be "blameless''"). We must search our hearts, if we would know ourselves aright ; yea, and " beg of God also to search and try us," if we would attain that kind of self-knowledge which alone will be sufficient to humble our proud spirits'^. Mark, then, I pray you, your thoughts, your desires, your motives, your principles, and the entire hahit of your minds before God. Mark all your tempers under the various cir- cumstances that arise from day to day : and compare your- selves with the requirements of the Law, and with that great exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this, and you will find no temptation to pride yourselves on your attainments, or to exalt yourselves above your less favoured brethren. You will find your place, where the Apostle found his, amongst the chief of sinners, and will vie with him in magnifying and adoring the grace of God ]
2. " Acquaint yourselves with God, that you may be at peace" —
[This was the advice which Eliphaz gave to Job*^, and which I would give to every one of you. It is self-knowledge which alone can humble us : but it is the knoivledge of God alone that can afford us any comfort. Indeed, the more we know of our indwelling corruptions, the more shall we despair, if we do not proportionably grow in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. But if we bear in mind what we have already stated respecting the character of God, and the sufficiency of that sacrifice which Christ has offered for us, we shall attain that precise frame of mind, that just admixture of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow, of confidence and abasement, which constitutes the perfection of Christian experience, and leads to the highest possible attainments in the divine life. Go then, every one of you, my Brethren, to God in Christ Jesus. Carry nothing with you but your sins. Think not of purging them away by any thing that you yourselves can do ; but cast yourselves upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus ; and expect from him the mercy which you need for the pardon of your sins, and the grace which you need for the maintenance of your future confficts. Only go with Paul, crying, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me ?" and you shall be enabled to add with him, " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord*^."]
^ Phil. iii. G. <= Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24.
d Job xxii. 21. e Rom. vii. 25.