nificant, thus useless, thus guilty, thus odious, of what should we be proud?

*99#--tle bur "Pride," says the Son of Sirach, "was not made for man.” How strangely do the observations which have been made in this discourse support this interesting declaration! Of what shall we be proud? Of our personal worth? Let us remember, (for if we do not, God will,) that we are sinners. What to his eye must be the moral worth of a sinner? What, indeed, is that of the best of mankind? Paul, after all the proofs which he received of the favour of God; after all his benevolent and wonderful labours, and after all his high attainments in piety, pronounced himself, while writing with the pen of inspiration, the chief of sinners. David, the man after God's own heart, says of himself, "I am a worm, and no man. I was “shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Of Job, God said, "There is none like him in the earth; a 66 perfect and upright man; one that feared God, and eschew"ed evil." This perfect and upright man said to his Maker, "Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my "hand upon my mouth. I abhor myself, and repent in dust " and ashes." Where could either of these men have found, in their personal character, reasons for indulging pride? The real worth even of such men is alloyed by multiplied sins and infirmities, which render the whole composition odious. Accordingly it is declared, "that if God should mark iniquity, no "man living could stand before him, or be justified in his sight." Plainly, therefore, the best of our race have no foundation on which pride can rest.

Men of inferior excellence possess fewer and feebler virtues. Of course, pride was not made for them. Sinners are unpossessed even of these, and not even a single white spot varies the dark and cheerless turpitude which is the ground-work of their character. Of what then shall they be proud? Of their deformity, their guilt, their shame, or their approaching condemnation ?

But neither they, nor those who are better than they, have any room for the indulgence of pride. He who is wise may indeed be profitable to himself; but who can be profitable to

God? Of what consequence could it have been to this glorious and all-sufficient Being, if the wisest and best man who ever lived had not been created? In the possession of all his endowments and acquisitions, and after all his most faithful and useful labours; even when he may truly say, "In no"thing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles," he must still add, “I am nothing." Even when Paul is the planter, and Apollos the waterer, it will ever be true, that neither he who planteth, nor he who watereth, is any thing; but God who giveth the increase is every thing. The best of men, the most exalted angel, instead of having any claims upon his Maker for the services which he thus rendered, is only the more indebted to his Maker, the greater and more excellent his endowments are, and the more valuable his services. God only brings us in debt to him by enabling us to serve him; by giving us a disposition to serve him, and by furnishing us with opportunities of performing this service. This debt is mightily increased by his acceptance of our services. It is immeasurably increased by the fact, that he permits those who were once rebels and outcasts to return to his service, and qualifies them for it by bestowing on them anew, in the work of sanctification, a sincere desire to be employed in his service. Sinners think the service of God a task, a burthen imposed on them by a hard master, and a kind of dire necessity. No opinion can be more false or more unhappy. Instead of all this, it is the first privilege, the highest honour, the greatest blessing which he can enjoy. It will ever be true, that "the statutes of the Lord "are right, rejoicing the heart" of every good man; that they are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine "gold; that they are sweeter also than honey, and the honey"comb; and that in keeping of them there is great reward.”

"

Away then with all the pride and vanity of the human heart, especially with the pride and vanity of our own hearts. Away with our self-flattery, our self-justification, and our self-righteousness. Christ, although he "was in the form of God, and "thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself ff of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant." The spirit which he here manifested, he has required us to assume.

66

and

This very account of him is introduced by St. Paul with these words, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ.” "Take my yoke upon you," says the Saviour himself, "learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." In the world of sin, pride always claims, and not unfrequently receives, a kind of honour from the miserable sinners by whom it is inhabited. In the world of righteousness, humility is always before honour, and a qualification absolutely indispensable to secure the respect of the virtuous minds by which it is inhabited, and the approbation of the glorious Being by whom it is governed.

VIII. Let no sinner presume upon the continuance of his life, as a reason for his persisting in sin.

For what reason should the life of a sinner be continued? Is it his wisdom? Is it his worth? Is it his importance to the divine kingdom? Is it that God needs his services? Is it that he renders any services to God? Is it that he labours to be a blessing to the universe? How obviously must all these questions be answered in the negative! But if he neither pleases, obeys, nor glorifies his Maker, nor does good to his fellow-creatures, what reason can he possibly allege why his life should be prolonged? Were he annihilated, or swept into the pit of destruction, the universe, instead of suffering an injury, or experiencing a loss, would, so far as we are able to judge, only be delivered from a nuisance. Even were the loss real, it could be repaired, and more than repaired, by a word. In his stead might rise up a child of Abraham, a Paul, an angel.

Can even the sinner, infatuated as he is, can any sinner in this house seriously believe, that God will be induced to prolong his life, merely to give him additional opportunities of persisting in his obstinacy and impiety, his ingratitude and rebellion? Can He, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, be induced to lengthen out the days of an apostate, that he may anew dishonour his Maker, crucify his Redeemer afresh, and do more and more despite to the Spirit of Grace? Can Jehovah be pleased to hear his glorious and fearful name profaned by a human tongue? Can he look with a smile upon reiterated falsehood, fraud, and injustice, practised by one hu

man being upon another? Can the foul retreats of gluttony, drunkenness, and lewdness be objects of his complacency? Who can hesitate to believe, that He will avenge himself of such adversaries to his character, law, and government, and wipe them as a blot out of his creation?

But all this notwithstanding, the sinner has no reason to despair of the mercy of God. The work of saving them that were lost was not begun without the most ample view of its wisdom and propriety. God did not send his Son, to live a life of humiliation in this miserable world, and to die the accursed death, without counting the cost. He did not send his Spirit to sanctify the polluted soul of man, and to wash the rebel in the blood which cleanseth from all sin, without being perfectly aware of the whole nature and absolute propriety of this stupendous transaction. Accordingly, we are told that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. From the beginning to the present time he has gone on giving his renewing and purifying grace to just such sinners, and calling them into his kingdom, and has never once repented that he began the work, nor for a moment intermitted its continuance. Turn your eyes to the heavenly world, and you will there find millions of just such sinners walking in the light of eternal day. There you will find David, once an adulterer and a murderer: there you will find Paul, once a blasphemer and a persecutor: there you will find Peter, who denied his Master, and perjured himself: there you will find an endless multitude more, whose sins, drawn out in order and displayed in their proper colours, would overwhelm you as well as them with amazement and horror. But they are washed, they are sanctified, they are justified in the blood of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

With this wonderful object before him, what sinner can rationally despair of the divine mercy? What sinner will not be encouraged to forsake his sins, and to hope for pardon and acceptance? Not indeed from any apprehensions of his own worth, his importance in the divine kingdom, or any need which he may suppose God has of him, or his services, but from

mere grace, from the overflowing mercy and goodness of his Creator.

With this subject sinners usually begin wrong, and thence both think and act in a manner dangerously erroneous. Usually, at least, they place all their hopes in themselves, in something which they are, something which they have done, or something which they have not done; their importance in the divine kingdom; some goodness of character, which they suppose themselves to possess; or their freedom from sin, existing in such a degree as to make it impossible for God to punish them hereafter. These, to say the least, are all mistaken and unhappy foundations on which to rest our hopes of salvation. The true ground of a sinner's hope is not that he is so good, or in so small a degree wicked; not that he is undeserving of punishment, but that God is so willing to forgive nis sin. On this foundation he may safely build his hopes. All else is sand; this is a rock which can never be moved.

IX. This doctrine teaches every Christian to feel and acknowledge, that both his character and his hopes are all derived from the sovereign pleasure of God.

Look into your hearts and lives, my brethren, and ask yourselves whether there is, or ever was, any thing in them which, even in your own opinion, God could consider as a reason why he should sanctify and save you. Is there, has there ever been, any thing in your character or your conduct, which you are able to allege as a reason why God should receive into you his favour? When you take a retrospect of what you have been, or what you have done, do you find any thing by which you would be willing to be tried, and on the ground of which you would be willing to have your allotments fixed for eternity? You are undoubtedly accustomed at times to examine the foundation of your hopes. In such examinations, on what have you reposed yourselves? Has it been your own righteousness, or has it been the merits of your Redeemer, and the mercy of your Creator. You are often summoned to the table of Christ. Mark the wonders which it presents to your

view.