very few words the whole truth brought together, and proving that since the will of man is the will of the flesh, and "all flesh has corrupted its way upon the earth," and "a corrupt tree necessarily brings forth evil fruit," therefore all that proceeds from the will of man unchanged will be necessarily the way of iniquity, and on them who walk in it is passed the sentence of death. And this because in his natural state, there is an entire enmity to the will and law of God from the flesh, nay more, in the very children of God themselves there is such depravity remaining, that our own church, in her ninth Article, hesitates not on this very point thus plainly to speak out: "This infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the lav of God." If any doubt remains, what is meant by that part of the text which denounces a curse on him who maketh flesh his arm, that doubt must cease, when we remember that of him whose heart in every such kind of trust "departeth from the Lord," the first thing declared is, that "he shall be like the heath in the desert." Here, as often in the holy writings, we have a solemn truth uttered in language, not surpassed for energy and beauty, in the whole stores of profane literature. To give the clearest notion of

the folly as well as guilt of putting our confidence in man, a barren ground and a fruitless shrub are the metaphors strikingly and judiciously brought together. The heath is a shrub or tree without sap or value anywhere but in the desert, of which it is indeed the indigenous offspring. Imagination can conceive nothing more useless, yet that is the figure by which the seal of inspiration has stamped the delusion, and the sin of all creature-trust and dependence. The next thing the text declares is, that he who so placeth his trust, or rather so misplaceth it, "shall not see when good cometh;" by which probably is meant, that when the abundant harvest and other temporal mercies come in, he shall have no share in them, for it is immediately added, that he shall inherit the parched ground in the wilderness." When the Lord of all good sends a blessing to others whom he finds in a faithful and simple waiting on him, he will cause the man who "hews out cisterns to himself that will hold no water," the man who "maketh flesh his arm," to be the solitary inhabitant of a forlorn and blighted desert, parched up by the arid rays of an eastern sun, the soil on which he lives without moistening and fertilizing rains, and the soul which lives, or rather withers in himself without the fruitful and blessed dews of God's grace. Thus much at present for this part of the text, in reference to that trust to the arm of

flesh, which provokes sooner or later the curse of God, on every impenitent sinner.

Turn we now to the more delightful part of it, which, in equally emphatic language, pronounces a blessing on the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope is in Him. The first thing affirmed is, that "he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river." Here is an expressive antithesis or contrast to the simile by which the man that is "making flesh his arm" is described. The tree planted by the river, along the margin of which it spreadeth out her roots, and is firmly fixed, cannot but draw abundance of nourishment from those waters, of whose fertilizing influence the heath in the desert is wholly destitute. Thence results the next mercy promised, "He shall not see when heat cometh." The contrast between the two opposite states of a soul trusting in man, and a soul trusting in God, continues to be beautifully kept up; for, as it was stated in the former that he should not see, or be a sharer in temporal good, so here it is declared of the latter, that he shall not see, or be a sharer in temporal evil. The shrub blasted in the desert under the scorching heat is the lively figure by which the prophet shows the exact opposite of the tree planted and nourished by the waters; and therefore, so far from incurring injury from that heat, it is added, that even then her leaf shall be green;

there shall be in the outward flourishing a visible evidence of inward health and soundness. And the description of this secure and blessed state of him who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is, closes with this character of the tree planted by the waters, "It shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." When the season of severity comes from want of rain, then from its very situation it has a vital moisture in itself, and an unfailing moisture about it, which contrasts finely with the shrub that in such seasons unavoidably droops and withers away in the parched places of the wilderness.

Now in this scripture we discover, unless the spirit of evil hath blinded our eyes that we cannot see, and hardened our hearts that we will not see, how sinful is all trust in ourselves, or in man our fallen fellow, independent of and insubordinate to our supreme trust in God. The Lord who hath searched the heart, and tried the reins of all has, in the verses following the text, pronounced that "heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" the Lord who knows what kind and what degree of strength is to be found in the arm of flesh, has declared him cursed that resteth on it. Most fearful is that curse, and well may it alarm the holiest of his people; for, of all the infirmities of our wayward nature, there is perhaps none to which we are more prone, and

therefore none from which we are in more danger, than that of relying on the tenderness, friendship, and wisdom of our earthly connexions, in neglect and forgetfulness of our only perfect and blessed guide in heaven. Habits of close prayer and enlightened communion with God keep the sin in check; but only his Spirit can take out those roots of it which are embedded in our warmest affections. Yes, such is our fond repose in some beings or other in our own mould and form, all of whom the Scriptures call by the one term of potsherds of the earth, at last to be broken in pieces, that it is not in ourselves to untwist those fibres of our confidence in them which twine about our very heart-strings. Yet the text speaks of and to every one of us so placing our confidence, that the man is cursed who doth this. O Lord, thou alone canst write it in our hearts, and make it the subject of our constant recollection, that they who forsake thee "the hope of Israel" shall be ashamed. Thou alone canst give us all the spiritual thirst, in the impulse of which we shall gladly fly to thee as the only "fountain of living waters;" thou alone canst convince us of the inability of our fellow sinners or ourselves to cure our spiritual malady; only thou canst incline us eagerly to exclaim, " Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be saved, for thou art our praise." My dear brethren, we should pray for this more than we