By the former part of true Repentance the old man is crucified with his affections and lusts; by the latter the new man is restored to life; and the first act which evinces the change that has taken place in the heart, is to endeavour to lay aside every sin, and to put on the garb of holiness and righteousness. Hence repentance implies reparation: for the same principles which incline a man to sin no more, will persuade him to obliterate, as far as circumstances may admit, the ill effects of his past transgressions.

§ 7. The great Exhortation of the Gospel, Repent and believe, is addressed to all men; and all have need to listen to it.

Those to whom the Gospel is first preached, and those who are to be admitted into the Christian Church in infancy or maturer years, are required to repent, or to promise repentance by their sureties, as a condition, together with faith, on which not only their final salvation, but their admission into a state capable of salvation absolutely depends.

Of those who have been regenerated by baptism, some do not utterly depart from grace, yet still retaining their natural tendency to evil, are liable to fall into frequent sins of ignorance and infirmity. Others there are who wilfully sin against conscience, habitually addict themselves to known sin, fall away from grace, and lose the character of the new man. In both these cases the renunciation and forsaking of sin is termed Repentance; but in the latter, when man has widely gone astray, it is often called con

displeasure of God being the certain consequence of every degree of sin, whether in the most wicked or the comparatively innocent, it must be repented of, before its remission can be obtained, and the anger of God appeased.

§ 8. Pardon is promised by the infallible word of God to all who truly repent them of their former sins, stedfastly purposing to lead a new life, and have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ. Those, therefore, who fall into sin after Baptism, may upon repentance at all times obtain remission, and be renewed after repeated transgressions. But while they remain in unrepented sin, though they have been made the children of God, they are deprived of God's favour, and if they be not restored by repentance, will most assuredly forfeit their inheritance. Those sins, however, which have been remitted at Baptism, or on subsequent repentance, shall not afterwards be imputed to them.

§ 9. From the foregoing considerations the reason of the necessity of Repentance is sufficiently obvious; for it is evidently an express precept, and a condition of the Christian Covenant, acknowledged by us to be so, when in our baptismal vow we promised, either in our own persons, or by our sponsors, to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; and when we ratified this promise in the ceremony of confirmation:-it is not only this, but it is also a mean of grace. Yet Repentance is not meritorious in itself, but is ac

cepted by divine goodness, as a method by which man may be enabled, according to promise, to re-establish himself in the favour of God.

10. The Author of Repentance is God: and this is true whether it be spoken of primary conversion to the Christian faith, or of that daily repentance, of which all, in a greater or less degree, have need. For it is God who worketh, in those that love and fear him, a conformity to his holy will, by the influence of the Spirit, and the instrumentality of the word. It is also God who calls and awakens the consciences of those who are dead in sin, by the denunciations of his wrath, contained in the law and the Gospel, as well as by the manifestation of his abhorrence of iniquity, and justly excited anger, in the visible world,-in the calamities, diseases, and various kinds of death which he has appointed to be the natural consequences of crime.

11. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and of the necessity for Repentance; by the Gospel, the promise of forgiveness upon Repentance. By the former he denounces punishment on transgression: by the latter he declares that he will remit punishment to the penitent; that his justice is satisfied in Christ; and that whosoever will come unto him with a humble and contrite heart, desiring the intercession of his well beloved Son, he will in no wise cast out.

From Scripture,

SECTION I.

2 Cor. vii. 9. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. Acts iii. 19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times for refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Luke xv. 17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. Rom. iii. 23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. 1 John i. 8-10. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Luke xxiv. 46, 47. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Col. i. 19—22. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself: by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present

you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. Isai. Ixi. 1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

SECTION II.

Rom. i. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Ephes. v. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Isa. lxvi. 1, 2. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isa. lvii. 15, 16. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me; and the souls which I have made. 1. Pet. v. 6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. James