faith. Although you should attain to the highest degree of virtue and devotion that man could arrive at, you would be obliged continually to descend into the dust, and become nothing, under the sense of your extreme misery and unworthi

ness.

Disciple. I have known my misery a long time since, God be praised.

Pustor.-Perhaps you have known it, in some degree; but it is necessary you should sensibly and keenly feely it, in the bottom of your heart. The Prophet Jeremiah says: "Because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto the heart," Jer. iv. 18. True repentance, or contrition, is that selfabasement, mixed with confusion, and that bitter compunction, which a real sight and feeling of sin excites in the heart. As I perceive you are always inclined to justify, or rather to deceive yourself, it is proper that I should describe to you some particulars, by which you may judge whether you have a deep knowledge and real feeling of your misery or not. Observe, in the first place, if you still love sin. We love sin, when we excuse it, and find a secret pleasure in committing it, and when we do not abhor it, to the last degree. Secondly, if you have a good opinion of yourself, and are desirous of justifying yourself, instead of confessing that you are poor, naked,

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and void of all good. Thirdly, if, instead of ardently sighing after the experience of the reconciliation Jesus has effected, you live contentedly under the dominion of sin, and the malediction of the law, and if you contemplate without emotion and shame what the Saviour of mankind has done and suffered for you; his labours, griefs, agony, bloody sweat, his bleeding wounds and pierced side, his cries, sighs and tears which accompanied his death upon the cross. Do you recognize yourself in this description? I must then declare to you, that you have not yet any experience of your misery, or of the grace of God. You are in a state of unbelief, impenitence and death. From the moment Jesus approaches a sinner, to open his eyes to his miserable condition, and draw him to himself, that sinner becomes a new creature," 2 Cor. v. 17. He has no more pleasure in committing sin, he detests it; the propensity that draws him to it becomes an insupportable yoke, a grievous burden, a heavy chain, by which Satan holds him in slavery. The load of his corruption makes him sigh, groan, and cry to Jesus: "0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24. His soul is humbled, his heart is cast down; every good opinion of himself, every self-righteous feeling, ceases and disappears from his eyes: great

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talents, edifying discourses, pious conversation, irreproachable life, well-arranged prayers-all, far from producing or nourishing pride, convince him of his weakness and unworthiness, and occasion him a thousand reasons for self-abasement before God. It is as the grass that perisheth, as a flower that fadeth and withereth away, when the destroying Spirit of the Eternal blows upon it. "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field," Isaiah xl. 6.

Disciple. Do you think, Sir, that God does not work in me? I am so powerfully affected that the tears flow into my eyes: don't you think this proceeds from grace?

Pastor. That it may be the effect of grace I can allow, without difficulty. These are the attractions of preventing grace, by which the Spirit of God would conduct you to a knowledge of yourself, and your miserable state by nature. By such means, the Father of mercies seeks to draw you to his Son, that you may be saved by him. The faithful Shepherd of souls desires to have yours; but this merciful procedure of the Lord does not prove that you have actually received grace, or that you are in a state of fixed and permanent grace.

Disciple. If I were minutely to discover to you my inward feelings, and recount the expe

riences I have had, perhaps you would have à better opinion of me.

Pastor. I acknowledge that you may have had good impressions, and that you may have been affected by the grace of God; but that does not decide upon your actual state, and you must not rely upon it: the question is not what you have had or felt formerly, but what you have and feel at present.

Disciple. I have experienced, from time to time, great anguish on account of my sins.

Pastor. I will not dispute that either; but all that you have said does not prove that you have been the subject of a real conversion; at least, that your remorse has been accompanied by a lively horror of, and a bitter disgust for sin, worldly-mindedness, and every thought of your own false and pharisaical righteousness, and that you have ardently sought the grace of Jesus, in order to find reconciliation through his sacrifice. It is only by his blood and wounds we can obtain the cure of our souls," Isaiah liii. 5; 1 Peter ii. 24. I see, with concern, that these gracious impressions have only produced in your heart feelings of transient repentance. You have been like those the Prophet complains of, when he says, "O Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them,

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but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return," Jer. v. 3. The truly penitent and contrite sinner, like the woman of Canaan, redoubles his importunities, until he has received pardon. You build upon some оссаsional good feelings, which is deceiving yourself. If you had been more faithful in preserving and following these first impressions, they would have led you to Jesus; you woald have found him, and he would have received you.

Disciple..-Without doubt, one can do nothing better than to apply to Jesus Christ and supplicate him; and so I have ardently desired that he would grant me mercy.

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Pastor. So long as a sinner feels his malady he prays, but his importunity diminishes in proportion as he loses sight of it, and he often goes the length of throwing himself into worldly amusements in order to forget his pain and sorrow.

Disciple.-I perceive, however, that God blesses me, and prospers my affairs, which prove me to be an object of his grace and love.

Pastor. These outward blessings only show that the Lord is willing to draw you to him by the cords of love, otherwise the satisfaction you feel in prosperity makes me suspect that you have, in your heart, a secret attachment for the goods of this life.