apprehension than that with which we began in the first place. The first point therefore to be attempted in the process of repentance or unthinking is, to expel the evil choice or determination from its empire in the heart, and renew our allegiance to its proper Sovereign.

This is what Scripture signifies by conversion; which is literally a turning about, or turning again; as by the Psalmist in that beautiful soliloquy, "TURN AGAIN THEN UNTO THY REST, O MY SOUL, &c." (Ps. cxvi. 7); turn again to thy Redeemer: take his yoke upon thee, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and thou shalt find rest. Then having our choice, which may be regarded as the key-note of the soul, corrected by the tone we receive from Him, our judgment concerning good and evil will undergo a simultaneous reformation, changing of itself, or by the change of that fundamental property whereon so much of its general character depends. We shall now believe indeed what before was only professed; transferring many a wise and benevolent purpose to the heart, which before was only held on the tip of the tongue, or diffused like an artificial colouring over the lines of a deceitful countenance. We shall now desire TO BE what before we only desired to APPEAR ; and to possess, instead of only taking credit for, what the world could never deny to be a real treasure, though the world has never appeared to believe it, real improvement—“ PERFECTING HOLINESS IN THE FEAR OF GOD" (Cor. II. vii. 1).

Then at the same time that we are enabled to judge of the fitnesss of things in a relative view or to perceive their natural tendency, knowing good to be good, and evil to be evil, we shall also enjoy a clearer apprehension of the things themselves; being no longer so very liable to take one thing for another, as in the days of ignorance: bitter will now be bitter, and sweet will be sweet; every thing just what it is. And when we reflect on the great variety of objects that are submitted to our apprehension in the first place, and thence referred to our judgment and choice, we cannot

but admire, that the change of a single image in the heart should be capable of working so total a revolution in the character of its constituents. But it is said, "The same stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone in the corner-(the foundation of our most important sentiments). This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes" (Ps. cxviii. 22, 23). Man having once undone himself, God's workmanship is now undone by God again from what he was become: " for (now) WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. ii. 10), AND ALL HENCEFORTH IS HIS DOING. We can see how he does in the natural department: if a tree, it may be some beautiful sapling, has been gnawed by "evil beasts," it has been laid bare, is dried up and all dead to the very pith on one side he will restore it: his vivifying influence shall creep into the wood, absorb its death and restore its life: the bark also shall be renewed; and the tree shall thereafter be all of a piece, good enough for the king's garden, to be "planted by the water-side." All this we can see in nature; the effect is demonstrable : and may we not imagine, or rather do we not feel, a similar conversion and recovery of our own dead parts within us by the power of God? And may we not confidently believe, that our flesh also shall be similarly restored by the same, and creep upon our returning bones: as the lacerated bark is seen to free itself from tatters, and granulate upon the reviving wood? So David said, "My flesh also shall rest in hope" (Ps. xvi. 10).

The first part of this process consisting in an inward change or undoing by God, is the effect of his grace, and the sum of repentance: it is the process of unthinking towards or in respect of Him, which naturally goes before undoing by man, as thinking in general goes before doing. And herein consists the distinction between repentance and reformation, which is now assigned as its correlative, that while each appears to be what Scripture calls "putting

away the evil of our doings" (Isaiah i. 16), the first shall be inward, and the second outward undoing. For if after all the admonitions of divine grace, and all the friendly checks that are laid by divine Providence in the way of the revolting sinner, and God's spirit striving with the froward determination of his heart (Gen. vi. 3); which may be noted as a prodigious condescension for God towards such a creature, SEEING HE IS BUT FLESH-if after all this the sinner should still persist in doing the wrong that he has conceived and determined, such is the mercy and forbearance of God towards him, and such his fatherly care of the innocent, that to spin out the process of sinning and leave sufficient opportunity for repentance, He has ordained several stages in doing as well as in thinking; some of which must necessarily be passed, if not all, previous to consummation. And these (not to insist on particulars farther than is needful) may generally be comprised in two acts, the preliminary and the substantial; 1, in attempt or aggression; 2, in perpetration or transgression.

1. In the first of these two parts attempt or aggression, a man may do all his deed of evil so far as to complete his guilt, without precluding himself from a retreat, or his intended victim from an escape: of which we have examples enough only in the persecution of royal David by his infatuated predecessor, through the evil spirit which troubled him from the Lord (Sam. I. xvi. 14)-the misguided Saul with his sombre malice being invariably on these occasions a murderer of the man after God's own heart in point of aggression, though the evil intended and attempted was never accomplished or perpetrated. "For if," as St. John says, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (John I. iii, 15), he who has carried his murderous intent, and that repeatedly, to the point of execution can be considered no less.

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2. In the second part, act, stage or degree of evil doing, which constitutes what is above named perpetration or transgression, there is no room for the assailant to retract,

or for his object to escape: the deed is done, and cannot be prevented; according to the example which St. John refers to in the passage above cited, and which is also one of the most memorable in the records of crime-the example of Cain, "who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother" (John I.iii. 12). Here the wrong apprehension, the base conclusion, the wicked determination, and the foul aggression are seen to terminate in the full perpetration of as horrible a deed as, excepting parricide, the wicked one is capable of suggesting, or his party of undertaking. Here there is no room indeed either for retreat or escape. Alas, unnatural assassin, what hast thou done! The voice of a brother's blood crieth from the ground against thee unto God, the avenger of the innocent. "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength : a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth" (Gen. iv. 9, &c.). Fear and remorse, the attendants of an evil genius, shall continue to haunt thy solitary walks, and wring from thee the sad exclamation, "My punishment is greater than I can bear" (Ibid.).

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There are those stern moralists who will not admit the possibility of a sinner's putting the evil action away from him after it is perpetrated, or of separating from his offence by any means whatever the punishment that is denounced against it and they may think, they serve the cause of morality by this rigid doctrine; which, if as rigidly followed, must be productive of universal despair-" for there is no man that sinneth not" (Kings I. viii. 46). But, without staying to consider their opinion, as it seems to proceed more from humour than from judgment, every one must admit, that if there be a possibility of undoing what is done amiss, its particulars may deserve our most anxious inquiry: and dear indeed must be the discovery of any mode by which a deed like Cain's may be undone, it being in effect most complete in character-most atrocious. For this

purpose it will be necessary to notice another com bination in the process of thinking and doing besides those formerly mentioned: which other consists of two particulars; 1, the matter or substance; 2, the effect or continuance of any thought or deed, and evil especially, when gone through with or perpetrated. And,

1, Of the first of these, the matter or substance, it may truly be said, that the same cannot be reversed, whether it be like Cain's, or less flagrant. For whatever any thought or deed may be in substance; that is what it so far must be and remain; in that respect it cannot be other than it is. A fratricide for example must be a fratricide for ever, as to the matter or substance of the deed: it never can be any thing else under any circumstances, whether it be asserted or regretted, whether it be pardoned or punished: so that in this sense, or respect, there is no possibility of undoing.

2, It is therefore on the second particular, v. g. effect or continuance, of any evil deed that the argument will lie between the assertors and deniers of its reversibility. This will involve a consideration of the parties or objects to which the effect may relate and not to insist on the relation of such effect to its principal object, the author and proprietor of the whole world, who cannot be uninterested in the occasion, there are properly two on whom it will fasten or bear particularly, the doer and the sufferer; whereby the question may be divided, to ascertain how far an evil deed is reversible in respect of these two parties, and in respect of the doer first.

-1, Where, to give the effect its due, besides the award of punishment for such a deed, we ought also to consider its moral effect on the subject or Doer; remembering here what has been stated before respecting the reciprocal bearing or influence of an action on such doer himself, or on his principles in this lower sphere; whereby he is also liable to be either deteriorated or improved, according to the nature of his action. Whereupon, admitting the im