3. Let a consciousness of your interest in this promise sustain and animate you in the conflict against sin. It is possible, that the work of sanctification advances far less rapidly than you had hoped. When you had expected to have enjoyed perfect freedom, and to have run, without restraint in the way of God's commandments; you find the power of sin to be strong within you. You encounter much opposition from its secret workings. Habits, tempers, and passions, which you had thought subdued, at times revive, and threaten to recover their lost dominion: while coldness, deadness, and indifference to the things of God, occasionally invade your soul; and seem for a season to suspend all spiritual life and feeling. Under this distressing experience of remaining weakness and corruption, you are filled with disquietude and fears. You are apprehensive, that you are engaged in an unequal contest: that, notwithstanding all your efforts, you will one day fail, and with augmented shame and guilt will relapse under the power of sin. Are these your fears? Behold the promise in the text. The Lord Jesus Christ, "who died, yea, who is risen again," for your salvation, has declared, that "his grace is sufficient for you." Is he a man, that he should lie? Hath he said, and will he not do it? Is he not able to keep that which you have committed to him, able to perform the good work which he has begun in you? Be not faithless, but believing. Assured of support in every time of need, contend with renewed exertion against every foe. Looking unto Jesus," you shall find his strength made perfect in your weakness. In an unshaken reliance on his faithfulness and power, you may now adopt the exulting language of the church, " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall, I shall arise.” Hereafter you shall sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb in those mansions of eternal rest and peace; where the body of sin shall be utterly cast off; and all those enemies, which now afflict and persecute your soul, shall be seen no more for ever."

But there is yet another description of persons, whom, in conclusion, I would seriously address. They are such as presume to vindicate the habitual and unrestrained gratification of their corrupt propensities on the plea of

do

inability to subdue them. 'Our natures,' they cry, 'are weak; our passions strong. Temptations continually occur, and assault us with a violence, which we are unable to resist. We pretend not to justify our practices: we wish, that we could abstain from the indulgence of them: but it is useless to contend, where there is no prospect of victory." How completely does the truth which has been discussed, expose the vanity of such attempts to palliate ungodliness! Whatever may be your natural incapacity for yielding your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, Christ declares, that his grace is sufficient for you. He offers to supply you with strength adequate to your utmost need. He promises, that if you faithfully employ the means, which he puts within your reach, "his strength shall be made perfect in your weakness." With such offers of salvation, with such assurances of success, you still remain the wretched slaves of sin? The reason is obvious. You do not wish to be free. You secretly love the chains which you affect to deplore. In your hearts you prefer the bondage of Satan to the yoke of Christ. But carry forward your thoughts to that awful day, when you shall stand before his judgment-seat. At that dread tribunal, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, will you dare to urge your inability to subdue your corruptions, as a vindication of your habitual indulgence of them? Will not conscience stop your mouth, and anticipate the answer of your offended Judge? Thou slothful and wicked servant, hadst thou really desired deliverance from the servitude of sin, was not I ready to deliver thee? Did not I counsel thee to come to me for help? When didst thou ever earnestly pray for my assistance? Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. Thou knewest that thou wast weak: why didst thou not come to me to strengthen thee? My grace, if thou hadst sought it, would have been sufficient for thee. Think not, by vain excuses, to hide thy guilt. Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

With what shame, with what anguish and dismay, will this dreadful sentence overwhelm you! Bless God! then, that you may yet escape it! Bless God! my brethren, that his mercy is not yet exhausted towards you! Still Christ

invites you to come to him, and holds out the golden sceptre of his love. Still there is in him a sufficiency of grace for all your wants. Continue not the weak and

helpless slaves of sin, when you may become strong in

the Lord, and in the power of his might." Let him not have occasion at last to say of you, "All day long have I stretched out my hands unto a disobedient gainsaying people."

SERMON XX.

HEZEKIAH'S FALL CONSIDERED AND APPLIED.

Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder, that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. 2 Chronicles xxxii. 31.

AMONG the examples of singular and exalted piety recorded in the scriptures, Hezekiah, king of Judah, occupies a distinguished place. Remarkably decisive are the attestations in his favour "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses."* But while such are the declarations respecting this pious and exemplary king; he is not therefore represented as free from imperfection. A veil is not studiously drawn over those parts of his character which are less capable of bearing examination. With an impartial regard to truth, the inspired penmen report one instance of grievous declension in this eminent servant of God: they specify one occasion, on which Hezekiah "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up." It is this occasion, to which the

* 2 Kings xviii. 3, 5, 7.

text refers when, "in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder, that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Of this humiliating event in Hezekiah's life, the particulars are recorded in three different places of scripture: but I have selected the account here given, because of the peculiar insight which it affords into this extraordinary transaction. While the other relations, with greater exactness, describe the nature and the aggravation of his sin, this passage admits us into the interior of this mysterious affair; discloses the secret springs of action; and thus lays open a much wider field for useful and instructive application. I shall however so far avail myself of the circumstances, which are stated in other places, as may be necessary for illustrating the subject. After having first briefly shewn the nature and the aggravation of Hezekiah's fall, I shall lead you to contemplate the particular view of it exhibited in the text.

I. All sin originates in the heart. "Out of the evil treasure of his heart, an evil man bringeth forth evil things. -Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." The multiplied wickedness of men's lives results from the corrupt and carnal principle in their hearts. At the same time, this principle does not on all occasions equally manifest itself in the outward conduct. Some of its evil effects are more immediately confined to the heart: effects, however, which are not on that account less offensive and malignant in their nature. Such was the sin of Hezekiah. It did not, like that of David, break forth into gross and external violations of the divine law; but it betrayed itself in the indulgence of secret pride, in the gratification of a vain-glorious spirit, in an idolatrous exaltation of the creature above the creator. Hezekiah's "heart was lifted up.

"

But the particular nature of his sin will be more clearly discerned, if we advert to the occasion of his fall. Berodach Baladan, king of Babylon, having heard of Hezekiah's sickness, and of the remarkable circumstances attending it, sent ambassadors to Jerusalem with letters

* 2 Chron. xxxii. 25.

and a present, to congratulate him on his recovery, and to enquire concerning the wonder that had been done in the land. Pleased with these flattering expressions of attention and respect from so great a monarch, and elated with a sense of his own importance, Hezekiah received the ambassadors with the most studied magnificence; and, in the fulness of his heart, ostentatiously displayed to them the whole wealth and power of his kingdom. He “hearkened unto them, and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.' Such an unreserved disclosure of his riches and resources to the ministers of a foreign court, might probably be an impolitic proceeding, prejudicial to the interests of his kingdom: a proceeding, therefore, which in itself was highly culpable. But it was the spirit by which he was actuated, that rendered the disclosure particularly sinful. In making this pompous exhibition of his treasures, he sought his own glory, and not the Lord's. Instead of giving to God the honour due unto his name, he aimed to exalt himself to augment his own importance in the eyes of his noble visitors, and to inspire them with an admiration of his wisdom and prowess; as if "his power and the might of his arm had gotten him this wealth." Such was the vain-glorious principle which on this occasion dictated his conduct. What was its manifest tendency? It was obviously calculated to erase every serious impression, which a recital of the wonder that had been done in the land, might have made on these heathen strangers. It was obviously calculated to confirm them in a conviction, that the kings of Judah, notwithstanding their superior pretensions to the knowledge and favour of the true God, in reality neither possessed nor avowed any better sources of protection and prosperity, than the kings of other nations enjoyed; but, like them, confided for success on their policy and their arms, on the wisdom of their counsels and the multitude of their chariots, instead of resting their dependence on the Lord Jehovah.

*2 Kings xx. 13.