may be made the brightest monuments of his grace. " It was for sinners that he came, to call them to re- pentance:" it was " the lost, and them alone, whom he came to save :" and the more deeply you feel your need of him, the more readily will he receive you to the arms of mercy : for his address to persons in your very state is, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest :" " though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool :" " him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.'"
And now, after having heard the advice given by the law, shall I go too far, if I entreat you all to sit at the feet of this schoolmaster, as his disciples ? I grant, that there is an aspect of severity about him : but he will teach you aright. He is sent by God himself for your instruction : and all who will obey his dictates shall assuredly be guided into the way of peace. Other instructors, beside the law, you will find in great numbers, who will speak to you in milder terms, and accommodate themselves more to vour carnal minds. But O ! listen not to them. Many pleasing statements they will give, about the value of good works, and the mercy of God, and about the Saviour having lowered the terms of sal- vation to sincere obedience. But they will only de- ceive you to your ruin. Take their favourite term, of sincere obedience : no matter whether it be to the moral law, or to a reduced and mitigated law of their own formation : let it be a law of any kind that can possibly be conceived to have proceeded from God ; and then suppose yourselves to stand or fall by your sincere obedience to that law : where is there one amongst you that ever could be saved ? If this is the standard by which you are to be tried, it has been so from the beginning of your life : and where is there one amongst us that has from the beginning of his life sincerely striven with all his might to mor- tify every inclination which his judgment condemned ; and to fulfil, to the uttermost, every duty, both to God and man, so far as he was acquainted with it, or