matter to determine.

The enemy who fairly avows his hostile intentions, may indeed be terrible, but never insuperable; we may at all times secure ourselves from his fury by prudence and courage: But the ruffian who stabs in the dark, or the villain who borrows the garb of friendship to ruin us, what art can evade, what strength withstand? "It was not an open

enemy that did me this dishonour,” said the Royal Psalmist, in the bitter anguish of his heart; "but it was even thou, my companion,

my guide, and mine own familiar friend." And the same complaint will every one have reason to make, who bars not his heart against the insidious approaches of sin: For however he may, for a moment, be pleased with its specious blandishments, he will soon find that, like his first unhappy parent, he has sacrificed his innocence to the seductions of a serpent, whose endearments are misery, and whose friendship is death.

To prevent therefore these dangerous consequences, I shall make it the. business of this discourse to guard the christian soldier against the devices of his spiritual adversary, by pointing out some of the most usual methods by which the deceitfulness of sin imposes upon mankind.

Now

Now the first step which is generally taken by sin to beguile men of their integrity, is to tempt them to go to the extreme verge of what is lawful; a step the more dangerous, as it is of all the least liable to suspicion, and yet the most artfully adapted to the credulity and weakness of human nature. At our first entrance into life, fearful and innocent, we tread with caution, and shudder at the very thoughts of approaching the confines of guilt. As we advance farther, Our apprehensions gradually wear away, and curiosity, pleasure, interest, or example, draw us on by little and little, till at last, perhaps, confident of our resolution, we even dare to tread upon the dangerous line, which divides the regions of right and wrong. This then is the unhappy period from whence we may date the beginning of corruption in the soul: For it can never be, that a creature like man, frail and fallible, should long stop here. The same motives, which led him thus far, will not fail to operate strongly in leading him on still farther; and he who is once barely just, assuredly will not be long before he is unjust.

See then the native innocence of man destroyed, and the image of his God first polluted, by some slighter deviations from the paths of duty!

Here

Here conscience, the faithful guide to his steps, interposes its restraining alarms, and endeavours by timely remonstrances to warn the young sinner of his danger. It tells him, that these smaller transgressions must be washed away by penitential tears, and pathetically represents the fatal consequences of yielding to the first attacks of sin. And happy were it for him, could he be prevailed upon to listen to the voice of a charmer, which charmeth so wisely! But here again, sin, ever attentive to counteract the salutary dictates of reason and conscience, once more defeats his better resolutions, by suggesting, that the Almighty regards these smaller breaches of duty with a favourable eye: that he is not extreme to mark what is done amiss; nor will call him into judgment for neglecting the less weighty matters of the law. And thus the deluded young christian is again driven from his guard of virtue, and sees not that he is pursuing a path, which must terminate in unavoidable destruction.

But stand still for a moment, unhappy youth, and consider the danger of listening to so fatal and fallacious an adviser! It is indeed true, that God will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss; for "he is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed:"

86

He

knoweth

knoweth whereof we are made, and therefore will make favourable allowances for the infirmity of our nature; nor will expect from men, the purity of angels. But yet for sins, however small, if deliberately and repeatedly committed, we have no grounds to expect mercy at his hands: On the contrary, the law is express and plain, "the man that doeth these things, shall 46 surely die in them."

But even were this not the case, still how great is the danger of being imperceptibly led from these smaller crimes to the commission of greater! It would almost be impertinent to remark, that all wickedness is of a progressive nature; so many striking proofs of this truth do the crowded scenes of life every moment exhibit.

The murderer, who plunges the bloody dagger into the breast of his unoffending fellow creature, seldom rises from the bed of innocence to the commission of so foul a crime. Human nature, unless steeled by past guilt, and rendered callous by long habit, would recoil at so black a deed, and the nerveless arm of the assassin would drop, unable to execute the savage purposes of his heart. But trace back the guilt of

the murderer through its various stages, to its

first origin, and who is there that does not immediately see, how easy is the transition from thoughtless dissipation to riot and luxury, from luxury to distress, and from distress to violence, rapine, and murder? So natural and almost necessary is the gradation from one crime to another, in every species of wickedness: He, therefore, who would hold fast his integrity, ought carefully to avoid even the commission of the smallest sins; since he can never be certain, that these will not in time lead him on to the greatest.

But let us proceed to other instances of the deceitfulness of sin.

It was the just remark of an ancient writer, that virtue needed but to be seen to be admired; and we may with as much justice say, that vice needs but to be seen to be abhorred. Could we behold it in its genuine colours, surrounded with all its proper train of consequences, the stings of a wounded conscience, the cries of injured innocence, the horrors of desperation, and the dreadful expectations of futurity, we should want no arguments to induce us to fly from it, as our most dangerous and detestable But the misfortune is, we generally enemy. either see the conscquences of guilt through

false