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God will acquaint us with the true state of our hearts, and lessen the number of our secret and unrepented transgressions. The Holy Scriptures also give us such a foreknowledge of the evil and misery of sin, as we can learn no other way, except by bitter experience.

We should not be slow to believe the warning which some affecting passage seems to direct against a sin that we have conceived and purposed in our mind. It is designed to make us pray against it more fervently, and prevent the necessity of the sad teaching of affliction, and to convert the soul by mercy and love, rather than by suffering.

The Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb. iv. 12.

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. It may be they will present their supplications before the Lord, and will return. Jer. xxxvi. 3. 7.

If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God; to observe and to do all his commandments, all these blessings shall come upon thee: If thou wilt not hearken, all these curses shall overtake thee. Deut. xxviii. 2. 15.

Ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done. Ezek. xiv. 23.

V.

If we would know the value of the Word of God, and delight in it as

our chief comfort, we should trace its daily effect upon our mind, and observe how deeply it has laid the foundation of our hopes in a disposition which exalts us far above all trouble. The precepts of the Gospel humble our pride, that they may bring us near to God, who is higher than all. If we are humble, He will make our way acceptable to himself, and we shall have not only less of pride to bear, but less of sin, and care, and

sorrow.

The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Isa. xxxv. 1.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Isa. xxxv. 3, 4.

Learn of me,

lowly of heart.

for I am meek and

Take my yoke upon

you, for my yoke is easy and my burthen is light. Matt. xi. 29.

VI.

The

There are times in which God will disclose to us the true qualities of our own hearts; and few end their days before God has so tried them as to discover them to themselves. young rich man in the Gospel thought that he had kept every particular of duty from his youth up, and knew not his own idolatry of uncertain riches. God brought him to Christ to teach him that one thing was lacking, and that one thing he willed not, but went away, sorrowful indeed, yet he went away; and we read not that he returned any more. Hast thou not a sin it will cost more to part with than all that thou possessest?

2 Matt. xix. 22.

Thy Saviour, speaking to thee this moment in the Gospel, tells thee thou must part with it if thou wouldst have "treasure in heaven."

What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt. xvi. 26.

But one thing is needful, that good part which shall not be taken away. Luke x. 42.

VII.

The soul of the rich young man that departed from Christ has been now in eternity for eighteen hundred years, and this but the beginning of sorrows. During that long, long space of being, to what point may we believe his memory has turned with sleepless woe? To his brief life on earth, to his great estates in Galilee,

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