sanctification with the several misapprehensions of it, which will have been specified, that by thus observing the leading particulars, in which the real life of a christian consists, the dangers, by which it is encompassed, and the divine helps and encouragements, by which it is supported, we may at length be enabled to deduce such principles as under the direction of scripture, and by the blessing of its divine author, may preserve us from dangerous error in following again after that holiness, without which it is declared to us in the volume of inspiration, that no man, whatever may be his other endowments, recommendations, or advantages, shall see the Lord.

May his gracious and sanctifying spirit lead us into all truth, and render it effective to our personal salvation!

SERMON II.

1 JOHN V. 19.

The whole world lieth in wickedness.

How awfully different is the statement in this text from that, which describes the original dignity of man! When there was but one man on the face of the earth, and he retained his primeval innocence, he was the image and glory of God. But at a time, when the earth was overspread with innumerable multitudes of inhabitants, saint John is moved by the holy Ghost to declare concerning it, that the whole world lieth in wickedness. Such is the fearful consequence of that one sin, which

Brought death into the world, and all our woe.

But we must examine the precise meaning of the text, before we pursue it into the particulars, of which it consists. · Ὁ κόσμος ὃλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κειται. HEITAL.' The proposition is opposed to one, which almost immediately follows. · Εσμεν ἐν

· τῷ ἄληθινῷ. They must be translated alike; and, if by T and a person is meant, we must also understand a person by τῷ πονηρῷ. Now the apostle has explained his own meaning in the one phrase: for by T and he declares, that he means the son of God, Jesus Christ. Therefore by τ TOMρ he must mean a person likewise and the two correspondent phrases may be rendered-' The whole world lieth in 'the wicked one. We are in the true one.'

But still there remains the question-What is meant by lying in the wicked one, and being in the true one? The expressions are undoubtedly figurative and the surest way of ascertaining the meaning of a figurative expression is by observing, what the same phrase imports, when used without a figure.

Now, when our blessed lord is introduced to the notice of the shepherds, as τὸ βρίφος, κείμενον ἐν τῇ þáτvy, we understand by that phrase, that the holy babe rested upon the manger, and was supported by it: and this we should understand, whether it was said, that he lay, or that he was in the manger. Just so here therefore we are taught, that the whole world rests or reposes upon the evil

one, being upheld and supported by him, but that we, christians, on the contrary rest upon the true one, and are upheld and supported by Jesus Christ. The whole unconverted world consequently is under the dominion of the wicked one, while those, who truly believe in Jesus Christ, are under the dominion of him, who is true, nay, who is himself, to use his own language, the way, and the truth, and the life, or, as he speaks of himself in another place, he, that is holy, he, that is true.

'The whole world lieth in wickedness.'. Let us consider, what this painful statement imports! and may he, who desireth not the death of a sinner, effectually translate us all from the power of Satan unto the kingdom of his dear son!

The origin of this frightful evil is thus described by saint Paul. The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety.' He led her to believe, that by tasting the forbidden fruit she should gratify at once her eye, her taste, and her appetite for knowledge, whereas, when the short fever of indulgence was past, nothing could be more distasteful to her than the memory of that tree,

and the only increase of knowledge, which she obtained, was an acquaintance with evil, to which it had been her blessed privilege to remain a stranger and the course, which he pursued with Eve, he has since pursued with all her posterity; for so we are expressly informed in the book of revelation, where it is written- That 'old serpent, called the devil and Satan, deceiv'eth the whole world.' And does not enlightened observation and conscious experience confirm the testimony? Else by what strange infatuation is it, that the pleasures of sin are always dressed out to the imagination of youth in the most flattering colours, as if nothing could be wanting to the felicity of indulgence, while yet it is universally found in the issue, that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness, and we learn too late the lesson, of which the word of God had long forewarned us-" Know, and see, that it is an evil thing “and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord,

thy God, and that my fear is not in thee ❞— 'saith the Lord, God of hosts'-? The delusive fascination of sin, which, as the eye of a serpent attracts the captivated bird to its destruc