His

speedy enjoyment of the Jerusalem which is above, will not allow him to fix his affections on aught below, much less to feel satisfaction in them, or to glory in them. language is that of the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is his sole glory that "he understandeth and knoweth the Lord, who delights in the exercise of loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness;" that he has been delivered from the curse and the power of sin, and has been enabled by free grace to accept the great salvation of the Gospel.

My brethren, have we effectually heard God speaking to us, in the solemn and beautiful words to which I have now endeavoured to direct your attention? Have we ceased from man, and every thing human, and learned to seek satisfaction in the Gospel representations of God? We must all be well convinced of the creature's inability to satisfy the cravings of our souls, or to afford us any real enjoyment. Do we in any sense still glory in the creature? Are we expecting hap

piness from wisdom, or power, or wealth? Let us apply to ourselves the question of searching self-examination with regard to our favourite pursuits. We know the

inclination of our hearts. Let us exercise a severe jealousy over our inclination, that we be not mastered by it-that we be not led to glory in the pursuit to which it draws us. But in our very resolutions we must be on our guard against pride and self-confidence. We can ourselves do nothing. Sin is our own, every thing holy in us must be from God. Let us pray then for the Holy Spirit's influence to keep us from glorying in ourselvesto preserve us from the dangerous delusion of supposing we can ourselves do any thing which God will regard with favour.

Do we glory in this-That we understand and know God-the God of the Gospel-the God who has revealed himself to us in his Son-" through whom we have access by one Spirit unto the Father?" Do we "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord ?" Do we regard our

privileges as Christians, as the thing which is most worthy of our grateful acknowledgements to Him, who has caused us to differ from those who possess them not, or who value them not? If our hearts are cold, when we think of the Lord which exercises loving-kindness, and judgment, and righteousness, in the earth, and delights in these things—there is something greatly amiss in us. We have not a due sense of the evil of sin; for to whom much has been forgiven, he loveth much. Or we have not a realizing sense of our heavenly Father's love-of its freeness, of its extent. Let us pray for more faiththat we may glory more in what he is, and in what he has been, to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XXII.

HUMILITY.

PROVERBS Xviii. 12.

"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility."

THIS is a favourable sentiment with Solomon. In preceding chapters of this book of Proverbs the same idea is frequently expressed. "When pride cometh," he says in the 11th chapter, "then cometh shame but with the lowly is wisdom." In the 15th, "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility." And again in the 16th, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." These passages all evidently inculcate the same sentiment, indeed they scarcely differ in

expression, and agree with the text in teaching us that, "before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility."

It is not difficult to show that this is a most certain truth-and yet it is in its proper and most extensive sense a truth we owe to revelation. The natural man is not fond of believing in the necessity of humility. It is a duty he is much rather disposed to despise, or to deny. He contends for the dignity of his nature, he asserts the sufficiency of his own powers. And thus, by disputing, he establishes the certainty of the maxim, that "before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility."

Unaided man has been able to discover a considerable number of important truths in the theory of morals. When the intellect has been employed on this subject, it has always been able to draw largely on the conscience, while on the other hand the conscience has frequently been directed by the mind. The polished nations of antiquity, whose superiority to