Let the formalist and the worldling reflect, and consider whether Nathan's application of his parable may not be revived with propriety in this instance? "Thou art the man."

If a distinction was intended to be made between the terms "sins and wickedness," the former may mean our actual transgressions in thought, word, and deed; and the latter, the natural corruption which produces them. The use of the singular number in one word, and of the plural in the other, leads to this distinction. Wickedness or depravity is the moral disease under which the whole human race labours, and which is essentially the same in all persons. Our actual Our actual iniquities, whether to be

classed as omissions or commissions, are the symptoms of the fatal influenza, and from extrinsical circumstances vary in different patients. That is the tree of death; these the branches, leaves, and deleterious fruits. That "the "body of sin;" these the mischievous members thereof.

The Christian life is aptly compared to a "race." The collect borrows this allusion from the language of inspiration. (See Heb. xii. 1. 1 Cor. ix. 24, &c.) There is a prize of inestimable value provided, and a course "set before "us" in the gospel, which, like the proclamation of the herald in the Isthmian games, proposes the former, and prescribes the latter. A race necessarily implies vehement and painful exertion; and the Christian racer is properly an agonist. (Luke xiii. 24.) Those only can understand the metaphor, who are engaged in the holy enterprise. For others feel no anxious desire to obtain the reward, and are unconscious

of any previous dread, or even uneasiness, concerning the infamy and loss which must attend a failure. They are unacquainted with the rules of the course, and its difficulties and dangers are treated by them as the phantoms of a disordered imagination. We have all, by baptismal engagements, been entered on the lists; but Oh! how few "so run that they may "obtain!" Few indeed, whose names occur in the register of the candidates, have moved a foot towards the goal, or are preparing to reach it.

The mournful statement of our collect is perfectly intelligible to those who are actually engaged in the race "for the prize of the high

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calling of God in Christ Jesus." They understand it, not only as a theoretic truth, but as an experimental fact. In pressing towards the mark, frequent trial has shewn them that by their sins and wickedness they are sore let "and hindered." They seem to themselves to have made little or no progress. They exert themselves indeed, but their exertion appears to be ineffectual. They "labour to apprehend "that for which they are apprehended of Christ "Jesus," but hitherto apparently in vain.

That this statement is accommodated to the universal experience of true believers, is not only evident from its long use in the prayers of the catholic church, but also from the declaration of St. Paul, Gal. v. 17, which refers not to a matter of limited prevalence, but to a fact of general and indisputable recognition. "The "flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Whatever, we derive

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from our natural parents, is corrupt; for "that "which is born of the flesh, is flesh." And they that are in the flesh, cannot please God;" for "out of the" unrenewed "heart," as their natural fountain, "proceed evil thoughts, mur"ders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false "witness, blasphemies." These are the only fruits which the human soul, without Divine grace, can spontaneously produce. For "in "us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing.' There is, therefore, in the unconverted breast, no opposing principle of holiness, not a ray of light amidst the thick darkness that prevails, no dam to check the torrent of ungodliness that issues from within. It is not, therefore, a thing to be wondered at, that in many instances no complaints are made of lets and hindrances in a race that has never been undertaken.

"This infection of nature doth remain, yea, "in them that are regenerated, whereby the "lust of the flesh is not subject to the law of "God." It occasions within them a constant struggle with the adventitious principle of grace newly communicated to the soul. Its desires and aversions are in direct hostility to a life of faith and holiness. And hence arises the bitter complaint, that "we are sore let and hindered "in running the race that is set before us," on the vigorous prosecution and final success of which the crown of glory depends. This conflict must last till death delivers us from it; and therefore the necessity of watchfulness and prayer, of faith and self-denial, will remain through life. Let the reader carefully read the latter part of the 7th chapter of the epistle to the Romans, and inquire whether any

correspondence exist between his feelings and those of St. Paul.

By natural corruption and its baneful effects every true Christian is most grievously harrassed. He would do good, but evil is present with "him: he loves the law of God after the inner "man, but finds another law in his members "warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin "that is in his members.' And therefore, while struggling for deliverance, he exclaims in mournful accents, "Wretched man that I am! "who shall deliver me from the body of this "death?" It is his acknowleged duty and high privilege to live by faith on the Son of God," maintaining a steady, humble, and comfortable dependence on him for "wisdom, righteous. "ness, sanctification, and redemption." But, alas! this corruption is continually breaking out into emotions of pride, self-righteousness, and unbelief; whereby God is robbed of His honour, and the soul of its comforts. It is, moreover, his unquestionable duty and privilege to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, so as to have no creature whatever brought into any kind of competition with God in his affec tions; and to maintain, in all his conduct, a supreme and invariable regard to God's glory. But in this he is "sore let and hindered" by innate corruption, discovering itself in an undué attachment to worldly objects, and in a consequent spirit of indifference to God and His honour. He is conscious that perfect happiness can only arise from perfect purity of soul. It is his earnest desire, therefore, that every thought should be brought into obedience to the will of God; but the more attentively he surveys the

motions of his heart, the more fully and clearly does he discern that it is "a cage full of unclean "birds." Human corruption resembles the polypus in natural history. For as the arms of that wonderful animal are always expanded in search of its prey, which is no sooner grasped than converted into nourishment; so our innate desires are perpetually roaming in pursuit of new objects, and, instead of being satisfied, are rendered more intemperate by every act of gratification. And though the polypus be cut into a thousand parts, every section retains the power of vitality, and shortly becomes a distinct animal capable of being multiplied into ten thousand more. Thus within the human bosom, from their parent, original sin, springs forth an indefinite series of vices, each of which, if not effectually mortified by supernatural grace, becomes the seminal principle of more numerous depravities.

Under these circumstances of distress we are taught to reiterate our cry for succour to Him from whom only it can be derived. And surely this part of the collect is no vain repetition, but a natural emotion of the mind under its heavy pressure. "Let Thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us," is a petition which will approve itself to every soul that is conscious of being "sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us."

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That exertion of Divine power, which is indispensable to our salvation, is to be implored as the effect of gratuitous compassion, and not demanded as a debt which is claimable by us. For the purpose of inculcating more fully the necessity of building our hope of Divine succour on this basis alone, and of excluding every