ons of thy justice, do my actual transgressions. present. Flagrant and avowed, rise, before my dismayed conscience, my presumptuous sins; -O, who can disclose my secret faults. Alas! my iniquities are too many to be numbered. Yes, my God, from the impure fountain of my heart, have flowed the noxious and corrupting streams which have defiled and debased my nature, and, with ruinous and devastating force, swept away the exalted vestiges of primeval rectitude and glory. "Thou art found wanting,"

the awful sentence, marked, by the finger of thy holiness, on the most brilliant virtues of man, confounds all the bold pretensions of human pride. The purest seraph that treads thy courts, most holy God, renouncing all claim to merit, in deep humility, casts his crown at thy throne! What overwhelming emotions then should penetrate a worm of the dust, a polluted sinner, when he approaches the resplendent throne of his Maker and Judge. Ah! though arrayed in the most splendid righteousness of which the most exalted saint can boast, when the beams of thy glory dart upon me, it will become me, imitating the deep abasement of the inspired prophet, to lay my hand upon my mouth, and prostrate in the duct to deplore my guilt," Wo is me, for I am unclean."

Explore then, O my soul, with profound. humility, the awful abysses of thy guilt. Consider thyself as cast, by transgression, at an in

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finite distance from that throne of glory, with which, in thy state of innocence, thou wast permitted to hold near and hallowed communion. Consider thyself, while unrenewed by grace, as obnoxious to the displeasure and curse of that God, who, from the essential holiness of his nature, must ever regard sin with inflexible abhorrence. Revolt not against the humiliating conviction of thy depravity; presume not, with impious effrontery, to cast back thy sins on thy most holy maker. Pure and upright, thou didst come forth, from his hallowed hands. But though blessed with his animating smiles, though admitted to the immediate vision of his glory, though holding near and blissful communion with thy adorable maker, wilfully yielding to base temptation, thou didst trangress his commands. Deadly was the taint that seized and degraded all thy powers, and still infects thee with its corrupting venom. But the goodness and love of thy maker, infinitely surpassed thy deserts, overcame the aggravated provocations of thy guilt. Transgression had no sooner sunk thee into the abyss of guilt and misery, than his mercy provided the glorious means of thy restoration. Satan had no sooner triumphed in thy fall, and cast on thee his enslaving chains, than the price of thy ransom was laid on one that was mighty, than a glorious redeemer was provided to baffle and rout the enraged forces of the adversary. Sin had no

sooner weakened and destroyed the glorious powers of thy primitive virtue, than the fountain of grace was opened to strengthen, renew and console thee by its invigorating streams. Inheriting from the first degenerate Adam, a fallen, unholy, and polluted nature, thou mayest derive from thy second glorious representative, the divine Saviour of mankind, pardon, holiness, everlasting salvation. The sacrifice of his death, as the sacrifice of an all-perfect and almighty victim, is infinite in value; and, extending its exalted and beneficent efficacy to all mankind, restores them to the means and hopes of salvation. His quickening grace, flowing from the exhaustless fountain of eternal love, diffuses, through the hearts of all the degenerate offspring of Adam, the cheering light, which would conduct them to the reconciled countenance of their offended God, the invigorating grace, which would enable them to render that imperfect, but sincere obedience which his mercy will vouchsafe to accept.

Thy transgressions, therefore, O my soul, are marked by the guilty character of perverse and wilful rejection of proffered grace. Thy condemnation is now aggravated by the bold and impious contempt of the mercies of salvation, purchased for thee by a Saviour's merits, pressed upon thee by the awakening persuasions, the urgent intreaties of a Saviour's love. In his exalted state of original perfection, thy

first parent, walking in the resplendent beams of divine glory, was evermore blessed by the enrapturing streams of bliss which from the throne of Jehovah descended upon him. Exalted and glorious as was his state, animating and powerful as were his motives to obedience, the agonies of a divine Saviour consumed as a victim to incensed justice did not display to him the inviolable sanctions of the law of God. The glories of the word made flesh, the blessings of life, mercy, and salvation which flowed from the cross, did not swell his soul with the utterable emotions of sacred adoration, did not display to his astonished contemplation, the surpassing condescension and love of the everlasting Jehovah. Ah! thy transgressions have cast contempt and scorn on the glories of the Son of God manifested in the flesh to redeem thee;-thy transgressions have repaid with cruel mockery and insult, the agonizing sufferings by which he atoned for thy guilt;contemning, by obstinate continuance in sin, the grace of God in thy salvation, thou hast hurled defiance against the cross where the lightning of his justice was consuming the Son of his love. Ah, my soul, thy sins committed against brighter displays of glory, contemning more tremendous manifestations of divine justice, have involved thee in deeper guilt than that which crushed, under the avenging curse of heaven, the wretched fore father of our race.

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Here then, my soul, place the basis of thy repentance. From the view of thy fallen and wretched state, derive the awakening springs of penitential sorrow. From the view of the ruins in which sin has involved thy once glorious nature, seek to excite the lively conviction of thy need of the atoning mercy, and renovating grace of a Redeemer. Arrayed in the celestial garments of mercy, he came, the divine messenger of the Father, of the Father," to proclaim liberty to the captives, to bind up the brokenhearted, to comfort those who mourn." And until thou art sensible that the galling chains of sin enslave thee; until the view of the misery and wretchedness of thy fallen nature, excites the anguish of thy awakened conscience; until the just sentence of condemnation passed against thee, penetrates thy humbled spirit with deep and unfeigned sorrow,thou wilt not implore the saving power of the al mighty arm of thy Redeemer, thou wilt not with humble and fervent importunity implore. the balm of divine mercy, thou wilt not seek to wash away the deep stains of thy guilt in the ever-living fountain of thy Redeemer's grace.

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Let then, the lively sense of thy unworthiness and guilt be ever sacredly cherished, O my soul, to humble thee in the sight of God, to awaken the fervors of thy repentance, to excite thee evermore to seek comfort, peace and salvation, by a lively faith in thy Saviour's merits and grace. Especially, when