well as sins of commission : and then the things which now are accounted light and venial, will appear hateful in the extreme, not merely as blighted " grapes of a degenerate vine," but as " grapes of Sodom, and clusters of Gomorrah :" their enormity will be felt, in proportion to the strength and fixedness of the principle from which they spring.]
2. Our general character —
[If our actions have not been openly sinful, we are ready to bless ourselves as having but little ground for shame and re- morse. But if we consider " the enmity of the carnal mind against God," and view our utter want of all holy affections, and exceeding proneness to some besetting sins, we shall see but little reason to glory over the vilest of mankind. We shall see abundant cause indeed for thankfulness to God, who by his pre- venting grace has restrained us from many evils into which others have run : but we shall take no credit to ourselves as better than others. If we behold bitter fruit produced by others, we shall remember that there is the root of it all in ourselves : if we see in others the streams of wickedness, we shall bear in mind, that the fountain of it all is in ourselves also. Thus, however free we may be from any flagrant enormity, we shall be ready to acknowledge with Paul, that " in us, that is, in our flesh, dwell- eth no good thing ;" and with Job to say, " Behold, I am vile ! I repent, and abhor myself in dust and ashes." So far from in- dulging self-preference and self-esteem, we shall find no names more suited to us than those by which St. Paul designated his own character, " Less than the least of all saints," and " The very chief of sinners °."]
From this view of our natural corruption, we may