he that thinketh he standeth may fall, but that the very opinion of his security is likely to prove the occasion of his falling. Look to the instance of the Jews; and you will find that presumption, that selfconceit, that self-confidence was the origin and ground-work of their overthrow:look to the constitution and temper of man; behold his nature as weak as it is corrupt; examine his heart, no less "deceitful," than it is wicked; mark his proneness to "commend himself," when he has no reasonable cause for expecting that the Lord will commend him; observe his propensity to flatter himself with "visions of peace, where there is no peace;" and you will be convinced, that the instance of the Jews is an alarming specimen of the general infirmity and the general danger of mankind.

Conscious that we partake of that infirmity; and impressed with a lively sense of our exposure to that danger; let us, my brethren, the more urgently apply to ourselves the admonition, which the disasters of the Israelites were intended to convey:

let us profit by the exhortation of the Apostle, and "take heed lest we fall." Instead of following their example, and presuming upon our being greatly favoured by the Almighty, let us rather imitate the conduct of St. Paul, who although he was conspicuously and specially a "chosen vessel" of God, yet counted not himself to have apprehended; but "this one thing he did, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Called by the free grace of God to the privilege of being his peculiar people, from which the Jews by transgression fell;" let us beware how we partake of their transgressions, lest we partake also of their fall. "Thou wilt say," argues the same Apostle with the converted Gentiles, and the argument applies to us their successors in the Church of Christ; "Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest 'Phil. iii. 13, 14.

by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off."

May it please almighty God to grant us his preventing and assisting grace, "that we who cannot do any good thing without him, may by him be enabled to live according to his will!" that being justified by the righteousness of his Son, and guided and strengthened by his Holy Spirit, and "giving diligence to make our calling and election sure," we may "do those things," which are commanded us, " and never fall ; but so an entrance may be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ b!" To whom, with thee O Father, and thee O Holy Spirit, three Persons in the unity of one Godhead, be all honour and glory henceforth and for ever!

Rom. xi. 19-22.

2 Pet: i. 10, 11.

SERMON XXIX.

THE USES OF AFFLICTION.

PSALM CXIX. 71.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.

66

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IT is good for me that I have been afflicted!" This is not the language of nature; this is not the language of the world. Nature impels us, and the world teaches us, to consider affliction as an evil, and to fly and escape from it accordingly and that for an obvious reason; because affliction is not adapted to gratify our natural desires and inclinations, or to promote our interest and prosperity in the world. Religion, looking upon us as spiritual beings, as consisting of soul no less than of body, as intended to live in another state as well

as in this, forms its estimate of the value of things, by the tendency which they have to promote our spiritual and eternal welfare. It prompts us therefore to look to the other side of the picture. It does not tell us, that affliction is not an evil; for that were only to mock and deride us in our sufferings: but it tells us, how it may be converted into a good. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," says the royal Psalmist, who spoke not from a frigid and unfeeling observation on the condition of others, but from a lively experience of his own: "it is good for me that I have been afflicted," and why? because it has been the means of leading me to "learn thy statutes," O Lord! because it has been the means of leading me to a knowledge of thy will; because it has taught me to "commune with my own heart," and to discover the weakness and wickedness of it; because it has taught me to become acquainted with Thee; because it has taught me to "acknowledge my transgressions and to be sorry for my sins;" because it has been the means, whereby thou, O God, hast "created in me a clean heart, and renewed a right spirit