pollution of fallen and sinful humanity; of which the word of the holy God gives so sad and so true an account. It is in the very nature of this depravity to be insensible to its own existence, or at least to its own degree. Sensibility to its true extent implies the operation of a new principle, the principle of a new spiritual nature. It is no matter of wonder, then, that depraved creatures should be found thinking well of themselves. There are some who have little consciousness of evil in them at all. And the reason is plain. They look at human laws and human theories of morals, and the conventional but godless morality of the world, and the prevailing sentiments about good and evil, virtue and vice, among men like themselves, whose moral sentiments are deadened by sin like their own. They come not at once to the only true test-that spiritual law, holy, just, and good, which begins and ends with supreme love to God, as its first requirement, and its pervading and summary principle; from which alone any one act of right and acceptable obedience can proceed. No soul is "washed from its filthiness," till it is delivered from the elementary principle of all moral pollution-enmity against God. There is no true moral cleansing that does not begin with this. There are two things the propensity to which has ever been strong, since man became a fallen creature:-One is, to separate morality from religion, and to imagine that there may be no religion, and yet good enough morality; whereas the divine summary of the moral law consists of two precepts, of which the first relates to God, and the second to men. And it would be just

as reasonable to say that the first may be obeyed without the second as to say that the second may be obeyed without the first, as reasonable to say that a man may be religious without being moral, as to say that a man may be moral without being religious. The two tables of the law are only the higher and the lower departments of one moral code; and the same principles that produce conformity to the one will produce conformity to the other. And where the first principle of all is wanting, there can be true conformity to none. This source of self-deception is most extensively and

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ruinously prevalent. The other to which I referred is—the externalizing of religion itself. The love and fear of God, springing from faith in Him as revealed to sinners in the Gospel, is the religion of the Bible. But the religion to which men have ever been prone is a religion of outward observance,—of rites and ceremonies, of bodily presence, and posture, and utterance, and act:—a system that lulls the conscience in security by deadening it to the demands of all that is spiritual and holy in the affections and desires of the heart, and all that is truly godly in the life. What an exemplification of this propensity among the Jews, when they were persuading themselves that they were the chosen people and the favourites of Heaven, at the very time that they were walking after their own lusts"-"having no fear of God before their eyes,"-breaking every command, and making "the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles,”"far from God, and far from righteousness." There was a fearful forgetfulness of the apostolic maxim"He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God," Rom. ii. 28, 29. Nor was the propensity confined to the Jews:-it prevails still. It involves danger to all. It is deplorably manifesting itself in our own days. And many other sources are there of self-delusion-making men "pure in their own eyes, while they have not been washed from their filthiness." They may think well of themselves, as saints and favourites of God, from high doctrinal profession, the antinomian "grace" which tempts the lofty talker and pretender "to continue in sin:"-dreams and visions, and impressions and special intimations of the safety of their state, while their character will not abide the Bible tests of true religion:-connexion with godly men, and especially with godly parents:-self-righteous and fanciful experiences, of which the extent and variety are sadly great:-peculiar circumstances in the manner of their own supposed conversion, of which they make much and are ever prone to talk,—dwell

ing more on themselves than on Christ,—more on what separates them from others, than on what is common to them with all believers; while after all they are addicted to a variety of evils, which their fancied religious attainments hide from, or palliate to, their consciences, and keep their hearts in the enjoyment of a deceitful and ruinous self-complacency. O my brethren, while we pray sinners to bring themselves to the true standard of character, in order that they may see and feel their need of gospel grace; let us be faithful in bringing ourselves and our profession of that gospel to the true test of faith in Christ and filial relationship to God; "examining ourselves whether we be in the faith, proving our own selves;" lest we be found having a name to live while we are dead,—a form of godliness while we are denying its power; lest we be of those who are "pure in their own eyes, and yet have not been washed from their filthiness."

LECTURE XCIII.

men.

PROV. XXX. 13-20.

"There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jawteeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness."

THE first of these verses brings before us the haughty, selfconsequential, and supercilious-the "generation" of those who carry their heads high, and look disdainfully down on all around them. This class of men too has been found

abundantly in all ages. The spirit described may originate from various causes. There is the pride of high birth—of aristocratic lineage, that regards with lofty scorn all that is plebeian and vulgar.-There is the pride and vanity of riches, that measures its importance and exacts its homage according to the number of its acres or of its bank deposits; and of this species of the evil there is none that is either so contemptible, so ridiculous, or so provoking, as the pursepride of the weak-minded upstart who has risen suddenly to the self-consequence of a gold-and-silver greatness.-There

is what the poet has called "the insolence of office,”—the lofty and sometimes sufficiently ludicrous airs of men who have got themselves "clothed with a little brief authority;" -and this description of the silliness of self-elation is to be found in the ecclesiastical department of honours, as well as the civil, and in them both from the highest to the lowest grade of dignity,—from the woolsack of the Lord Chancellor to the chair of the smallest municipal corporation; and from the throne of the Archbishop to the desk of an Independent church. There is also, I might mention, the overbearing arrogance of learning-real or pretended, profound or superficial; and the little but often very consequential vanity of various other descriptions of accomplishment. There is still another description of the character,— and in some respects the worst of all. It is exemplified in the sidelong glance of the self-vaunting Pharisee, when he said"Or even as this publican!"—the haughtiness of self-righteous consequence, which holds its head erect, and lifts the eye of presumptuous boldness, before that God in whose presence archangels "veil their faces with their wings; "—and that to all fellow-men says, with the scowl of indignant disdain -"Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou." And indeed the spirit of the "Stand by thyself, come not near to me,"-may be regarded as, in every department, the spirit of the character before us. It says "Stand by thyself," for I am nobler;—"Stand by thyself,” for I am richer;-"Stand by thyself," for I am wiser;"Stand by thyself," for I am more learned and accomplished;"Stand by thyself," for I am by office greater;as well as "Stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou."

All these and all other descriptions of pride are laid under severe condemnation and prohibition in the divine word. Its declarations are- "The lofty looks of men shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted:"—"God resisteth the proud:"-"The proud he knoweth afar off:""Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven :"—"Thus saith the high and lofty One that in