sores and from inward weakness and sickliness. He alone can give us a new and healthy nature; he alone can teach us so to live, as to make this world a school for heaven. All that is wanted is, that we should see our need of him, and fly to him for aid. He came into the world to give sight unto the blind; but they are his own words, that he also came to make those blind who thought that they saw; to ensure, that is, a heavier condemnation to all those who refuse the cure that is offered them, because they do not feel their sickness; they will naturally perish in their folly, and the offer of assistance having been made and rejected, only serves to make their folly more evident.

One of the main uses which I would make of the fact, that our nature is evil from our youth, is in correcting a most common and most mischievous practice of using the word "natural," as if it were the same with "excusable," or "pardonable." It is commonly said, "Such and such faults are so natural at such an age, or under such circumstances, that we cannot pass a severe judgment upon them." Now to a certain degree this is said with justice. We cannot pass a severe judgment upon them, because he who judgeth another condemneth himself; for he who judgeth, doeth the same things. We must not blame harshly natural faults, because we are ourselves so often guilty of them. So far, then, as an argument to make us charitable, the

word "natural" may usefully be employed; but with regard to our own conduct, or that of those for whom we are at all answerable, we must remember that to call a fault natural, is merely to enforce the language of the Scripture, that they who are in the flesh cannot please God: that the flesh and the spirit are striving against one another; and that if we live after the flesh, that is, according to our own natural inclinations, we shall die. What we call natural may be called, not more truly, but more profitably, in the language of Scripture, "the sin that doth so easily beset us.' In youth, thoughtless selfishness is natural; in manhood and old age, it is no less natural that our selfishness should be of another kind: cold and calculating, and preferring to every thing else the advantages, or comforts, or honours which the world can offer. But because these things are natural, are they therefore excusable ? or do not they show the need which we have of the fulfilment of God's promise, that he will give us a new heart and a new spirit, that we may live and not die? So far from being excusable, when we feel that a fault or bad disposition is natural to us, it is only a reason why we should strive with the greatest earnestness against it. Who is in danger from sins which are not natural to him? And, therefore, when we are tempted into the faults and follies of our peculiar age or station, we should look upon it as a kindly

warning rather to avoid them than to yield to them, as a hint to tell us where we are wandering, and to remind us of the great danger in which we are living so long and so heedlessly. It is very true, that if we indulge in no other than natural faults, we shall be no worse than the generality of our neighbours; but woe to us if we are not better than the great mass of mankind; and most unhappy are we, if we have no higher aim, when we enter into active life, than merely to be as good as others around us. Christ's lesson is of a very different kind. He tells us, that unless our righteousness shall exceed, he does not say the righteousness of the world in general, but even the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees;-men, that is, of a much stricter and better life than the rest of the people ;-unless our righteousness shall exceed even these, we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. He tells us too, to strive to enter in at the strait gate; for broad is the gate and wide is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat. How comes it that they who enter in at the gate of destruction are so numerous? Is it that they commit great and scandalous sins; that they are thieves or murderers, or adulterers, or cruel oppressors, or given up to all those fleshly lusts which war against the soul? If there were none but those who trod the broad path of destruction, they would indeed be

far too many; but yet they would scarcely be more than those who do not do all these things.

But

Christ says, that they who enter in at the strait gate are few, and they who enter in at the broad gate are many. He must mean, then, to speak of those who are guilty of what we call natural faults; that is, who in youth are idle and thoughtlessly selfish, because it is the nature of youth to be so; who in manhood are looking keenly after their own interest; who are selfish with a deeper and more deliberate selfishness, preferring above all things their honour, or their profit, or their ease, because such things are natural then. He must mean, in short, all that numerous class of persons who live according to the nature with which they were born, instead of casting it off, and taking in its stead a second and spiritual nature, which is given to those who are in Christ by his Holy. Spirit. No, my brethren, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,-adultery, fornication, uncleanness, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; or, as it is in another place, "inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." These the Apostle calls "our members which are upon the earth;"-these are the things which are natural to us. But are they therefore excusable ? Nay, rather "for these things' sake cometh the

wrath of God upon the children of disobedience;" and "they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." They who live according to their nature shall not inherit the kingdom of God ;—they who indulge in the natural faults of their age and station, shall be exposed to the wrath of God falling on the children of disobedience. It is not that which is natural to us which we ought to cultivate, but rather that which is not natural, which belongs to a better nature than ours, and which will cause us to be renewed after the image of our Maker, which naturally we have lost. It is the nature of the ground, if we take no pains with it, to bring forth weeds; it is our nature to indulge in evil thoughts and evil actions; but the ground which is foul with weeds is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned; and the heart of man, which is overrun with its natural desires and evil thoughts, cannot please God, but is an heir merely of the curse pronounced upon Adam, that he must die; is a stranger to God's covenant of promise, and reserved only for the great day in which the wicked, and all who forget God, shall be turned to destruction for evermore.

1 I use this expression generally, without at all meaning to say that the image of God was in every point defaced, and that of the devil set up in its place; but simply, that the general expression of the countenance was become unlike, although some of the features might still retain a resemblance to the corresponding ones in the original.