Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and brings forth all the wretchedness that is in the universe. First of all, let us reflect on the mischief which sin has done to the angels who kept not their first estate. These, you know, were once pure and happy spirits, standing continually in the presence of God, and blest with the beatific vision of his life-giving countenance. But sin entered their blest abodes. They aspired to be like to God ; they affected to be independent of their Maker ; and, on account of their pride and rebellion, they were banished from heaven. And now we are told, they are reserved in chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day, when they shall be brought forth to receive their final and everlasting doom. But angels are not the only creatures who exhibit to the universe the baneful effects of transgression. Man, the lord of this lower world, who was formed at first after his Maker's image, is. likewise become a fallen nd sinful creature. How lovely was manat his first creation, when his understanding was clear and unclouded, his will under subjection to the will of his Maker, and all the lower appetites and passions of his nature, uniformly governed by reason and conscience ! But now, what a melancholy change hath sin produced ! How is the gold 'become dim, and the most finc gold changed ! Instead of that perfect order, and delightful harmony which once prevailed, the soul of man is become the seat of various contending passions. His understanding is darkened through the ignorance and blindness of his heart, and the noblest powers of his nature are willingly enslaved by the lowest and meanest appetites. Who that properly considers this melancholy change, but must drop a tear over the ruins of human nature. Fools may make a mock at sin ; but the man of serious reflection, who conte...