ample, God has so arranged his matters, that I have been tempted to an act of sin-beloved, remember that sin extends to the thoughts; remember that an envious thought is sin; remember that a covetous thought is sin; remember that a sensual image entertained in the mind is sin; and then you will not wonder at my words—I say, God has so arranged his matters,-in wisdom and in kindness, because He loves me, and because He would do me good at my latter end, that I have yielded to the temptation. I was blind; I did not see the thing according to its real nature, when the object was proposed to me; I fell into the lure; I took the bait. But how do I look at it now? I hate myself, and I hate my adversary. I am no longer blind; now I see. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Dust and ashes, God be thanked, are now done with; but O there are dust and ashes of the soul! O there is the anguish of being under the consciousness of guilt, of which dust and ashes are but a faint emblem! And he who knows what spiritual sensibility is, would be very glad to exchange his agonized mind for the dress of sackcloth, and ashes sprinkled upon his head. But no, no; no, no: when he thinks again, that sorrow is amongst his joys.

March 22, 1829.

SERMON XI.

MARK vi. 12.

AND THEY WENT OUT, AND PREACHED THAT MEN SHOULD

REPENT.

THIS is a description of the ministry which the twelve exercised when sent out by the Lord during his lifetime. He had given them a commission; and by a power which He continually put forth in their behalf,for at this period the Holy Ghost was not given, He abode in Jesus,-by a power immediately imparted from Jesus, they exercised their ministry. But, during this interval, the call made by the apostles was the same with that made by the Lord himself, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel." What He had delivered with his own mouth, He delivered also by theirs.

In a former sermon upon these words, I was led more especially to insist upon the necessity of repentance, from the consideration that it occupies so large a

portion of the sacred volume. From the account which we have of the direction given, both by him who preceded the Lord Jesus, and by those who followed Him in the ministry,-by John the Baptist, and by the apostles, we learn that this was the doctrine which God through Christ delivered to his Church, "Repent ye." Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins."

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The object of my present sermon is to enter more particularly and distinctly into the consideration of the nature of this affection of the soul. I call it an affection of the soul, because it is the habit or state of mind unto which we are called. Now the term used in the original language, and the common sense of the term repentance," will lead us into some just conception of its nature. It is "an after state of mind," "an after care or concern." The supposition is, that there has been another state of mind; and that now that state of mind is parted with, and another received as its substitute; and that this other which is its substitute has for its chief ingredient a care or concern for the past. Such is the description of repentance, which the term used for it implies. But we shall not in such a subject be content with a mere definition or explanation of terms. We want much more. And I am therefore proposing, if God shall enable me, to give you as minute and distinct a description as I can of this exercise of the mind.

forms.

I believe I noticed in my last sermon that to understand it perfectly we must consider it in its two distinct There is a form of repentance which belongs especially to the new convert. The converted man is a penitent. What do we mean by a converted man? The man that has been turned in his course from the direction which he was pursuing, into that which is its opposite. The man was turned from God; he is now turned to God. And this, you will perceive, is the description given by St. Paul respecting his commission; he was "to open the eyes of the Gentiles, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Now you will observe, conversion in this view is not strictly repentance, but it necessarily leads to it: he that has been turned, repents. And this is just the description given us in that beautiful passage of the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xxxi, where he describes the return of Ephraim: "Surely, after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh." In fact, there is no true repentance but that which is the result of conversion; that is, the result of that act of God whereby He constrains the natural man,—the man who is living in the exercise of his own natural faculties as controlled by the spirit of evil,-to turn from that exercise and from that dominion, unto another desire and pursuit; into a direction or course which is the opposite of his former one. But, when so turned, the question is, what is his state of mind? It is an after

mind, a new mind, a penitent mind. This however, you perceive, is the description of one who has just now forsaken the ways of evil, and is brought to desire and endeavour to serve God. Is repentance then done with, when this first stage is accomplished? Surely not. There is room, there is a call, there is exercise for the after mind in the daily walk of a Christian. In my explanation therefore of this habit, it will be necessary that I occasionally divide the application of it. I shall be obliged to you if you will endeavour with some precision to take into your mind the heads of my discourse, because they are the result of much serious reflection upon this subject; and I have much more hope from your own reflection upon the hints which I shall suggest to you, than from any laboured remarks of my own.

I observe then that, in the description of this state of mind,-looking especially at its exercise as performed by the new convert,-the first consideration is, a realizing sense of the quantity of our sin, and of its nature and properties. A realizing sense of the quantity of our sin. I shall be sorry to lose myself in terms; but you must understand that I am careful here to guard you against the mere acknowledgment, the telling out, that we are sinners. We know how common the language is, "I am a great sinner." I mean something very different from this, when I speak of the realizing sense of the quantity of our sin. I mean, that the person has, as it were, before him the whole