as the most open tranfgreffion of the life; and fins committed in the deepest shades of darkness, are as perfectly known to him, as those committed in the cleareft noon day. None of the fprings from whence they proceed can escape his notice, nor the temper of mind with which they are done; which give the trueft light into their nature, and determine the precife degree of their malignity. What reafon, then, have we to keep our hearts, as well as our lives, with all diligence, and to dread a fin in privacy, no less than when we know that many eyes are upon us?

With refpect again to the practice of our duty, the influence of a realizing faith of the divine omniscience is so apparent, that it needs no illuftration. "I have kept thy ftatutes and thy tefti"monies," faid David; " for all my ways are "before thee." Were God habitually present to our minds, we should think nothing too much to be done, or too hard to be endured, in his fervice, A holy ambition to approve ourfelves to him, by whofe final fentence we must ftand or fall, would render us fuperior to every trial, and carry us forward in the way of his commandments with increafing vigour and alacrity we fhould never "think that we had "already attained, either were already perfect; "but forgetting the things which are behind, "and reaching forth to those things which are before, we should prefs towards the mark for "the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Jefus."

Upon

Upon the whole, then, let us earnestly pray God, that he by his grace may ftrengthen our faith of this important truth, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good and enable us fo to fet him before us during all the days of our pilgrimage on earth, that hereafter we may be admitted into his immediate presence; where, in the happy fociety of angels and faints, we fhall enjoy the unclouded light of his countenance without interruption and without end. Amen,

SERMON

SERMON

PSALM xix. 13.

HI

Keep back thy fervant also from prefumptious fins.

MEMORABI

EMORABLE is that faying of the Apof tle Paul," I had not known fin but by the law,' We can never judge aright of our temper and practice, till we prove them by this unerring rule. Many objects appear to have a strong resemblance while we view them apart, and at a diftance from each other; which, in almost every feature are found to difagree when they are brought together and examined with accuracy. Thus there is a feeming conformity to the divine law, an image of fanctity which very often paffeth for real holinefs, and leads men to "think of themfelves more highly than they "ought to think." Paul " was alive without "the law once; but when the commandment

came, fin revived, and he died." So long as he knew only the letter of the law, and was a franger to its spiritual meaning and juft extent, he imagined that his prayers, his faftings, and his alms, accompanied with fome pieces of bodily exercife, and an abftinence from the groffer acts of fin, were fufficient to recommend him to the friendship of God, and would certainly intitle him to the joys of immortality: but "when the com"mandment came" in its native purity, and entered into his heart with light and power, he

foon

foon discovered his mistake, and was convinced, that his seeming virtues were no more in reality than "dead works;" his pharifaical righteousness a mere painted outfide, the delufive picture or "form of godlinefs."

In like manner, the author of this pfalm, after a devout contemplation of the divine law (which he had magnified in the foregoing verses, by a juft and animated detail of its amiable properties and falutary effects) turning his eyes inward, is ftruck with a sense of his own guilt and pollution: "Who," faith he, " can understand his Co errors ?" Many indeed, too many, alas! I can foon recollect; for every period of my life hath been ftained with fin: but befides all these, I now perceive, that in numberlefs inftances, unobferved or forgotten, I must have deviated from fo perfect a rule.-Upon this he fupplicates the mercy of God,and implores the forgiveness of those "errors" or infirmities, which had either escaped his notice, or dropped out of his remembrance: "Cleanse thou me from fecret faults:"" fecret," not only with respect to others, but to myself alfo; hid from mine own eyes, as well as from the eyes of my fellow-men. And under this awful impreffion of the polluting nature even of his unobserved and "fecret faults," he views with horror the more aggravated guilt of known and wilful fins; and prays with redoubled earnestness, in the words of my text, that it might please God to restrain or keep him back from thefe:· Keep back thy fervant alfo from prefumptuous fins. What these fins are, and how much it con-. cerneth us all to avoid them,-I fhall endeavour

to

to fhew in the sequel of this difcourfe :- And as my text is a prayer, I shall conclude with some directions for the help of those who are willing to make it their own prayer, and wish to offer it up with acceptance and fuccefs.

BY prefumptuous fins we are to understand fomething different from thofe unavoidable failings, on account of which it is faid, that "there " is not a juft man upon earth, who doeth good, " and finneth not." Perfection in holiness is not the attainment of our present state: the best offend in many things; and "if we fay we have "no fin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is ❝ not in us."

There are fome fins done through ignorance; and this circumftance, how great foever the offence may be in its own nature, doth certainly render the cafe of the offender more pitiable. We find the Apostle and High-prieft of our "profeffion, Chrift Jefus," pleading this argument for mercy to his murderers: " Father

forgive them; for they know not what they "do." St. " Paul obtained mercy, who was ❝ before a blasphemer, a perfecutor, and inju"rious, because he did it ignorantly." And the Judge himself hath affured us, (Luke xii. 48.) that "the fervant who knew not his lord's will, ❝ and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall "be beaten with few stripes."

There are other fins, into which men are hurried by fudden and violent temptations, which the Apostle, writing to the Galatians, calls "being ❝ overtaken in a fault," Galat. vi. I. outwitted,

as