Isai. lxiv. 0. We are all as an unclean thing ; and all our righteousnesses are as Jilt hy rags.
HUMILITY is that grace which is most suited to our condition as fallen creatures ; and, that we may be assisted in the pursuit of it, God has graciously given us, not only promises for our encouragement, but patterns for our imitation, and models for our use. We cannot have any more instructive pattern than that which is exhibited in the repenting publi- can, or in the returning prodigal. Of models, that which David has left us, in the fifty-first Psalm, is perhaps the most distinguished, and of most general utility : but that which is contained in this, and part of the preceding, chapter, excepting only some few expressions, is almost equally applicable to the Chris- tian world. The whole of it is a prayer drawn up by the prophet for the use of the Jews, when they should be in captivity in Babylon. We shall not enter into it at large, but shall confine our attention to the passage which we have just read, which most justly describes our state before God, I. In general terms —
There were many things considered as unclean under the Jewish dispensation : and whosoever touched them was deemed unclean ; and, till he had been purified according to the law, he was kept both from the house of God and from all his fellow-creatures, lest he should communicate to others the defilement which he had contracted. Hence, when the prophet says, '■' We are all as an unclean thing," he must be understood to say, that we are,
1. Unclean in ourselves —
[Who can look inward for one moment, and not confess this melancholy truth ? ]
2. Defiling to others —
[The whole of our intercourse with each other tends to