It is this repentance and the faith intimately connected with it, which are expressed in those strong lines.
“I sin in every breath I draw, Nor do thy will, nor keep thy law On earth as angels do above: But still the fountain open stands, Washes my feet, my heart, my hands, Till I am perfected in love.”
4. We may observe, thirdly, a deep conviction of our utter _helplessness_, of our total inability to retain any thing we have received, much more to deliver ourselves from the world of iniquity remaining both in our hearts and lives, teaches us truly to live upon Christ by faith, not only as our priest, but as our king. Hereby we are brought to “magnify him” indeed, to “give him all the glory of his grace,” to “make him a whole Christ, an entire Saviour,” and truly to “set the crown upon his head.” These excellent words, as they have frequently been used, have little or no meaning. But they are fulfilled in a strong and a deep sense, when we thus, as it were, go out of ourselves, in order to be swallowed up in him; when we sink into nothing, that he may be all in all. Then his almighty grace having abolished _every high thing which exalted itself against_ him, every temper, and thought, and word, and work is _brought to the obedience of Christ_.
LONDONDERRY, _April 24, 1767_.