other means of grace; thus in every way striving that, by the blessing of God on his exertions, bis faded affections may be revived, his piety re-animated to its former warmth; and that the stupendous truths of revelation and redemption may again stand exhibited to his mind in all the freshness of a first discovery.

II. In the next place I would deduce from the subject which we have been considering, AN IMPORTANT LESSON ;-that of CHARITY as to others and of HUMILIATION as to ourselves.

In judging of our Christian brethren we can scarcely exercise a CHARITY too exuberant. The consciousness of our own defects and the remembrance of the astonishing force of habit even in good men, should check all hasty opinions of others, and should lead us to put the most favourable construction upon their actions. We know little of ourselves, and much less of bur neighbours. We are no fair judges of their duties, their temptations, their early prepos sessions, their designs, their circumstances. Perhaps, in their situation, we should have fallen into habits still more questionable than those which we censure in them. There still may be in them a divine life, little as we think of it -Lateat scintillula forsan. If God bears with them, surely we may. A tender and charitable spirit is, at any rate, far more likely to amend

them, if they are indeed wrong, than the language of austere, peevish, or imperious censure.

Instead, then, of harshness towards our fellow Christians, let us each learn HUMILIATION as to `ourselves. O, what cause have we for shame and self-reproach! How defective are we as to the improvement of our moral and religious faculties! The best of us are still, as it were, unformed, unfinished creatures; deficient and unqualified, from a want of knowledge and ex perience, for that mature state of life, which was the end of our new creation. Let us then prostrate ourselves before the throne of our Sa+ viour. Let us not only talk of humility, but really feel that we are mere children and infants in understanding and holy habits. Let us un reservedly repose our hope only on the sacrifice and merits of our divine Lord. Let us contrast his infinite grace with our utter unworthiness. Let us cultivate an unaffected lowliness and teachableness of heart; and thus aim at discovering and confessing our various unfavour able habits of mind or conduct.

I

But we must not stop here; a lesson of charity and humility is not enough; I must be allowed, in the last place,

III. TO ANIMATE THE CHRISTIAN TO NEW

EFFORTS IN OPPOSING AND

REMAINING EVIL HÀBITS.

CONQUERING HIS

For no real benefit can arise from all we have

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considered, unless we apply to ourselves individually the several topics to which we have adverted. We must bring home to our own bosoms still more closely than we have yet done, the description of our various evil habits; and must actually employ without delay the means for preventing or opposing them. For, what is the plainest obligation of our Christian calling, what is the proper effect of all our great principles, what the design and scope of every separate grace and duty, but the achieving the conquest over those yery unfavourable habits which have been the subject of this discourse? Undoubtedly there is no character so noble or so rare, as the elevated, laborious, consistent, and amiable Christian, who, engaged strenuously in the conflict with remaining evil, gradually advances in the actual victory over these his most insidious spiritual foes.co

-And what should the unutterable blessings of salvation teach us, but the denial, in every possible way, of ungodliness and worldly lusts? To what are we redeemed, but to be thus a peculiar people zealous of good works? What is the proper effect of the love of Christ, but to constrain us, in this manner, to live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and rose again? What is the design of that sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit by which we should be governed, but to form us to a

divine nature? And who can be ignorant that every one of these practical results resolves itself very much into this conquest over our corrupt habits of temper and conduct? Surely, then, if we entertain any hope that we have been called to the knowledge of Christ,—that we have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world,--that we have been blessed with the gift of righteousness, and raised to the privileges of adoption; if we profess a love to our adorable Lord; if we desire to yield a cheerful obedience to his commands, and cherish any expectations of eternal glory, we shall prove the sincerity of our faith by shaking off the slumbers which steal upon us; we shall begin more resolutely to correct our unfavourable customs and habits; we shall awake more and more to righ teousness, shall mortify our members which are upon the earth, shall exercise ourselves unto godliness, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and, in one comprehensive word, we shall PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.

H H

SERMON XIX.

TEMPTATION.

MATTHEW, VI. 13.

Lead us not into temptation.

WHEN our blessed Lord had directed his disciples to implore the forgiveness of their trespasses, he taught them in the next place to pray for deliverance from temptation. Having sought pardon for our past sins, we must earnestly entreat to be preserved from the repetition of them. The mercy of God should increase our fear of offending him; and gratitude for the remission of guilt, should inflame the soul with a hatred of every transgression. None indeed can have a scriptural sense of justification, unless they diligently seek after sanctifying grace; of which one chief work is to lead us to shun the occasions and temptations to evil. Nor, indeed, can a more important subject than that of temptation be proposed to our attention generally. Our state on earth is probationary, Every thing around us and within us may be the means of ensnaring our minds.