SERM. God. If it were true, that repentance conIII. fifts in these things, yet is it not evident from

a multitude of fcripture declarations, indeed from the intire ftrain of them, that a good life according to the mercy of the gospel covenant, that is, fincere prevailing, though imperfect holiness in all manner of converfation, is the condition of eternal life? and therefore to understand the gospel confiftently, we must conclude, that either repentance is not fufficient of itself, to entitle to forgivenefs and acceptance with God, or a persevering conformity to the divine law is included in it, which feems to be the jufter expli

cation.

But, we may be farther fatisfied, that repentance, as the term of forgiveness and reconciliation to God, does not confift wholly in these particulars already mentioned, by trufting to which many deceive themselves; we may, I fay, be fatisfied of this, by confidering the reason of the thing; for, in the first place, it cannot be reasonably thought that God has any delight in the forrow of his creatures, meerly for its own fake, because, that is contrary to his perfect goodness, which takes pleasure in the happinefs of all beings who are capable of it; and the fcripture tells us, that he delights in

the

the profperity and joy of his fervants. If SER M.
we could at all fuppofe that the griefs of fin- III.
ners are pleafing to the Deity, as feparated
from the proper effect of them in their re-
formation; then still the more intense their
griefs are, the more pleafing they would be,
and confequently the hopeless anguish of the
accurfed objects of his wrath, would, as be-
ing the bitterest and the most painful, be the
moft acceptable, the howlings of the
damned be more grateful in his ears, than
the ingenuous mournings of the penitent,
which every one will judge to be absurd.
Let us put the case of a human fuperior who
has bowels of compaffion; will he take any
pleasure in the forróws of an offending fub-
ject any farther than as they are the salutary
prefages of amendment? Will a father de-
light in the piercing griefs of his child, or
even a judge in the affliction of a malefactor?
No otherwise, certainly, than as their future
obedience may be thereby fecured.
ought not, then, to think that the best of
all beings, the most merciful father even of
his prodigal children, the most compaffionate
judge, who does not afflict willingly, nor
grieve the children of men, will regard
with pleasure and approbation, the deepest
forrows and humiliations of finners on any
other

F 2

We

SERM.other account, than as they are means in III. order to the end which he certainly approves,

'the bettering of their hearts, and reforming. their converfations; and therefore we must conclude, that the repentance which God accepts is not confummated, nor principally confifts, in forrow for fin.

I

Secondly, The fame judgment is to be made of confeffion, in which our penitence must not reft, nor will God approve it unless it end in the forfaking of fin; which Solomon comprehends in the condition of our obtaining mercy. Prov. xxviii. 13. He that covereth his fin, shall not profper, but whoso confeffeth and forfaketh fhall have mercy. do not speak here only of a formal acknowledgment in words, which without the fincere and ingenuous contrition of the heart, cannot be pleafing to God, for it is hypocrify; but, let us suppose it ever so serious, and accompanied with the deepest remorse and felf-abasement, it is only fo far valuable as it terminates in holiness of heart and life. Confider how we would judge in a parallel cafe of our own. Suppofe a child, a fervant, a friend, or a neighbour, is guilty of a trefpafs, and makes profeffion of grief for it ; humanity and chriftian charity require us to forgive

]II.

forgive the wrong; but it is always taken for SER M. granted, that the injurious fhall not relapse into his former offences, but that his future conduct shall be juft, refpectful, and obliging; when it happens otherwise, and the conduct continues uninfluenced, and as bad as before, a repetition in that case of such fruitless profeffions is in itself offenfive, and rather ferves to heighten the provocation; and, if it be so, we cannot but imagine that God will count it an indignity, if his finful creatures treat him after the fame manner; if after many provocations, they, in order to obtain his favour, only make a confeffion of their guilt, and instead of forfaking their evil ways, return to them again.

And, in the last place, the difpofitions and purposes of the mind will be unavailable, and are not true repentance unless they are followed with a fuitable practice. Let us judge in this cafe as we do in all others concerning the abilities, the qualities, the accomplishments, natural and moral, of the human foul. Reason itself, the distinguishing excellence of our nature, is discovered only by our conduct; if a creature in human fhape fhould fhow by its actions no other faculties than those which belong to the brutal kind, it could not be acknowledged

SERM. to be of our fpecies. But, particularly, in III. determining characters and qualities of men,

we have always a recourfe to their behaviour. Thus we diftinguish between a wife man and a fool, between juft and unjust, between grateful and ungrateful, between a friend and an enemy; for these are never confidered as, nor indeed are they in their own nature, idle, unactive qualities, refting in the mind. Difpofitions are in order to action, and have a neceffary relation to it, particular difpofitions to particular courses of action and without them, are to all intents and purposes to be confidered as if they had no being.

After the fame manner let us judge of repentance, confidered as a difpofition in the mind. To what is it a difpofition? furely to obedience, to the expreffions of love and gratitude to God and hatred of fin, to a course of action oppofite to the former which is now repented of. Without that obedience, therefore, thofe expreffions of love and gratitude to God, and hatred of fin, and without that change of our courfe of action, it must be accounted empty and void. The finner very well knows how his former dif pofitions, he now pretends to repent of, and to have changed, exerted themselves; they

were