away, and still does not press forward that he may obtain the prize? Not, indeed, that these things are of themselves sufficient to produce true repentance, but they, at least, show the folly of impenitency; and as they are generally the first thing which lays hold on corrupt and hardened minds, so they may excite such considerations as will end in real conversion unto God. Great is the light which hath come into the world. What must be our condemnation if we still walk in darkness?

3. The sufferings and death of Christ lay us under the strongest obligations to the exercise of repentance. It seems impossible to contemplate these, with any degree of seriousness and attention, without being melted into sorrow and regret. This effect, we find, it had upon that company of people and of women, who followed him to his crucifixion, who, as St. Luke tells us, bewailed and lamented

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him," and to whom Jesus gave this advice: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, "but weep for yourselves and for your chil"dren." Shall we be more unconcerned than they were? Nay, shall we possess less feeling than the inanimate creation, which seemed to sympathize with the sufferings of

their Lord? The sun (as if out of shame or aversion) hid his face, and left the earth involved for three hours in a preternatural and most mournful darkness: The earth shook : The rocks were rent: The veil of the temple was rent asunder: The graves did open, and many of those who slept awoke. And can we be unmoved? We, who are the authours of Christ's sufferings, and most nearly interested in the event of them?

When we take a nearer view of these sufferings, and consider, that, our sins were the cause of them, and, that every thing, which he endured, was in our room and for our benefit, what detestation of sin, what self-condemnation, what purposes of obedience should arise in our minds? We abhor the traitor who betrayed him, the priests who accused and prosecuted him, the people by whom he was reviled and insulted, the executioners who nailed him to the accursed tree in short, we execrate the memory of every one who had any concern in this mournful scene. These were indeed the instruments, but our sins were the real cause. "He was delivered for our of"fences." They dragged him before the tribunal; they cried out with a louder and more

effectual voice than that of his most inveterate foes, crucify him, crucify him: they nailed

him to the tree

rend his body.

they pierced his side, and did And will we continue to love these fatal sins, though they are the most proper objects of our hatred and indignation, even more so than the murderers of the holy and the just one? Will we not, rather, awake from our fatal lethargy, and bid adieu to the pleasures of vice? pleasures, perhaps, to us, but hitter, indeed, to our Redeemer? This is represented as the effect of Christ's sufferings in almost every page of the New Testament. Thus says the apostle Paul, Tit. ii. 14. "Who gave

himself for us, that he might redeem us from "all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pe"culiar people zealous of good works." The same doctrine is taught by St. Peter, 1 Pet.iv. 1. Forasmuch, as Christ hath suffered for us in "the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the "same mind: for he that suffered in the flesh, "hath ceased from sin."

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4. Another new and powerful motive to repentance is, that, under the gospel dispensation, it is the work of the Spirit. The prophet Zechariah thus describes the influences of the Spirit as bringing men to repentance, and as

affording them the most powerful motives to its performance, Zech. xii. 9, 10. "It shall come "to pass in that day, that I will pour upon "the house of David, and upon the inhabi"tants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and

of supplications, and they shall look upon "me whom they have pierced, and shall "mourn." Indeed, it would be but poor encouragement to one who was sufficiently acquainted with his own heart, to tell him that he must work out his repentance himself.— He would find, that, to subdue the corruptions which were within him, to support the assaults of the evil one, to withstand the temptations of the world, required greater strength and patience than he possessed. But, when he is assured, that, a divine, invisible assistant is, ever, near at hand ready to support him, and, that, God worketh in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure; then he proceeds with boldness and alacrity, at the same time that he worketh out his salvation with fear and trembling. Besides, the very fear of resisting the means of salvation, of grieving the Holy Ghost, of doing despite unto the Spirit of grace, and of contemning the offers of God, must dispose him to comply with the gracious designs of the gospel.

III. We shall now conclude this discourse with a few observations connected with the subject, and, chiefly, arising from what has been said.

1. In the first place, we are, fully, entitled to draw this inference; that, the impenitent are wholly without excuse. What more could God have done to bring us to repentance, than he has done? What stronger motives could he have afforded us? He hath assured us of success, he hath fully revealed to us our duty, he hath given his Son to die for us, and his Spirit to convert us: if, after all, we continue impenitent, our ruin must be charged, solely, on ourselves. And our condemnation will be more terrible than if we had never enjoyed the advantages which the gospel bestows.The very heathens will condemn us. men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment against us they repented at the preaching of Jonah; but God hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by a greater than Jonah, even his own Son. "Wo to thee, Chorazin! wo unto "thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works "which were done in you, had been done in

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Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." For, if