doubt. Let us bring both our reflections on the past, and our intentions for the future, to the test of God's laws: and if, upon that trial, "our heart condemns us," let us not dare to appeal from its sentence to any mortal tribunal. Rather let us hasten to correct whatever it thus condemns ;—to repent whatever evil we have done, and to abandon whatever crime we have designed; relying on a merciful Saviour for the pardon of what is past, and on the holy Spirit, for the hope of amendment in future. Then, though, looking to the letter of the law, we must ever regard ourselves as " dead through sin;" yet may we still, by the covenant of grace, be "alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."" "Rom. vi. 11. SERMON III. ON SELF-EXAMINATION. Psalm Iv. 4. Commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still. Few men can have been better judges of the various effects, which different circumstances and situations are capable of producing upon the human mind, than the author of the counsel now before us. It was well known to David,—for he had found it by long and dear-bought experience —that, amidst the hurry of crowds, and the rapid succession of interesting pursuits, a man, by no means destitute of right principle, may be carried on for days and months and years, without systematic reflection; nay, even without any serious attempt to reflect; and, consequently, with views, at the best, vague and inaccurate—perhaps, deeply erroneous—of his own character and conduct. On the other hand, at several periods of his life, the son of Jesse had had good cause to remark, that the most favourable opportunities of acquiring self-knowledge are found in the calm of silence and solitude. In the stillness of his chamber, he had communed with his own heart, and had thoroughly ascertained the value and efficacy of that process, which he now recommends to general adoption. It was there that he had found leisure and disposition to sift and scrutinize his thoughts; to recal and compare his past actions; and, dispelling those false colours, with which the voice of flattery, or his own vanity and self-love, had too busily clothed them, to pass that just and severe judgment upon himself, in which alone amendment of life could originate. . . Nor was he at a loss for the only principle, on which that scrutiny could be so conducted, as to arrive at clear and certain conclusions. He remembered, that, though retired and alone, unseen and unheard as to human observation, he stood in the presence, and under the eye of his Maker. "Thou knowest," says he, "my down-sitting, and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou art about my path, and about my bed, and spiest out all my ways."" In this consideration, the royal penitent found the most effectual antidote for that pernicious self-deceit, to which human fallibility must always be liable; and hence he drew those just sentiments of humiliation and self-reproach, which, in many of his psalms, are so strongly and piously expressed. The life of David, we know, was marked with singular vicissitudes, not only of fortune, but of moral conduct. In his frequent and earnest professions of a deep-rooted belief in the superintendence of the Almighty, he was unquestionably no hypocrite; nor are his vows of obedience, in reference to the general tenor of his life, to be suspected of insincerity. Yet, on the other hand, it must be admitted, that, in some instances, his errors and his crimes were of no ordinary magnitude. But, what is the inference that we are bound to draw from this deplorable inconsistency? simply—that David, like other men, was liable to such passions, as are only to be controlled by |