character, to lay aside our prejudices, to open our eyes, and begin to look upon God as he is, an absolutely perfect, an infinitely glorious and amiable Being, infinitely worthy of supreme love and honour, and of universal obedience, and in the light of his glory to begin to view our disaffection and rebellion as altogether inexcusable and infinitely criminal, and in this view, cordially to take all that blame to ourselves which God lays upon us, and to be affected accordingly. Saying "righteous art thou, O Lord, when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest. Should justice take place, no iniquity could be imputed unto thee. It would not be a blemish, but a beauty in thy character, and all heaven ought for ever to love and adore thy glorious majesty, should I receive my just desert and perish for ever. But thou canst have mercy on whom thou wilt, through Jesus Christ. To thine infinite grace and self-moving goodness through him I look. God be merciful to me a sinner." Repentance stands then in opposition to all our former prejudices against the divine character; and in opposition to that sin-extenuating, self-justifying, law-hating, God-blaming disposition, which reigns in every impenitent soul. God is seen in his beauty; the divine law, as a ministration of condemuation and death, appears glorious; our disaffection and rebellion infinitely criminal. We justify God, approve his law, condemn ourselves, accept the punishment of our iniquity, as worthy of God; and thus we confess, repent, and turn unto the Lord, looking only to free grace through Jesus Christ for pardon.

A man may think himself to blame for Sabbath-breaking, lying, cheating, drunkenness, &c. who never thought himself to blame for being disaffected to the divine character. Also a man may think himself to blame for not believing that Christ died for him in particular, that God loves him, that his sins are pardoned, or for his being unaffected in this belief, who never thought himself to blame for not loving God as an absolutety perfect, an infinitely glorious and amiable Being. Some may be sorry wherein they think themselves to blame through fear of punishment, as was the case with Judas others who believe their sins are pardoned, may, from a principle of natural gratitude, be sorry wherein they think

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themselves to blame, as was the case with Saul, when David spared his life. 1 Sam. xxiv. 16. 19. Saul lifted up his voice Then said Saul, I have sinand wept, &c. Chap. xxvi. 21. ned, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. But he who is ignorant of the beauty of God's true character, is blind to the chief thing wherein his blame lies. And while men do not see their blame, they will see no occasion to repent.And should any charge sin home upon them in such a case, they would justify themselves in their hearts.

The divine law, which requires us to love God, the absqlutely perfect, the infinitely glorious, and amiable being, with all our hearts, and yield a perfect obedience to his will on pain of eternal damnation, is holy, just, and good: our blindness to his beauty is wholly criminal, our sin-extenuating, self-justifying pleas, are of no weight, all our objections against the divine character and law, are only the language of enmity against the glorious monarch of the universe, we are entirely without excuse, and infinitely to blame. These all are facts. And thus God viewed our case when he gave his Son to die; and thus he views our case when he calls us to confess our sins, repent and turn unto the Lord; and in this light, therefore, must we view our case, if ever we become. truly penitent. Every sin-extenuating, self-justifying plea, every objection against the divine character and law, is a declaration that we are so far from repentance, that as yet we do not think that it belongs to us to repent, in the sense we are called to in the Gospel; in this case we do not contess, but cover our sins.

In true repentance our eyes begin to be opened to see things as in fact they are. God's character infinitely amiable, and our own infinitely odious; his law wholly right; and And our ways as wrong and criminal as that supposes. in this view we begin to take all the blame to ourselves.

i Question. "How can a finite mind see an infinite object?" Answer. Not by a full comprehension of it, only by a high sense and lively As thus, suppose we could see with our eyes, a conviction that it is infinite. man, for the sake of one sinful pleasure, deliberately leap head-long down into a lake of fire and brimstone, which he and we knew would never be quenched, and out of which there could be no escape, and in which, by God's almighty power, he would be for ever held up in existence, his sense of feeling quick and

True repentance is therefore in consequence of the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, and of a nature specifically different from any kind of sorrow for sin a man can experience who is at enmity against God.

Sin is the thing to be repented of; and sin is a transgression of the law. And the first and chief thing required in the law, is supreme love to God. And therefore want of supreme love to God, our disaffection to his character, and rebellion against him, is our great wickedness, which we have to repent of. But it will not be in our hearts to repent, unless we truly see our blame. We cannot truly see our blame, unless we see that which chiefly renders us to blame. But that which chiefly renders God worthy of love, is what chiefly renders us to blame for not loving God. And so it is the amiableness of the divine nature which chiefly renders us to blame for not loving God. It is the amiableness of the divine nature, which chiefly renders God worthy of love. It is a sense of this, therefore, that discovers to us the great evil of sin, and shows us the reason we have to be sorry and repent; and which therefore primarily lays the foundation of true repentance, and without which no repentance is true. If I blame my neighbour for being groundlessly disaffected to

lively, we should pronounce the man guilty of infinite folly. We might see and know that his folly was in fact infinite, although we could by no means fully comprehend the thing. So in this sense, we are capable of seeing and knowing that God is infinitely lovely, and we infinitely odious and ill-deserving, how far soever we be from a full adequate idea of infinity. We are capable of as great a sense of our infinite obligations to love God, as we be of the infinite dreadfulness of eternal misery. In legal conviction a sinner begins to have some lively sense of the infinite dreadfulness of eternal damnation; so in regeneration and repentance, we begin to have some lively apprehension of God's infinite amiableness, and our infinite odiousness. Some say, "We should leave all infinites out of our scheme of religion." And so we might, if we were in no connexion with infinites. To be consistent, these men should deny the infinite glory of God the Father, the infinite evil of sin, the eternity of hell torments, the divinity of Christ; and then when thus our connexion with infinites is at an end, the word, and all notion of the thing, may be excluded out of religion; but not till then. As soon as these men will prove, that God is not an infinitely amiable Being, and that we are to die like the beasts, I will say nothing more about infinites. Till then I shall say that the sinner, who by rebelling against God, runs headlong into eterDal destruction, is guilty of infinite folly, as to his own soul, as well as of infinite wickedness towards his Maker, the infinitely glorious Governor of the universe. VOL. II.

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my character, I shall not, I cannot, look upon him as a true penitent, till, beginning to look upon my character as I think he ought to, he begins to blame himself as I do. It is contrary to common sense, to suppose, any other kind of repentance to be true and genuine And if any inan abuses me, in name or estate, through disaffection to my person, no penitency for those abuses can be esteemed genuine, so long as the disaffection from which they arose remains in full strength. I appeal to the universal sense of mankind, who, when it comes to their own case, are every one in this opinion. On this ground it was that David put no confidence in Saul, notwithstanding all the tears and penitency which his generosity extorted from him. He did not suppose that that kind of repentance was any certain sign that he was a new man. Yea, he had rather venture himself with Achish, king of Gath, a Philistine, a Pagan, than with him. 1 Sam. xxvi. and xxvii.

As want of love to God, together with disaffection to the divine character, has influence into that whole course of wickedness which mankind in general live in; so when they are in Scripture called upon to repent of particular sins and turn to God, their want of love to God, and disaffection to the divine character, as manifested in those particular sins, is to be repented of; and a hearty reconciliation to the divine character is implied in the repentance they are called unto. Thus the frequent idolatries of the children of Israel, for which they are often called upon in the Old Testament to repent, were manifest instances of want of love to the God of Abraham, and proofs of their disaffection to his character. So the Jews, hating and murdering the Son of God, the express image of his Father's person, for which they were on the day of penticost called upon to repent, was a manifest instance of their want of love to God, and proof of their disaffection to his character. And there is no sin whatsoever that any man is guilty of, but what is an instance of disrespect to God, and disregard of his authority. Therefore it was said in the case of David's sin, that he despised the Lord, and despised the commandment of the Lord. And therefore, whenever any one is called upon to repent of any particular sin and

turn to the Lord, it is to be understood in this view. He hath sinned against God, despised the Lord, and despised the commandment of the Lord, treated the God of glor, the great King of the universe, with contempt. This is his crime; on this account he is chiefly and above all to blame. And that which renders him infinitely blame-worthy, is, that God whom he despised, is by nature God, an absolutely perfect, an infinitely glorious and amiable Being, infinitely worthy of supreme love and honour, and universal obedience. And so in this point of light is the true penitent to view his transgressions, and take blame to himself. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. Wherefore a sense of God's loveliness is the first and chief spring, and source of true repentance, as this brings into view the great evil of sin. Even as the truth of the Gospel is the only foundation of hope in the true penitent's case. And thus the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, lays the foundation of all religion. John xvii. 3. And let it be remembered, that the same Gospel which we believe, was for substance revealed to Adam, and believed by all true penitents from the beginning of the world. These things being premised, I proceed to prove,

That repentance is before forgiveness. And whosoever will be at the pains to look the bible through, will find, that this is a doctrine taught by Moses and the Prophets, by Christ and his Apostles, nor is there any one point of revealed religion more plainly held forth. Let us begin with Moses.

"And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good? for the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments alway. That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD." This is a specimen of their rule of duty. Deut. x. 12, 13. 17. Chap. xi. 1. and xxviii. 58.