some progress in religion, and given to our friends hopes that we would really turn unto our God : but we have been drawn aside by temptation, and have " turned back with the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
Above all, we have sinned against all the mercies and the judgments of God. We have seen his judgments upon others, yet have not returned unto him ourselves. We have perhaps felt them in some measure ourselves, yet have made no suitable improvement of them. As for mercies, they have followed us night and day, from our youth up : yet to how little effect, as it regards our souls ! That greatest of all mercies, the gift of God's only-begotten Son to die for us, one would suppose that that should have altogether constrained us to live unto our God. But that stupendous mystery has appeared to us only as a cunningly-devised fable, which might amuse us awhile, but which merited no practical regard. Indeed, if Christianity had been altogether false, few of us would have materially differed from what we have been ; for we have neither been allured by its promises, nor alarmed by its threats, so as to comply with its dictates in any essential point.
Is this matter over-stated ? Do we not know it to be true ? and has not God witnessed it in all its parts ? Yes : as he has seen " our manifold transgressions," so has he also known " our mighty sins," and recorded every one of them in the book of his remembrance.]
Such is the information given us in our text : and it becomes us to consider,
II. The use we should make of it —
Certainly, in the first place,
1. We should beg of God to discover to us the real state of our souls —
[We know it not, though it is so plain and palpable. We are ready to account ourselves, if not positively good, yet far from bad. The sins of which we are conscious, appear only like the stars in a cloudy night, few in number, and at great intervals ; whereas, if we saw ourselves as we really are, the whole extent of our lives would present to us but one conti- nuous mass of sins, of a greater or lesser magnitude. But who can open our eyes ? Who can shew us to ourselves ? Who can bring us to a becoming sense of our extreme vileness? None but God. It is he alone who can open to our view " the chambers of imagery" which are in our hearts ; and shew us, that instead of our being, as we vainly imagine, " rich, and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, we are indeed wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."]