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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XVII.

ACTS xvii. 30.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.

THIS is part of a fermon which the Apostle Paul delivered at Athens. The Athenians were the most ingenious and most illuftrious people of Greece. Situated in a happy climate, and bleffed with the highest degree of liberty which mankind can enjoy, they bent their genius to the cultivation of the sciences and arts. These they carried to such a pitch of perfection, as gained the palm from the contending world, and has attracted the eyes and admiration of all fucceeding ages. But to fhow the darkness and the ignorance of the human mind when not enlightened by the wifdom which cometh from above, as foon as they turned themfelves to religion, they displayed nothing but their own abfurdities and follies. In place of a rational and liberal form of religion, a grofs and ftupid idolatry univerfally prevailed; in place of the true God, they bowed the knee to a dumb idol; and instead of the worship of the heart, confecrated to his fervice impure and profane obfervances. Zealous to destroy this fabric of fuperftition, the Apostle Paul, rifing in the midst of an affembly that was convened on the hill of Mars, reproved those masters of science, thofe lights of the Heathen world, with the boldness and the majefty of an apostle of

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the Lord.

"Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in "all things ye are too fuperftitious :-the times of "this ignorance God winked at; but now command"eth all men every where to repent.'

Repentance towards God is the great and leading duty enjoined both in the Old and in the New Tef tament. Along with every revelation of the Divine will; along with every new commiffion to prophets and holy men to preach this Divine will, the duty of repentance is always inculcated in the strongest terms. The patriarch Noah preached repentance to the world before the flood. John the Baptift began his public ministry by preaching the doctrine of repentance. "Except ye repent, ye fhall perish," was the awful denunciation of our Lord. And his apoftles conftantly began or ended their fermons with exhortations to this duty. This meffage, fo often delivered to the world, I now addrefs to you; and demand your serious attention to this most important fubject. And, in further treating upon it, I fhall, in the first place, explain to you the nature of repentance; and, fecondly, Lay before you the motives which ought to influence your minds to the practice of this duty.

The first thing propofed, was, To explain the nature of true repentance.

Repentance unto life, as it is well defined in that excellent fummary of theology, the Shorter Catechifm, is, "A faving grace, whereby a finner, out of "a true fenfe of his fin, and apprehenfion of the σε mercy of God in Chrift, doth, with grief and ha"tred of his fin, turn from it unto God, with full "purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience."

According to this definition, repentance includes, firft, A true sense of fin; fecondly, Grief and hatred of fin; thirdly, Apprehenfion of the mercy of God in Christ, the forfaking of fin, and endeavouring after new obedience.

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First, A true fenfe of fin. This must be the ground. work of all the reft, because it is impoffible to hate what we do not feel. It is impoffible to conceive a hatred and averfion against, a thing of which we are not fenfible, or to flee from a danger of which we have no apprehenfion. Where there is no fenfe of fin, therefore, there can be no repentance. Accordingly the Pharifee, who trufted in himfelf that he, was righteous, was too proud, even when he was praying to God, to confefs any guilt of his own. God, I thank thee," fays he, "that I am not as "other men are." He was confcious, it feems, of no fin, though inwardly full of rottennefs and hypocrify. Such infenfibility is a certain fign of a hardened and impenitent heart, and can proceed from nothing but a grofs and conceited ignorance, a wretched inconfideration, or a long continuance in fin, that has rendered the confcience callous and paft feeling. This first step of repentance fuppofes the finner, in the first place, to be feelingly affected with a fenfe of his fins; to have his mind enlightened and his conscience awakened by the word of God; to be convinced from thence of the irregularity of his ways, and their contrariety to the holinefs of the Divine nature; to labour under the load of his guilt; and in the consciousness of his own ill deferving, to be ready to fink under the number and the weight of his tranfgreffions. Such were the fentiments of Da

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vid's heart, and fuch the confeffion of his tongue. "I acknowledge my tranfgreffion; my fin is ever "before me; mine iniquities are gone over my head; "as a burden they are too heavy for me." This fense of fin is often accompanied with the emotions of fear. For when the finner, already convicted in his own confcience, begins to reflect upon his past life, and at the fame time to look up to God whom he has offended, and forwards to eternity, upon the brink of which he daily ftands fhivering; what a fpectacle of terror muft this be to a man who has been long spiritually blind, and whofe eyes are but juft opened to fee this startling scene! And behold, behind him a formidable troop of fins; fins red as crimson, and numberlefs as the fand upon the feafhore! Above, a holy and a just God, the Judge of the world, armed with the thunders of his wrath! Before him, the infernal world difclofing all its horrors, and ready to fwallow him up in perdition! Doubtless the terrors of the Lord, when thus fet in array against a felf-condemned finner, will fill him with fear and difmay, especially when he confiders that God is greater than his heart, and knoweth all things.

The fecond step of repentance is being affected with a grief and hatred of fin. The former was a selfish feeling; this is a generous paffion. The former refpects fin as ruinous to the finner; this regards it as offenfive to God. When the penitent is already affected with a deep fenfe of the danger of his fin, how will it wound his mind, and pierce him to the heart, to confider that he has not only been long an enemy to himself, but alfo an enemy to

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God; to confider that he has trefpaffed fo far upon infinite goodnefs; that he has dallied fo long with înfinite justice; that he has mispent the precious talents committed to him of Heaven; that he has abufed the faculties of his immortal foul; that he has been defacing the image of God his maker; and that with his own hands he has been excluding himfelf from happiness, from heaven, and from the prefence of the Lord. Thefe, and fuch alarming thoughts, pierce to the dividing afunder of foul and fpirit; enough to constrain the forrowful penitent to lift up his eyes in the midst of his torment, and to cry out with Job in the bitterness of his foul, "I "have finned, and what fhall I anfwer to thee, O "thou Preferver of men? Alas! the arrows of the Almighty are within me! the poifon of them "drinketh up my fpirit. But what grieves me most "is, that I have offended thee, the Author of my "life, and the Preserver of my being; that I have "finned against so much goodness, and provoked fuch "tender mercy. Mine iniquities deferve thy wrath. "and vengeance. But thy goodness reacheth from "heaven to earth. Thy mercy, like thyfelf, is infi"nite. Let this remorfe which I now feel, be the "only punishment of my fin; and let me not be fi"nally delivered over to the tormentors. This I re"quest and pray on account of the merit of my Re"deemer. His righteousness is all-fufficient and mer"itorious. By it may I obtain favour and accept"ance with thee, and be tranflated from the king"dom of darkness into the kingdom of God."

The third step in repentance towards God, is an apprehenfion of the mercy of God in Chrift, and a

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