other words, his abounding kindness and favour; it is his love; it is his mercy. In this manner the subject is constantly represented in Scripture; and it is an article of the Christian religion. And to possess our minds with a sense, an adequate sense, so far as it is possible to be so, of this truth, is a duty of the religion. But to be ruminating and meditating upon our virtues, is not the way to acquire that sense. Such meditations breed opinions of merit and desert; of presumption, of pride, of superciliousness, of self-complacency; tempers of mind, in a word, not only incompatible with humility, but also incompatible with that sense of divine love and mercy towards us, which lies at the root of all true religion, is the source and fountain of all true piety.

You have probably heard of the term self-righteousness: you find it much in the writings and discourses of a particular class of Christians, and always accompanied with strong and severe expressions of censure and reprobation. If the term mean the habit of contemplating our virtues, and

not our vices; or a strong leaning and inclination thereto, I agree with those Christians in thinking that it is a disposition, a turn of mind to be strongly resisted, and restrained, and repressed. If the term

mean any other way of viewing our own character, so as to diminish or lower our sense of God Almighty's goodness and mercy towards us, in making us the tender of a heavenly reward, then also I agree with them in condemning it, both as erroneous in its principle, and highly dangerous in its effects. If the term mean something more than, or different from, what is here stated, and what has been enlarged upon in this discourse, then I profess myself not to understand its meaning.

N

SERMON XI.

(PART II.)

TO THINK LESS OF OUR VIRTUES, AND MORE

OF OUR SINS.

To

PSALM li. 3.

My sin is ever before me.

think well is the way to act rightly: because thought is the source and spring of action. When the course and habit of thinking is wrong, the root is corrupt; " and a corrupt tree bringeth not forth good fruit:" do what you will, if the root be corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt also. It is not only true, that different actions will proceed from different trains of thought; but it is also true, that the same actions, the same external conduct, may be very different in the sight of God, ac

cording as it proceeds from a right, or a wrong, a more or less proper principle and motive, a more or less proper disposition. Such importance is attached to the disposition of such great consequence is it, that our disposition in religious matters be what it should be. By disposition is meant, the bent or tendency of our inclinations; and by disposition is also meant, the train and habit of our thoughts, two things which are always nearly connected. It is the latter sense, however, in which I use the word; and the particular lesson which I am inculcating, for the conduct of our thoughts, is to think more of our sins, and less of our virtues. In a former discourse I showed, that there are strong and positive Scripture precepts, a due regard to which accords with the state of mind of him who fixes his attention upon his sins and defects, and by no means with his state of mind, who hath fixed his attention chiefly upon his virtues: secondly, that Scripture examples, that of Saint Paul most particularly, teach us to renounce the thoughts of our virtues, and to entertain deeply and constantly the thoughts of our

sins thirdly, that the habit here reproved, is inconsistent with a due sense of the love of God, in the redemption of the world. I am now to offer such further reasons as appear to support the rule I have laid down.

And first, there is no occasion whatever to meditate upon our virtues and good qualities. We may leave them to themselves. We need not fear, that they will either be forgotten or undervalued. "God is not unrighteous to forget your works and labour of love:" Hebrews, vi. 10. He will remember them; we need not. They are set down in his book; not a particle will be lost. Blessed are they who have much there; but we need not count them up in our recollection: for, whatever our virtues are or were, we cannot make them better by thinking of them afterwards. We may make them better in future by thinking of their imperfections, and by endeavouring to encounter, to lessen, or remove those imperfections hereafter: but then this is to think, not upon our virtues, but upon our imperfections. Thinking