are by nature in the condition of devils, wholly given over to evil, and no good is to be expected of them. The sin of a devil is no great evil, for he is already as bad as he can be. Man cannot be much degraded by sin, for he is wholly degraded already. The evil of actual sin, then, cannot consist in degradation. Sin is man's appropriate work, the employment to which he is adapted, and the only employment of which he is made capable. Then, as to the suffering it produces, it is difficult to conceive how a human being can suffer more than "all the miseries of this life and the pains of hell for

ever.

But supposing man to come into the world pure and innocent, and to be left to form his own character, instead of inheriting one already formed, the sin becomes a word of the most awful significance. That terrible interest which is made to centre in the single sin of Adam, as determining the condition of his posterity, is diffused over all their actions. Every sin is a fall to him who commits it, just as much, in proportion to its magnitude, as was the sin of Adam. Milton, by the power of his genius, has gathered around that act a thousand nameless horrors. But if every human being were able to see his own sins in their true light, he would be infinitely more appalled than he can be by contemplating the sin of Adam.

Personal transgression is followed by a painful sense of the loss of innocence. What stronger evidence can there be that we were made pure, and intended to continue so? Not only is there a painful sense of the loss of innocence, but a strong feeling of self-reproach. On what is that self-reproach founded? On the consciousness that we have descended to something beneath us. We have voluntarily abandoned that dignity which be

The

longed to us, as free rational and religious beings. violent contrast between the dignity of a child of God, created in his own image, and made for virtue and obedience, and the humiliation of sin, constitutes the sting and anguish of guilt. The very consciousness that we are not fallen in Adam, but fallen in ourselves, constitutes our misery, when we feel that we have done wrong. It would be an infinite relief to us, if, under a sense of guilt, we could practically believe in the doctrine of original sin, - that we are by nature "indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is good, and wholly inclined to all evil." Then we might find a cloak for our sins, and feel ourselves excused, in some measure, for our aberrations. It is the fact, that no man can really believe this doctrine, that makes the burden of our guilt lie on us so heavily; it is the consciousness that we are "created in the image of God, and have his law written on our hearts, and are endued with that freedom of the will which enables us, if we choose, to fulfil the requirements of the law."

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Sin becomes a much sorer evil, when we consider it as imprinting a stain on that which was originally pure, than when considered as only giving a deeper dye to that which is already blackened and defaced. Taking away the doctrine of original sin, actual transgression becomes the only real evil there is in the world. sins which men are committing every day, and not the sin that Adam committed at the beginning of the world, are the real cause of the multitudinous woes which oppress mankind. By repetition they harden into habits, and finally form character, and thus create the most momentous difference between man and man that can possibly be conceived. They separate the sinner from the saint

by a gulf which he cannot pass. They involve him in woes which no man can number, and of which no finite mind can see the end.

I leave all who hear me to judge, if the views of which I have now been giving an exposition are calculated to diminish our apprehension of the evil of sin.

DISCOURSE V.

THE MORAL PRINCIPLE THE STRONGEST PRINCIPLE IN MAN.

AND WHEN THEY WERE ESCAPED, THEN THEY KNEW THAT THE ISLAND WAS CALLED MELITA. AND THE BARBAROUS PEOPLE SHOWED US NO LITTLE KINDNESS: FOR THEY KINDLED A FIRE, AND RECEIVED US EVERY ONE, BECAUSE OF THE PRESENT RAIN, AND BECAUSE OF THE COLD. AND WHEN PAUL HAD GATHERED A BUNDLE OF STICKS, AND LAID THEM ON THE FIRE, THERE CAME A VIPER OUT OF THE HEAT, AND FASTENED ON HIS HAND. AND WHEN THE BARBARIANS SAW THE VENOMOUS BEAST HANG ON HIS HAND, THEY SAID AMONG THEMSELVES, NO DOUBT THIS MAN IS A MURDERER, WHOM, THOUGH HE HATH ESCAPED THE SEA, YET VENGEANCE SUFFERETH NOT TO LIVE. AND HE SHOOK OFF THE BEAST INTO THE FIRE, AND FELT NO HARM. HOW BEIT, THEY LOOKED WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE SWOLLEN, OR FALLEN DOWN DEAD SUDDENLY: BUT AFTER THEY HAD LOOKED A GREAT WHILE, AND SAW NO HARM COME TO HIM, THEY CHANGED THEIR MINDS, AND SAID THAT HE WAS A GOD. - Acts xxviii. 1–6.

In ascertaining what are the essential moral and religious elements of human nature, no evidence could be more unexceptionable than that of these barbarous inhabitants of a solitary island, cut off by its position from frequent intercourse with the rest of the world. They were certainly the most unsophisticated representatives of humanity, its religious faith, its intellectual connec

tions, its moral sentiments, its native feelings. It is my purpose to make use of this accidental visit of Paul to Melita in our present investigation into the moral constitution of human nature.

It was the purpose of a discourse which I delivered not long ago, to prove, by the structure of universal language, the universal perception of the distinction between right and wrong, and the universal recognition of the obligation to choose the right and reject the wrong.

It is the purpose of this discourse to prove that this perception of the understanding is accompanied by an emotion of the heart, and that the feelings excited by what is right are those of approbation, and those produced by wrong those of disapprobation, the first rising up through the different degrees of pleasure, admiration, enthusiasm ; the others descending, through disgust and abhorrence, to stern indignation. I shall undertake to show, not only that there is a moral feeling as well as a moral perception in the constitution of man, but that it is the strongest feeling, and demonstrated to be so by its power to overcome and vanquish any other that can be brought in conflict with it.

It is taught as a fundamental doctrine of theology, that "mankind are by nature indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is good, and wholly inclined to all evil." In the case of these savage islanders, there can be no doubt that they were in the state of nature. And what did they do? Did they show by their spontaneous actions that they were "indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is good, and wholly inclined to all evil"? Had they been, they would have murdered the Apostle and his companions as soon as they touched the shore. But, on the contrary, what is the testimony of