"The soul that sinneth, it shall die."1 "Then shall the Judge say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." They who, for Christ's sake, might have dwelt amid the glories of the presence of God in still-increasing holiness and happiness for ever, will, for sin's sake, be driven out to live in eternal torment and the company of the wretched. And to this horrible state every sin brings us nearer, and every unrepented sin will condemn us. Sin is, therefore, in the most fearful sense, self-destruction: it is the soul's suicide: and, viewed in this light, from the tremendous nature of its consequences, must be inferred to be "exceeding sinful.'

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2. But our business at present is rather with its moral nature than with its consequences; and therefore, we may observe, secondly, that sin is opposition to our Creator. It is a principle to which every

' Ezek. xviii. 4.

2 Matt. xxv. 41.

mind at once readily gives its assent, that the Maker of all things has a right to the service of the things which He has made. And in general He receives it. Animate and inanimate nature alike perform their allotted duties. Bird, beast, and fish, herbs and trees, earth, air, and ocean, the orbs of heaven wheeling in their assigned orbits, all do Him homage by their regularity and uniform obedience to His laws. But man,

the last, best work of the Creator's hand, mars the order and harmony of the universe. His sin crosses and contradicts His Maker's will. Formed to adore, to obey, to glorify Him, he treats Him with neglect, disobedience, and dishonour. He has defaced God's image, and though made "upright," has "sought out many inventions" of iniquity. This has sin done : and on this ground alone, as opposition to our Creator, might be pronounced "exceeding sinful."

1 Eccles. vii. 29.

3. But, thirdly, it must be regarded as rebellion against our lawful King. The sovereignty of all things is undeniably God's. "The Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth." "I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen." Independently, then, of the claims of our mediatorial King, Christ the Lord of glory, we are bound to honour and obey God as King of the whole earth. His laws should be the rule of our conduct; His will the object of our efforts. His enemies should be our enemies and it should be our glory to promote His. I need hardly add, that it is not so. We forget His laws, or wilfully disobey them. We dishonour His name with our lips or in our lives. For some poor pleasure we sell ourselves to His enemies and either quit His service for theirs altogether, or vainly attempt to reconcile them both. If we do not profess in

1 Ps. xlvii. 2.

2 M al. i. 14.

words, we at least declare in practice, that we will not have Him to reign over us. Rebellion and treason are among the foulest crimes which stain the catalogue of man's injuries to man; yet rebels and traitors has sin made us against our heavenly King, the Lord our God.

4. But there are fouler crimes than these : and none, perhaps, is so justly branded by the universal voice of reprobation as ingratitude. Yet we must confess, that sin is ingratitude against God-and ingratitude, too, of the most aggravated kind; for He is our Benefactor, our Father, and our Redeemer.

God is our Benefactor. Even the most unhappy must admit, that, notwithstanding the many ills which our sinfulness has brought upon us, this life has many blessings and enjoyments. All these are God's free and undeserved gifts our life itself, our preservation from the dangers to which our frail frame is every instant exposed; every interval of health, every

hour of liberty and free enjoyment; and our senses with their varied pleasures,—the mirror of the eye imaging to the soul itself the hues and. forms of nature's inexhaustible beauty; the ear vibrating to the chords of harmony, collecting and pouring on the brain the words of wisdom or the voice of love; the tongue, the mind's interpreter, conveying to others the sentiments and feelings of our own breasts, and knitting in a common bond of fellowship those who would otherwise be isolated wanderers in a dreary world; and even the inferior senses, so fitted to external things and external things to them, that they bear their part in contributing to our security and delight. Add to these the gift of intellect, of terrestrial beings man's peculiar heritage; memory, which collects and retains; imagination, which combines and embellishes; judgment, which distinguishes, classifies, and corrects; and reason, which from materials thus prepared draws new conclusions, elicits

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