ing over, and lamenting his guilty imperfections. If he cannot get free from fin, his old enemy, he will, at leaft, take a kind of pleafing revenge upon it,by hating and refifting it, and lothing it and himself, upon the account of it. In fhort, the remains of fin, all things confidered, and taking one time with another, afford him more uneafinefs, perplexity and forrow, than all other things in the world. O! if he were but delivered from this body of death he would be happy, however oppreffed with other burdens; but while this lies upon him, all the world cannot render him eafy and happy.

From the whole, you fee that reformation is an effential ingredient of true repentance; and in vain do you pretend that you repent of fin, if you ftill indulge yourselves in it. You may try to excufe yourselves from the frailty of your nature, the imperfection of the prefent ftate, or the ftrength of temptation; but in fpite of all your excufes, this is an eternal truth, that, unless your repentance reforms you, and turns you from the outward practice or fecret indulgence of those fins you are forry for, it is not repentance unto life.

V. and lastly. Evangelical repentance implies a be lieving application to God for pardon only through Jefus Chrift.

Evangelical repentance does not confift in defpairing agonies and hopeless horrors of confcience, but is attended with an humble hope of forgiveness and acceptance; and this hope is founded entirely upon the merits of Jefus, and not of our repentance and reformation. *

How oppofite to, this is the prevailing fpirit of the world! If they repent, it is to make amends for their fins, and procure the divine favour by their repent-. ance: and thus, even their repentance becomes a fnare to them, and one caufe of their deftruction. In this fenfe, a bold faying of one of the Fathers may be true: VOL. III.

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* See the foregoing Sermon,

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"That more fouls are deftroyed by their repentance than by their fin ;" that is, fin is evidently evil, and they are in no danger of trusting in it to recommend them to God. But even their fuperficial, fervile_repentance has the appearance of goodness, and therefore they make a righteousness of it; and upon this quickfand they build their hopes, until they fink into remedilefs ruin.

Thus I have endeavoured to open to you the great gofpel-duty of repentance, as diftinguished from all counterfeits and delufive appearances. I hope you have all understood me; for I have laboured to make myself understood, and spoke as plainly as I could. If you have experienced fuch a generous, evangelical repentance as has been described, you may venture your fouls upon it, that it is repentance unto life; but if you are ftrangers to it, I may leave it to yourselves to determine, whether you can be faved in your present condition.

I have only two or three remarks more to make for the farther illustration of this fubject. The first is, that all the principles of degenerate nature can never produce this generous and thorough repentance, but that it is the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit. Selflove, and the other low and flavish principles of nature, may produce a fervile, mercenary repentance, proceeding from the fears of punishment; but only the love of God, and the noble principles of the new nature, can bring you to a kindly, ingenuous repentance, from noble motives; and it is the Holy Spirit alone that can fhed abroad the love of God in your hearts, and implant these generous principles of the new nature. The fecond remark is, that this generous, fupernatural repentance, is not the first repentance of an awakened finner. No; he is firft alarmed with terror and dreadful apprehenfions of punishment; and all the fprings of nature are put in motion before these nobler principles are infused, and he is brought to a genuine, evangelical repentance.-Therefore, thirdly,

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The only way to attain to this fupernatural repentance is, to use all proper means to excite the fprings of natural repentance, particularly, to reflect upon your fins, upon their number and aggravation, and your dreadful danger. While you are deftitute of the love of God, let felf-love excite you to be forry for your fins. While you cannot fee the intrinfic evil of fin as against God, fee at least the infupportable mifery it is like to bring upon you. If you have not fuch generous fouls as to mourn over fin as against a fin-forgiving God, at leaft mourn over it as against a fin-punifhing God. And while the principles of nature are thus exerted, who knows but God may work in you diviner principles, and give you repentance unto life!

My fubject is now ripe for an application; and this fhall be nothing else but a short illustration of the other parts of my text.

Let me then, in the first place, publifh the royal edict of the King of Heaven in this affembly: God commandeth all men to repent; he commands you in various ways; commands you with the motions of his Spirit ftriving with you, and by the voice of your own confciences, which is the voice of God! commands you by his providence, which tends to lead you to repentance, and especially by his gofpel, which he has fent to you for this end. He now commands you by my mouth; for while I speak what his word authorises, it does not lofe its efficacy, nor cease to be his word by paffing through my lips. Remember, he commands you, he lays his authority upon you, to repent. You are not left to your difcretion in the cafe. Dare you reject the known, exprefs command of the divine Majefty? Should a voice now break from the excellent glory, directed to each of you by name, faying, Repent! repent! would it not ftartle you? would it not fhock you, to fet yourselves in oppofition to fo exprefs and immediate a command of the God that made you ? Well, his command to you in the gofpel is as real, as authoritative and binding, as an immediate voice from heaver.

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heaven. And dare you difobey it? Dare you go this day with this additional guilt upon you, of disobeying a known command of the fupreme Lord of heaven and earth? Dare you provoke him to jealoufy? Are you ftronger than he? Can you harden yourselves against him, and yet profper? I again proclaim it aloud in your hearing, The King of kings, iny Mafter, has iffued out his royal mandate, requiring you, by thefe prefents, to repent, upon pain of everlafting damnation. This day it is proclaimed in your ears, therefore, this day repent. If you refufe to repent, let this conviction follow you home, and perpetually haunt you, that you have this day, when you were met together under pretence of worshipping God, knowingly difobeyed the great gofpel-command. And to the great God you must anfwer for your difobedience. In the next place, my text tells you, he commands all men to repent: all men, of all ranks and characters. This command, therefore, is binding upon you all. The great God cries to you all, Repent! Repent, young and old, rich and poor, white and black, free and bond-Repent, ye young finners, now, while your hearts are foft and tender, and your paffions eafily moved, and you are not hardened by a long course of habitual finning :-Repent, ye grey-headed veteran finners, now at laft repent, when the load of fins, heaped up for fo many years, lies fo heavy upon you, and you are walking every moment on the flippery brink of eternity:-Repent, ye rich men; ye are not above this command:-Repent, ye poor; ye are not beneath it-Repent, ye poor flaves; your colour, or low ftate-in life, cannot free you from this command:Repent, ye mafters, for your fins against your Master, who is in heaven. In fhort, God commandeth all men, kings and fubjects, the highest and the lowest, and all the intermediate ranks, to repent.

To render the call ftill more pointed and univerfal, it is added, He commandeth all men, every where, to repent. Every where, in city and country; in palaces

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and cottages; in Europe, Afia, Africa and America, wherever the trumpet of the gofpel founds the alarm to repent; in Virginia, in this very fpot, where we now ftand. Here the command of God finds you out, and calls you to repent. Repentance is not a local duty, but it extends as far as human nature, as far as the utmost boundaries of this guilty world. Wherever there are finners under a difpenfation of grace, there this command reaches. It reaches to the bufy merchant in his ftore, to the laborious planter in the field, and to the tradefman in his fhop; to the failor toffing on the waves, and to the inhabitant of folid ground; to the man of learning in his ftudy, and to the illiterate peasant; to the judge upon the bench, as well as to the criminal in the dungeon; to the man of fobriety, to the unthinking rake, and to the brutifh debauchee; to the minifter in the pulpit, and to the people in their pews; to the diffenter in the meeting-house, and to the conformift in church; to hufbands and wives; to parents and children; to mafters and fervants; to all the fons of men, whatever they are, wherever they dwell, whatever they are doing; to all thefe the command reaches. And do you not find yourselves included in it? If you are men, if you dwell any where upon this guilty globe, you are included; for let me tell you once more, God commandeth all men, every where, to repent.

Nor are you allowed to delay your compliance. Repentance is your prefent duty: For now he commandeth all men, every where, to repent: Now, when the times of ignorance are over, and the gospel sheds heavenly day among you: Now, when he will no longer wink, or connive at your impenitence, but takes ftrict notice of it with juft indignation: Now, while the day of grace lafts, and there is place left for repentance: Now, before you are hardened through the deceitfulness of fin, and while his fpirit is ftriving with you: Now, while his judgments are in the earth, and your country is furrounded with the terrors of war: Now,