shelter you from the curses of the law, and he will give you the Spirit to write all that law in your heart; he will make you love it with your inmost soul. Plead the promise with him. Surely you have tried the pleasures of sin long enough. Come now, and try the pleasures of holiness out of a new heart.

If you die with your heart as it is, it will be stamped a wicked heart to all eternity. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still," Rev. xxii., 11. O come and get the new heart before you die; for except you be born again you cannot see the kingdom of God!

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II. A true believer feels an opposing law in his members.— Verse 23, "I see another law," &c. When a sinner comes first to Christ, he often thinks he will now bid an eternal farewell to sin now I shall never sin any more. He feels already at the gate of heaven. A little breath of temptation soon discovers his heart, and he cries out, "I see another law."

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1. Observe what he calls it, "another law;" quite a different law from the law of God, a law clean contrary to it. Verse 25, he calls it a "law of sin”—a law that commands him to commit sin -that urges him on by rewards and threatenings: viii., 2, “A law of sin and death"- -a law which not only leads to sin, but leads to death, eternal death: "the wages of sin is death." It is the same law which in Galatians is called "the flesh." Gal. v., 17, “The flesh lusteth against the spirit," &c. It is the same which, in Eph. iv., 22, is called "the old man," which is wrought according to the deceitful lusts. The same law which, in Col. iii., is called "your members"-" mortify, therefore, your members, which are,” &c. The same which is called (v. 24)" a body of death." The truth then is, that in the heart of the believer there remains the whole members and body of an old man, or old nature: there remains the fountain of every sin that has ever polluted the world.

2. Observe again what his law is doing-" warring." This law in the members is not resting quiet, but warring-always fighting. There never can be peace in the bosom of a believer. There is peace with God, but constant war with sin. This law in the members has got an army of lusts under him, and he wages constant war against the law of God. Sometimes, indeed, an army are lying in ambush, and they lie quiet till a favorable moment comes. So in the heart the lusts often lie quiet till the hour of temptation, and they war against the soul. The heart is like a volcano; sometimes it slumbers, and sends up nothing but a little smoke; but the fire is slumbering all the while below, and will soon break out again. There are two great combatants in the believer's soul. There is Satan on the one side, with the flesh and all its lusts at his command; then, on the other side, there is the Holy Spirit, with the new creature all at his command. And so

"the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these two are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

Is Satan ever successful? In the deep wisdom of God the law in the members does sometimes bring the soul into captivity. Noah was a perfect man, and Noah walked with God, and yet he was led captive. "Noah drank of the wine, and was drunken." Abraham was "the friend of God," and yet he told a lie, saying of Sarah his wife," She is my sister." Job was a perfect man, one that feared God and hated evil, and yet he was provoked to curse the day wherein he was born. And so with Moses, and David, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, and Peter and the Apostles.

1. Have you experienced this warfare? It is a clear mark of God's children. Most of you, I fear, have never felt it. Do not mistake me. All of you have felt a warfare at times between your natural conscience and the law of God. But that is not the contest in the believer's bosom.. It is a warfare between the Spirit of God in the heart, and the old man with his deeds.

2. If any of you are groaning under this warfare, learn to be humbled by it, but not discouraged.

1st, Be humbled under it.-It is intended to make you lie in the dust, and feel that you are but a worm. Oh! what a vile wretch you must be, that even after you are forgiven, and have received the Holy Spirit, your heart should still be a fountain of every wickedness! How vile, that in your most solemn approaches to God-in the house of God-in awfully affecting situations, such as kneeling beside the death bed, you should still have in your bosom all the members of your old nature. Let this make you lie low.

2d, Let this teach you your need of Jesus. You need the blood of Jesus as much as at the first. You never can stand before God in yourself. You must go again and again to be washed; even on your dying bed you must hide under Jehovah, our righteousness. You must also lean upon Jesus. He alone can overcome in you. Keep nearer and nearer every day.

3d, Be not discouraged.-Jesus is willing to be a Saviour to such as you He is able to save you to the uttermost. Do you think your case is too bad for Christ to save? Every one whom Christ saves had just such a heart as you. Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life. Take up the resolution of Edwards," Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be." "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar," &c.

III. The feelings of a believer during this warfare.

1. He feels wretched.-Verse 24th, "O wretched man that I am!" There is nobody in this world so happy as a believer. He has come to Jesus, and found rest. He has the pardon of all his

sins in Christ. He has near approach to God as a c the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. He has the hope the most awful times he can be calm, for he feels tha him. Still there are times when he cries, O wre When he feels the plague of his own heart, when ne feels the thorn in the flesh, when his wicked heart is discovered in all its fearful malignity, Ah, then he lies down, crying, O wretched man that I am! One reason of this wretchedness is, that sin discovered in the heart takes away the sense of forgiveness. Guilt comes upon the conscience, and a dark cloud covers the soul. How can I ever go back to Christ? he cries. Alas! I have sinned away my Saviour. Another reason is, the loathsomeness of sin. It is felt like a viper in the heart. A natural man is often miserable from his sin, but he never feels its loathsomeness; but to the new creature it is vile indeed. Ah! brethren, do you know anything of a believer's wretchedness? If you do not, you will never know his joy. If you know not a believer's tears and groans, you will never know his song of victory.

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2. He seeks deliverance.-" Who shall deliver me?" In ancient times, some of the tyrants used to chain their prisoners to a dead body; so that, wherever the prisoner wandered, he had to drag a putrid carcass after him. It is believed that Paul here alludes to this inhuman practice. His old man he felt a noisome, putrid carcass, which he was continually dragging about with him. His piercing desire is to be freed from it. Who shall deliver us? You remember once, when God allowed a thorn in the flesh to torment his servant-a messenger of Satan to buffet him-Paul was driven to his knees. "I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." O this is the true mark of God's children! The world have an old nature; they are all old men together. But it does not drive them to their knees. How is it with you, dear souls? Does corruption felt within drive you to the throne of grace? Does it make you call on the name of the Lord? Does it make you like the importunate widow," Avenge me of mine adversary? Does it make you like the man coming at midnight for three loaves? Does it make you like the Canaanitish woman, crying after Jesus? Ah, remember, if lust can work in your heart, and you lie down contented with it, you are none of Christ's!

3. He gives thanks for victory.-Truly we are more than conquerors through him that loved us; for we can give thanks before the fight is done. Yes, even in the thickest of the battle we can look up to Jesus, and cry, Thanks to God. The moment a soul, groaning under corruption, rests the eye on Jesus, that moment his groans are changed into songs of praise. In Jesus you discover a fountain to wash away the guilt of all your sin. In Jesus you discover grace sufficient for you, grace to hold you up to the end, and a sure promise that sin shall soon be rooted out alto

gether. "Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by my name; thou art mine." Ah, this turns our groans into songs of praise! How often a psalm begins with groans, and ends with praises! This is the daily experience of all the Lord's people. Is it yours? Try yourselves by this. O if you know not the believer's songs of praise, you will never cast your crowns with them at the feet of Jesus! Dear believers, be content to glory in your infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon you. Glory, glory, glory to the Lamb!

SERMON XVI.

THE BROKEN HEART.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O Go, thou wilt not despise."-Psalm li., 17.

No psalm expresses more fully the experience of a penitent believ ing soul-1st, His humbling confession of sin, verses 3, 4, 5; 2d, His intense desire for pardon through the blood of Christ, v. 7; 3d, His longing after a clean heart, v. 10; 4th, His desire to render something to God for all his benefits. 1. He says, I will teach transgressors thy ways; 2. My lips shall show forth thy praise; 3. He will give a broken heart, verses 16, 17. Just as,

ago, they used to offer slain lambs in token of thanksgiving, so he says he will offer up to God a slain and broken heart. Every one of you, who has found the same forgiveness, should come to the same resolution-offer up to God this day a broken heart.

I. The natural heart is sound and unbroken.

The law, the gospel, mercies, afflictions, death, do not break the natural heart. It is harder than stone; there is nothing in the universe so hard. Isaiah xlvi., 12, "Ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness." Zech. i., 11, " We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest." Zeph. i., 12, "I will search Jerusalem with candles. and punish the men that are settled on their lees." Jer. v.. 3, "They have made their faces harder than a rock." Isaiah xxxii., 10, "Careless women;" verse 11, "women that are at ease."

Why?-1st, The veil is upon their hearts. They do not believe the Bible, the strictness of the law, the wrath to come-the face of a covering is over their eyes. 2d, Satan has possession. Satan carries the seed away. 3d, Dead in trespasses and sins. The dead hear not, feel not; they are past feeling. 4th, They

build a wall of untempered mortar. They hope for safety in some refuge of lies-that they pray, or give alms.

Pray God to keep away from you the curse of a dead, unbroken heart. 1st, Because it will not last long-you are standing on slippery places-the waves are below your feet. 2d, Because Christ will laugh at your calamity. If you were now concerned, there is hope. Ministers and Christians are ready, Christ is ready; but afterwards he will laugh.

II. The awakened heart is wounded, not broken. 1. The law makes the first wound.-When God is going to save a soul, he brings the soul to reflect on his sins. "Cursed is every one," &c. "Whatsoever things the law saith," &c. "I was alive without the law once," &c. Life and heart appear in awful colors.

2. The majesty of God makes the next wound.-The sinner is made sensible of the great and holy being against whom he has sinned. "Against thee," Psa. li., 4.

3. The third wound is from his own helplessness to make himself better. Still the heart is not broken; the heart rises against God. 1st, Because of the strictness of the law; 2d, Because faith is the only way of salvation, and is the gift of God; 3d, Because God is Sovereign, and may save or not, as he will. This shows the unbroken heart. There is no more miserable state than this. Learn. It is one thing to be awakened, and another thing to be saved. Do not rest in convictions.

III. The believing heart is a broken heart two ways.

1. It is broken from its own righteousness.—When the Holy Spirit leads a man to the Cross, his heart there breaks from seeking salvation by his own righteousness. All his burden of performances and contrivances drops. 1st, The work of Christ appears so perfect-the wisdom of God and the power of Goddivine righteousness. "I wonder that I should ever think of any other way of salvation. If I could have been saved by my own duties, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wonder that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation by the righteousness of Christ."--(Brainard, p. 319.) 2d, The grace of Christ appears so wonderful. That all this righteousness should be free to such a sinner! That I so long neglected, despised, hated it, put mountains between, and yet that he has come over the mountains! Ezek. xvi., 63, "That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done." Have you this broken heart-broken within sight of the Cross? It is not a look into your own heart, or the heart of hell, but into the heart of Christ that breaks the heart. Oh, pray for this broken heart! Boasting is excluded