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ticular apprehensions in reference to sinful practice; as long as our confessions are confined to mere acknowledgements of a depraved nature, our convictions of sin are not likely to be very deep, nor our sorrow for it very pungent. Such confessions will usually sink into mere formal and sorrowless acknowledgements of transgressions. It is by descending to details; it is the lively view and deep conviction of specific acts of transgressions, or defects in virtue ;-that awakens and sharpens the conscience, and brings the soul to feel that godly sorrow which worketh repentance. One distinctly ascertained defect or transgression-especially if it be much dwelt upon in its extent, and influence, and aggravations—will do more to humble the soul, than hours spent in mere general confessions of a depraved nature.

There are many things, on the ground of which no self-abasement can be felt by the Christian who is walking in any degree of religious consistency. He cannot confess that which he has really not been guilty of: he cannot be humbled on account of any act of open immorality, for he has committed none. In reference to actual vice, he is to be thankful, not humble: he is to be humble, indeed, that he has a nature capable of it, if left of God; but he is to be thankful that he has not been permitted thus to disgrace himself. It is sometimes to be regretted that good people, in their public confessions of sin, are not more definite than they are, and that they do not express the particular sins for which they seek forgiveness of God. Without using language that seems applicable to adultery, and robbery, and drunkenness, our defects in all Christian graces are so numerous and so great, that there is no degree of humiliation which is too deep for those defects and omissions of which the holiest man is guilty before God. And we have no need to go beyond the subject of this treatise, to find how exceedingly sinful and vile we must all be in the sight of God. Let us only call to remembrance the truly sublime description which the Apostle has given us of the divine nature, and to which,

of necessity, we have so often referred," God is love," -infinite, pure, and operative love; let us only recollect his wonderful patience, his diffusive kindness, his astonishing mercy even to his enemies ;-and then consider that it is our duty to be like him-to have a disposition which, in pure, patient, and operative benevolence, ought to resemble his; that this was once our nature, and will be again, if we reach the celestial state and surely in such a recollection, we shall find a convincing proof of our present exceeding sinfulness.

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Let it not be replied, that this is subjecting us to too, severe a test. By what test can we try our hearts, but the law of God? What a proof is it of sin, when we find that the instances in which we have cominitted it are so numerous, that we want to get rid of the law by which it is proved and detected? O! what a fallen nature is ours, and how low has it sunk! We are not now examining it in its worst state, as it is seen among Pagans and savages, or even the best of the heathen; nor as it is seen in the worst parts of Christendom; nor as it appears in the best of the unrenewed portions of mankind;-no; but as it is exhibited in the Church of Christ, in the enlightened and sanctified portions of the family of man.

Must we not, after this survey, exclaim with the Psalmist "Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me from secret faults!" Who can carry in his bosom a proud heart, or on his brow a lofty mien ? Who can look with complacency upon his poor starveling graces, and doat with fond and pharisaic eyes upon his own righteousness? Who is not stripped at once, in his own view, of all his imperfect virtues; and presented to his own contemplation in the naked deformity of a poor, sinful, and imperfect creature, who has no ground for pride, but most ample and abundant cause for the deepest humiliation? Let the men who value themselves so highly on the ground of their moral dignity, and who are regarded by others as almost sinless characters, and who feel as if they had little or no occasion for the exercise of a penitential frame of mind; who

pity as fanaticism, or scorn as hypocrisy, those lowly confessions which Christians make at the footstool of the divine throne;-let them come to this ordeal and try themselves by this standard, that they may learn how ill grounded is their pride, and how little occasion they have to boast of their virtue! Would they like that any human eye should be able to trace all the movements of their hearts, and see all the workings of envy, and suspicion, and wrath, and selfishness, which the eye of Deity so often sees there? Say not that these are only the infirmities of our nature, to which the wisest and the best of the human race are ever subject in this world of imperfection; because this is confessing how deeply depraved is mankind, even in their best state. Can envy, and pride, and selfishness, and suspicion, and revenge, be looked upon as mere piccadilloes, which call for neither humiliation nor grief? Are they not the germs of all those crimes which have deluged the earth with blood, filled it with misery, and caused the whole creation to groan together until now? Murders, treasons, wars, massacres, with all the lighter crimes of robberies, extortions, and oppressions, have all sprung up from these passions.

What need, then, have we all of that great sacrifice which beareth away the sin of the world? and what need of a perpetually recurring application, by faith and repentance, to that blood which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, and which cleanseth from all sin? What cause have we to repair nightly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy; and daily, that we may find grace to help in time of need. With the eye of faith upon the propitiatory offering that was presented to Divine justice by the Son of God upon the cross, let us continually approach the awful Majesty of heaven and earth, saying" God be merciful to me a sinner !",

CHAPTER XX.

IMPROVEMENT, BY WAY OF EXHORTATION.

LOVE may be enforced upon us by a consideration of, 1. Our own peace and comfort.

We are not to be indifferent to our own happiness; we cannot be man can no more will his own misery, or be careless about his own comfort, than he can cease to exist. To seek for enjoyment is the first law of our existence-an inherent and inseparable propensity of our nature. In this respect, the angels, and the spirits of the just above, agree with man upon the earth. There is no sin, therefore, in desiring to be happy; we could not do otherwise, if we would. Ever since the entrance of sin, however, the heart is corrupted in its taste, so as to put evil for good; and, mistaking the nature of happinees, man of course mistakes the way to obtain it. All the pursuits of the world, however varying, and however unlawful, are the operations of this propensity of the human mind; they are all but so many efforts to obtain happiness. To this feeling of the human bosom many of the most comprehensive, beautiful, and encouraging invitations of the Gospel of Christ are addressed; and it is at once the glory and the peculiarity of the Gos pel, that it addresses itself first, not to our moral, but to our natural, wants. It meets us, not as craving after holiness, for of this an unenlightened, unconverted sinner

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knows nothing; but as craving after happiness,—a desire common to every human bosom : this is the meaning of that exquisite language with which the Apostle almost closes the Word of God-"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." The same view appertains to the language of the Prophet— Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." The thirst here mentioned is not, as has been frequently but erroneously stated, the strong desire of a convinced sinner after the blessings of the Gospel: but that of a miserable creature after happiness. The persons addressed by the Prophet are such as were spending their money for that which was not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not; expressions which will not apply to those who are desiring Christ, and the blessings of his Gospel, but to those who are endeavouring to be happy without them: to all these the Lord Jesus is represented as saying, "Hearken diligently unto me. Come unto me: I will give you the sure mercies of David; then shall ye eat that which is good, and your soul shall delight itself in fatness. I am the way to happiness. Men shall be blessed in me." The blessing of the Gospel, by which men are made happy, is not only justification through the righteousness of Christ, but also sanctification by his Spirit. An unrenewed heart can no more be happy in any place or circumstances, than a diseased body can be rendered easy and comfortable by situation and external advantages. Until the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, be regenerated, and brought to love God supremely, there can be no peace; as long as the heart is under the dominion of predominant selfishness, and all those lusts and passions to which it gives rise, it must be miserable. In the absence of love, the human bosom must be the seat of uneasiness and distress. Happiness does not arise from possessions so much as from dispositions: it is not what a man has, or where he dwells, but what he is. Whatever be the great source of felicity, the springs of it must be

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