a view of our own hearts, and reflect what thoughts are continually paffing and repaffing in those dark receffes. Let us fee what we are apt to remember with most readiness, and what ge nerally comes uppermoft. I fear our memory is most apt to run upon any little matter of goodnefs we may have discovered in ourselves-fome fuperiority to others-fome little praise we may think we deferve, or may have received-some little accomplishments, or qualities, we may value -fome little attainments, perhaps, we may have made in religion; or, fome little charity we may have rendered to a neceffitous neighbour. These are the things the apostle alludes to, and which he enjoins us to forget. We must not dwell upon them: we must not conceive there is any merit in them. Let us leave God to judge our works; let us only take care to do them; and leave his balance to weigh them, and fix what value his goodness pleases on each.

Only confider, what advantage arises from remembering these things. It only serves to puff you up with vanity-to make you believe you are fomething, when in fact you are nothingto make you think you are good men, when you are only unprofitable fervants. This is not

acting the humble christian, but the proud Pharifee. He cries, with felf-importance, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. The humble christian, knowing how little he does, and how little he can do, forgetting all his doings as things not worth remembering, cries, God be merciful to me, a finner!

But the remembrance of our good actions not only leads us into pride of heart, but has a tendency to check our farther improvement: for, when a man thinks highly of himself, it is natural for him to rest satisfied, and stop where he is: nothing but a fenfe of our own deficiencies will make us proceed. It is fo in every thing, as well as in religion. If a man think he has gotten money enough, he will not distress himself with getting more; and, in the fame manner, if a man think he has religion enough, he will ceafe to improve himself farther.

Befides, to remember our good works, takes away whatever little value they may have. Only confider how the matter ftands in common life. When you hear a man praising himself for any good he may have done, you fee how much it Jeffens the action; he has fet his own value upon it, and perhaps a greater than people in general

are inclined to acknowledge: before a higher tribunal, we may be affured, his felf-exaltation would bring him to fhame. We are exprefsly told, that every one who exalteth himself, fhall be humbled and we have it on record, how it fared with the boasting Pharisee.

WELL, therefore, may the apostle advise us, in the fecond place, after forgetting the things that are behind, to reach forth unto the things that are before. We fhould never think ourselves fo good as we may be, nor to have done fo much good as we may do; but ftill to be endeavouring to proceed, in the fcripture language, from Atrength to strength.

2

There are certain principles, which we must first learn in every thing. From these we ad, vance higher; and whoever ftops, either at the principles, or in the progrefs, will never make any proficiency. Whatever we pursue in earnest, we keep the point of perfection always in view. If a man wishes to be learned, for instance, and wifhes it from his heart, all the acquirements he makes are nothing: time is too fhort for him; he keeps preffing on; adding knowledge to knowledge; reading book after book; correct

ing his opinions as he proceeds; and is never át reft, because there is always fomething more to. be known. Again, whoever engages in any art, or trade, if he be in earnest, whatever his point is, he pursues it fteadily; whether it be to understand thoroughly the art he profeffes, or it be the vanity of being at the head of his pro feffion, or it be to procure wealth; ftill, if he be in earnest, he keeps advancing; never refting on the proficiency he has made, nor on the eminence he has gained, nor on the fortune he bas acquired; but ftill endeavours to attain and acquire more.

Now the apostle's meaning is exactly this We should proceed in the affairs of religion, as we do in the affairs of the world; and there is no doubt but we fhould, if we were as much in earnest. And this is so much a truth, that if a man do not proceed in this way, he may be affured he is not in earnest: there is fome secret fin with which he is in league at the bottom: he is alive to the world, and its pleasures; but dead to religion, and its joys. His faith, if he have any, is dead: it is not ftrong enough to lead him on. A little leaven, faith our Saviour, quickeneth the whole lump-if it be the true

leaven.

leaven. His is not: it does not quicken. The lump remaineth.

But what! you cry, must the christian never faulter in his pace? Is he supposed to proceed with one uniform progrefs? Does he mifs of his falvation, if he now and then make a wry step? God forbid! We need not fcripture authority to convince us, that in many things we all offend. But does it follow, because we fin, that we fhould rest in fin ?—that because nature is frail, and we are too apt to fall into fins of surprize and infirmity, we fhould for that reason fin with our eyes open? There will be lukewarmnessthere will be coldnefs-there will be fins, not only of omiffion, but of commiffion likewife, even among good chriftians. But the difference lies here:-The good chriftian continually bewails the finfulness of his nature, and laments his own particular fins: he ftrives to get the better of them; and in this honest, fincere ftrife with himself, and the corruptions of his nature, confifts what the apoftle calls, reaching forth unto the things that are before.

This expreffion, you fee, does not place the mark, at which a christian should aim, in fo exalted a light, that he need defpair, if he do not

entirely