lies his own goodness, or innocency, wherein he trusts, and brings him to Christ. See that you rest not short of Christ, as the true refuge "from the wrath to come."

SERMON V.

THE FRUIT OF SIN.

ROM. vi. 21.

"What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death."

1

SOLOMON has justly observed: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." This is especially true of the way of sin: the end of sin is death. The way of sin is the way of a fool; and "the way of a fool is right in his own eyes;" but he sees not its end. Sin is so infatuating as to delude poor mortals: it is delicious to their corrupted appetite; they roll the sweet morsel under their tongues; but they taste not its bitterness until greedily swallowed, and its fatal poison diffused through the soul, "to bring forth fruit unto death." "What fruit had ye then in those things

'Prov. xiv, 12.

2 Rom. vii. 5.

whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death." Let us,

I. MORE PARTICULARLY ASCERTAIN WHAT ARE 66 THOSE THINGS," OF WHICH THE APOSTLE REminded the ROMAN CHRISTIANS;

II. POINT OUT THE “END OF THOSE THINGS;" and

III. SHOW HOW A REVIEW 66 OF THOSE THINGS AFFECTS THE CHRISTIAN'S MIND.

May the God of all grace impress on our minds an affecting view of the folly and the fruit of those evil ways which lead to everlasting death!

I. LET US MORE PARTICULARLY ASCERTAIN WHAT ARE "THOSE THINGS," of which the apostle reminded the Roman Christians.

From what had been said in the nineteenth verse, it is evident that the apostle meant the various sins in which these Roman Christians had formerly lived. In allusion to their former state, while unconverted, the apostle in this chapter calls them the "servants of sin." Sin had had dominion over them they had been its willing slaves. What a base, degrading servitude! What a soul destroying slavery! In the first and third chapters of this epistle, the apostle more particularly de

:

scribes the various sins of the heart and the life, common among the heathen; and a black description it is. These sins he also calls the works of the flesh : "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, strife, emulations, wrath, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 3

It may be said that the apostle's picture of these sins applies to the heathen nations who knew not God. So, indeed, it did. But are the sins described by the apostle to be found only among the heathen? Would to God it was so! Alas! are not some, if not all, of these sins, black and hellish though they are, to be found among multitudes "who profess and call themselves Christians "? Yea, do not many such, though bearing the sacred name of Christ, and having been baptized into Christ, go beyond the benighted Gentiles in "those things"? Survey the ungodliness which abounds in this christian land. Look at the sabbath-breaking; behold the neglect of God's worship. Look at the beastly drunkenness with which you meet at 3 Gal. v. 19-21.

:

every turn in our towns and villages. Hear the profane oaths, the swearing and cursing, the blaspheming of God's holy name and word, the lying and falsehood by young and old; and say if "those things" do not demonstrate the psalmist's charge, reiterated by the apostle, "Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues have they used deceit: the poison of asps is under their lips. There is no fear of God before their eyes: their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood."5 The foul crime of adultery is made to assume a tolerable, if not a commendable character, under the designation of "an affair of gallantry;" while the brutal act of murder is termed, "an affair of honour." Thus do men, deceived and deceiving, call evil good. Contemplate the breaking forth of malice, envy, and hatred, in backbiting, slandering words, and malicious deeds: and tell me, do not "those things" agree with the apostle's description: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant 19; cxl. 3; x. 7; Rom. iii.

4 Ps. V.

5 Hos. iv. 2.