truth,' says a good writer, in all the Scriptures, unconverted sinners, dying such, will be miserable to eternity.' If men will put a general notion of God's mercy, in the place of his promises; if they will substitute a form of godliness for a divine nature; and a mere decency and good order before others, for an escape from the corruption which is in the world through lust, they must perish. It cannot be otherwise. The word of God expressly makes the declaration.

But I would rather hope that such may in some measure be convinced of their perilous state by what has been advanced. I trust you begin to feel that you cannot be saved as you are. This is an important step. Draw nigh then to God, and submit yourselves to the terms of the Gospel. When you begin seriously to desire the holy salvation which God has revealed, his exceeding great and precious promises may be considered as addressed to you. You come within the scope of them. The lowest and most feeble desires after true religion will de rive encouragement from them. God delighteth in mercy. He abundantly pardons. He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. He pro mises his Holy Spirit to all who ask him. He solemnly declares that he that seeks shall find, and that to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. He expressly promises that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He

bids us take with us words and turn unto him; and we are assured that he marks and observes the first emotions of penitence and prayer.

Let then these declarations guide you to his footstool. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Christ Jesus may be given to them that believe. If you see this promise to be exceeding great and precious, an important point is already gained. To feel the value of the promises, is an evidence of spiritual life. If you begin to know that you need a new heart, and that without a divine nature you can never get to heaven: this proves that the Spirit of God is at work in your mind. If you discern the corruption which lust and disobedience have occasioned in the world, and earnestly desire to escape from it lest you should be involved in destruction: this clearly indicates that you have already within you the seed of those dispositions to which the promises are made. Go on in the strength of these promises; use them; implore of God to fulfil them to you as your necessities, while engaged in the pursuit of pardon and grace, require. You shall not seek in vain. He is faithful that hath promised. Whilst the other parts of Scripture will teach you the fall of man, the dealings of God with his church, the offices of Christ and the nature of his kingdom, the evil of sin, the scheme of redemption, the

duties of the Christian life, the temptations to which it is exposed, and the warnings and exhortations by which it is to be guarded, the belief of the PROMISES, in all their greatness and value, will tend to deliver you more and more from the corruption which is in the world through lust, and gradually form you anew after the holy image of your God. Thus shall you be trained for heaven. You shall be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. At last you shall attain com❤ plete redemption; for this is the promise which he hath promised us-the ultimate and concluding blessing, that to which all the provisions of the everlasting covenant, and all the grace of the separate promises, have respect, and in which they shall all receive their ac complishment-even ETERNAL LIFE.

SERMON XV.

KELIGIOUS DEJECTION.

PSALM LXXvær. 10.

I said, This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

THERE are few cases which require more com passion and more wisdom in the treatment of them than that of religious dejection. Religious melancholy is the disease of piety, and must be treated as such, if we would hope to remove it. We must consider its symptoms, endeavour to trace out its causes, and then prescribe its cure. The inspired writer of the Psalm from which the text is taken, appears to have been under its influence. He is bowed down with the pressure of affliction, he can discover no indications of God's former favour, he is filled with fearful apprehensions of his anger, with the utmost grief of mind, and with an anxiety bordering on despair; and he finds no relief for his infirmity, until he remembers the years of the right hand of the Most High; until calling to

mind the mercy and loving-kindness of God which have been ever of old, he is again enabled to hope in him, and to rejoice in his salvation. Let us then consider the symptoms, the cause, and the oure of religious dejection.

We notice,

I. THE SYMPTOMS OF RELIGIOUS DEPRESSION The despondency of irreligious persons, when conscience has alarmed their fears, and keen disappointments have broken their spirits and filled them with forebodings of eternal punishment, is not the case we have to consider. Nor are the distresses and solicitudes of an awakened penitent, when, first convined of sin, he anxiously inquires after the way of salvation in Christ Jesus, the indications of it. These are rather favourable signs. They do not imply the existence of a disease, but they are salubrious and medicinal. Nor is the seriousness of mind which ever becomes a Christian in this world of temptation, where he is called to work out his salvation with fear and trembling, and to pass the time of his sojourning in fear, the index of religious melancholy. Neither are the occasional fluctuations in the religious feelings to which all the sincere servants of God are more or less subject, the evidences of its existence.

The proper symptoms of it are to be found in a settled depression of mind, in a perplexing

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