voutly and humbly laboured to understand the truths of revelation, who has been oppressed with fears lest he himself should fall into fatal errours, will he judge and condemn his brother, and call him, for whom Christ died, by hard and bitter names? Has he the charity which hopeth all things, that believeth all things, and endureth all things? Or has he the pagan pride, which kindled the fire of Babylon's furnace ? Is he not guided by that terrific blaze, unconscious of the gentle star, which led the wise men to Bethlehem?

We are now worms, grovelling in darkness; we are birds of the night, averting our eyes from the splendours of moral day. Soon we shall drop these tenements of clay, and rise, and soar, and mingle with patriarchs and prophets. We shall there, at the footstool of the Eternal, learn the wonders of immortality. There, in the society of the redeemed, robed in light, and in the immediate presence of God himself, we shall advance in knowledge, till we reach the present attainments of David, and Daniel, and Isaiah, who have been for thousands of years in the school of heaven. We shall then more rapidly advance, till we acquire the present wisdom and understanding of Gabriel, and the highest seraphs around the throne. We shall still advance, and leave the present attainments of the highest angels as far behind, as those angels are before the weeping babe of yesterday. Then how low, how miserable, will our present attainments appear. Who will not then exclaim, How could I indulge pride and selfexultation, how could I reproach the errours of my

neighbour, when my own views were so feeble, so confused ?

We know in part. Our own conduct and attainments demand the candour and charity of our friends. Shall not we then manifest that charity which covereth a multitude of sins? The Saviour himself is touched with the infirmities of our imperfect brethren. Shall mortal man be more severe than his Maker? Shall we not all rather, like our divine Saviour, who freely associated with all the sects and tribes of Israel, do good to all men, as we have opportunity.

SERMON X.

JEREMIAH xvii, 9.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

As the benevolent physician would wish never to administer a remedy which is unpleasant, so the sympathetic preacher would gladly be excused from publishing any doctrine which is offensive, any duty which is unacceptable. But as the guardians of your health are compelled by love and humanity, to recommend medicines bitter to the taste, so the ministers of the cross find themselves called, by the voice of compassion and tenderness, to proclaim doctrines painful and alarming.

Such was the situation of the good prophet. It became his duty to tell the house of Israel their sins, to proclaim to the world their depravity. This was not a description of this or that unprincipled individual, but of the whole race. Not merely their immoral actions, but their hearts, the fountains of action, are "desperately wicked." A doctrine always admitted

with reluctance, and often repelled with force, with talents, and learning. A thousand plausible and pleasant things have been said, to wipe away the stain.

As

well may you wash the Ethiopian white, or efface the leopard's spots.

My object is to enforce the lesson of the text, that the heart of man is exceedingly wicked.

I shall not appeal to passages of Scripture which support this doctrine, although I believe them numerous and conclusive. They are before you to be consulted at pleasure; they daily offer you light and conviction; they are familiar to your minds.

Neither do I appeal to the history of man, though this would furnish incontrovertible evidence of the doctrine. While orthodox divines have incurred the odium of being the chief heralds of man's depravity, the historians of the world may claim a full share of the labour. Their pages are crowded with proofs that the heart of man is "desperately wicked." Their records of violated treaties, of bloody wars, captivities, and victories, demonstrate how deep, how malignant is the poison of human depravity. Before the pulpit is reproached for portraying the wickedness of man, let the voice of history be silenced, destroy the records of ancient and modern days, erase from the annals of the world the tales of ambition, of wars, and revolutions.

and revenge,

Neither shall I attempt to carry you in imagination to the wilderness, to survey savage manners and morals, to see them torture their captives, eat the flesh, or drink the blood of the slain. We will not approach the camps and prisons of the world, to hear their