of a good heart; of a hard heart, as of a soft heart; and of sin, as of holiness. They represent holiness as consisting in pure, holy, disinterested love; and sin as consisting in interested love, or selfishness. They represent God as producing holiness and producing sin. It is no more possible to conceive, that selfishness should get into the world, than that holiness should get into the world, without a divine agency. There is but one true and satisfactory answer to be given to the question, which has been agitated for ages, "Whence came evil ?" And that is, it came from the great First Cause of all things. This must certainly be true, if sin does not consist in a mere want of conformity to the law of God, but in a free voluntary exercise of that selfishness, which is the only possible transgression of it. But we are told, that all sins of omission consist in a mere want of conformity to the divine law. Though this appears a little plausible, it is easy to see, that there is no weight in it. I know, that there are many sins, which are called sins of omission; and are always considered as criminal. But let us consider in

what their criminality consists.

It does not consist in

a mere want of thinking, or the mere want of speaking, or in the mere want of acting. Idleness may be said to be a sin of omission. If a man, who is able to work, who needs to work, and who ought to work, neglects to work, he is guilty of idleness, which is a sin of omission. But in what does his sin consist? It consists in his freely, voluntarily refusing to do what he knows he ought to do for his own good and the good of othand not in having no choice, no design, no intention about being idle. His refusing to obey the command to labor is really a positive act of disobedience

ers;

to, and transgression of the law of God, as an act of laboring on the sabbath. The priest and the levite, who passed by the poor man they saw wounded, and neglected to relieve him, were evidently guilty of a sin of omission. But did their sin consist in a mere want of conformity to, or in an actual transgression of the law of love? They were not destitute of perception, reason, conscience, or volition. They had positive exercises of heart, which were altogether selfish and directly contrary to that love to man, which the divine law required. They had as positive exercises of selfishness, as the good Samaritan had positive exercises of benevolence. They as positively disobeyed the divine law, as the Samaritan positively obeyed it. If any one will thoroughly and candidly examine the subject, he will find that all sin consists in a positive transgression of the divine law; and not in a mere want of conformity to it. Of course, he will see, that sin must have as positive a cause, as holiness. opinion, that all moral evil is owing to a mere privative cause, and primarily consists in a mere want of conformity to the divine law, is not only very erroneous, but leads to many other great and dangerous errors.

The

2. If the divine law requires pure, disinterested love, and forbids selfishness, then every free, voluntary exercise of the heart is either an act of obedience, or disobedience to the law of God. There are no free, voluntary exercises of a moral agent, who is under law to God, that are indifferent, neither good, nor evil; or that are almost good and not quite, or almost evil and not quite. The divine law is the infallible standard of moral good and evil and condemns all free, voluntary exercises, which it does not require. Many imagine,

that there are a great many desires, designs, dispositions, inclinations, intentions, resolutions and wishes, which are almost good, but not quite; and a great many, that are almost sinful, but not quite. And upon this ground, they suppose, that there are a great many persons, that are almost sinners, but not quite; or almost christians, but not quite. And they have the same opinion of themselves. They imagine, that they sometimes almost obey the law, but not quite; and sometimes disobey the law, but not quite. But there is no such thing as almost obeying, or almost disobeying the divine law. A sinner never approaches any nearer obeying the law at one time, than at another; but always breaks it, by every imagination of the thought of his heart. And a christian always obeys, or disobeys the divine law. There are no venial sins, as papists imagine. They suppose mankind do a great many things, which are not wholly right nor wholly wrong and do not amount to real obedience, or disobedience to the divine law. These they call venial sins, or sins that are small and may be winked at or allowed. But the divine law knows no such things. It condemns whatever it does not require. Every free, voluntary exercise of the mind is either holy and benevolent, or sinful and selfish. Hence says our Savior, "He, that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he, that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much." Every benevolent exercise is obedience to the law; and every selfish affection is a transgression of the law. No voluntary exercise is partly benevolent and partly selfish. Nor is there the least resemblance between a benevolent and a selfish affection. There is, therefore, no possibility of partly obeying and part

ly disobeying the divine law, by any free, voluntary exercises. The divine law is exceeding broad and reaches to all the exercises of the heart; and either requires or forbids every exercise. As every sin is a transgression of the law, so the least sin is exceeding sinful. It is disobedience to the supreme authority of the supreme Being. And whoever realizes this, cannot think light of any sin; or make a mock at sin.

3. If every selfish exercise be a transgression of the law, then those are under a deep deception, who imag ine that they have no sin. There are some at this day, who maintain the sinless perfection of saints in this life. Some publicly profess to believe, that they have actually attained to a state of perfect freedom from sin, and are become perfectly sanctified. They not only believe, but teach this doctrine, by which they not only deceive themselves but others. For if they would only view themselves in the glass of the divine law, they would soon be convinced, that they fall far below that standard of perfection. If they would only consider, that every selfish affection is a transgression of the law, they would be far from thinking that they have no sin; and are more holy than the most holy men whose characters are drawn by the infallible pen of divine inspiration. Solomon says that "there is not a just man on the earth, who doeth good and sinneth not." Job says, "If I justify myself my own mouth shall condemn me : if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." Paul says, "I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me :" and he exclaims, "O wretch.. ed man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" After this, he expressly declares that he fell far short of sinless perfection. "Not as

though I had already attained, either were already perdefect but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.--Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things, which are behind and reaching forth unto those things, which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus." It is contrary to the whole current of scripture, to suppose that any mere man, since the fall, ever did, or ever will attain to sinless perfection in this life; but yet a large denomination of christians publicly profess and maintain this unscriptural doctrine. Though all the Methodists do not pretend to have actually reached sinless perfection; yet they generally profess to believe and zealdously inculcate this doctrine. But their opinion has no foundation in reason, or observation, or scripture ; and originates in nothing but spiritual ignorance and self-deception. This Christ's most beloved disciple has told us. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; and the truth is not in us." The 1; same denomination of christians maintain, that the best of christians, even those, who have, as they supposed, attained to sinless perfection, may nevertheless finally fall away and eternally perish. This great error arises from a still greater and absolutely fundamental error, which they hold and strenuously propagate; that is, the denial of the doctrine of personal election to eternal life. They speak of the doctrine of election and reprobation in terms that are not fit to be used on any subject. But some may ask, why do you mention these errors? I answer, because the evidence of their falsehood and dangerous tendency