If we succeeded in effecting our own deliverance, we should *' burn incense to our own net," and ascribe all the glory to ourselves. But God has warned us, that, if we provoke him thus to jealousy, we shall lose the benefits which, by trusting in him, we might have obtained ; and bring on ourselves the very evils which, by trusting in him, we might have escaped : — "Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord : (where you will see, that to trust in ourselves is a departure of heart from God :) for he shall be like the heath in the desert ; and shall not see when good cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited. But blessed is the man that trusteth in tlie Lord, and whose hope the Lord is : for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river ; and shall not see when heat cometh ; but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit ^."]
2. It ensures, beyond all doubt, our ultimate dis- appointment—
[If ever any man was authorized to trust in himself, me- thinks Peter and the other Apostles were, in relation to their desertion of their Lord, in his lowest extremity. In the fulness of his own sufficiency, Peter said, " Though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee. And so likewise said they all." Yet, behold, no sooner was their Master apprehended, than " theij all forsook him and Jl eel.'" And Peter, the most self- confident of them all, denied him with oaths and curses. And thus will it be with all of us : however firm our resolutions be, they will prove only as tow before the fire, if they be made in ovu" own strength. We need, indeed, only look back and see what has become of the resolutions we have already made. ' We would turn from this or that sin : we would mortify this or that propensity : we would give up ourselves to God in newness of life.' Alas! alas! how have these purposes vanished, as smoke before the whirlwind ! And though we may think to profit by experience, and to become more steadfast in con- sequence of our former disappointments, we shall only live to prove with still greater evidence the folly of our own ways, and the truth of that inspired declaration, that " the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"]
3. It will keep us from discovering our error, till it is past a remedy —
[Tell persons what God says of their wars, and they will not believe it. Every one thinks himself safe ; and holds fast
* Jer. xvii, 5 — S. u 2