gracious glance of his eye; and in righteous difpleafure, he did not fo much as give them an explicit call to repentance or he overlooked them by way of forbearance. Ignorant and idolatrous as the world was, he did not destroy it, but bore it from age to age, with a design to publish a more explicit command to repent and now that time is come; that time, for the fake of which a long-fuffering God had borne with a guilty world fo long. Now he commands all men every where to repent; all men, Gentiles as well as Jews: every where, in the dark heathen lands, as well as in the enlightened fpot of Judea.

Repentance is indeed a duty enjoined by our natural reason, and strongly enforced by the Jewish religion; but it is the gofpel that affords the ftrongest motives and allurements, and the beft helps and advantages for repentance. The gospel was first introduced by a loud call to repentance: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, was the united cry of John the Baptift, of Chrift, and his difciples. And St. Paul fums up the fubftance of his preaching in these two articles, Repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift. Acts xx. 21.

Repentance is univerfally acknowledged to be an effential ingredient in the religion of a finner. They who deny the chriftian religion, and particularly the neceffity of Chrift's death to make atonement for fin, they deny it upon this fuppofition, that the light of nature teaches us the neceffity of repentance, and that alone is a fufficient atonement. Thus, even Infidels, Jews, Pagans and Mahometans, agree in afferting the neceffity of repentance. It is this grand catholic uncontroverted duty, and not the little difputable peculiarity of a party, that I am now about to inculcate upon you: And he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. But here, I hope, you are ready to requeft me, Pray let us know what repentance is, before you exhort us to it. How may we know what it is to repent, and whether we have truly repented or not?"

Lf

If this be your defire, it directly coincides with my main design and I fhall endeavour, with the utmost plainnefs and faithfulness, to tell you what gospel-repentance is, and help you to determine whether ever you have been the fubjects of it.

Now it is evident, both from scripture and common fenfe, that every pang of forrow for fin, and every inftance of reformation, is not that repentance which we have now under confideration. If horror of confcience, and fears of hell, could conftitute true repentance, then Judas was a true penitent; for his horror and fear was fo great, that he could not live under it. If fudden pangs of terror and remorfe, with fome refolutions to amend, could conftitute true repentance, then Felix, the heathen governor, was a true penitent; for we are told, that, while Paul reafoned before him, concerning temperance, righteousness, and the judgment to come, he trembled, Acts xxiv. 25. and feemed refolved to give him another hearing on thefe fubjects. If a reformation in many inftances were the fame thing with repentance, then Herod, the murderer of John the Baptift, was a true penitent; for we are told, he heard John gladly, and did many things at his exhortation. Mark vi. 20. These knew nothing of repentance unto life; and therefore we may feel what they felt, and yet remain impenitent.

I fcarcely think there are any of you fo hardy and reprobated of God, as never to have experienced any fort of repentance. It is likely there is not one in this affembly but has fometimes been scared with dreadful apprehenfions of death, hell, and the confequences of fin; and perhaps you have cried and wept to think of your finful life, and trembled to think what would be the end of it. You have also prayed to God to forgive you, and refolved and promised you would reform. Nay, it is poffible, the terrors of the Lord and a sense of guilt, may have almoft overwhelmed and distracted you, haunted you from day to day, and difturbed your nightly flumbers. On thefe accounts you conclude,

perhaps,

perhaps, that you are true penitents: but, alas! after all this, you may be but impenitent finners. True evangelical repentance has the following diftinguishing characteristics; by which I request you to examine yourselves.

I. It extends to the heart as well as to the practice. Every true penitent, indeed, has an affecting fenfe of the many fins and guilty imperfections of his life; but then his repentance does not ftop there, but he looks into the horrid arcana, the fecrets of wickedness within. He traces up these corrupt ftreams to the more corrupt fountain in his heart, from which they flow. A blind mind, a ftupid heart, a heart difaffected to God, that could live content for months, for years, without loving God, a heart dead to his service, a heart infenfible of eternal things, a heart exceffively fet upon things below, a secure conscience, a stubborn ungovernable will; these, to the true penitent, appear the greatest crimes, while, by a thoughtless world, they are hardly noticed as flight imperfections. Hence when his walk in the eyes of men is unblameable, and even imitable, he still finds daily occafion for repentance and humiliation before God. For O! his heart, or his inward temper, is not fuch as it fhould be: he does not love God nor man as he knows he fhould: he does not delight in the service of God as he should: every thought, every motion of his heart towards forbidden objects alarms him, like a symptom of the plague, or the ftirring of an enemy in ambufh; and he is immediately in arms to make refiftance. The world in general are very well pleafed if the matter of their actions be good, and if they abftain from what is materially evil: but this does not fatisfy the true pcnitent: he narrowly infpects the principles, the motives, and the ends of his actions; and there he finds fufficient caufe for mortification and forrow, even when his actions in themfelves are lawful and good. In fhort, every true penitent is a critic upon his own VOL. III. heart;

E

heart; and there he finds conftant caufe for ance while in this imperfect state.

repent

The proof of this is fo evident, that I need hardly mention it. Can you fuppofe it will fatisfy a true lover of God and goodness, just to have a clean outfide, while his heart is a mere mafs of corruption? Will it content fuch a one, that he performs all the outward duties of religion, if there be no life or fpirit in them? Will God account that man truly penitent, who thinks it enough that he is not guilty of open acts of wickednefs, though he indulges it, and loves it in his heart? No; fuch repentance is a fhallow, fuperficial thing, and is good for nothing. David's repentance reached his heart. Hence, in his penitential pfalm (li.) he not only confeffes his being guilty of the blood of Uriah, but that he was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in fin, and earnestly prays, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me. Pfalm li. 5, 6, 10. And he is deeply fenfible of the want of truth or integrity in the inward parts.

Now, my brethren, if this be an effential ingredient in true repentance, do not fome of you fee that you are deftitute of it? and, confequently, that you are ftill impenitent finners, and ready to perifh as fuch? A dreadful conviction! But do not fhut your eyes against it; for, until you fee your error, you cannot correct it. II. In evangelical repentance there is a deep fenfe of the intrinfic evil of fin, and a hearty forrow for it as done against God.

Many that think they repent of fin have no proper forrow upon the account of fin against God, but only on account of the punishment it is like to bring upon themselves. It is not fin they hate, but hell. Were it poffible for them to enjoy their fins, and yet be happy, they would never think of repenting; and hence repentance is really an hardship in their view. Need I tell you that fuch a fervile, forced repentance, is good for nothing. If the criminal is very forry, not because he has offended, but because he is to be executed for

it, would you call him a true penitent? If your flave cries and trembles, not from a fenfe of his offence against you, but for fear of the lafh, do you think he truly repents of it? No; it is felf-love, and not the love of duty; it is fear of the punishment, and not hatred of the crime, that is the principle of this fervile, ungenerous repentance.

Hence you may see you may be very forry for your fin, because it may fix a fcandal upon your character, because it may have injured your temporal estate, or because it may ruin you in the eternal world: I fay, you may be very forry for fin on fuch fervile reafons as thefe, and yet know nothing of true repentance. True repentance is a more kindly, generous thing; it proceeds from an affecting fenfe of the bafenefs and malignity of fin in itself. Sin appears to the true penitent, as fome forts of poifon to us; that is, not only hateful because it is deadly and destructive, but hateful and naufeous in itself. I do not mean that the fear of punishment is no ingredient in true repentance the love of God and felf-love are very confift ent, if the latter is kept in a due fubordination to the former; and therefore the fear of punishment has great weight even with the evangelical penitent. But I mean the fear of punishment is not the principal, much less the only fpring and motive of true repentance: the true penitent hates fin, even when he is not thinking of heaven or hell, but only viewing it in its own nature. Though it were allowed him to go to heaven in the ways of fin, he would by no means chufe it. Heaven itself would be the lefs acceptable to him, if it were the end of fuch a course.

He is also deeply forry for fin, as against God, or as contrary to him. As rebellion against his authority, as a contrariety to his holiness, as an oppofition to his will and pleasure, as a most base, ungrateful return for all his goodness, and as the cause of all the agonies of the bleffed Jefus; he hates it, he mourns over it with ingenuous and kindly relentings of heart. It was