to make us humble and to destroy all selfdependence. Humility is the very door of the Gospel. "Except ye be converted, and become as little children," as humble, that is, and as simple, "ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." But that which most effectually breaks down the self-satisfied spirit, with which we love to appear before God as well as before men,-that which prostrates us in the very dust before the throne of infinite holiness, is a due sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It is the only real self-knowledge. It exhibits us to ourselves as we are. It tears off the mask which our natural pride and the world's principles had combined to hold before our moral deformities; and teaches those who, like the church of Laodicea, believed that they were "rich, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing," that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;"2 and thus it

1 Matt. xviii. 3.

2 Rev. iii. 17.

ministers to true humility. And, lastly, a knowledge of the sinfulness of sin tends to bring us to Christ. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;"'1 and in proportion to our belief in the malignancy of the disease, will be the earnestness and perseverance with which we shall seek a cure. To feel our sinfulness and helplessness is to learn to value the blessings of redemption. It is when the heart becomes acquainted with its own depravity that man seriously inquires, "What shall I do to be saved?" and as long as we are deeply sensible of our guilt and danger, we may well turn away from the allurements of the world and the flesh, with the Apostle's declaration, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." The law was, indeed, in many respects, as "a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ;" but in none more so than as it convinced them 2 John, vi. 68.

1 Matt. ix. 12.

3 Gal. iii. 24.

of the deep corruption of their moral nature, by holding up to their view a transcript of God's perfect holiness; and as it contrasted their lives with the commandments, which are holy, and just, and good, that "sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."

It is evident, then, from these considerations, as well as from the purpose which, we learn from the text, the law was intended to serve, that it is both our interest and duty to form as correct an estimate as we can of the real enormity of sin. It is our duty, because it is to follow out God's own purpose; it is our interest, because it tends to quicken our repentance, to deepen our humility, and to bring us to Christ and keep us there, by the exercise of a lively and self-renouncing faith. May it please Almighty God to make such the fruits of our present meditations on this important subject, a subject, I need not add, perfectly in harmony with the humilia

tion, the penitence, the godly sorrow, which ought to possess our hearts at the season of Lent.

Our present purpose, as introductory to the subject of the following discourses, is so to look at sin as to perceive more distinctly than, perhaps, we mostly do, its exceeding sinfulness. And by sin we are to understand disobedience to God's commands, either given in the dictates of our conscience, or revealed far more fully and accurately in His Holy Word.

1. Now the very lowest view we can take, shows us sin in a very awful light, as selfdestruction, the troubler of our peace here, and the ruin of our eternal happiness hereafter. It is a truth which appearances seem to contradict, but which is fully borne out by fact, that there is little real peace enjoyed by those who make their own wills, not God's law, the rule of their lives. There may be prosperity, there may be mirth, there may be much which the world envies;

but within is the tyranny of the passions, who are hard taskmasters, a secret dissatisfaction with self and a soreness of conscience, and an often-recurring dread of something to come hereafter, to which men may close their eyes, but which will float before them still. And when sorrow and suffering are their lot, as at some time or other in this life they must be, they are exposed to all their bitterness, without any sufficient consolation, or any solid ground of confidence and hope. "The wicked," it is written, are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."1

But this is a very small part of the destructive effects of sin. It is the ruin of the soul's life,—that eternal life of happiness inexpressible which has been purchased for us by the merits and passion of Jesus Christ. "The wages of sin is death." 1 Isa. lvii. 20, 21. 2 Rom. vi. 23.