crime alleged, they will impute it to accident, or inadver- tence, or mistake, or, like our first parents, to the instigation and example of their accomplices. What is the disposition which shews itself in persons of riper years, when they are called to account for any evil that they have committed, or when their angry passions have involved them in dispute and quarrel : is it not the endeavour of each to criminate the other, in hopes thereby to exculpate himself? Or when no particular ill-will is exercised towards others, is not the same system prevalent; and do not men justify their own conduct from the habits and examples of those around them ? But what folly is this ! Did the Serpent compel Eve to eat the fruit? or was Adam necessitated to follow her example? They were free agents in what they did: and they should have rejected with abhorrence the first proposals of sin, how- ever specious they might be, and by whomsoever they might be made. And in the same manner, it is no excuse to us that the ways of iniquity are crowded ; for we are to with- stand the solicitations that would allure us from God, and stem the torrent that would drive us from him.]
2. We cast it even upon God himself —
[There is peculiar force in those words of Adam, " The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat :" it is no less than a reflection upon God himself for giving him the woman ; and a casting of the blame upon him as accessary at least to his fall, if not also as the original cause of it. It is thus also that we account for our transgressions from the peculiar circumstances in which we are placed, and thus ascribe them rather to the dispensations of Providence, than to our own wilful depravity. One is poor, and therefore has not leisure to consult the welfare of his soul; or is under the authority of others, and cannot serve God without subjecting himself to their displeasure. Another is rich, and cannot deviate so far from the habits of the world, as to conform to the precise rules which God has prescribed. In this manner, persons endeavour to persuade themselves that a life of entire devotedness to God is incom- patible with their worldly duties ; and that their deviations or defects are rather their misfortune than their fault. Some indeed will be yet more bold in accusing God; and, when condemned for giving the rein to their appetites, will say, ' Why did God give me these passions ? I cannot act other- wise than I do.'
How far these excuses will avail in the day of judgment, it becomes every one to consider with fear and trembling. They may stifle the accusations of a guilty conscience now; but there is not a man in the universe so stupid as seriously to
(yl EXCUSES MADE BY OUR FIRST PARENTS. 35
believe that his conscience will acquit him at the tribunal of his God.]
We shall conclude with an address,
1. To those who are unhumbled for their sins —
[Some are so impious, that " they declare their sin as Sodom : the very shew of their countenance witnesses against them." To such persons we say with the prophet, " Woe unto them a ! " Nor can we deliver any milder message to those who " cover their transgressions, as Adam, and hide their iniquity in their bosom b : " for God's word to them is plain; " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.0" It is absolutely indispensable that we humble ourselves before God, and that we repent in dust and ashes. God has noted our transgressions, whether we have observed them or not: for " there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves d." God is ex- tremely earnest in endeavouring to impress this thought upon our minds e. It is equally certain that we cannot impose upon him by any vain excuses. The day is coming, when he will not only ask in general, " Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" but will interrogate us, as he did Eve, with holy indignation, saying, "What is this that thou hast done?" Art thou aware of its malignity? art thou prepared to meet the con- sequences? O let us, every one of us, humble ourselves before him, while yet the effects of his displeasure may be averted from us : but if yet we remain impenitent and stout-hearted, a sudden and irremediable destruction shall come upon us f.]