(say they) and are our faults and failings to be ac' counted so heinous in the sight of God, and to be

' lamented so bitterly in our own souls? are we to 'be classed with the openly immoral, and avowedly profane? to be thought no better of, in the sight of God, and to be as heinous in our own eyes? 'Did our sins help to crucify the Lord of life and

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glory. Must he of necessity have died to save man, if all the world were no worse than we? are 'we to count all but loss and dross and dung, for 'the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus? • He himself owns he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Must our righteousness stand for nothing? Must we be reckoned

as the vilest of the vile; stand condemned as law‹ breakers and be treated with in a way of mercy, only as lost and condemned rebels? Yet so it is. The covering of self-righteousness and hypocritical morality, must be torn from the body of all God's people, though it be the wounding of the flesh, opening many a sore. Did Christ submit to

shame for us? and must not we take to ourselves shame and confusion of face, which belongeth unto us to this very day. Dan. ix. 7. And for this very thing is the righteousness of Christ held out unto us, that contrasting his spotless robe, with our most paltry, and in regard to justification most filthy performances, we may be led to confess that we with all the world are become guilty before God.

And 2d. God's people are often slow of heart to

look to Christ and believe his promises. The most wicked and profane are generally when brought to a right knowledge of themselves, the most deeply wounded with compunction of spirit on account of sin; they know those acute feelings which in scripture are compared to the wormwood and the gall: yet this is at best but half the cure; looking unto Jesus, is the only remedy for a wounded spirit and a guilty soul. Yet how long doth the mind of God's chosen often lay exposed to the terrors of the law, to the pangs of a wounded conscience, struggling in its own strength, and endeavouring to bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Oh how dishonoring is this to the cause of Christ, and how provoking to the majesty of Heaven, to see those whom Christ died to redeem, and whom for this end he had begun to convince of sin, endeavouring under the smart to shun the remedy; under the burden shunning that cross, at whose feet alone it can drop off from their backs : for so fast doth the burden of sin stick to the human frame, that nothing but a faith's view of the cross, aud of our crucified Lord bleeding thereon, can ease us of the intolerable load, and make us go easily all our days. Now in these instances is the want of humility visible in God's people: I say nothing of the wicked, for they are puffed up with pride their ways are right in their own eyes, and their hearts are harder than the nether millstone.Here even the elect stumble in the ground work of their religious career, some slighting their convic

tions of sin, others slighting their sovereign cure. Will any say in reading these things, "Who then "can be saved?" Our Lord's disciples in the days of his flesh, asked him this question; and they received this comforting and heart cheering answer; “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible," Matt. xix. 25, 26. The elect must be saved by conquering these. They will not be suffered to die dishonoring their Lord. Some of them by pleasing, and others by painful experience, must be led to the foot of the cross. Christ in his glory will dazzle some, às he did that chosen vessel, Paul: afflictions must break down the proud spirits of others, till they can confess that the cross is in every dispensation, which cast into the cup, like the tree in the waters of Marah, by the hands of Moses, can make their bitter sweet. See Exod. xv. 25. On which it may be observed, that the cup of sorrow for sin either in a way of repentance, or in seeking pardon, acceptance, and justification before God, must remain bitter to him that tastes it, till the tree of God's own providing is cast in, which tree is the cross of Christ Jesus our Lord.

17th. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. John xiii. 20.

A godly sorrow for sin is the gift of God by his Holy Spirit which worketh effcctually in the hearts

of his elect, by that sorrow which needeth not be repented of. But how shall Christ be known as the balm of gilead, the physician of souls? We say by his word. But how shall his word be known, seeing all possess not a copy of his word: I mean the gospel, and few have that word written on the tablets of their hearts? I answer by the preaching thereof. Thus says St. Paul, "Whosoever shall "call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But a great difficulty rises in the mind of the apostle, which that it may neither dishonor God's name among men, or be detrimental to the peace of men having the fear of God, he first states, and then removes. "How then, (he adds to state the ¢¢ difficulty) shall they call on him, in whom they "have not believed? and how shall they believe "in him of whom they have not heard? and how "shall they hear without a preacher? And how "shall they preach, except they be sent ?" But there are those who are sent to preach the gospel; their situation is honorable, their post important, and an adequate success is promised to their labors; and thus the apostle sums up all, and removes the difficulty; "As it is written," (appealing to the testimony of ancient scripture as the standard of truth), "how beautiful are the feet of "them that preach the gospel of peace and bring "glad tidings of good things," Rom. x. 13 to 15.

The ministry of the gospel is an honorable employment, for those who are exercised therein:

they are the ambassadors of Christ, who are sent to declare to the world, the terms of peace on which God will be reconciled to his chosen.

If we honor the master, we are to honor those of his household; seeing they are engaged in the service of the master, and should have their eye fixed on his honor and glory. But two things may be observed under the passage just quoted, 1st. Christ is honored in the reception of his ministers, and 2d. God the Father, is honored in the reception of Christ.

1st. Christ is honored in the reception of his ministers. The ministry of the gospel is admirably calculated, in the hands of the Spirit, to lead God's people to the knowledge of, and reception of Christ, through the knowledge of, and confession of their own sins. The aim of ministers of the gospel should be to preach Christ crucified, but as this must be done by various steps and degrees, we may observe a few particulars in which, even above the rest, God's people should listen to the ministers of the gospel. And first, they should listen attentively to the thunder and curses of a broken law, set forth in all its holy requirements against their lost and ruined souls. Though Christ must be preached above the law, yet the law must be preached to bring us to Christ. That soul will not come willingly to a Saviour, who is unconvinced of his need of the same. Pay methat thou owest, is the thunder of the law against

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