sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving in their own.'1

Strive to take your proper part in the service. Follow the advice and the example of the holy apostle. "I will pray with the spirit, and with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." Let our singing of psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, be mixed with faith; let them warm our hearts with gratitude to Jesus, and stir us up to sing His praises with increasing delight. Examine yourselves on this point. How do you sing psalms? Art thou made a new creature in Christ Jesus, and a partaker of His spirit? Dost thou sing with thine understanding and with thy heart-singing psalms as an ordinance of God? Do you find it profitable to yourselves, and edifying to others?

Above all, dost thou keep up the harmony in thy life? Is thy life in concord with thy psalms and hymns? Do you show forth the praises of Jesus in your conversation? Are your heart and voice and life in tune to thank the Lord for his goodness, and to declare the wonders which he hath done for thy soul? O! this this is heavenly music! Thrice happy that person to whom it is thus given to live the Christian.

Pray then for grace to glorify God more in this ordinance. If on earth you can truly "pray and sing with the spirit, and with the understanding also," it will soon be thy whole employment. Yet a very little while, and thou wilt have nothing

1 Champney's' Sermons, p. 45.

to do but to enjoy and to praise Immanuel for evermore. May our hearts now feel something of this heaven! May the happiness of the Lord's people daily increase in the enjoyment of, and thankfulness for, all covenanted mercies, till they are admitted to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, to join with them in ascribing all the glory of their salvation to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one Godhead, to whom be equal and everlasting praise! Amen and Amen.

SERMON III.

THE SENTENCES AND EXHORTATION.

PSALM XXXII. 5.

"I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord : and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

A SENSE of pardon and reconciliation with God is the secret of true peace and stability of soul. The true Christian is miserable without it, tossed up and down on the troubled waters of uncertainty, not knowing whether he be a Christian or not, or whether heaven or hell will be his lot. What makes a man wretched, but the dread of God's displeasure, the consciousness that God is angry with him, that he is unfit to die, unprepared for judgment, in short, the feeling that his sins are not forgiven him? But is a reconciliation effected between the guilty sinner and his offended Creator? Is the sinner convinced by the Holy Spirit of his sin and rebellion, and is his heart now sprinkled from a guilty conscience with the precious blood of the Redeemer ? Does he hear and

believe that gracious declaration, "thy sins which are many are forgiven thee?" What a difference is produced in his state and feelings? A holy calm is now shed over his soul; "being justified by faith, he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Instead of the spirit of bondage and fear, the spirit of adoption is given to him, by which he cries, "Abba Father!" The love of Christ drives out slavish fear, inspires him with holy confidence in God, weans him from the world, and disposes him to live no longer to himself, or to the lusts of men, but to God. Hence, says the rejoicing Psalmist, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered: blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Now, on our believing in the Lord Jesus Christ from the heart, the grant of pardon is bestowed. "By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." The true believer is "accepted in the beloved," his sins are all forgiven, and heaven is his glorious inheritance, for which he is kept by the power of his God. How happy the lot of God's dear people! But though the lot of the true Christian be so happy in the enjoyment of reconciliation and adoption, he is still encompassed with a body of sin and corruption. True, he

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delights in the law of God after the inward man, but he sees another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members." True, he "knows in whom he has believed, and is persuaded that God is able to keep that which he has committed to Him against that day." But then his love to his God and Saviour is so

cold, his obedience so imperfect, his affections so earthly, his services and prayers so wanting in zeal, and devotion, and fervour: he needs daily pardon, because of daily sins: he wants also the constant renewings of the Holy Spirit. Hence the value he sets on the person and work of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost. The promises of pardon through the blood of the Lamb are his daily stay. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities."

It is the renewal of pardon and of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit which the true Christian seeks when he pours out his confessions at the throne of grace; this is the end he has in view in confessing his sins and infirmities. Although his confessions cannot purchase pardon, nor constitute the ground on which the grant of pardon is bestowed, yet have we no reason to expect pardon without confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John i. 9.) "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Hence it is that confession of sins forms so prominent a part in the prayers of true Christians. To some such I speak, and I appeal to your experience for the truth of what I now assert. When you draw near to a throne of grace, and plead there the all-sufficient merits of your Redeemer, is not your first confession, "I have sinned," I am vile and unworthy, "enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord?" So was it