public acknowledgments. We begin our confessin with saying, "We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep." This is a peculiar expression that must not be overlooked. We apprehend it does not mean merely that we have departed from God, but also that we have never sought to return to him; for other animals will find their way back when they have wandered from their home; but it is rarely, if ever known that the sheep traces back its footsteps to the fold from whence it has strayed; if it return at all it is not by any foresight of its own. How just a picture does this exhibit of our fallen race! That we have departed from God is too plain, to be denied; but in how few do we behold any solicitude to return to him! How few are there who search the Scriptures daily, in order to find their way back! How few who implore help and direction from their God with an earnestness at all proportioned to the urgency of their case!

Is it inquired, wherein we have so greatly erred! Our own acknowledgments contain the most satisfactory reply; We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts." How true is this! Look at all mankind, see them from infancy to youth, and from youth to old age; What are they all following! are they obeying unreservedly the commands of God? are they in compliance with his will, mortifying every evil propensity, and doing the things which are pleasing in his sight? Alas! nothing is further from their minds than this.

Their pursuits indeed vary according to their age, their circumstances, their habits, but whatever they be, they are no other than the devices and desires of their own hearts: if in any thing they appear to do the will of God, they do not act from a principle of love to him, but from a desire to conform to the customs of their country, and to lay a foundation for self-applause. The whole tenor of our lives is but too justly marked in those following acknowledgments, "We have offended against thy holy laws; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done: and have done those things which we ought not to have done." Permit me to ask, Which of the laws of God have we not violated times without number? Shall we say, We have not committed murder or adultery? How vain the boast, if we interpret the commandments in their full latitude, and call to mind the declarations of our Lord, that an angry word is murder, and a wanton look adultery !* To go into all our sins of omission, and commission, were an endless task. Suffice it to say, that in ten thousand instances "we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, against the Divine Majesty :" and have habitually neglected the interests of our souls.

Perhaps it may be said, "Our actions indeed have been evil, but our hearts are good."

But

how does this accord with that which in our Confession forms the summit of the climax, "There is no health in us!" Here our Church *Matt. v. 27, 28.

has taught us to trace all the evils of our life to the fountain-head, a corrupt and wicked heart, In this expression she evidently refers, either to that confession of the Apostle, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing;"* or rather to that most humiliating declaration of the Prophet, "From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in us, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores." The import of the words is plain; we confess before our God, that we are altogether depraved; that we are disordered in every member of our body, and in every faculty of our soul; that our understanding is darkened, our will perverse, our affections sensual, our memory treacherous, our conscience seared, and all our "members, instruments of unrighteousness and sin."

Thus far then we are fully vindicated, vindicated too, we trust, in your consciences, in all that we have affirmed respecting the lost estate of man. We do indeed represent the whole human race, as in a most deplorable condition: but no member of our Establishment can controvert our positions without denying the plainest asseverations of Holy Writ, and contradicting his own most solemn acknowl. edgments.

Let us now turn our attention to the second point which we proposed to notice, namely, The means of our recovery from this state. We affirm that, in order to obtain salvation, *Rom. vii, 18, †Isaiah i. 5, 6.

two things are necessary, "Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." By repentance, we do not mean that superficial work which consists in saying, "I am sorry for what I have done;" but in such a deep sense of our guilt and danger, as leads us with all humility of mind to God and stirs us up to a most earnest application for mercy. We must feel sin to be a burden to our souls; we must be made to tremble at the wrath of God which we have merited; we must cry to him for deliverance from it, as Peter cried for preservation from the waves, "Save Lord, or I perish;" and this must be our experience, not merely after some flagrant transgression, or on some partieular occasion, but at all times: it must be, as it were, the daily habit of our minds.

Is it needful to confirm this from the holy Scriptures? Surely we need not be reminded of what our Lord has repeatedly affirmed; "Except ye repent, ye shall all perish." We need not be told that it is "the weary and heavy laden" whom Christ invites: that it is "the broken and contrite heart which God will not despise:" that we must "loathe ourselves for all our abominations:"§ that we must "sow in tears, and go on our way weeping:"T that we must cry with Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me;' .”** and with Job, “I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes."tt Yet, when this is insisted on, and pressed Acts xx. 21. †Luke xiii. 3, 5. ‡Matt. xi 28, Ps. li. 17. §Ezek. xxxvi. 31. TPs. cxxvi, 5, 6 **Rom. vii. 24. ttJob xlii. 6.

upon the conscience as of universal, absolute, and indispensable necessity, we are told, that we carry matters to excess: that however such bitter contrition may suit the profligate and abandoned, it is unnecessary in the case of the more moral and decent: they have never done any thing that requires such deep humiliation; they have no such cause to fear and tremble; they have indeed sinned, but are in no danger of perishing; nor have they ever merited the wrath of God.

But is it not astonishing that any member of the Established Church should be so ignorant as to make these vain assertions? What are the terms in which we address the Divine Majesty every time that we attend his worship? "Do thou, O Lord have mercy upon us, miserable offenders: Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults: Restore thou them that are penitent." Have we then been dissembling with God all our days; calling ourselves "miserable offenders," when we feel no misery at all; and when, instead of bewailing our offences, we think ourselves almost, if not altogether, as good as we need to be? In this prayer we do not presume even to expect mercy, except as persons deeply penitent and contrite. And let it be remembered, that these petitions are put into the mouths of all the congregation; there is not one form for one class of persons, and another for another; but all profess to approach God as the repenting publican, Smiting upon their breasts, and crying, "God be merciful to me a F3