desperately wicked;" but the great question is, have you really felt your condition to be such as the bible represents it? Have you been constrained in agony of spirit to exclaim, "Woe is me, for I am undone; my sin is ever before me; if thou Lord, should mark iniquity, I could not stand!" Has the light shone inwardly around your consciences and your hearts, giving alarming discoveries of your exposure to wrath, and your utter inability to effect your own deliverance? This question is first proposed because a conviction of sin is the first operation of the divine Spirit in the conversion of man: Although he is a sovereign agent, and works differently on the different subjects of his grace, yet all are made sensible of their defilement and misery by nature. He shews the sinner the necessity of utterly "denying himself;" he convinces him in the light of the holy law that his wisdom is folly, that his most perfect righteousness is merely guilt, that his holiest qualifications are the foulest pollution, that all his own excellence is deformity, and thus obliges him to ask with trembling Saul, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? It is of thy mercy that I am not consumed." I firmly believe that every sinner, when savingly enlightened by the Holy Ghost, will conceive himself to be the "chief of sinners;" and the reason is obvious.— He is more sensible of the hidden mystery of corruption in his own heart, of its extreme pride, and deceitfulness, and enmity

against God, than he can possibly be of the corruption of another. How ingenuous was the language of Agur! Out of the abundance of the conviction of his heart, his mouth makes a frank and open confession. Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man: I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy."

2. Where, in the hour of spiritual distress, have you sought and obtained peace to your consciences? Was it exclusively "in the blood of sprinkling" which sovereign wisdom and grace have provided, and which the gospel freely exhibits? Real conversion is pronounced, "a turning to the strong holds," that is to Jesus who is an impregnable, everlasting covert from every storm; a fleeing "for refuge to lay hold on this hope set before us:" And the true circumcision are characterised, "as rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh." This I propose as the second interrogatory, because this is the order exhibited in the heavenly oracles. The everlasting Spirit is promised first to "convince the world of sin," and afterwards "of righteousness. This divine Agent does not discover to the man his danger merely to produce an unnecessary alarm, or to "torment him before the time. Infinitely more gracious are his designs. He makes him sensible of his disease, that he may apply the remedy while it is offered: He shews him his guilt in its nature as re

pugnant to a holy, righteous law; in its consequences as really exposing him to future punishment, that he may be constrained to improve that "blood which cleanses from all sin," and which flows freely for his pardon in particular: He teaches the sinner that his situation is altogether desperate; that he is utterly and eternally undone in himself, that he may be persuaded to receive with grateful heart, and open arms, that Jesus who came for the salvation of "those that are lost." Pause a moment, beloved hearer, and enquire, have such been the operations of the gracious Spirit upon thy soul? When trembling under apprehensions of divine wrath, has he led thee to the Saviour for relief? Has he afforded thee some comfortable discoveries of Jesus as a complete Mediator between thy guilty soul and an avenging God? Has he enabled thee to plead bis righteousness as an all-sufficient, everlasting foundation for thy hope? Here, and here alone is thy soul resting for shelter from all the thunders of a broken law, and all the horrors" of the wrath to come? Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory:" The sinner, under this apprehension of his own misery, and the Redeemer's suitableness, would not barter his hopes of salvation for as many worlds as there are drops of water in the ocean. He resolves with an eminent christian reformer, "mine eyes shall be

hold nothing else but this inestimable price, my Lord and Saviour Christ; he ought to be such a treasure to me, that all other things become like "dung" in comparison of him; he ought to be such a light to me, that when I have apprehended him by faith, I should not know whether there be any law, any sin, any righteousness, or unrighteousness in the world: What are all things which are in heaven and earth in comparison of the Son of God, Christ Jesus my Lord, who loved me and gave himself for me?"*

3. Do you aspire uniformly and ardently after holiness of heart and conversation? If any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: "He is the workmanship of Jehovah the Spirit, created in Christ Jesus unto GOOD WORks, which God hath before ordained that he should walk in them." In regeneration the current of the soul takes an entirely different direction; formerly it ran altogether in the channel of self, self-interest, self-gratification and honor, but now its course is directed spontaneously towards God, and heaven. There are many professors who talk much about the doctrines of free grace; they glory in their gifts and attainments; they manifest a furious zeal about the order of the church, and an intolerant spirit towards those who happen to differ from them. But this is the principal part, I may add, the whole of their religion. It is like the flash

of lightning which blazes and scorches for a time, and then evanishes. They can occasionally mingle with the profane; they can indulge themselves in the gratification of the flesh, and allow themselves in conversation not only wanton but impure. These and other disorders they will attempt to cover with the sacred garb of concern for the honor of God, or the purity of his worship. Such professors may be first in their noise about religion; they may be first in their own estimation, but they will be last in the kingdom of heaven. "The tree is known by its fruit," not by its blossoms and leaves; and the christian is distinguished from others not by the "high swelling" pre tensions, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," but by the meekness of his disposition; by the blamelesness of his walk, and the civility and chastity of his discourse. "He is created in Christ Jesus" not only to good words, but "to good works." Grace in the soul is a living, operative principle, and teaches the individual to "live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world. The wisdom that cometh from above," says an inspired apostle, "is first PURE;" it sanctifies the heart, and afterwards will be manifested by a holy, edifying conversation "then PEACEABLE;" as it gives to its subjects the blessed assurance of " peace with God," it will incline them to "follow peace with all men; "GENTLE and EASY TO BE ENTREATED;" it renders the

person

mild,

!