tures the love and confidence which are only due to my God; I have even been my own idol, in referring every thing to myself, in loving and esteeming myself, and in expecting to be esteemed by others, as though I were better than they. I have often profaned the name of God in making use of it to cover the falsity and deceit of my heart. I have rejected and despised the word of God, not only in being contented to have in my head an historical knowledge of it, while I internally resisted the virtue of the Holy Spirit, who would have made it life, and rendered it efficacious in my heart; but also in giving to certain passages of the Scripture, which condemned me, a false interpretation, favourable to my sinful propensities. I am a prodigal child, who after having dissipated the benefits of my God, and rejected the salutary yoke of my Saviour, have refused to return to him, as a poor sinner, to implore his pardon. I am a Cain, who have pretended, by my fruits, my self-righteous works, to offer to God sacrifices meritorious and well pleasing to him; I have been the murderer of my brother, in contributing, by my sins, to the death of the Son of God, and in crucifying afresh the Lord of glory, by my ingratitude and indifference towards him who hath loved me more than his

life. I have also imitated Cain in hating, condemning, and representing as fanatics persons who, stripping themselves of their own righteousness to be clothed with that of Jesus, present nothing but their misery to God, on account of which they supplicate his compassion, and an application of the merits of the Lamb, that they may obtain mercy. I have been an Ishmael, wild and cruel," whose hand has been against every man," Gen. xvi. 12; for my heart has been full of anger, hatred, envy and animosity: a secret fornicator, an adulterer, who covered with a decent outside, the filthy desires and impure inclinations of my carnal nature: an unjust plunderer of the property of another in robbing God of the homage and gratitude I owe him, for all I am, and all I possess; in appropriating to myself the honour and glory that belong only to him, and in taking to myself, by unlawful means, the goods of my neighbour. I have been a false witness in disguising the truth; a false prophet in endeavouring to pass for righteous and holy, when, at the same time, I was nothing less; an hypocritical pharisee, in pretending to become righteous by the performance of the works of the law, and in rejecting the righteousness Jesus bestows unmeritedly upon sinners who believe in him. In fine, I am a

child of perdition, a vile sinner, lost and condemned.'*

Behold, in substance, the confession you will make, in heart and mouth, when your eyes áre open, and you perceive your misery. Do you recognize yourself in this description? Does the voice of your conscience convince you of being so great a sinner?

Disciple.-Alas! it is too true, and it is enough to make me tremble.

Pastor. This is not all. The law will show

The sorrowful and trembling seeker after Jesus will no doubt be discouraged at this description of the opinion he will form of himself, when the Holy Spirit discovers to him what he really is in the eye of the law of God. But let him gather consolation in meditating upon the following words of the son of Sirach: Wisdoin exalteth her children and layeth hold of them that seek her. He that loveth her loveth life, and they that seek to her early shall be filled with joy. He that holdeth her fast shall inherit glory, and wheresoever she entereth the Lord will bless. They that serve her shall minister to the Holy One, and them that love her, the Lord doth love. Whoso giveth ear unto her shall judge the nations, and he that attendeth unto her shall dwell securely. If a man commit himself unto her, he shall inherit her, and his generation shall hold her in possession. For at first she will walk with him in crooked ways, and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline, until she may trust his soul and try him by her laws. Then will she return the straight way unto him and comfort him, and shew him her secrets.” Ecclus. iv. 11-18.

you that you are a dissembler: but it is in the Gospel, and in particular in the contemplation of Jesus crucified, of the Son of God suffering and dying, that you will learn how great a sinner you are, and what you merit as such. When you read the history of the blind, the lame, the paralytic, the leprous, and the many other sick the Saviour deigned to make whole, and particularly of the sinners who found grace in his eyes, say to yourself, Thou art the man. If you do not thus apply the word of God, the reading of it will not produce in you any good effect. Those who force themselves to become, what they think, righteous and holy, before they have well probed the malady of their hearts, uselessly torment themselves; they may succeed, perhaps, in avoiding gross sins, and in the practice of certain external duties, but in so doing they only assume a mask which may impose upon short-sighted men, and hide from themselves their inward corruption, so that they will not go to Jesus for justification and salvation by grace. To them apply these words of our Lord: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life," John v. 39, 40.

Consider, above all things, the sufferings and death of the Son of God, and remember that your

sins were the cause of them. Contemplate this man of sorrow; what humility, what abasement, what silence, what meekness, what love for his most cruel enemies! With all your goodness, what are you compared to him? A proud, presumptuous, detestable being, a demon. You have studied to be virtuous and pious, but only in appearance, that you might enjoy, in the world, the reputation of a good man. The Lord Jesus has not, among men, greater enemies than the pharisees, those self-righteous people, to whom the Gospel is a scandal.

A mantle, for our souls to prize,
Of our own merits wrought,
The Lamb of God, we do despise
And set his blood at naught.

Cast your eyes upon the saint of saints; he has been numbered with malefactors; dare you deny yourself to be one also? Ah! fix your attention for a time upon the cross of Jesus, you will there discover your extreme misery, and the extensive demands and infinite holiness of that law, the violations of which could only be expiated by the blood of God. You will say, with bitterness, how great has been my rashness in committing, without scruple, so many sins, which have caused the death of Jesus? What carelessness, what in