are prohibited by the evangelical law. And if those, who are immersed in these primitive sins, are withheld from the actual commission of enormous offences, they are not on this account to be esteemed radically holy; since they are possessed of that very nature from which every crime is produced. Sooner or later, temptation and opportunity may cause some baneful shoots to spring forth in their outward conduct, in testimony that a root of bitterness lies deep within, and that the least impious of men carry about them a degenerate nature, a body of sin and death.

To give more weight to these observations, he sets forth the greatness of the Supreme Being, cularges on his justice, and displays the severity of his laws. He tramples under foot the pharisaical holiness of sinners, that he may bring into estimation the real virtues of the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." To awaken those who are sleeping in a state of carnal security, he denounces the most alarming maledictions, calling forth against them the thunders of mount Sinai, till they are constrained to turn their faces Zion-ward; till they seek for safety in the Mediator of the new covenant, and hasten to "the sprinkling of that blood, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel."

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By this method, he conducts his wandering flock to the very point where ancient Israel stood, when God had prepared them to receive the law by his servant Moses. Now after the people had heard the thunderings," and "the noise of the trumpet;" after they had seen "the lightnings, and the mountain smoking:" when, unable any longer to gaze on the dreadful scene, "they said unto Moses, speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak unto us," without a Mediator, "lest we die."-Then it was that Moses began to console them in the following words: "Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not." So in the present day, they only, who are brought to this poverty of spirit, are properly disposed to receive the riches of divine mercy. As soon, therefore as the evangelical minister has sufficiently alarmed a sinner, with the terrors discovered upon mount Sinai, he anxiously prepares him for the consolation of the Gospel, by a sight of the suffering scene upon Calvary.

Many pious divines have supposed, that, by preaching the cross of Christ alone, mankind might be brought to true repentance. What the fathers of the Synod of Berne have said upon this point, deserves the attention of those who desire successfully to use that spiritual weapon, which is "sharper than any two-edged sword."

"The knowledge of sin," say they, "must of necessity be drawn from Jesus Christ. The Apostle writes thus, God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinuers, Christ died for us. It follows, that sin must have made us abominable and extremely hateful, since the Son of God could no other way deliver us from the burden of it, than by dying in our stead. Hence, we may conceive, what a depth of misery and corruption there is in the heart, since it was not able to be purified, but by the sacrifice of so precious a victim, and by the sprinkling of the blood of God," i. e. of a man miraculously formed, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' "The Apostles have clearly manifested the sinfulness of our nature by the death of Christ; whereas the Jews, after all their painful researches, were not convinced of sin by the law of Moses. After a solid knowledge of sin has been drawn from the passion of our Lord, there will naturally flow from this knowledge a true repentance;

that is, a lively sorrow for sin, mingled with the hope of future pardon. To this necessary work, the Holy Spirit also powerfully contributes, bringing more and more to the light, by its mysterious operations, the hidden evils and unsuspected corruptions of the heart, daily purifying it from the filthiness of sin, as silver is purified by the fire." Acts of Synod, chap. viii, ix, xiv.

HOW THE PROPHETS, JESUS CHRIST, HIS FORERUNNERS, AND HIS APOSTLES, PREPARED SINNERS FOR REPENTANCE.

EVER faithful to the word of God, the minister of the Gospel endeavours to humble the impenitent, by appealing to the sacred writers, and particularly to the declarations of Jesus Christ.

The corruption of the heart is the most ancient and dreadful malady of the human race. Man had no sooner made trial of sin, but he was driven by it from an earthly paradise: and so terrible were its first effects, that the second man was seen to assassinate the third. This moral contagion increased through every age to so astonishing a degree, that, before the deluge," God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. After the flood, God still declared the imagination of man's heart to be evil from his youth. The heart of man," saith he again long after that time, " is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins."

Our Lord himself, who perfectly " knew what was in man," being the physician who alone is able to heal us, and the Judge who will render to every one according to his works; our Lord has described mankind alienated from the chief good, filled with aversion to his people, and enemies to God himself. "I send you forth," saith he to his disciples, "as lambs among wolves. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me, before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own; but because I have chosen you out of the world," that ye should walk in my steps, "therefore the world hateth you. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because," notwithstanding their deism and polytheism," they know not him that sent me: For he that hateth me, hateth my Father also. These things have I told you, that when" they shall chase yon from their churches, as demons would chase an Angel of light, "ye may remember that I told you of them."

The Jews were doubtless, in one sense, the most enlightened of all people; seeing they offered to the true God, a public worship unmixed with idolatry, were in possession of the Law of Moses, the Psalms of David, together with the writings of the other Prophets, in which the duties required of man, both with respect to God and his neighbour, are traced out in the most accurate manner. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ represents this enlightened people as universally corrupted in spite of all these advantages: "Did not Moses,” saith he to them, "give you the Law? and yet NONE of you keepeth the Law.” What appears most extraordinary in the sermons of our Lord, is the zeal with which he bore his testimony against the virtues of those

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Jews, who were reputed men of uncommon devotion. Although they
piqued themselves upon being eminently righteous, he declared to his
disciples, that, unless their "righteousness" should "exceed the righ-
teousness of the scribes and pharisces," they should" in no case enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven." And observe the manner in which
he generally addressed those religious impostors: "Woe unto you
scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and
excess [full of covetous desires and disorderly passions;] Thou blind
pharisee, cleanse first that which is within-that the outside
clean also."

may

be

Nothing is more common than that blindness which suffers a man to esteem himself better than he really is, and this blindness is, in every period and in every place, the distinguishing characteristic of a pharisee. This species of hypocrisy with which St. Paul was once elated, agrees perfectly well with the ordinary sincerity of sinners, who blindly regard amusements the most trifling and expensive, as allowable and innocent pleasures; who look upon theatres as schools of virtue; intrigue and deceit, as prudence and fashion; pomp and profusion, as generosity and decorum; avarice, as frugality; pride, as delicacy of sentiment; adultery, as gallantry; and murder as an affair of honour.

To all such modern christians, may we not, with propriety, repeat what our Lord once openly addressed to their predecessors? Without doubt, we are authorized to cry out against them, with an holy zeal, "Woe unto you hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity:" of hypocrisy, because your virtues have more appearance than solidity; and of injustice, because you render not that which is due to God, to Cæsar, or to your fellow-creatures, whether it be adoration, fear, honour, support, or good-will.

But if the depravity of the Jews in general, and of the pharisees in particular, appear abundantly evident, must we suppose there were It is true, the royal Prophet deno happy exceptions among them? clares "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one." But were not the disciples of our Lord to be considered in a different point of view? No: even after the extraordinary assistance afforded him by the Son of God, the Apostles themselves did but confirm the sad assertion of the psalmist. Our Lord, upon whom no appearances could impose, once testified to James and John, that, notwithstanding their zeal for his person, they were unacquainted with his real character; and that, instead of being influenced by his spirit, they were actuated by that of the destroyer. "Ye then, being evil;" said he to all his disciples: "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? One of you shall betray me,"-Peter, who is the most resolute to confess me, shall "deny Lastly: me thrice, and all ye shall be offended because of me." our Lord constantly represented the unregenerate, as persons "diseased and condemned. They that are whole," said he, "have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Ye are of this world, therefore I said unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not

that I am He," and refuse to observe the spiritual regimen I prescribe "ye shall die in your sins. Except ye repent, ye shall perish."

It is notorious, that John the Baptist prepared the way of his adorable Master by preaching the same doctrine: "O generation of vipers," said he to the pharisees and saducees, to the profane and professing part of the nation, "who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.'

It is equally well known, that the disciples were instructed by Christ himself to tread in the steps of his forerunner: "It behoveth," said he "Christ to suffer; and that REPENTANCE should be preached in his name among all nations." Hence an Apostle was heard to cry out, "God now commanded all men every where to repent." Aud at other times, the same divine teacher was inspired to write as follows: “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the gentiles, were by nature the children of wrath even as others: for we were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another."

The same doctrine was constantly held forth by the other Apostles, as well as by St. Paul. In "time past," saith St. Peter, we have "wrought the will of the gentiles," walking "in lasciviousness, lusts, revilings," &c. "The whole world lieth in wickedness," saith the beloved John: and St. James solemnly testifies, that every “friend of the world is the enemy of God."

This humiliating doctrine, which the world universally abhors, is a light too valuable to be hidden under a bushel; and till it is raised, as it were, upon a candlestick of gold, we can never hope to see the visible church enlightened and reformed.

Observations upon the Repentance of worldly men.

Ir it be enquired, do not all ministers preach repentance? we answer : That ordinarily, true ministers alone preach true repentance. The preachers of the day, as they are conformable to the world in other things, so they are perfectly contented with practising the repentance of worldly men. Now as he, who receives only base coin, cannot possibly circulate good money, so he, who satisfies his own heart with a short-lived sorrow for sin, cannot possibly give free course to that evangelical repentance, which the Gospel requires. And it is observable, that the hearers of such ill-instructed scribes, generally fix those bounds to their repentance, which are satisfactory to their impenitent pastors.

The repentance we here condemn may be known by the following marks.

1. It is superficial, and founded only upon the most vague ideas of our corruption: hence, it cannot, like that of David and Jeremiah, trace sin to its source, and bewail the depravity of the whole heart.

2. It is pharisaical, regarding only outward sins. The righteousness of the pharisees rested upon the most trifling observances, while they neglected those weighty commands of the Law, which respect the love of God and our neighbour. They afflicted themselves, wheu they had not serupulonsly paid the tenth of their herbs; but they smote not upon their breasts when they had rejected the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the same dangerous circumstances are those penitents of the present day, who are less sorrowful on account

of having offended God and rejected Christ, than that they are become objects of ridicule, contempt, or punishment, by the commission of come impious or dishonourable action. We frequently hear these false penitents bewailing the condition to which they have reduced themselves, and giving vent to the most passionate expressions of sorrow. But when are they seen to afflict themselves because they have not been wholly devoted to God? Or when do they shed a single tear at the recollection, that they have not cherished their neighbour as themselves? Are they ever heard to lament the want of that faith in Christ, which worketh by love? Are they ever engaged in seeking after that communion of saints, by which believers become of one heart and one soul? Alas! so far are they from this, that they continue equally tranquil under the maledictions of the Gospel, as under those of the Law. They hear, without terror, those dreadful words of the Apostle, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha:" and though they neither love nor know him, yet they vainly look upon themselves as godly mourners and unfeigned penitents.

3. This repentance is unfruitful, inasmuch as those who repent after this manner, are utter strangers to compunction of heart. None of these are constrained to cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" They come not to the Redeemer among such as are weary and heavy laden. They have no experience of that godly sorrow, by which the true penitent dies to sin: and so far are they from being born again of the Spirit, that they neither expect nor desire any such regeneration. In short, this repentance is rarely as sincere as that of Judas, who confessed his sin, justified the innocent, subdued his ruling passion, and returned the money he had so dearly gained.

Evangelical repentance is an incomprehensible work to the generality of ministers. Wherever it appears, they are prepared to censure it; and are earnest in exhorting men to fly from it, rather than request it as a gift from God. Thus, when they behold any one truly mourning under a sense of sin, smiting upon his breast, with the publican, stripping off, with St. Paul, the covering of his own righteousness, and enquiring, with the convicted jailor, "what must I do to be saved?" they suppose these to be certain signs of a deep melancholy: they imagine the conversation of some enthusiast has driven the man to despair, and will not scruple to affirm, that he has lost the proper use of his reason. So true it is, that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God," nor is even able to form any just ideas of that repentance, which is the first duty imposed upon us by the Gospel, and the first step toward that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

The moralists of the present time, acknowledge that all men are sinners; but they neglect to draw the just consequences from so bad a truth. To be found a sinner before an infinitely holy and just Gon, is to forfeit, at once, both our felicity and existence. To appear as an offender in the eyes of our all-seeing Judge, is to lie in the condition of a broken vessel, which the potter throws aside as refuse; it is to stand in the circumstances of a criminal, convicted of violating the most sacred laws of his Prince. The two most important laws of GoD are those, which require piety toward himself, and charity toward our neighbour. Fow if we have violated both the one and the other of these laws; and that times without number; it becomes us not only to confess our transgression, but to consider our danger.