all this repentance but mere terror and fear of hell? Let but conscience be pacified, and their fear blown over, and the dog will quickly return to his vomit again, till some new alarm revive the conviction of their sin and danger, and their former process of repentance. Thus some will sin and repent, and repent and sin, all their lives, and yet lie open to eternal repentance after all. Or, if the distress of conscience makes so deep an impression, and fix such an abiding awe of particular sins upon the mind, that there remains a visible and continuing reformation; yet their lusts are but dammed up by their fears; and were but the dam broken down, they would run again in their former channel with renewed force. It is true, the law sometimes proves a schoolmaster to drive sinners to Christ; and conviction of sin, and a legal repentance, is a necessary preparative to a saving conversion; but this alone gives no claim to the promise of the gospel. The house may be thus empty, swept, and garnished, but for the reception of seven worse spirits than were driven out of it; and a sinner may thus escape the pollutions of the world, and yet have his latter end worse than his beginning.

If, on the other hand, we consider the character of a sincere gospel repentance, though such legal terrors may lead to its exercise, they do not belong to its nature, nor are they any part of its description. Sin itself becomes the greatest burden and aversation to a truly penitent soul. "I hate," says the psalmist, every false way." ." "O wretched man that I am,'

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the apostle," who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Thus the penitent groans, being burdened; not from fear of hell, such fear being no part of a true repentance, though it may sometimes accompany a sincere and godly sorrow for sin. But this

sorrow arises from an affecting, humbling, mourning sense of sin; from a view of the sin of nature, with the hardness of the heart, and universal depravity of the affections which flow from it; and from a view of the numerous sins of practice, with their special aggravations. This is the grief, this the distress of a repenting sinner. It is necessary, from the nature of a true repentance, that it must have respect both to the sin of nature and practice; though both of these are not at all times actually in the mind, and particularly thought of, and mourned for, by the repenting sinner. The language of a true repentance is such as the following" I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me-Mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as an heavy burthen, they are too heavy for me-Deliver me from all my transgressions-Let not my sins have dominion over me-Innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me." As the true penitent longs for more and more victory over his corruptions, so is he most watchful, prayerful, and in earnest, to mortify his lusts, and to cut off all supplies of sin. He mourns for all, he hates all his lusts; and is willing to spare none, no, not so much as a right hand or a right eye. As there is nothing so grievous to him as sin, so there is nothing he so earnestly desires and pursues, as a nearer approach to that blessed state, where "nothing can enter which defileth or worketh abomination."

Here you see an obvious difference, between being struck with fear, restrained by terror, and driven from a course of sinning by the lashes of an awakened con

science; between this, I say, and loathing ourselves in our own sight, for all our iniquities and abominations, with a groaning after grace and strength to conquer and mortify our corruptions, and be free from the empire of sin. The one is merely the fruit of self-love, which prompts the soul to flee from danger. The other is the exercise of a vital principle, which separates the soul from sin, and engages the whole man in a continued opposition against it.

2. A legal repentance flows from unbelief, but an evangelical repentance is always the fruit and consequence of a saving faith. I have shown you already, that a legal repentance is effected by fearful apprehensions of hell and damnation. And whence is this amazing and distracting fear and terror? Has not the gospel provided a glorious relief for such distresses, and opened a blessed door of hope for the greatest sinners ? Is not pardon and salvation freely offered to all that will accept a blessed Saviour and his saving benefits? Is not the blood of Christ sufficient to cleanse from all sins, however circumstanced, and however aggravated they may be? Why then do not they cheerfully flee for refuge to this hope set before them? Alas, they can see no safety in it! The law of God challenges their obedience, and condemns their disobedience. Conscience joins in, both with the precept and sentence of the law; and thence their only refuge is resolutions, reformations, duties, penance, or some such self-righteous methods, to pacify God's justice, to quiet their consciences, and to lay a foundation of future hope. The defect of their endeavours and attainments creates new terrors. Their terrors excite new endeavours: and thus they go on without attaining the law of righteousness; because they seek it not of faith, but, as it were, by the works of the

law. They may, it is true, have some respect to Christ, in this their legal progress. They may hope that God will accept them for Christ's sake. They may use his name in their prayers for pardon, while they dare not depend upon the merits of his blood for the remission of their sins, and a freedom from condemnation. And what is all this, but a secret hope, that the redemption of Christ will add such merit to their frights and fears, reformations and duties, as to make them effectual to atone for their sins, and purchase the favour of God? So that all their penitential shows and appearances are nothing but the workings of unbelief.

Let us now take a view of an evangelical repentance, and we shall find the characters of it directly repugnant to what has been considered. This must always be the consequence of a saving faith, and can never go before it. The sinner must have a realizing apprehension of the purity and holiness of the Divine nature, before he can loathe and hate his sins, on account of their contrariety to God. He must have a feeling sense, that there is pardoning mercy with God for sinners, before he can with courage and sincerity apply for forgiveness to a just and holy God. He must have a believing discovery of the way in which God is accessible by sinners, before he can have access with boldness to the throne of grace. He must see and feel, that there is safety in venturing a guilty soul in the hands of Christ and no where else, before he can look to his blood for cleansing from guilt, and to his grace and strength for victory over his corruption. He must be united to Christ as a branch to the vine, before he can bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Without this, he may be driven into desponding fears and to legal attempts for safety; but he cannot flee

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for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before him. The true penitent therefore approaches God's presence with a deep impression of his guilt and unworthiness, and of his just desert of an eternal rejection from God; but then he comes before a mercy-seat. Though he is forced to acknowledge, that if God should mark iniquity, he could not stand before him; he yet remembers, that "with God there is forgiveness that he may be feared," and that "with him there is plenteous redemption." The true penitent looks to the blood of Christ, as that which can alone cleanse away his numerous and aggravated sins; and from thence he takes encouragement to mourn out the psalmist's language, Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. This is the prospect, which both encourages and invigorates his cries for mercy, and imbitters his sins to him; and which makes him loathe them all, and long for deliverance from them all. "Is God infinitely merciful and ready to forgive," says the penitent soul," and have I been so basely ungrateful, as to sin against such astonishing goodness, to affront and abuse such mercy and love? Is sin so hateful to God, that he has so severely punished it in the person of his own dear Son? How vile, how polluted and abominable must I then appear, in the eyes of his holiness and justice, that am nothing but defilement and guilt; from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, nothing but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores! Has the blessed Saviour suffered his Father's wrath for my sins? Have they nailed him to the cross, and brought him under the agonies of an accursed death? and shall I be ever reconciled to my lusts any more, and go on to crucify the Son of God afresh?