had continued "in all the things which are written in the law to do them."

But it is one thing to confess, that we have transgressed; and another thing to confess, at least to feel in our hearts, that we are justly condemned for such transgressions. The natural heart has commonly a great deal to plead against this, and is very slowly brought to own it. Yet till we do sincerely own it, till we intimately feel it, this sacred day is nothing to us, brings us no glad tidings. The gospel of Christ Jesus is nothing to us. He comes to us with the title of Saviour: but this mercy on his part is met with no answer of gratitude on ours. Yet while this remains so, we have no part nor lot in his salvation, we are in no condition to receive his mercy; for how can we feel that devotion, that affection towards him, that entire reliance and dependence which he demands as our Deliverer, if it is a deliverance of which we see no need?

On this humiliation then, this inward sense of sinfulness, all depends. Yes Eternity depends upon it more than I can describe or you conceive. The ruin, or the salvation of the soul, depends, not on our repeating it in a creed or a

catechism, not on our subscribing to it as an article of religion for then I might quote a few sentences from the Liturgy in which you have this day joined, and have done. But it must be felt, not declared; acknowledged in our hearts and evidenced by our lives. And this genuine confession of a penitent and contrite heart can only come from deep conviction. A person does not feel guilty, merely because he He must be per

is proved to have offended.

suaded in his heart not only that he has transgressed a law, but that it was a law which he ought to have obeyed: that he has neglected a Master whom he ought to have served. It is easy for me to affirm that "the scripture has concluded all under sin :" and you may bow to the authority of scripture, and have nothing to reply but no good is done, till you confess the justice as well as the authority of scripture; till you are touched in your heart, and exclaim with repentant David, "I have sinned against the Lord." When the Holy Spirit has wrought this conviction on the conscience, then is the offer of a Saviour welcome to your ears, and you gladly accept the promise "which is by faith of Jesus Christ to them that believe."

Now I was observing, that most men readily allow that they have not lived up to the perfect law of God. But they do not so readily allow the sinfulness of this: they have some excuse in reserve, behind which they shelter themselves. They may have offended, but they are not guilty in other words, it would be unjust in the Almighty to condemn them.

It is necessary to show the worthlessness of such excuses, because they virtually contradict all scripture and stand in the way of any true faith, by denying the value of the redemption. to effect whieh Christ came into the world. 2

I. One excuse by which men palliate to their own minds their neglect of the divine law, is the corrupt nature which was born with them. God, they think, knows their frailty, their corrupt propensities, their rebellious passions: they

2 As the pulpit is no place for speculations, I have confined myself to what actually concerns a Christian congregation. But the line of argument might be justly applied to the heathen world, as it is by St. Paul, Acts xiv. 16, 17, and more particularly, Rom. i. 18—28, and ii. 12—16. "No sin shall be charged upon the heathens, but such as the law of nature and right reason does condemn."-Bp. Hopkins, vol. iv. p. 178.

derive their being from him and will he severely notice what is wrong in the creatures which he has made?

Now I will not enter upon the inquiry, how

3

far this very corrupt nature is in itself the occasion of condemnation, I will descend from that high ground, and say, that the force of the excuse depends entirely upon what you have done to amend this corrupt nature whether you have contended against it, resisted it to the utmost of your power; whether you have made it the subject of continual endeavour and continual prayer, that your evil disposition might be reformed and renewed. Instead of this, can you lay your hand upon your heart and say that you have never given willing way to it? never indulged in wickedness from which you might have abstained? never encouraged passion? never pampered appetite? never placed yourself within the reach of temptation? A prudent man, who has some disorder inherent in his bodily constitution, does not argue that it is useless for him to take care of his health because of his constitutional weakness; but by reason of that constitutional weakness he is led

3 See Rom. v. 12—19.

to take unusual care; he avoids exposing himself, he shuns fatigue, and abstains from risks which a stronger man might run without injury. And have you always done the same, because of the inherent corruption of your heart? Look back to the beginnings of sin, and see whether you have not yielded when you ought to have opposed; whether you have not encouraged evil desires, and pursued evil habits, till they became too strong for you. In order to understand the scriptural representation of man's state, it is unnecessary to believe that any one will be finally condemned for sin which he could not have avoided. When the veil is removed which is now spread over the conscience, every impenitent transgressor will perceive that he had daily made his nature worse by "hardness of heart and contempt of God's word," and that he had used no pains to correct and purify it; that if he had inclination to sin, he had also power to resist that inclination: unless indeed by a long course of disobedience he may have provoked God, in just judgment, to take away his Holy Spirit from him and leave him to himself.

Mark, my brethren, what a holy man of old