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taketh away the sin of the world!" 24 Hear his address to the wanderers from his fold: "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else!" 25 Listen to his gracious invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you

rest!" 26

24 John i. 29. 25 Isaiah xlv. 29.

26 Matt. xi. 28.

DISCOURSE II.

JER. xvii. 9.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

IN my introductory discourse upon the CONFESSION, I directed your attention to the first clause of that beautiful and appropriate formulary of our church. We then considered, 1-The character under which we are to approach God, as an "Almighty and merciful Father." 2-The acknowledgment of our departure from him, "We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep ;" and, in conclusion, the important and salutary lessons, which these topics suggested. On the present occasion, our attention will be directed to the next clause: "We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts;" and the manifold and alarming dangers, which result from this

conduct, may be learned from the statement of the text: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

In this second clause of the Confession then, we have-FIRST, our original corruption implied; "the devices and desires of our heart." We have-SECONDLY, the practical influence of this original corruption plainly declared; "We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts." And may our

earnest prayer be, that the Lord God would "create in us new and contrite hearts; that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of him, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord."1

I. Innumerable are the proofs, that the heart of man, in its natural state, is filled with enmity against God. The habitual tendency of its movements is, to oppose the will, and rebel against the authority of God. Man was created in the image of his Maker, but "he sought out many inventions." He was seduced from his allegiance to Jehovah,

1 Collect for the first day of Lent. 2 Eccles. vii. 29.

he forfeited his innocence, he lost his resemblance to the holy Being who formed him from the dust, and then, a fountain of evil sprung up in his heart, which, in every successive age, has continued to send forth, as it were, torrents of corrupt devices, and wicked desires.

The primitive condition of man may be learned from the first chapter of the book of Genesis. "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness and so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." The fall of Adam, and the denouncement of the curse upon his disobedience, are related at large in the third chapter of this book; and, in the sixth chapter, we have the history of the lamentable effects of original corruption, as it spread itself over the moral surface of the globe. "God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence." These were the corrupt streams, which issued from the corrupt fountain; and the character of the fountain itself, is stated

3

3 Gen. vi. 12.

in a preceding verse. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually." The Hebrew word, which is here translated "imagination," also signifies the

purposes and desires of the heart," which are synonymous terms with those employed in our confession. Thus the Lord God, "who knoweth the secrets of the heart," declares, that all the purposes and desires which arise there, "are only evil continually;" while our church, not only distinctly recognises the existence of the fact, but traces our actual sins from this prolific source of iniquity, when she says, "we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts." The language of the ninth article upon original, or, as it terms it, "birth sin," is, at once, scriptural and conclusive. "Original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereman is very far gone," or, as the original

4 Gen. vi. 5.

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