there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not

one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we fearlessly assert, that this is given as the native character of Jews and Gentiles, by one whom the Holy Ghost inspired, and who could not mistake the truth. Believe the last clause only, and tell me if in men, who have "no fear of God before their eyes," there is any holiness? "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Here again christian honesty will read the same doctrine. And the same in this text, "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil." And in this, "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And that none may escape, it reads; "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man :" And thus the uniform testimony of scripture. There would be no end in quoting the scriptures on this important point, till I had refered you to almost the whole bible. And a doctrine about which God will say so much, must be in his estimation, and should be in ours, of high importance.

2. The doctrine of the text is esteemed important, as it is one of the first truths, used by the Spirit of God, in awakening and sanctifying sinners. Till men see their depravity, they will not approve of the law that condemns them. They will be wondering, if indeed they think at all, why God threatens them, and be blaming the law as too rigid in its requirements, and cruel in its penalties. Now there is no hope of a sinner, while he stands in this posture; and nothing will move him from it, but a conviction of his lost and ruined state. Hide from him the character of his heart, and you seal him up to everlasting stupidity. You can arouse him to no apprehensions of danger, for under the government of a good God none are in danger but sinners. And there will of course be no repentance. A thoughtless sinner sees nothing to repent of, nor any reason why he should repent, and the man who knows nothing of his heart will not be thoughtful. The commandment never Icomes home to his conscience. If he has hopes of

heaven, it will be on the ground of his own selfrighteousness. Thus the Saviour will be to him as a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness, and the work of grace can never be begun. Thus is the sinner, who is kept ignorant of his heart, sealed up to the judgment, and goes on as the ox to the slaughter, and the fool to the correction of the stocks. The spirit of God will sanctify only through the truth, and the entire depravity of the heart is a first truth, without a knowledge of which no sinner was ever yet fitted for the kingdom of God,

A gospel then, if we must so call it, that hides from men the deformity of their moral character, betrays and ruins them. It says to the wicked, thạt it shall be well with them, and thus cradles their fears to sleep, till their period of mercy is past; and proves ultimately the greatest calamity that can befal them. It closes upon them the portals of eternal life, and keeps them dreaming, and fearless, till they open their eyes in hell. But when they at last make the discovery, perhaps on the bed of death, or it may be not till life has gone out, how will they execrate the recollection of such a gospel. It will come up to mind as does the tempest, that wrecked all their hopes upon the relentless reaf; or the fire that forced them to make a midnight retreat from the place that had been long their safe and happy home.

The ministers of Christ would love to preach a smoother gospel, if men could only be safe under it. It would be pleasant to have to do only with the invitations, and the promises, and the hopes of the gospel. They had far rather remind the believer of the joys to come, than to admonish the unbeliever of the judgment, the outer darkness, and the gnawing worm. They could have far more pleasure in describing the graces of the Spirit, than in portraying the deformities of the unsanctified heart.

But the grand object of the gospel ministry is to save souls, and this object is not gained, unless men are taught, as the very first lesson of that ministry, that they are lost. Hence to suppress this truth,

would be to nutralize at once the whole effect of this ministry. Whatever we may wish, we can be the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ to a ruined world, but on this one condition, that the alienation of our world from God, hold the place of a first truth in every effort of our ministry. The gospel has absolutely no meaning, and can be of no use, but to the lost and the condemned.

3. The doctrine of the text is esteemed important, as it lies at the foundation of the whole gospel scheme. The Lord Jesus Christ came into our world, to seek and to save them that are lost, and the whole plan of salvation is so interwoven with this fact, as to be unintelligible without it. What means the covenant of redemption, but in connexion with the fact that we are captives and slaves, and need to be redeemed? What is there intelligible in the atonement, but that we owe ten thousand talents, and have nothing to pay? why urged to repent, but that we are in love with sin, and must otherwise perish? why believe on the Lord Jesus: Christ, but that we need a better righteousness than our own to shelter us from the wrath to come? why make to ourselves a new heart,but that we have by nature evil hearts of unbelief, inclining us to depart from the living God?

And let me ask, why all the threatenings of the gospel, but that it was written for the use of a disobedient and gainsaying people? why on every page

does there meet us some anathema, but that it was intended for those who love not our Lord Jesus Christ? why has death passed upon all men, but that all have sinned? why a judgment, and a place of torment, but that those who have carried their entire depravity with them into the coming world, may be distinguished, and may go to their own place.

Finally it is matter of doubt whether an honest man, acquainted with the bible, and willing to collect his creed from it, will find it possible to exclude the doctrine of the text from a fundamental place in its structure. What doctrine can he preach, if he denies it? what precept enforce? what threatening announce? what promise apply? we need no gospel if this doctrine is not true, and we have none. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Will the great God defend his own truth, and bless every effort for its vindication, and sanctify his people through its influence, and speedily let it cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Will he bring the multitudes of the ungodly to know, that they are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity, and persuade them to fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel.