shaken to their very foundation, had he pardoned mankind without some satisfaction made to him for their disobedience; without some mark of his abhorrence stamped upon guilt; without some public exercise of his coercive power, which might prevent the sinner from flattering himself, that he might go on transgressing with impunity, and might safely presume on the mercy of God, even in prejudice to the great ends of his moral government.

But repentance, you say, would of itself have answered all these purposes; would have been a sufficient atonement for past offences, a sufficient satisfaction to God's justice, and a sufficient security to the sinner against the future effects of God's displeasure.

Admitting all this for a moment to be true, there is still another question of some importance to be asked and answered, and which yet is commonly quite left out of the account. What reason have you to think, that had Christ done nothing more than offered to the Heathen world a free pardon of their sins, on condition of repentance, they would have accepted and performed that

condition; in other words, that, without some signal indication of God's abhorrence of sin, to strike their imagination, to affect their hearts, and rouse their consciences to a just sense of their guilt, they would ever have repented at all?

Consider only for a moment what the condition of mankind was, when our Lord made his appearance on earth. Their corruption and profligacy had grown to so enormous an height, and ran out into such a variety of horrible vices, as even in these degenerate days would appear shocking and portentous. They were, as St. Paul assures us, in a letter addressed to those very Romans of whom he is speaking," they were filled with all un"righteousness, fornication, wickedness, co"vetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, "murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despite"ful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil

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things, disobedient to parents, without "understanding, covenant-breakers, with"out natural affection, implacable, unmer" ciful."*

* Rom. i. 29, 30, 31.

What now do you think of such a race of monsters as these? Do you think it possible, that mere exhortation alone, or even the most awful denunciations of punishment, would ever have brought such miscreants as these to real repentance and vital reformation? What little probability there was of this, you will judge from what St. Paul further tells you in the same epistle, that they not only did these things themselves, but took "pleasure in those that did them."* They were delighted to see their friends, their neighbours, and even their own children, grow every day more profligate around them. "They became vain in their imagin

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ations, and their foolish heart was darkened." "They were alienated from the "life of God, through the ignorance that "was in them, because of the blindness of "their heart; they were past feeling, and 66 gave themselves over unto lasciviousness, "to work all uncleanness with greediness."‡ This shows, that the number and the grossness of their crimes had effaced all their ideas of guilt, and "had seared their con*Rom. i. 32. + Rom. i. 21. Eph. iv. 18, 19.

sciences with "a hot iron."*

Add to this,

that their philosophers and their priests, who ought to have restrained their vices, did themselves, by their own example, encourage them in some of their worst. Many parts even of their religious worship, instead of purifying and reforming, tended to corrupt and debase their hearts with the grossest sensualities; and the very gods whom they adored were represented as guilty of crimes too shocking to be specified, but which all who sought their favour would certainly take care to imitate. You see then what little prospect there was, that men under such circumstances should ever be prevailed on, by a mere preacher of righteousness, (even though sent from the realms, and endued with the eloquence, of heaven,) to repent and reform. Before they could do either, they must be sensible that they were acting wrong. But they, on the contrary, thought themselves right. They not only acted wickedly, but acted so on principle. Their moral sense was inverted. "The light that was in them

* 1 Tim. iv. 2.

+ Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? See the whole passage. Terent. Eun. iii. v. 43.

was "become darkness." They had no check within to stop their mad career of wickedness; and every thing without, every thing that ought to have taught them a better lesson, their philosophers, their priests, their religion, their worship, their gods themselves, all contributed to confirm and strengthen them in their corrupt practices, and to bar up every avenue to reformation.

It is therefore evident, that, without some awakening call, some striking and astonishing, and extraordinary event, (like that of the crucifixion of Christ,) to affect the hearts and alarm the fears of the ancient Pagans, and to impress them with a strong sense of God's extreme indignation against sin, it was morally impossible they could ever have been brought to a serious, effectual, and permanent amendment of heart and life. *

* It is a singular circumstance, which I have from unquestionable authority, and which tends very much to show the powerful influence of a crucified Redeemer, that in almost every part of the world, from Greenland to the West India islands, those Heathens that have been proselyted to Christianity, were principally and most effectually wrought upon by the history of our Saviour's sufferings, as recorded in the Gospel. When these were forcibly stated, and repeatedly impressed on their minds, they scarce ever failed to produce in them both a lively faith and a virtuous life.