who yet have no serious or abiding conviction of the truth they express. The doctrine of our fallen condition is so clearly revealed in the Word of God, and so frequently inculcated, that it is scarcely possible not to be acquainted with it; but like many other truths current in the world, it is assented to in words while the understanding has never taken hold of it, and has no perception of the reality of what is expressed. But it must be obvious that where this is the case, confession of sin cannot be sincere. It has no meaning, and is nothing better than an idle mockery of God. In bringing our case to God, our confession must be founded on a solid conviction of the understanding. And this in opposition to those who say that they have no sin, and are like the Israelites of old, who, when charged by the prophet Malachi with wearying God, replied, "wherein have we wearied him?"--as well as also in opposition to the conduct of the formalists of whom we read, who drew near to God with their lips, in words of contrition, while their heart was far from him.

If then, my friends, you would experience the blessedness of those whose sins are forgiven, you must confess them unto God with a sincere conviction of their existence. And you must confess them to the extent to which you wish for forgiveness. It is not enough to acknowledge the corruption of your nature without also confessing those particular trangressions in which your corruption has manifested itself; neither is it enough to confess your actual sins unless you also confess that evil heart in which your transgression had its origin, and which, but for the divine

interposition, will continue to manifest itself in deeds of iniquity. In order that you may do this in truth, it is necessary that you should examine your hearts and your lives. Compare your character and doings with the requisitions of the holy law of God-compare them even with your own ideas of what they ought to have been compare the resolutions you formed at any period with your subsequent departure from them when temptation again assailed you, and pray to God to bring home the conviction to your mind, that in you dwelleth no good thing. Think of what your character is in comparison to what it might have been had your opportunities been rightly improved-of the evil you have committed-of the good you have neglected of the privileges you have abused-and let your own conscience draw an unprejudiced conclusion. And what can that conclusion be, but that by nature you are ruined and undone that sin is incorporated with your very being-that in all things you come short, and that in many you offend altogether that you stand forth a guilty man, condemned by your own conscience-and if your own heart condemn you, God is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things.

We now proceed to remark, that the confession of sin here spoken of implies-

2. In the second place, grief of heart because we have sinned. Every where throughout the Scriptures we find the confession of sin made by holy men, accompanied with expressions of the deepest anguish.-"Mine iniquities," says the Psalmist," are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

I am

troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long. I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.""I have sinned," exclaims the patient Job, "and what shall I do."--"Woe is me," says Isaiah, "for I am undone." And, be it observed, that this is not the bemoaning of men filled with terror because of the threatened vengeance of the Most High, but of those who knew in whom they had believed. It is therefore to be considered as the godly sorrow excited upon a contemplation of their unworthiness itself-and indeed so far is forgiveness from taking away this contrition, that it is brought forward as the very reason most calculated to affect the feeling heart-"That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee, for all thou hast done, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. xvi., 63.)

Here then, my friends, is a test by which you may know whether your confession of sin is genuine, viz. whether it is accompanied with deep contrition. You cannot surely suppose that your sins are less than those of Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles; and if your sorrow is less than theirs, what conclusion can be drawn but this, that you have not yet arrived at just views of your unworthiness? There is no evil that can be compared for a moment with the evil of sinseparating from God, debasing your own character, introducing a train of disaster to yourselves and others which cannot be calculated, and subjecting you to eternal misery in the world to come. And if sin is such an evil, and if you are convinced you have been

guilty of it, should it not affect you with a deeper sorrow than any other evil that can befal you! Or rather, is it not the case, that nothing should be mourned over but sin! The loss of worldly substance may be a gain, by leading you to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. The loss of friends may draw you closer to the friend whom you can never lose, and who will join together all those that are united in him. The loss of life itself cannot but be looked upon as gain to those whom death introduces to immortality. But sin is an evil that may be bewailed -for the wages of sin is death. And should we not, therefore, mourn over our iniquities " as one mourneth for his only son, and be in bitterness for them, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born?" And if we have no sorrow approaching to this-if our heart is affected with no sadness, does not this show that our confession of sin is imperfect, that it wants the characteristics which render it well pleasing to God --for a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise. But if you lament with a godly sorrow if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, then he will exalt you in due time-for "thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and the heart of the contrite ones."

PART SECOND.

THE CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS OF SIN.

"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.

IN considering what is implied in confessing our sins, we have already remarked, that there must be, in the first place, A conviction of the mind that we have sinned; and in the second, Grief of heart because of our sins. We proceed now to observe that it implies,

3. In the third place, a consciousness that we have offended God by our sins. This point is involved in the very definition of sin, which is a violation of the law of God. But it is necessary that we should make it a distinct subject of consideration, on account both of its essential importance, and of our proneness to overlook it. There is a proneness on the part of wicked men to believe that God does not look upon their conduct with disapprobation; and hence, in no small degree, their boldness and security under the consciousness of guilt. "Wherefore," says the Psalmist, "do the wicked contemn God ?-he hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it of him." And in another passage, the sinner is charged with thinking