ous sins after the most solemn engagements, their. ease requires to be treated with the utmost caution. On the one hand, there cannot be a surer sign of a reprobate mind, than to plead in extenuation of our conduct the examples of imperfection, or the deeply lamented sins of real believers, especially those which stand recorded in scripture. To sin, because grace abounds, or to derive any encouragement for the commission of sin from the hope of mercy on repentance, is one of the strongest temptations which Satan, when he assumes the character of an angel of light, presents to the impenitent, and that which he most frequently urges with fatal success. To this temptation almost every presumptuous sin owes its origin, its progress, and its completion. On the other hand, a good man may be overtaken in a fault, as the scripture expresses it. He may fall into unpremeditated sin, through the strength of unsuspected temptation. His moral and religious feelings may be so deeply wounded, that he may begin to doubt whether he ever knew the truth, and be almost ready to suspect that God is about to give him up to all the horrors of a guilty conscience. To this case the divine encouragement, addressed by the prophet to ancient Israel, is strictly applicable. Go and proclaim these words, and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep mine anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, and that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and return unto me, ye backslid

ing children, and I will heal your backslidings. Under the gospel dispensation, the method of obtaining pardon and reconciliation with God is more clearly pointed out; and the substance of it is, that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; that in him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin; and that to them that are in him there is no condemnation. In a word, to whomsoever God grants repentance unto life, to them he also grants the remission of sin. There is joy in heaven on their account. Angels rejoice over them. The blessed Jesus rejoices over them. He sees in them of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. And, though, for a season, they may be in heaviness through manifold temptations, yet the trial of their faith will be found unto praise and honour and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The Lord will be their everlasting light, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. Such is the consolation which the gospel holds forth to those who are of a broken and contrite spirit; who are deeply humbled on account of their sins, and have solemnly renounced them, but being distressed with fears, are discouraged and dejected, and have sorrow in their heart daily. These are fit objects of Christian compássion, and stand in need of all that comfort which the nature of the gospel-covenant, rightly understood, abundantly administers.

III. Another source of disquietude arises fre

quently from the outward troubles and afflictions of life.

When these overtake the Christian, he naturally looks up to God for relief. But guilt is suspicious, and all men are more or less guilty before God. And, though the particular afflictions of the people of God are not always sent on account of particular sins, yet there is sin enough in the best of men to justify the severest trials with which they may be visited in this world. Hence we find, that, in their heaviest afflictions, they have never failed to justify God in his dealings towards them, while they have taken shame to themselves on account of their sins. I was dumb, says the psalmist, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. And again; I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. In like manner, Eli, bowing with meek submission under the hand of God, says, It is the Lord, let him do unto me what seemeth him good. And in still stronger language does the prophet Jeremiah express himself in the book of Lamentations, Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

When affliction brings the sins of men of distinguished piety to their remembrance, the recollection of them is accompanied with many aggravating circumstances. They have tasted that the Lord is gracious. They know that life is in his favour, and that his loving kindness is better than life; and the more highly they prize his favour,

the more deeply must they lament the effects of his righteous displeasure. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? says the psalmist. How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger; neither is there rest in my bones, because of my sins.

It is in this way that God discovers to us the plague of our own hearts, and that he leads us, as he did the prophet Ezekiel, from one to another, still saying, as he did to him, Son of man, hast thou seen these? I will shew thee yet more and greater abominations than these. The discovery may be painful, but it is salutary. We derive from it just views of the evil of sin, of its odious nature and awful effects, and, consequently, of the need which we have of a better righteousness than our own to justify us in the sight of God. Nor is this a matter of small moment: for of all the evils that can be endured sin is the greatest; and of all the punishments that can be inflicted in this world, insensibility to sin is the heaviest which God, in righteous judgment, inflicts on the impenitent and incorrigibly guilty. And as to the necessity of a better righteousness than our own to justify us in the sight of God, the persuasion of this is the turning point of salvation: for our Saviour himself assures us, that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are whole, says he, need not a physician, but they that are sick. While men are righteous in their own eyes, the gospel method of salvation, through the righteousness of

another, must appear a strange doctrine. Hence a sense of sin is necessary; not, indeed, (as it is sometimes represented) as a qualification which gives us a title or warrant to receive the Saviour, but as that which is essentially necessary in the nature of things to a compliance with that warrant. And if it be necessary to be convinced of sin, in order to receive the Saviour and his great salvation, then that spiritual conviction of its odious nature and awful consequences, which sanctified affliction has a tendency to produce, ought to be regarded as a harbinger of mercy. I have heard of thee, said Job, by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Who can understand his errors? says the psalmist, cleanse thou me from secret faults; not only from those which are hidden from the view of men, but from those which the deceitfulness of sin and of my own heart conceals from my own observation. If these happy effects are produced by sanctified afflictions, we have reason to number them among our greatest mercies; since every thing that befals us ought to be estimated, not by its outward appearance, but by the tendency it has to advance our conformity to the will and image of God, in which the chief glory and happiness of our nature consist.

Instead, therefore, of taking counsel in our souls, and having sorrow in our heart, when we are under the afflicting hand of God, we ought to be thankful to him who hath promised, that as our day is our strength shall likewise be; that all things shall