3 If this be true, O! what a wretch forlorn!
Good had it been if he had not been born:
O! must he sin through life by God's decree,
And for it suffer endless misery?

4 Was God at first self mov'd to form a plan,
To make a race of beings such as man,
And in that plan to happiness ordain

A certain part, the rest to endless pain?

3 What could induce the Lord thus to create
Objects for him eternally to hate?

And push them into life a while to be,
And then to feel his wrath eternally?

6 0, Mr. Calvin ? if thy creed be right,
Doth not thy God in tormenting delight?
No wonder then, for thy religion's sake,
Thou caused'st Servetus to burn at stake.

If God's not willing that so much as one Should perish, but should to repentance come,** How can we think he'll doom to endless pain, For sins which he himself did fore-ordain?

8 That God as Sovereign, all things did ordain,
Not only sin, but consequential pain:
I don't deny, but still a doubt remains,
Whether for sins he dooms to endless pains.

9 Opposed to God is Adam's sinful race,
Until renew'd and sanctify'd by grace;

That wrath and hatred which in them do dwell,
Kindled to flame do constitute a hell.

10 A moral change must needs be wrought in them,
Which scripture terms a being "born again,"
Or else they never can in Heaven dwell,
But will remain in this tormenting hell.

* 2 Peter üi, 9.

11 The question then is, will the God of grace
Save only part of Adam's sinful race

And leave the rest in love with sin and thrall,
Never to know the way of peace at all?

12 Or, whether be with equal love to all,
Will bring all in by an effectual call,

And wash them clean from sin's pollution free,
To praise his name to all eternity.

13 If this be true, what shouts of joy will sound!
To God's great name what glory will redound!
Poor FARMER 'll sing, from prison chains set free,
And praise Free Grace upon the highest key!

REFLECTIONS IN A CHURCH-YARD.

When the voice of the turtle and red-breast is still,
And nature environ'd in night's murky zone,
And the voice of the boding owl hoots on the hill,
While silence at intervals breaks the sad tone,
I delight to the church-yard to wander alone,

And converse with whom converse in silence is held, With those in whom virtue in life's morning shone, And with those who in opposite characters fell.

Here I walk o'er the turf-cover'd beds of the dead, 'Mong the white marble monuments rear'd to their

name;

Here the proud and the mighty, reclining the head,
Forget their desires and ambition for fame:
Here, the warrior no more into battie will go,
Nor mariner plow o'er the billowy surf;

Here the haughty are humbled, th' exalted bro't low;
Here the prince and the peasant sleep under the turf.

That beauty that rivall'd the lily and rose-
That strength, so athletic in youth's sturdy arm-

The gray-hair'd and infant, alike now repose,
Of distinctions, regardless, and reckless of harm.
Here intemperance check'd and licentiousness quell'd,
The passions in slumber are hushed to rest;
In quiescence the tongue of the slanderer is held,
And worth is no longer by envy oppress'd.

The rich man no longer oppresses the poor,
The slave to his labor is driven no more;
No longer the miserly, pelf-loving boor

Drives off the poor beggar in tears from his door.
Here the maim'd and the halt, the blind, deaf and dumb,
The cripple, and lunatic, feel not their woes:
Here the weary may rest, their work being done,
And the wicked no longer their troubles impose.

Here the high and the low, the rich and the poor,
The bond and the free, in the narrow house lie,
But while I survey the sad ravages o'er,

I reflect that myself with my fellows must die. Come then, my deliverer, O death, bear me home! Thou art but a friend to my soul in disguise; Soon, soon, my dear Jesus, to thee will I come, Redeemed from corruption, my soul to thee flies.

D. S

No. 5.

JANUARY, 1823.

Vol. III.

SERMON. NO. VIII.

Romans vi. 23. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ' our Lord.

In treating this subject, let sin first be brought into careful consideration. A definition of the term, we obtain from scripture in the following language: Sin is the transgression of the law; and in another place, All unrighteousness is sin. Sin, therefore, presupposes law; for where there is no law, there is no transgression. A law must always include the idea of subjects, possessing certain powers of agency, to whose capacities it is calculated to be adapted. In those subjects, then, sin is found when they exercise their moral powers in opposition to the instructions of the law. That sin is odious in its nature, and detrimental in its consequences, is very readily conceded by every believer in christianity. But notwithstanding this universal harmony of agreement, respecting the nature of sin, there is a wide difference of opinion among us, in relation to its magnitude, and the extent of its consequences.

The doctrine of endless misery, which we believe is unsupported by revelation, has led to a variety of conclusions, that appear equally unsupportable. Among these, we account the doctrine of the infinite nature of sin. But it requires no very powerful intellect to discern that the latter idea is absolutely necessary to maintain the former. As we believe neither is true, we will offer a few arguments against the infinity of sin. We found one argument on the ground, that it destroys all distinction between greater and lesser sins. It reckons the blasphemy against the holy spirit with the transgressions of the inexperienced, whose actions are the first and feeble fruits of the exercise of their moral powers. It dooms the youth, the No. 5. Vol. III.

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inexperienced, with the old, inveterate sinner, to the same abodes of infinite suffering. The distinction of greater and lesser sins, appears clearly maintained in the scriptures, and as evidently supported by human experience. Some, who undertake to maintain the infinity of sin, admit the various degrees of turpitude attached to it, and say that sinners will suffer proportionable degrees of misery; but all will be endless in duration. This can be nothing more nor less than a mere subterfuge; for as it restrains the meaning of the word infinite, it destroys the proposition, in the sense in which they would be understood to use the term. If they admit degrees in the extent of suffering, by changing the position, they might as well admit degrees in duration. If they object to this inference, because they believe all future punishment is infinite, they destroy every notion of degrees of suffering.

Man is a finite being, and acts only on finite principles. None of his acts of goodness are ever accounted infinite, why then his acts of wickedness? From the finite principle of moral action, then, we argue the finite nature of sin.

The hypothesis of infinite sin not only opposes the salvation of a part of mankind according to the plan of its abettors, but renders doubtful the salvation of any. The atonement of Christ on their own plan, can be no more than infinite, and possesses nothing, therefore, by which it can successfully oppose the power of sin. The two opposite infinites form but a just balance in their opposition to each other, leaving nothing to outweigh on the side of atonement. It, therefore, stands opposed to the scripture, that "where sin abounded grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."

We further state as an additional argument to what has been offered, that by making sin infinite, we make the sinner an equal opponent to his Maker. What