neither been thankful." What might justly have been ex- pected of persons privileged as we have been ? Might it not have been reasonably hoped that persons redeemed from death and hell by the blood of God's only dear Son should have been incessantly pouring out their souls in grateful adorations, and dedicating to his service their every faculty, and every instant of their time? Methinks, it should have been a work of pain and self-denial to devote so much as a thought to any other subject, especially to any subject unconnected with this. But have our hearts been thus exercised? Has it been thus our delight to anticipate the employment of heaven ? Or rather, have not the wonders of redemption had far less influence on our minds than the things of time and sense? Yea, have they not for the most part been passed by, as though they were only " a cunningly-devised fable," wherein we had no interest?
Consider also our errors. We have not, it is true, trans- formed our God into an idol: but we have had scarcely more worthy conceptions of him than if he had been an idol. In theory we have ascribed to him the different perfections of his nature ; but in practice we have denied them all — his omni- science, his holiness, his justice, and his truth, by vainly imagining, either that he did not behold, or that he would not punish, our iniquities. We, as he himself tells us, have " thought him to be even such an one as ourselves :" whilst exalting in our minds his attribute of mercy, we have, in fact, divested him of all that belongs to him as the Governor of the universe : a God all mercy, is a God unjust.
Consider yet further our excesses. These, as to the overt act, do not proceed to such extremes as were common among the Gentiles : but the abominations that we do commit, suffi- ciently shew, that we are not restrained by any regard to God, so much as by public laws and popular opinion. Christianity having elevated the general tone of morals, those hideous crimes which were but too frequent among the Gentiles are scarcely so much as thought of amongst us : but, in all that we can do consistently with the laws of society, we are not a whit superior to the heathen themselves. What juster picture could the Apostle have drawn, if he had intended to describe, what is improperly called, the Christian world ? Take us as a people, and say, whether we are not " filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; yea, whether we be not full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malig- nity; whether we be not whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, dis- obedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, implacable, unmerciful q: and say particularly, whether, not-
i ver. 29 — 31. In reading this, pause after every word.