men in general, and even learned divines, endeavour to soften down the Scripture declarations of man's guilt and misery : some deny that we are fallen at all ; and assert that we come into the world as pure as Adam did from his Creator's hands. Others allow that we are fallen, but deny that we are involved in the guilt of our first parents, or that the corruption which we inherit from them is any thing more than what we have an innate power to subdue. They think that the descriptions given of us in the inspired volume are not to be taken in a literal sense ; and that to say that we are " dead in trespasses and sins," is only a metaphor, importing that we are not quite so much alive to God and holiness as we ought to be.
And now mark how entirely such sentiments ob- struct the way to true wisdom and knowledge : man being in so good a state, there was no occasion for the counsels of the Most High to suggest a method of deliverance from it : a way of deliverance was ob- vious enough : there was no necessity for God him- self to become incarnate, and to expiate the sins of men by his own blood ; (man might be saved without any such sacrifice :) there was no need that the third person in the ever-blessed Trinity should undertake to dwell in the hearts of men, to enlighten their minds, to draw them unto Christ, to renew their nature, and to make them meet for heaven ; (man of himself, by the aid of his own reason and resolution, was sufficient for these things :) the obligations con- ferred upon us by this work of redemption are not such as to call for all the powers of our souls to be consecrated to God in the way of holy obedience ; (such a life is needless, enthusiastic, and absurd :) in a word, there is no great cause for alarm to any of us ; for we are all in the way to heaven ; and when we get there, shall have no great wonders to cele- brate, but only to thank God for that which he could not justly or consistently have withheld. Yes, bre- thren, this it is which obstructs the entrance of light into the souls of men : this it is which makes every