ask the proof of it, in what is evident respecting his conduct toward mankind? It would be easy to reply, that his own word contains unanswerable evidence of the fact that in his dealings with our race, in ages gone by, he acted on the principle avowed. It would be easy to shew that in cases well known, he has displayed it. How he declares, for example, that he punished the adultery of David with the incest of Absalom. Solomon's idolatry by the revolt of Jeroboam. The sins of Israel by the oppression of the Assyrians. And in regard to sinners of our depraved species who trample under foot his paternal prerogative, that he is judicially pleased, as declared, to give them up to the lusts of their own hearts :* that they may receive in themselves a recompense of error which is meet :† and while unreclaimed by the grace of the gospel, yea, continuing in a state of confirmed guilt and impenitence, as the righteous reward of sin and shame, may eat of the fruit of their own way, and be literally filled with their own devices.

And with relation to the amount of pain and infamy that spring immediately from moral causes; the base appetites and malignant passions of our frame; or the moral nature of man prostrate, I think we may gain some lively impression of it, by looking at any sin in regard to its pestiferous influence on the condition of

our race.

Surely, if observation can teach any thing, or experience confirm our acquaintamce with the past, we know, that it is the nature of sin to separate the soul from a knowledge of its author; and deprive it of an exersise in which its faculties obtain their highest expan

*Romans i. 24. † Romans i. 27.-Gr. antimisthia. Prov. i. 31.

sion. It is the nature of sin to take off the moral affections of the heart, or master feeling of it, from the only satisfactory good on which it is placed. And it is the nature of every sin, though small perhaps by comparison, to oppose a barrier between the creature, and the the self-existent One, effectually debarring the former from sharing the natural expressions of divine complacency and care. And in the loss of a possession so strongly marked, I merely ask if there be no injury sustained? Is there no destruction of peace and comfort to the proprietor; or ought that should excite in the heart of a rebel a natural emotion of complete dissatisfaction?-If you would obtain a reply to the fearful inquiry, consider then, I entreat you, the experience which is naturally blended with the perpetration of all sin Let it pass distincly in review before the mind. Ponder it faithfully-the conscious guilt, feeling of desertion, bitter regret, sense of wrath, keen temptations, and awful fear of the Eternal's presence! And on comparison of these things, I repeat it-Is there nothing here inimical to happiness? Is there no worm close at the root of peace and concord? and whose incursive step blights the welfare and endearments of our state? I trust you can respond with one voice in the affirmation, and deprecate sin as a most alarming evil. And . yet this simple sketch, I conceive, may be viewed as but a faint response to what is contained in the Book of inspiration. In words which the Holy Ghost teacheth our state is graphically penned. And in virtue of the apostacy, and of its natural effects, there is connected in a strain of unequalled pathos, with a lively apprehension of sin, and the unrestrained practice of it by dependent beings, a reprobate sense, a seared con

science, hardened heart, vile affections, spirit of bondage, and in the consequence of an unremitted opposition to the divine will, being given up of God to a "strong delusion" to believe a lie that they may be damned! And in the possession of these characters, or what is naturally attained of them, man degrades himself below the beast that perisheth. The sacred energies of his soul are withered at the shrine of Satan. Yea, in virtue of such infatuation, as might be anticipated, the earth itself is filled with a prelibation of enduring anguish ; and by a righteous dispensation, the rebellious worm, that defies Omnipotency, is most properly a subject of spiritual death.

Nor can it avail any thing whatever to reply to this statement, that no man during his stay upon the earth, is as sinful in the eye of his Maker as he can be. Or, that he may discover, perhaps, some cheering traits of natural goodness and pliancy of temper.

In regard to that instance, it does not reach the point contemplated in in my remarks. The death I am speaking of is the dying of a moral agent: or rather, extinction of life occasioned by the loss of our Maker's image. And whatever else a man may retain while destitute of that glorious resemblance, and therefore unfit for communion with him whose favor is life; nay, however much he may be pleased with his circumstances, . he is actually dead while he liveth. He has no conformity whatever to a law spiritually perfect, and from a settled aversion to it cannot bring forth fruit unto holiuess. And regarding the sinner in that light, as an enemy of the Being that made him, the soul itself must be acknowledged the prime instrument of rebellion. It must be regarded, as the seat of all that is offensive to

a Being infinitely perfect and holy. And as the principal agent, in every thing relating to an unholy warfare with Heaven, it is easy to perceive, that the wounds it inflicts on itself are richly deserved. They are doubtless the sorest display of the wrath implied in the text. And ought in fact to be deprecated the more earnestly, as striking at the root of every thing spiritually excellent, and as wounds are found by painful consequence to be the more dangerous to the subject that bleed inwardly.*

Once more. In a faithful exposition of the death, or threatening implied in the injunction of the text, it may be viewed in regard to its whole duration in the experience of the transgressor himself.

With respect to that point, if left to the undisturbed operations of law and justice, the penalty must appear, in harmony with the simplicity of its publication, to be complete and hopeless misery throughout the whole period of the sinner's existence. If a distinction be made

between time and eternity in

respect to its execution,

Spiritual death, or habitual and immoveable sin, in the view of Adam, a holy, and spotless being, and hating wholly every sin, might, I think, be regarded, not only as not chosen, or loved by him, but as an object of supreme dread and horror. Let it be, for a moment only, considered, how such a being must feel, under a sense of losing his holy character forever, and of being confirmed, beyond recall in a per petual hatred of God, and a perpetual love and practice of sin; and I believe all serious persons will agree, that this debased, odious and contempuble character must appear to him an evil literally infinite. To sin once, was to him an object of horror; but to be cousigned for that sin to habitual and eternal rebellion and iniquity, and to become thus forever hateful, vile, and despicable, must be, on the one hand, a loss; and on the other, a suffering, dreadful beyond all conception, except that of experience. It was, therefore, capable of being the subject of threatening, or penalty; and that to any supposable degree.-Dwight,

no reason can be given, why it may not be literally everlasting. Not, indeed, that the penalty does specifically declare it: but though silent on that point, the finite capacity of the transgressor will require it. For as sin is an infinite evil, at least, objectively so, nothing can atone for its dreadful demerit, but a suffering that is extensively commensurate with it. And while the light of nature may seem to teach us, that suffering beyond the grave is required for that end; and mere change of circumstances cannot diminish the terrors of spiritual death; the word of God, I apprehend has definitively settled the question-that in the eye of a law morally perfect, every violation of the divine will, as legally visited, must be followed up by the desolations of an interminable being.*

But while this is actually professed, as concerned with our first parent, however, the truth of the matter will admit of a qualified attention.

Had he remained then under the bond of the old covenant, and no mediator between God and man ap

* God meant to punish Adam according to his deserts. And what did he deserve? Why, an infinite punishment; i. e. to have all good taken away, and all kinds of evil come upon him forever. Well, what good had Adam in possession? Why he had a natural life, resulting from the union of his soul and body, with all the delights and sweetnesses thereof; and he had a spiritual life, resulting from the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, and consisting of the image of God and sense of his love, with all the delights and sweetnesses thereof; and he was formed for immortality, and so was in a capacity for eternal life and blessedness, in glorifying God, and enjoying him. Here, therefore he was capable of a natural, a spiritual, and an eternal death; to have soul and body rent asunder forever; to be forsaken by the Spirit of God, and given up to the power of sin and Satan forever, and to have God Almighly become his everlasting enemy. All this he deserved: and therefore God meant all this. All this he knew he should deserve; and therefore he could not but understand the threatening to comprehend all this.-Bellamy.