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to many a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence? It is so, without reason. We must, doubtless, suppose, if we believe in the infinite benevolence of Deity, that the evil introduced by the Fall was permitted for the ultimate eduction of the greatest possible good. Accordingly, the fall of Adam was immediately followed by the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. Without entering, then, at present, into any abstruse reasoning on this head, let us, at once, admit this plain, scriptural solution of the difficulty." Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. As in "Adam, all die, so in Christ shall all be "made alive. As by one man, sin entered "into the world, and death by sin, so the 66 grace of God hath abounded unto all

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men, through Jesus Christ." Thus are the woful effects of the Fall, to be more than countervailed by a universal and glorious remedy.

Besides, let it be sufficiently remarked, that this transmission of sin, this entailed disaster in the moral world, is in perfect harmony with what we daily observe in the natural

world. How often do we see the prodigality and vice of the parent entail poverty and disease both upon himself and his posterity, in the very same manner, as Adam's disobedience has made us sinners and obnoxious to misery! With what reason, then, can the doctrine of hereditary corruption be ever urged, exclusively, as an objection to the truth of Revelation? Men, vain, and ambitious to be "wise above what " is written," may dispute and cavil against this doctrine, as long and as keenly as they please, but their disputations and cavils can never annihilate the fact, that we are all naturally sinners, and disposed to trifle with our dearest, our everlasting interests.

-Sin, like an inveterate disease, rankles in our frame; instead then of disputing and cavilling, wisdom bids us haste to the great Physician of souls, resign ourselves into his hands, and, with humility and faith, implicitly follow his divine directions.—Sin is the ruin of our nature; it is a mad attempt to defeat the purpose of God, and disturb the peace and order of the universe. While then we continue in sin, we are enemies to God; and how awful, to be in a state of

enmity to Him! We are, every moment, exposed to all that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, which he hath threatened against every soul that doeth evil. What, then, shall we do to be saved? Let us believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall be saved; let us be fully convinced of our own sins, and of his excellence; let us cordially receive the glad tidings of mercy which he hath brought, and we shall never perish; all our iniquities shall be blotted out; we shall be made pure in heart; we shall see God, and inherit eternal life.

Christian! thou who hast seen the malignity of sin, and hast often wept for it, in secret, before God, be not discouraged. That precious "blood of sprinkling," to which thou hast applied, will soon cleanse thee from every stain. Once thy wickedness, too, was great in the earth, and the imaginations of thy heart evil; and still thou groanest, being burdened with the sad remains of sin within thee; but keep the faith; be patient and endure unto the end, and when "He who cometh quickly shall "come," thou shalt be completely holy and

completely happy. Angels shall "joy over "thee with singing :" Christ himself "shall "see of the travail of his soul, and be satis"fied" in "the glory that shall be reveal"ed" in thee :-a glory great as the extent of thy capacity, and lasting as the days of immortality.

THE NATURE OF THE LAW, AND OF SIN THE TRANSGRESSION OF IT.

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Sin is the transgression of the law.

THE Apostle John, in addressing his Christian brethren, exhorts them, with much earnestness and affection, to beware of every thing that might lead them to the commission of sin. For this For this purpose, he reminds them of the dignity of their present character, and the magnificence of their future hopes." Beloved, now are we the

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sons of God, and it doth not yet appear "what we shall be: but we know that when "He shall appear, we shall be like him, for "we shall see him as he is."-But how in

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