 7, 14. xxviii. 28. Ps. x. 4 and xiv. 2, 3. and xxxvi. 1. and cxi. 10. Prov. i. 7. and viii. 13. and ix. 10. Isai. xlii. 16. and liii. 2. Jer. iv. 22. John xv. 21. and xvii. 25. Rom. iii. 9-20. 1 Cor. ii, 6-14 Col. i. 9. 1 John iv. 7. and v. 20.

(4.) All natural men are the enemies of God and his Son. This decisive proof of total depravity will be reserved for the following lecture.

(5.) That natural men possess no holy principle is evident from this, that all their actions, so far as they partake of a moral nature, are wicked. Their "ways are always grievous." They "have only done evil-from their youth." They "have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands." The very "plowing of the wicked is sin." Even their "sacrifice-is an abomination to the Lord." "So then they that are in the flesh, [in their natural state,] cannot please God:" or what amounts to the same thing, "without faith it is impossible to please him."*

(6.) The doctrine is supported by direct and positive declarations. "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." "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead." "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." "The heart is deceitful above all things and DESPERATELY wicked; who can know it?" Whose heart? THE heart,-in the most universal form."The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint: from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.' "Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled;-being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate." "That which is born of the flesh, [by natural generation,] is flesh,"—is nothing but flesh; because all that is

xi. 6.

Ps. x. 4. Prov. xv. 8. and xxi. 4. Jer. xxxii. 30. Rom. viii. 8. Heb.

spirit, or that stands in opposition to flesh, is produced by a second birth: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." By flesh is unquestionably meant the old nature with which we were born. What then is the character of the flesh? Let an apostle answer: "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth NO GOOD THING." Will you hear him further? "The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.Now the works of the flesh are-these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Hear him yet further: "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit; for to be carnally [fleshly] minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace; because the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh, [in their natural state,] cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in

you."

To this mass of proof may be added, what perhaps is the most decisive of all, that mankind by nature are "DEAD in trespasses and sins:" You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened." "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." If you say these were heathen, let us then go to the Jews: "God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us." "Jesus said unto him, Follow me