whoever they may be, " we have great heaviness and continual sorrow in our heart*."]
That we may not think lightly of this evil, I will proceed to shew,
II. The equity of the judgments denounced against it—
We are ready to think that nothing but gross and flagrant immorality deserves God's wrath. But the habit of the mind may be as offensive to God as any overt act whatever : and we hesitate not to say, that the evil which is here reproved, deserves the woes that are denounced against it.
The judgments which are threatened in the Old Testament are chiefly of a temporal nature. In truth, nations, as nations, are incapable of sustaining any other. But individuals, so far as they are implicated, will have to bear that wrath of God which, in the New Testament, is fully " revealed against all ungod- liness and unrighteousness of men u."
That the evil which we have been considering de- serves this, will be seen, if we reflect that it implies,
1 . A total alienation of heart from God —
[How impossible would it be to conceive of an angel in heaven, or of Adam in Paradise, in such a state as our text imports! Not one of them could for a moment forget his dependence on God. However crowned with comforts suited to their nature, not one of them would rest in those things as his happiness, or cease to seek his happiness in God. And, if we suppose any part of the creation reduced to a state of suffering, not one of them would be indifferent to their wel- fare, or indisposed, if it were in his power, to promote it. It is in consequence of our departure from God, that all this evil is come upon us; and that we resemble rather the devil in pride, the beasts in sensuality, and the very stones in an in- sensibility to all around us. And let me ask, Does not such a state as this deserve the wrath of God ? And is not a woe most justly denounced against it? Look at the Saviour; do you find any symptom of such a disposition in him ? Was not the very reverse manifested by him, when for our sakes " he made himself of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ? " If we are so far from his image, and so far
4 Rom. ix. 1,2. u Rom. i. 18.
q 2