of us being by nature as bad as the worst of sin"ners." This is sound specch, which cannot be condemned. The author speaks like a christian, and be speaks like a divine. And I could heartily wish all the bishops, priests, and deacons in England, spoke the same language. If any reject this doctrine, it cannot be for want of evidence, but for want of a mind readily disposed to receive the truth. Now, if we had time, and if I was not afraid I had burdened the reader already, how many useful inferences might be deduced from this doctrine! as,

First, Acknowledge it. By acknowledging it, I do not barely mean receiving it as a principle of science or philosophical speculation. Alas! You may thus receive it, and yet be never the better. Many say they are sinners, but how few are convinced of the misery and sinfulness of sin! How many have the theory of original sin in their heads, who have not the experience thereof in their hearts! In our liturgy, we confess that we are grieved and wearied with the burden of our sins."* And in another place we acknowledge, "The remembrance of our "sins is grievous unto us, the burden of them is in"tolerable." Which places show us, that the burden of sin is not only to be confessed, but also to be felt by us. Or, will you say, the burden of sin may be intolerable, and yet we have no feeling sense of it?

*Commination.

+ Communion service.

This shows, as well the profound ignorance, as the horrid impiety, of those who ridicule the doctrine of feeling the burden of sin, and presume to call it cant and enthusiasm. If men, never were wearied with the burden of their sins, never did feel them intolerable, nor desire so to do; then, such prayers and such concessions will be so far from doing them any real service, that they will only bear testimony to their hypocrisy, and highly aggravate their condemnation. Cry, therefore, to God, that he would make your sins a burden too heavy for you.* Come unto Jesus labouring and heavy laden, and he will give you rest. The word lepogovor, Matt. xi. 28. signifies laden as with a burden. An insupportable burden, will crush under the person who bears it. Sin is a burden insupportable, and will crush us down to hell, if Jesus doth not remove it from us, and give rest to our souls.

Secondly, Here see the folly of glorying in our pedigree. We are all the corrupt offspring of a corrupt parent, Adam. Some boast of their being of this great family, and others of that; some glory in being descended from kings and princes; and others from lords and nobles. Alas! what vanity is all this! Surely, when people talk at this rate, they forget they all sprang from the same root, and are tainted from the womb. The prince and the peasant, the

* Psalm, xxxviii. 4.

king and the beggar, are all equal in this respect; they have all one common father, viz. Adam. Trace your pedigree from him, and you will have no reason to glory, unless you will glory in your shame. Look back to your proper source and original, and be ashamed and confounded, at seeing what a polluted sinner he was, and what a sinful polluted nature you have derived from him.

Thirdly, Let all your actual sins, lead you back to the original corruption of your nature. You, perhaps, lament this outward sin, and the other; but do you see the root of all, the inbred impurity of your heart? What signifies lopping off the branches? lay the ax to the root of the tree. Confess, and lament the inward depravity of your soul, and be humbled before the Lord. Your outward sins are but the streams, the fountain of all is your original corruption. All that pravity and baseness, which "fills up every part and power about us, are but dif"fusions of our original corruption. What a world "of mischief is there in our several parts! our wills, "affections, our tongues, eyes! and, yet all these "are but as little rivulets; the fountain, or rather "the sea that feeds them, is our corrupted nature."*

Fourthly, We learn from hence, that all are equally corrupted; all are equally far gone from

* Wilkins's Gift of Prayer,

There is

One is no

God; equally far fallen from original righteousness; and equally sunk into original sin. no difference. All are alike by nature. better than another: neither hath one sinner any reason to glory over another. But then, if all are equally corrupt, how comes it to pass, that they do not all run into the same outward immoralities? Why do they not commit the same gross enormities? The reason hereof is, because men have different bodily constitutions, different educations, and different temptations: they are under various constraints and restraints, and have different degrees of knowledge. If men were all exactly in the same. circumstances, in every respect they would all discover the same depravity of heart, and commit equal outward iniquity. But their different circumstances, together with the restraints of God's grace, and the hand of his providence, are causes why men are not equally vicious outwardly. But all by nature, are alike degenerate, and inclined to wickedness.

Fifthly, Hence we see the necessity of regeneration. Is it possible, for men in their natural estate, to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Can unregenerate sinners enjoy the pleasures of that high and holy place? Do you think, that a creature, full of the depraved appetites of a brute, and the malignant dispositions of a devil, is fit to dwell with God in glory? therefore, beseech God to create your heart anew, that you may be fit to see his face. Never rést till a second birth hath passed upon your soul.

What signifies the first birth, unless you experience a second? You had better never have been born at all, than not to be born again. Pray to God, therefore, that you may be born of the Spirit, and be reinstated in his favour.

Sixthly and lastly, Have you any thing besides nature in you? Have you any supernatural grace in your heart? Do you find any change in you ? Are you different from what you was? Have you passed from darkness to light? Do you live the life of faith? Are old things past away? And are all things become new in your soul? Rejoice, and give God all the glory. Do not insult other sinners. Remember, if you differ, it is the grace of God that makes you to differ. Therefore, be humble, be mean and abject in your own eyes, and say with the apostle, By the grace of God I am what I am.

III. All men are justly liable to the torments of hell for ever, as a consequence of original sin. This may seem a harsh saying; but it is true, as I will make appear at once. Every the least sin you can mention, deserves hell; only allow, then, that original sin is sin, and it will follow, that hell is the due desert thereof. This is clear, and (if I was to say no more) a sufficient proof of our proposition. I once, indeed, discoursed with a man who gave it as his opinion, that men would not be condemned at the day of judgment for original sin. I believe there are many of his mind, if they would speak the truth.