well as private worship, I fhall here mere ly obferve, that, although we may be ever fo well acquainted with our duty, yet such is the unfteadiness of our nature, that we cannot be too often reminded of it. God requires active virtues to make us acceptable to him: good works must be united with faith; for though falvation is promised through the merits of Jefus Chrift, yet it is promised upon the conditions of love and obedience; and whoever rejects the terms must abide the confequences.

Idleness, either of body or mind, was never intended for man : he cannot, it is true, with all his art and induf try, form the smallest herb, or make a ftalk of corn to grow in the field: fuch power belongs to God alone: but fhall we therefore fay that the labor of the hufbandman is unneceffary? The Almighty in his wifdom has ordained man to live by his own induftry: when he has performed the part allotted for him, it becomes his duty to beg God's bleffing on the work of his hands. As well might we

expect fallow ground to produce a plentiful harveft, as that we can obtain a crown of glory in our Lord's kingdom without laboring in his vineyard. In each cafe, God has been pleased to point out the way by which we may attain the object in view, and graciously promised his bleffing on our endeavors.

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3. And the Scribes and Pharifees brought unto him a woman taken in "adultery: and when they had fet her in "the midft,

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4. They fay unto him, Mafter, this woman was taken in adultery: in the very act.

5. Now Mofes in the law commanded us, that fuch fhould be ftoned: but what "fayeft thou?

6. This they faid, tempting him, that

they might have to accufe him. But

Jefus flooped down, and with his finger

"wrote on the ground, as though he "heard them not."

The offence of the woman was of fo heinous a nature, being a direct breach of a pofitive commandment of God, and in its consequences so fatal to the peace and good order of fociety, that the Jewish law had affixed to it the punishment of death. Her accusers, therefore, knowing the benignity and humanity of our Lord's dif pofition, thought this a good opportunity of entrapping him to give fome order respecting her, contrary to the feverity of their law, which might afford them a ground of accufation against him. Our Lord's reply not only defeated this infidious purpose, but made their malice recoil, in fhame and confufion, on themselves.

"7. So when they continued asking

him, he lifted up himself and faid unto "them, He that is without fin among you, "let him firft caft a ftone at her.

"8. And again he ftooped down and "wrote on the ground.

"9. And they which heard it, being "convicted by their own conscience, went

" out

" out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman ftanding in the ❝ midst.

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10. When Jefus had lifted up himself, " and faw none but the woman, he said "unto her, Woman, where are those thine "accufers? hath no man condemned "thee?

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11. She faid, No man, Lord. And Jefus faid unto her, Neither do I con"demn thee: go, and sin no more.”

In the execution of malefactors, under the Jewish law, the hands of the witnesses were to be the first laid upon the criminal: our bleffed Saviour, therefore, fulfilled the law of Mofes in this refpect, by calling on any one who chose to ftand forth as her accufer, to caft the first stone at her;' but

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this he coupled with such a condition, as made the most hardened of them shrink from the hateful office.

There can be no doubt but our Lord, who was purity itself, and in whom was no fhadow

fhadow of guilt, muft have regarded the crime of this woman with that degree of horror it would naturally excite, yet feeing, as we may suppose, repentance in the heart of the criminal, he wifhed to give her an opportunity of repenting of her fin, and of proving by her future conduct the fincerity of her contrition; he wifhed bikewife to check that malice which alone ac tuated her accufers to bring her to punishment, inftead of the only juftifiable motive—that of affording an example, to deter others from the commiffion of fimilar crimes. And here we have a very remarkable instance of the power of con fcience, even in men who are far gone in vice: the appeal was too fudden and direct, to be parried. Examine well your own hearts; fee if you have not, at some time or other of your lives, been guilty of as great, or at leaft of other crimes, and perhaps without equal temptations; are you fure that, if placed in a fimilar fituation, you fhould have refifted more than fhe did? Be, then, candid to the offences

of